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Elie Aoun
Omnicom Media Group forecasts online advertising spend to reach 9% in GCC and Levant regions
Sun, 2011-08-21 11:03 - By
Advertising News, Advertising, Arab Media Outlook 2009-13, Dimitri Metaxas, Elie Aoun, GCC, Ipsos MediaCT, OMG, Omnicom Media Group
New research by Omnicom Media Group suggests that internet advertising in the GCC and Levant will reach 9 per cent of the total advertising market this year, and is fast approaching the proportions spent in developed markets such as the US and Germany.
Digital advertising has been considered a poor relation to television and newspapers, which remain the dominant media for advertising in the Arab world.
Ipsos reveals that 148 million viewers from MENA watched final game of FIFA World Cup
Sat, 2010-10-16 16:21 - By
Ipsos, the official research partner of Al Jazeera Sports Channels, has conducted surveys to measure the viewership of the games during the football World Cup 2010 in the Middle East and North Africa. According to Ipsos, 148 million people were watching the final game between Netherlands and Spain from 14 countries in the MENA region, on Al Jazeera Sport Channels on the 11th of July 2010.
Read more.
148 million viewers from MENA watch final game of World Cup 2010 between Netherlands and Spain, reveals Ipsos' survey
Sat, 2010-10-16 15:48 - By
Outdoor advertising spend tumbles by 36% in UAE
Sun, 2010-05-30 21:08 - By
According to The National, outdoor advertising spend in Dubai and Sharjah has dropped by more than 36 per cent in Q1 of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009, largely due to the withdrawal of property companies after the downturn. In the first quarter of last year, $148.4 milion was spent on advertising for billboards and other outdoor sites in the two emirates. This year, the number fell to $94.6 million, according to figures provided by Ipsos MediaCT.
The drop in spending could be even more severe because of the way the figures are collated. Advertisements that are still on display but not necessarily paid for are still included in the figures, said Elie Aoun, the MENA region managing director of Ipsos MediaCT.
Read more.
Ipsos Emirates appoints Pencell PR and Events as their Middle East Media Partner
Sun, 2010-04-18 09:27 - By
Elie Aoun: We lead audience measurement and Ipsos is simply the media currency in the MENA region
Sun, 2009-12-27 14:33 - By
Elie Aoun, the Chief Operating Officer at Ipsos MediaCT and the Managing Director of Ipsos UAE, is a dedicated media research specialist and a reference to many. mediaME spoke to him regarding advertising expenditure in the MENA region, the level of competition in media research and monitoring, the effect of the credit crunch, the future of online media and more.
Q1. Kindly introduce yourself, and tell us about your role in Ipsos.
I am Lebanese, I joined Ipsos in 1992 after immediately graduating from University, where I studied Advertising and Public Relations, and never worked for any other company since then. With 18 years of experience in media research within the same company, I can modestly say that I became a reference in the region for everything related to media, and one of the most trusted and reliable persons in this field.
I started my career in Beirut, and contributed to the expansion of Ipsos in all the other countries where it exists in the MENA region, I am overlooking Ipsos MediaCT in the MENA region as a Chief Operating Officer, and I am also the Managing Director of Ipsos UAE. I created the Adex services within Ipsos MediaCT MENA, and contributed to the creation of every single syndicated audience measurement study in the region, those studies that made Ipsos the media currency in the MENA region.
Q2. 2009 was a difficult year, do advertising expenditure numbers tell the story of the recession in the Middle East? Which media types (TV, print, outdoor, etc…) were hardest hit?
2009 was surely one of the most difficult years in my career, and it affected all the industries in the region, including the advertising industries.
The advertising expenditures figures are showing a decrease in the region, most media are affected, but the most affected media is definitely newspapers, and mainly in countries like UAE, where the drop is estimated to be around 35% and this is mainly coming from the crisis of the real estate sector.
TV is also dropping in the region, but not as much as print, while the figures according to the official rate cards are showing stability, but in reality there is a slight drop, in my opinion between 10 to 15%.
Q3. Through your analysis of advertising spend by sector, has there been a considerable drop among advertisers in sectors other than real estate and banking?
Definitely, the real estate and the real estate sectors were the most hit, but also others sectors cut their spending, mainly sectors related to luxury products; but the bright side of this is that, in some countries, FMCG products are back to life again and we started to see them again spending on media that was exclusively allocated to banks and real estate companies.
Q4. Has the competitive environment in the media research scene change with the entry of more players recently?
Definitely yes, we have two sorts of competition coming in, multinational companies and small local boutiques. Multinational companies are feeling how important the region is becoming now, and started to target our region and open new offices here, and small boutiques, offering only field and tab, where clients who are not looking for quality, but only some insights are using them. Concerning us at Ipsos, we have competitors in the two fields of media research and audience measurement (which is mainly syndicated and customized studies).
In audience measurement, our situation is as solid as a rock, and we are leading by far in the region and in all media, and we are the most trusted source of data. We are simply the currency of the market.
Concerning customized studies, it is a new field where Ipsos is entering, and because of our very strong tools, we are gaining ground rapidly, I can proudly say that in audience measurement, our share in the region is around 80 to 85%, while in customized our share is between 20 to 25%.
Q5. Other organizations monitor media expenditure in the Middle East, why is there a discrepancy between your numbers and others?
Concerning monitoring media expenditures, which is by the way a small share of our business in media research, there are a lot of factors that might lead to a difference between two research companies, I will list few of them:
- Quality of work
- Quality of the software used to collect data
- Non transparency from media owners in their rate cards, sometimes many media do not distribute their rate cards
- Number of media monitored may differ from one company to another
- There are a lot of operations that are vaguely priced, like special operations in newspapers, sponsorships on TV, etc…
All mentioned points as well as many other may lead to a difference between two research companies in collecting their data, and this is normal.
Q6. Ipsos has recently announced online media monitoring services. Tell us more about this, and what is your projection for the future of online advertising in the region?
Since Ipsos is the currency in the audience measurement in the region for all media, TV, Print, Radio and also outdoor in some countries, we wanted to also add Online to our offering, especially that the clients will benefit from this additional service to add it to their list of services received from Ipsos.
We are doing this service with Gemius, which is a specialized company in Online measurement and has won 8 out of the last 10 pitches in the world against the competition. We believe in their system and we have done a lot of comparison between what they offer and the competition, and we felt that it has a lot of advantages and it is more reliable. We felt that advertisers started to give more importance to Online advertising, and my estimation is that the total spend in the region on Online in 2011 will reach a little bit more than $100 million.
Q7. Anything else you would like to add?
Thank you for this interview, I just want to add one point, that people in our region are always pessimistic, especially when it comes to the media and advertising industry. I personally always was and still am very optimistic, and I believe that despite all the difficulties that this region faced in 2009, I believe that 2010 will be a very good year.
Ipsos/Gemius to launch New Online Audience Measurement Service
Tue, 2009-11-24 10:00 - By
Media Business, Consulting & Research, Dubai Media City, Elie Aoun, Fillip Pieczynski, Gemius, Ipsos MediaCT
Ipsos MediaCT and Gemius have organized a workshop to launch the new online audience measurement covering the MENA region, held under the patronage of Dubai Media City. More than 50 professionals have attended the event.
Operators have shown great interest in this type of service due to the continous growth of Online ad spending.
Elie Aoun, Regional COO for Ipsos MediaCT, jointly presented the new methodology with Fillip Pieczynski, Vice President of Gemius.
Read more.
Ipsos launches New Online Audience Measurement Service
Tue, 2009-11-24 08:40 - By
Research, Consulting & Research, Dubai Media City, Elie Aoun, Fillip Pieczynski, Gemius, Ipsos MediaCT
Ipsos MediaCT organized a workshop, under the patronage of Dubai Media City, to launch the new online audience measurement in the region.
UAE ad spend: PARC reports 26% drop, Ipsos reports 39% in Q2 2009
Mon, 2009-07-13 17:51 - By
Both PARC and Ipsos agree that there has been a significant drop in UAE advertising expenditures for the 2nd quarter of 2009, compared to the same period in 2008. A report in Khaleej Times quotes Ipsos who have announced a 39 per cent drop, while The National quotes PARC who have announced a 26% drop.
According to the data collated by Ipsos, money spent on advertising in the Emirates, excluding spending on outdoor campaigns, declined by 39 per cent in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2008.
However, the pace of decline might have slowed down as total ad spend during the April-June period fell by just 3 per cent to about $354 million, compared with the $363.7 million spent in the first three months. Ipsos had started monitoring outdoor ad spending only since June last year.
Print media -- newspapers and magazines -- appeared to be the hardest hit due to the virtual absence of ad flow from real estate developers. Ipsos data showed that newspaper ad spend had fallen by 50 per cent in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2008. The money spent on advertising in magazines dropped by 10 per cent during the same period.
"The most affected are the newspapers," said Elie Auon, chief operating officer of Ipsos. "The main reason is the real estate sector."
Outdoor advertising too has been severely affected by the lack of real estate advertisements.
Advertising spend in newspaper dropped by more than $330 million in the first six months of 2009 to $480 million, while magazines saw a drop of 3.5 per cent from $140 million to $135 million.
Historically, newspapers have dominated the market, followed by outdoor and magazines. However, the downturn appeared to have helped the local radio and television stations as advertisers hunted down cheaper avenues to maintain their brand visibility. The measured ad spending on radio increased by 23 per cent to $61 million in the first half of this year, and local television increased by 41 per cent to $31 million.
"Some advertisers are trying to maintain a presence using cheaper options," said Jaikumar Menon, vice-president of MCN Media, another media buying and planning firm. "Radio is a well-placed beneficiary. A lot of tactical promotions (given the current economic climate) should also benefit radio," he said.
Ipsos does not monitor online ad spending even though anecdotal evidences suggest a small but growing market. "Some of the spending might have shifted to online media but we don't have exact figures," Auon said.
According to Pan Arab Research Center (PARC), spending last month was US$116 million (Dh426m), down $2m from May.
"The decrease is mainly because the first half of the year in 2008 was a peak time for advertising," said Elie Jichi, a production manager at PARC. "There were so many spots, especially in the property sector.
"That's why whatever you have in advertising this year, I don't think it will cover the huge advertising that happened in 2008 from the property sector."
The property and financial advertising sectors were particularly badly hit, falling 75 per cent and 43 per cent respectively, during the first half of this year compared with the first two quarters of last year.
But weak advertising spending has spread to the household appliances, clothing and jewellery, business equipment, toiletries, cars and government advertising.
Worst hit were English-language newspapers, which saw a 39 per cent drop in advertising, compared with a 27 per cent fall in Arabic-language newspapers.
Newspapers were especially hurt after advertising in supplements, a favourite of property companies, dropped 84 per cent in the first half of the year, compared with the same period last year. Magazines lost 7 per cent of advertising spending in the same period.
Last quarter, the UAE stood out as the Middle East country worst hit by the advertising downturn, with only Egypt and Bahrain also experiencing drops.
But the second-quarter results show the pain seems to be spreading, with Saudi Arabia seeing a 5 per cent fall and Oman a 2 per cent drop in the first half of the year, compared with the same period last year.
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