MENA advertising growth to double in '09 - report

CUT-THROAT COMPETITION: The report said internet advertising will close the gap on other media. (Getty Images)

Advertising growth in the Middle East and North Africa will almost double next year as most of the world sees its first contraction in nearly a decade, an industry report released on Monday claimed.

The bulletin from ZenithOptimedia, a media-buying arm of one of the world’s largest advertising firms, Publicis Groupe, says 2009 advertising growth for the MENA region will grow by 10 percent, compared with this year’s expected growth rate of 5.8 percent, UAE daily The National reported.

"We think that 2009 for the Middle East is going to be a bit better than 2008," the paper quoted Jonathan Barnard, director of publications at Zenith, as saying.

Although Egypt would be a strong contributor to the growth, most of the gains would come from the GCC and the growing pan-Arab advertising market, he said.

This compares with a gloomy worldwide outlook, with a forecast of a 0.2 percent drop in advertising spending next year, led by the deepening US recession.

North American advertising spending will be the worst hit, declining 5.7 percent next year, with western Europe down 1 percent.

The downturn in global advertising spending began in the third quarter of this year and was expected to last until the third quarter of next year, Zenith found.

Internet advertising is expected to grow 18 percent next year, both globally and in the North American market, taking a 15.6 percent share of global ad expenditures in 2011, 5.2 percentage points ahead of magazines and 5.6 points behind newspapers, the paper quoted the Zenith report as saying.

The gap between internet and newspapers in 2008 is 15.1 points, it said.

Reduced advertising budgets were likely to help internet advertising, which offers advertisers a clear way to track audience, Barnard added.

Television is also expected to do relatively well in the downturn, the report predicted, making up a record 38.5 percent of global ad expenditure in 2010 and 2011, the report said.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Zenith media mumbo jumbo / abracadabra
Posted by Arshed, Dubai, UAE on Wednesday 10 December 2008 at 14:42 UAE time


This sounds out of the fairy tale movies...and they all lived happily everafter.
these guys have access to witchcraft to be this optimistic...I could have agreed that they mention that GCC and middle east would not be as affected unlike the rest of the world, but these statements from such famed companies should be banned like a few of the misleading advertisements. Does our consumer courts have any room for these statements to be proved?

what are you talking about??
Posted by omar, dubai on Wednesday 10 December 2008 at 00:49 UAE time


At least 7 close friends of mine who are senior executives at prominent Media buying agencies confirmed that their clients have reduced their budgets by no less than 50% across the GCC for 2009.

Advertising growth
Posted by Victor, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Tuesday 9 December 2008 at 21:30 UAE time


I think there is a lot to be said for this media buying companies name ZenithOptimedia. Considering that the majority (if not all) the regions advertisers are real estate based in some form and are putting on hold or scraping projects altogether which equals no ad spend, perhaps a bit of 'opti-mism' is good? Or maybe, is it that these guys have their heads in the sand like the real estate industry has had for the past few years?

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