Advertising industry in the Middle East Investment

Advertising Expenditure in Arab Region Goes Up to US$ 12.7 Billion in 9 Months

MEPrinter December 5, 2012

1 minute read

The total advertising expenditure in the Arab region increased by 22%, and reached 12.735 billion US dollar during the period of January to September 2012. In 2011, it was 10.4 billion US dollar for the corresponding period. These figures are based on the statistics that was recently released by the Pan Arab Research Centre (PARC).

The statistics showed a growth in the amount of advertising spend in most of the Arab countries during the first nine months of the year. United Arab Emirates topped the list as the leading advertising market in the Middle East region, recording a growth of 8.4% during the first nine months, with an amount of 4.23 billion dirham. Egypt has the highest growth rate in advertising expenses and recorded a 32% growth.

Meanwhile Saudi Arabia and Qatar reported a growth of 11% and 5% respectively.

The total advertising expenditure in the Gulf States saw a growth of 5.66% during the first nine months of this year, i.e., 13.2 billion dirham (US$ 3.59 billion dollar) was spent; whereas only 12.48 billion dirham (US$ 3.4 billion) was spend during the corresponding period last year.

UAE accounted for around 32% of the total advertising expenditure spend by GCC countries during January to September this year, while Saudi Arabia accounted for 29.9% – 3.95 billion dirham, a growth of 11%. Kuwait accounts for 21% of the total advertising expenditure in Gulf States (2.7 billion dirham, which recorded a growth that did not exceed 2%, compared to the corresponding period last year).

Qatar accounted for 9.4% of the total expenditure that is 1.2 billion dirham, while the Sultanate of Oman accounts for about 5.5%. Bahrain came at the last place, whose share did not exceed 1.9% and also marking a drop of 27% in total expenditure during the first nine months.

The statistics showed a growth in advertising expenditure across various media channels in the GCC during January to September 2012. The statistics indicated that television advertising accounted for the largest share, which came to 68.6%, followed by newspaper ads that amounted to 21.2% of the total share.