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Wehbi: Research has shown that in-store advertising has a great impact on sales at the point of purchase.

Habib Wehbi, CEO of Dubai-based Hypermedia is passionate about the shifting trends of in-store advertising, and equally animated about figures.

Today, in-store media budgets in the UAE have increased more than 500% since 2002. There is a huge demand for hypermarkets in this region, and hypermarkets have become quite a number with more than 111 in UAE alone, with plans for at least double that in the next three years," he enthuses.

With his company holding the exclusive rights to advertise in-store in all of the major retailers in the UAE, including 98% of all A-class hypermarkets, Wehbi has every reason to be excited about increasing footfall and new openings, all potential clients for his innovative strategies.

In terms of change within the Middle East, Wehbi points to the shift towards hypermarkets, which he believes has been bolstered by consumers' desire to find everything under one roof.

Shopping is now also considered to be a family outing, and companies are aware of this fact and are opting to advertise in-store to target the mass number of consumers," he comments.

According to Wehbi, the media has become more cluttered which has made reaching the right target audience more challenging, and presented the need to discover media that is "more targeted and effective with minimum wastage, at the right time, in the right place.

Research has shown that in-store advertising has a great impact on sales at the point of purchase. In-store media communication has proven to be extremely essential, especially when hundreds of thousands of consumers tend to visit hypermarkets daily," he says.

The departure from other forms of media towards in-store advertising at major retailers will undoubtedly have an effect on the allocation of media budgets, he believes, as companies are now eager to adopt alternative ways to reach their target audiences in more direct and strategic ways and locations.

"Based on the latest research we conducted, 72% of UAE shoppers visit hypermarkets or supermarkets at least once per week or more and today our network of hypermarkets collect over 500,000 receipts per day; so you do the math," Wehbi comments.

Hypermedia has reacted to demand for total solutions within outlets, and currently offers media in every corner of the shopping experience, from lampposts in parking areas, branding on security gates, 42,000 trolleys across the UAE, shelf light boxes providing category ownership, category banners at eye level, right through to plastic bags.

Wehbi reveals that the company intends to unveil new products and services, and expand its network to two new hypermarket chains in 2008.

Hypermedia is also gearing up for the launch of its online services on a business-to-business website, which will allow clients to view information including share-of-shelf (SOS) by branch, store or emirate. Clients will be able to monitor online ‘competitive activities' and receive monthly reports on their branding status within stores.

The website will serve as a provider of value-added services connected to merchandising, he says, which will facilitate its growing client base to monitor in-store brand activities such as new launches and promotions. The move is part of wider plans for expansion in the region, Wehbi adds, which will also be kick-started next year, influenced by encouraging research.

Research shows that in Saudi Arabia, there is still a lot of room for hypermarket growth as the average number per 100,000 of the population is 1.6 compared to three in the UAE, five in Qatar and four in Bahrain and Kuwait.

"The potential for growth of the retail industry is still huge in the Kingdom. And our plan is to grow with them," he adds.

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