mediaME.com speaks to M Shaharyar Umar, the Marketing Director at Pan Arab Research Center (PARC) in the UAE. He talks about media monitoring tools available today, the relationship between TV and digital, the challenges facing growth of digital media spend, the effect of the political uprisings on spending patterns and much more.

Q. PARC is a pioneer in media monitoring and covers all forms of traditional media, but is yet to cover online media. What are your plans in this regard?

We have been monitoring online usage and behavioral patterns by conducting TGI-Net surveys in key markets of the GCC since 2009. Catering to meet increasing demands, we expanded to include the Egyptian market in 2011. In 2012 we are further expanding to include the Lebanese and Jordanian markets.

TGI Net surveys complement click measurement because it distinguishes online spectators from actively engaged citizens (beyond providing brand consumption habits and deep insights of online users).

Having said this, we do have plans to cover online ad spending monitoring, but we expect the initiative to come from stakeholders.

Q. What’s your view regarding the currently available online media monitoring tools and services; compared to the levels of services available to monitor traditional media?

Online Media is still evolving, whereas some traditional forms of media (print, newspaper) have already reached their peak. Online media is even gaining the strength to carry other media vehicles (web TV, online newspapers, radio on web etc.).

Technically, online media in its current structure is easy to monitor. However, the medium is highly dynamic and vibrant, so monitoring tools have not been able to keep up with the technological advancements. A number of schools of thought exist, and they differ regarding the merits of any online measurement service, and therefore lack standardization.

Online media started from a small base and is registering phenomenally high growth rates in the region. Therefore, the requirement for monitoring tools have increased. However, these tools and services will need to be continuously updated.

Meanwhile, there is an absence of a TV meter (an industry standard to measure TV viewing). It is only now that TV meters are being introduced in the UAE. KSA will likely follow suit very soon. I am positive that the region will keep up in terms of monitoring tools that are still being standardized in west.

Q. How does online media compare to TV and do you see a complementary relationship between TV and digital?

Television is the leading medium in the region and contributes around 64% of the total measured ad spend, up from 43% in 2008.

Watching television while surfing the web is the second most popular activity performed while browsing in most of the surveyed markets. As per the TGI Net UAE survey, it is interesting to find that 30% watch or listen to TV while surfing the web.

TV has blended very well with online media. TGI Net surveys have shown an increase in people watching TV on the web, as well as watching web content on TV sets. The devices can be connected. The relationship between TV and digital is more complementary in nature, but existing traditional TV sets may become obsolete in the near future.

Q. What are the biggest challenges facing the growth of digital media expenditures in the region as a percentage of total expenditure?

Availability of third party auditors and reliable measurements conforming to global standards will increase, and therefore, advertiser’s confidence to allocate sizeable sums of their advertising budgets will undoubtedly also increase. We know that usage of online media has increased significantly, but we do not know whether spending has also increased in proportionate terms. Lack of initiatives from the stakeholders is partly to be blamed.

Q. 2011 has been a year of political upheaval in several Arab countries. Tell us about the actual impact on advertising budgets this year, and what it could potentially mean for advertising expenditures across all media types in 2012.

The region was able to register a modest growth of only 4%, where only KSA and UAE markets were able to report positive growth in the region. The top spending market of 2010, which was Egypt, saw its spending plummet by around 37%.

Advertisers are still cautious, but the fundamentals of the region are very strong. The global economic downturn is also to be blamed, since 8 out of top 10 advertisers in the region are global brand owners. On the positive side, during the first half of 2011, spending was in red and reported a 4% downfall, but the second half made an uptake of around 10%.

Despite the challenges, a double digit growth can still be expected in 2012.

Q. In your opinion, what are the biggest changes we will see in media expenditure trends in 2012?

Television has been following an upward trajectory as newspapers witness a decline. The introduction of TV meters in the UAE is likely to push spending momentum in the medium in 2012. However, challenges will remain for newspapers' print editions. Magazines with niche audiences may survive. Radio is definitely going up, but the audience base is very small.

Meanwhile, online spending in all forms of media is very likely to increase in 2012, but we still have to monitor the figures. Given the trends, it can safely be predicted that the share of online spending will be in the double digits within the next 5 years.

mediaME spoke to George Akra, co- founder of Toot Corp., a company that has several online properties including ikbis.com, a regional video sharing site. George discusses the growth of online video in the region, the effects of the current political climate on video content, and the future of online video advertising in the Middle East and more.   

Q. Tell us about the growth of video viewership in the Middle East in the past few years.

mediaME spoke to Samer Abdin, co-founder of Istikana.com, an online video-on-demand service for the Arab World. Samer shares his views regarding growth in online video, the importance of Arabic content, the latest in video advertising options and more.

Q. Tell us about the services that Istikana.com provides

Istikana.com is a website that delivers premium Arabic TV content. It is very similar to U.S-based services like Hulu and Netflix. We have a broad selection of premium Arabic content including television series, comedies and theatre productions. Our specialized service is available on-demand, and is accessible across multiple platforms.

Q. What motivated you and your partners to introduce Istikana to the Middle East market?

The idea occurred to us due to the lack of such a service. We saw that equivalent services in the UK and Europe like Hulu and Netfilx had taken off, and we discussed the fact that there was no real equivalent for the Arab World that featured Arabic content. That's how the idea started, and that was the need we were trying to fill. We were trying to meet the public's need to watch the content that they want, when they want it, on the devices that they want.

Q. Tell us why the video audience in the Middle East will utilize such specialized portals compared to international video aggregation communities like YouTube?

I think one of the fundamental differences between our service and a site like YouTube is the 'localization' issue. There is a plethora of content on YouTube, a lot of which is international content, as YouTube is an international website. We are an Arabic site with Arabic content, specifically Arabic TV content. This makes us quite different from a service like YouTube, which is largely user-generated. We have fully produced TV shows, and we don't serve the user generated market. We offer fully produced content. We meet the need of consumers that want to watch certain content, whenever they want, on the multiple devices that they have.

Q. What types of content categories are you offering? Which are the most popular? And what kind of difference you are seeing on a country-by-country basis?

We offer a very broad range of content. Our site offers dramas, comedies, theatre productions, cartoons, documentaries, religious segments, as well as movies. So we really do have a wide range of content. We have accumulated thousands of hours of video. The most popular genre is drama, as well as cartoons and documentaries. People really seem to enjoy the drama genre in the Arab World. It is quite well developed, thanks to the popular Ramadan series. People associate with the content they see and remember these series years after they have aired.

We haven't seen much of a variation in terms of country by country. Most of our traffic comes from Saudi Arabia, and the rest is split between the Levant and North Africa. Generally, the drama genre is most popular in all countries. It seems to be quite a common thing. Cartoons and documentary are also quite popular. However, all the genres have a fair amount of viewership, but generally, we have not seen much of a variation between countries.

Q. Tell us about advertising options on online video communities and why they differ from typical web advertising in terms of the results they deliver.

We offer the full suite of normal web advertising, i.e. all the banner options. We also offer the full suite of in-video advertising, so that includes pre-rolls and mid-rolls. We also offer overlays whether they be static, flash or animated, there is a whole range. The standard web advertising formats are the banners, and they have been around for quite some time now. The viewer generally has limited engagement with banners, and this is proven by one of the standard metrics, the click through rate (CTR).

Whereas with video advertising, viewers just inherently engage with the 'moving, talking' format a lot more than they do with something that is a bit more static or something that is purely display-based, like a banner. Click through rates (CTRs) for video ads are significantly higher than banners, we are talking an average of 4% and upwards. It has been proven in other markets that the video format is inherently more engaging, and provides much better results in terms of things like over all re-call, message re-call, and brand re-call.

Whichever metric you choose to measure by, video adverts tend to fare better than static ones. In fact online video advertising does much better than regular TV advertising. There are all sorts of research done by Nielsen, which shows improvements of up to 50% in terms of the online formats vs. regular TV formats. I think online video advertising is really the new medium for consumer brand interaction.

Q. Tell us about the response you have received so far from clients and advertising agencies regarding video advertising, and tell us about the levels of awareness you are seeing in the market.

The reaction of viewers has generally been quite good. We've had some feedback about scheduling (how often we put advertisements up, and how for how long), and we've taken that feedback into account and adjusted. I think it's a format that viewers are generally very used to and accept, especially when it comes to free viewing.

In reality, it is similar to regular TV. You watch a TV program on regular cable, and expect to have advertising intervals. It's a fairly normal and standard way of doing things. Now, that has transferred over to the web.

On the other hand, advertisers have been very excited by what we are doing. I think there is an issue in terms of awareness and the 'newness' of in-video advertising in the region. It has only been present this past year, but the proof is in the pudding. When a company runs a campaign with us, they tend to be very pleased with the results and tend to come back. We have proven to them that this is a very effective ad format. There is still a long way to go, it is still a young market, but we are very optimistic that next year we will see significant growth.

Q. What in your opinion are the obstacles preventing faster growth in digital media expenditures in general in the region?

There are two main obstacles. One is awareness, which I mentioned previously. The second major issue is the measurement problem, (how to measure effectiveness, how to measure viewership beyond the standard unique viewers, etc...). A lot of work needs to be done to have the facilities to really measure the Return on Investment (ROI), a lot of work needs to be done to accurately measure regular TV advertising, as well as online viewership. As measurement tools improve, people will really start to see the value in online video advertising. People really need to be able to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. I think with time, that will improve.

Q. Apart from advertising revenue, is Istikana planning other forms of monetization of its content? Tell us more about how these can be achieved.

Well, we are keeping a very close eye on that. I think there are fairly significant barriers in the region regarding subscriptions, payment gateways, credit card options, especially in what is acknowledged to be the most lucrative market, Saudi Arabia. Saudis are relatively reluctant to use credit cards online. They currently have the facility to do so, but they haven't taken it up. However there have been some really interesting things coming out of Saudi Arabia with regard to gaming. A considerable amount of Saudis pay for games like 'World of Warcraft' and the like. There is a growing use of SMS payment. Obviously the economics are different there because there is the operator to think about (they do take a cut). There are some very interesting things going on in regards to payment. We are keeping a very close eye on this and when we think the time is right, we will be implementing some kind of payment infrastructure.

Q. What are the upcoming breakthroughs or technologies that will impact online video distribution and advertising?

We're starting to see very specialized services in the US and the UK, providing very innovative solutions for in-video advertising. 'Hulu' now does a 'pick your ad' option. It gives viewers four or five advertisements to choose from, and they get to pick which ad you want to see. In the UK, they have story-based ads, viewers can choose between three or four different stories to follow. Therefore, the video starts with a pre-roll followed by a mid-roll that is a continuation of the pre-roll. I think there are some very innovative services coming out, which will eventually debut in our region.

In terms of video technology, I think we are moving to multiple screen formats. Online TV will be available on mobiles, tablets etc. It will eventually include the actual TV itself. I think those technologies are being developed very quickly with the help of television manufacturers. Eventually, our service will be available on actual TV sets. I think that will be the ultimate breakthrough for our services, because ultimately, TV content belongs on the actual TV set.

mediaME spoke to Wassim Mneimneh at the mediaME Forum. He is the Senior Online Manager at Nielsen Online. Wassim shares with us his views regarding the importance of third party measurement systems, currently available monitoring technologies, the utilization of these analytical tools in the Middle East and more.

Q. Could you briefly tell us about Nielsen's online business?

Nielsen Online is a global leader in online solutions. It provides analytical and measurement tools that enable clients to monitor changing market trends and emerging technologies.

Q: In your opinion, what is the importance of measurement and monitoring the digital media industry at this stage of its growth?

Publishers need a third party measurement system to know more about their audiences and their traffic, instead of relying solely on their own data. As for agencies, it is imperative that they use these measurement systems as planning tools, in order to know how to target their online audiences.