Dubai: The subdued sentiments that have been there in the UAE marketplace are being mirrored in advertising spends, with the first quarter’s dropping 4 per cent to $382 million from $398 million a year ago. Retailers cutting across categories were markedly holding back from ad exposures, which was the primary cause for the year-on-year dip in the overall, according to latest data from Pan Arab Research Centre (Parc). Even government-led spending patterns were on the lower side, down 22 per cent to $62 million from $79 million.
The Parc projections are based on the official rate cards put out by the media, and thus do not make allowances for discounts that are traditionally on offer.
It could have got worse had it not been for the financial services, the automotive retailing, hospitality and entertainment doing enough to pull their weight in the final ad spend tally for the first quarter of 2015.
“In fact, it has turned out to be much better than what was forecast by ad agencies at the start of the year,” said Satish Mayya, CEO of the media buying agency BPG Maxus. “Retail was in decline and that wasn’t too much of a surprise there, but other categories did manage to pull in higher numbers consistently. But the DSF 2015 provided a firm launch pad to the year, and there was a lot of support from hospitality-related brands.
“In terms of individual media, spending in print could have been stable or might have even gone into a slight decline. But outdoor, TV, radio and cinema did see higher ad dollars coming to them. At the same time, digital ads remains the fastest growing, doing double-digits year-on-year.”
The share of newspapers as part of the overall media budgets has been estimated at 51 per cent by Parc, from 57 per cent a year ago. In dollar terms, that would equate to $196 million in Q1-15, with magazines accounting for another $60 million. “Outdoor’s coming along nicely, now at around $70 million and an 18 per cent share, and so are cinemas with $12 million,” said Shaharyar Umar, Marketing Director at Parc.
Etisalat and du too the first and third spots in outdoor media, while Dubai’s tourism initiatives and DSF were in second and fourth spots. The developer Damac had the highest share of the newspaper space, as it pushed ahead with the Akoya project launches, while DSF was in the top spot on radio.
“Apart from television commercials, where there was a marginal increase on tariffs, other media formats were more or less charging,” said Mayya. “Again that has kept things on an even keel from an advertiser and media buyer perspective.”
