Overview:
The media sector has been adversely affected by a lack of confidence from advertisers. Not surprisingly, industry stakeholders are cautiously optimistic about the future.
The panel discussion aims to track the pattern of advertising spend and examine the road ahead.
The print industry is currently at an inflection point. One of the main challenges globally is the reduction in overall advertising spend, as well as the migration of some of the major print companies to online platforms. However, the GCC’s newspapers and magazines are still in a better position than the rest of the world. Magazines, despite their relatively small contribution to total print advertising spend continue to enjoy robust pan-Arab circulation.
For the Arab television industry, audience and advertising revenues remain concentrated, more than ever, around a small number of pan-Arab free-to-air channels while the penetration of pay TV across the Arab region remains low. Conversely, ’out-of-home’ advertising, which includes cinema advertising, remains the most stable part of the market.
The digital platform will see the highest growth in the coming years as a sizeable population of well-informed and socially engaged young people drive consumption of media on the internet and mobile platforms.
The region, however, still faces a mismatch between the share of digital advertising in total advertising spend with regards to the relative importance of the platform from a media consumption angle. A correction of this distortion could, therefore, be the need of the hour.
Speakers
- Jonathan Labin, Head of the Facebook MENA office in Dubai and lead global marketing solutions for MENA, Facebook
- Youssef Toqan, CEO, Flip Media
- Joe Marritt, General Manager (Abu Dhabi), Motivate Publishing
- Sarah Messer, Director of Media, Nielsen
- Outlining the highlights of advertising spend in the Arab region in general and the GCC in particular, during the first half of 2012 across different media platforms.
- Print circulation in the Arab region has, up until recently, been fairly resilient. Even the magazine market has indicated growth in terms of the number of titles launched last year. What are the main challenges facing publications in terms of attracting advertisers and to what extent have such media outlets been affected by the online sphere?
- A regional analysis of TV viewing habits on hours spent watching TV has remained fairly constant over the last three years. Meanwhile, major TV networks still have a monopoly on the advertising market. How are viewer trends affecting the distribution of advertising and how do they attract it, especially with the introduction of audience measurement mechanisms in some of the GCC markets?
- What is the outlook of the media sales landscape in the region and what is the role of these companies as de facto regulators of advertising rates across different media outlets?
- Does ‘out-of-home’ advertising in the Arab region remain a stable part of the overall advertising market? Does this method of advertising vary significantly between countries and what is the role of regulating the location for advertising space?
- What are the principles and trends that drive big corporates to favour one advertising platform over the other and how do these companies measure the success of their advertisements? How do they make decisions with regards to advertising?
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