It's time for the Gulf to get creative

You may have to blink twice, maybe even look away for a moment and then, very slowly, look back again. The chances are you'll be welcomed by a confusing cluster of images with a forcefully considered and overly long tagline that serves to, somehow, communicate a message to the viewer. Space is largely divided into two or three sections, a white, black or blue background, a single or series of dull images and mostly in block format that's been adopted by more than half the industry.

The text is equally predictable - if you actually bother to read it that is - with an over-exhaustive use of the same words including ‘unique, possibilities, luxurious, win, big, dreams, come true'... the list goes on and on as you drown in a cloud of fluff.

This is the story of print advertising in the Arab World - or at least most of what's being produced. Don't get me started on TV. Aside from the few occasions in which I take pleasure in viewing a television commercial produced by regional admakers, the experience can be summarised as monotonously unimpressive. More often than not, ad-time is break-time - fix yourself a snack before the show begins.

A recent survey, conducted by market researchers YouGovSiraj, studied UAE residents' attitudes and reactions towards advertising. It discovered that 55% of UAE residents found advertising in the Emirates to be "unoriginal", while 71% of consumers believed only a small percentage of advertising was relevant. And given the disappointing quality of advertisements that we're being bombarded with every day, it doesn't come as a surprise that 68% of residents found that the majority of ads do not make them feel good about the brand being advertised.

The survey further confirms the huge gap between what advertisers are trying to achieve and the actual impact advertising has. It also goes to show that a large percentage of the millions of dollars spent on this thriving industry go down the drain every year as adverts fail to meet their objectives. The bond between brand and consumer is a very weak one and advertisers should be concerned. So who's to blame?

If the first thing that comes to your mind is pointing the finger at governments and the restrictions they impose on advertising agencies, think again. Talking to industry experts, you'll find that the reality is quite the opposite. To most large companies and brands, marketing objectives, increasing sales for example, are much more important than having an original ad. Profits and positive financial results are the main priority, while taking risks and being creative ranks at the bottom of the chart. An industry spokesperson explains the procedure is the same every time.

The agency is given a brief to create an artwork, which is executed by the creative team and then sent to the client for approval. Sometimes, designers decide to challenge the norm and set those creative juices in motion. As natural as that might sound in other parts of the world, the regional advertising industry has placed an ‘unacceptable' tag on the results of such a process. Presented with ‘out-of-the-box' ideas, clients shun such attempts on the grounds that "the market is not ready", "consumers are not intelligent enough" and "big money" is at stake. CEO of YouGovSiraj, Nassim Ghrayeb, believes that brand stakeholders need to be bolder with their advertising and test concepts before they go live, at a fraction of the overall cost. This prevents big losses and gives creativity a breathing space.

Advertisers have nothing to lose if they implement this strategy. After all, regional consumers, readers and viewers are not impressed. They can't relate to anything and are very bored. Advertisers, who are already making a fortune with below-par ads, might want to take a second to think about how much cash they could make if they actually started getting things right.

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