Dubai: Egypt has edged past the UAE to claim the status as the Middle East's leading advertising market in spending terms for the first six months of 2010.
The UAE's front-runner status was hurt by a four per cent decline in ad spend to $680 million in the first six months.
This compared with the period last year, while Egypt's totalled $708 million through a stellar 36 per cent year-on-year growth, according to figures released by Pan Arab Research Centre.
Even then, the UAE's media industry could take heart from the stronger showing recorded in the second quarter of this year, to total $345 million against the first three months' $335 million, the research centre said.
Positive growth
Moreover, "the trend is that ad spend has started picking up over the period with June showing a positive growth unlike January when it reported a double-digit decline," said Pan Arab Research Centre analyst M. Shaharyar Umar.
The centre said 2009 was an exceptionally tough year, with ad spends in the UAE alone plunging 27 per cent.
For the first six months of 2010, the print media provided the widest platform for advertisers in the UAE.
Newspapers pulled in $478 million and magazines another $89 million in the local market. Television commercials made up $57million.
Though the gap seemed wide, Umar said he believed television's time had come. "Amongst major media types, television continued following the upward trajectory with a 39 per cent growth (across the region)," he said.
Among the individual categories, telecom and public utilities spent the highest number of advertising dollars, with $924 million, making up 15 per cent of the overall spend.
This category easily surpassed the spend on toiletries advertising. Spending by governments and government agencies came in third.
Not surprisingly, real estate related advertising was conspicuously absent from the top-spending advertising categories.
Very promising
Media buying house BPG Maxus chief operating officer Satish Mayya said on the whole 2010 had no doubt been good compared with 2009.
"We have witnessed growth in TV on a pan-Arab level and the digital medium is very promising," Mayya said.
"While print is still striving to maintain a certain level of spends, we are witnessing a recovery in outdoor spend."
