Dubai: The local advertising industry — and its many players — won’t have to do overtime to come up with a compelling theme for their messages this year. They already have a ready-made script written out for them.
“Dubai is back... with a bang!” — that would be a major campaign theme this year,” said Avi Bhojani, Group CEO at BPG Group.
As to what form and nature the campaigns would be, Bhojani said: “Largely tactical, but we will witness some traction in the re-positioning or refreshing of related brand-building projects.”
In short, the ad marketplace is running on one overwhelming sentiment — bullishness. There is talk of ad and marketing spend budgets for this year being more generous than was the case in the last five years. Brand owners want their messages and campaigns to be seen, heard or blogged about. The advertiser’s purse strings are becoming loosened.
“The overall market sentiment is positive... apart from a feeling of economic cycle upturn, the local stock market index, the traffic on the road and, most importantly, Dubai’s win at the Expo 2020 bid are strong drivers of this positive energy,” said Bhojani. “By and large, clients are happy to take advantage of lower unit costs with higher volumes at year end, but are not ready to commit at the beginning of the year.”
So, which ad platforms are likely to see more of the dollars being spread around? Growth rates for digital are expected to fly off the charts. “Digital is virtually likely to double in 2014 over 2013, largely at the cost of print,” Bhojani said. “Eyeballs are moving dramatically to digital... so are ad spend dollars. I refer to real estate as our biggest hope in 2014.”
Advertisers are also following the “road signs”, that is, how can the local real estate sector continue to escalate its momentum and what this would mean for a reciprocal ad and marketing campaigns.
“In 2014, we are excepting a strong comeback in the real estate industry... this will cause an inflation in the OOH [out-of-home ad platforms] scene in the region,” said Sari Bou Karroum, media manager at Cheil MENA. “According to recent analysis, the region witnessed around 4.3 per cent increase in spend in 2013.”
It need not necessarily be that spend patterns will stem only from regional dynamics. The upcoming Fifa World Cup in Brazil will offer reasons for global brands to hit the markets running with high-octane marketing spiels. Consumer facing brands will be teeing off early and in sustained spurts, and will tend to use more of TV, digital, out-of-home and activation platforms.
“Electronic brands are most likely to increase their spend aiming to secure the highest market share within the GCC,” said Karroum. “The excitement revolving around the World Cup in Brazil will definitely open the door for several industries to increase their budgets, such as the sportswear and refreshments industries.”
