LATEST ECONOMIC BRIEFINGS
EMIRATES: DUBAI | 30.07.2010
Dubai’s capital markets appear to be in for significant change with plans unveiled to establish a second-tier stock exchange coming hot on the heels of Dubai Financial Market (DFM) – the government-administered domestic bourse – and the DIFC-based NASDAQ Dubai’s move to formally link their trading platforms. All of this is happening as speculation of a merger between the bourses of Dubai and Abu Dhabi mounts.
ALGERIE | 30.07.2010
Les efforts importants déployés par l’Algérie pour augmenter la production céréalière commencent à porter leurs fruits, dans la mesure où les récoltes record de l’année dernière et les rendements importants de 2010 aideront à réduire les coûts d’importation et à créer des emplois sûrs dans les zones rurales. Cependant, l’objectif de l’autonomie alimentaire fixé par le pays reste encore bien éloigné.
SENEGAL | 30.07.2010
Le Sénégal est en train de devenir un leader en matière de développement de l’énergie solaire comme énergie de l’avenir, et ce, à la fois à l’échelle nationale et continentale. Pour y parvenir, le pays veut augmenter l’utilisation des énergies renouvelables afin de surmonter ses propres manques et promouvoir un grand programme international ayant pour but de mettre fin à la dépendance de l’Afrique de l’Ouest à l’égard des combustibles fossiles.
BULGARIA | 30.07.2010
Though Bulgaria’s economy is likely to remain in the slow lane for the rest of this year, the country’s banking sector continues to show resilience in the face of global economic contraction. There are concerns, however, that increasing levels of bad loans carried by some lenders could add to pressures on the sector.
OMAN | 28.07.2010
A raft of new agreements recently signed by the Ministry of Transport and Communications will see a significant round of investment in Oman’s transport infrastructure. The 15 agreements, signed earlier in July, cover projects in land, sea and air infrastructure and are worth a total of OR136.9m ($355.9m).
COUNTRY COVERAGE
Print Rules
Jordan, Volume 90
30.03.2005
30.03.2005
After a tough 2003, Jordan's advertising sector went into rebound last year, with attempts to further diversify apparently paying off. The results are clearly visible in Amman's Abdoun circle, one of the city's upmarket areas, which nowadays sports many a seductive billboard.
Last year's results for the sector may herald a return to form too, as after 1998, the media sector exploded in Jordan, growing 15% on average per year. This was then followed by a drop off in 2003, blamed primarily on the deteriorating political situation in Iraq and Palestine. It seems that 2004, thankfully for advertisers, saw a return to double-digit percentage growth.
"The economy always grows after a war," asserts Nahed Hattar, media manager of Promoseven, a leading local advertising agency. "People have moved out of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia because of security... and they have come to Jordan."
If the strength of the advertising sector can be gauged by the number of new media sources that emerge during the year, Jordan is in extremely good health. Jordan has seen an unprecedented boom across the board in numbers of private radio, magazines and newspapers in the past year.
In 2003, Amman saw the launch of its first private radio station, FUN FM. FUN broke the ice, as three new stations - PLAY, MOOD and BEAT - fired up operations in the following year. The radio market in 2005 seems prepared to mirror, if not trump, the growth seen in 2004, too. Last week, Audiovisual Commission (AVC) Director General Hussein Bani Hani signed agreements for three private radio stations to join the growing pool on the airwaves. All plan on being on the air in the next few months.
On the back of this growth, radio has welcomed increased advertising attention. An insignificant player before the emergence of private stations, radio has begun to make a case for being a more serious marketing tool. In 2004, radio achieved a record high of 3.2% of media spending, compared to only 0.3% in 2003, according to IPSOS-STAT, the multinational advertising statistics association.
Yet despite radio's rise, print still remains the undisputed champion of advertising expenditure. After some predicted that 2004 would be the year that print started losing its market share, it defied pessimists and solidified its hold at the top. In 2004, according to IPSOS-STAT, 81% of advertisers choose print to spread their message to Jordanians - up from 79% the year before. With this continued preferential treatment, the print sector saw growth that was even stronger than radio.
Magazines made even better progress. Some 25 new magazines surfaced in 2004 - and more are expected soon. Any casual reader can notice the ever-increasing number of glossy-type lifestyle weeklies adorning the newsstands in all of Amman's hippest hangouts.
Newspapers have also showed good growth. The new daily newspaper, al-Ghad, started in August 2004, and has since made a major impact - quickly becoming Jordan's number two daily. But while the paper is showing promise, the far more important story is the man behind al-Ghad: Mohammed Allayan, the private sector media mogul who is trying to single-handedly jumpstart the reluctant sector.
Allayan has poured a lot of money - JD2m-3m ($2.8m-$4.3m) in just advertising costs - to make his newspaper a success. A good start, but his future goals include unseating perennial market leader al-Ra'i as Jordan's most read daily. This is an ambitious goal, to say the least, as the public-sector owned al-Ra'i is in essence the government's mouthpiece and has been unchallenged for most of its existence.
Allayan hasn't restricted his interests only to print either - he also owns FUN FM and has gained a licence for Jordan's first private television station. He plans to be on air by November 2005.
This boom in titles also indicates that private investors see excess advertising revenue floating around. The numbers reflect the fact that advertisers have been spending more money in the market - and that the trend will continue. After the tail off in 2003, when spending dipped to $96m, 2004 saw a return to the strength of the past, with some $111m spent, according to local advertising agencies.
But even though last year's numbers show that spending is on the rise again, advertising in Jordan still remains underdeveloped. The major money is still coming from a few sources, and this shows little prospect of changing in the short term. Ads for telecommunications, banks, and automobiles dominate the newspapers, airwaves, and billboards. These "big three" accounted for around 30% of the advertising revenue, and this domination is set to grow as new players try their luck in the expanding Jordanian telecoms market.
But while the big guns continue to outdo themselves by spending more each year, the rest of the market will be left behind. According to IPSOS-STAT, no other advertising area spends more than $2m a year.
Part of this has to do with the scale of many Jordanian companies, which lack the size to compete on a more international level. "The top 10 firms [in spending] are usually tied to international firms," says Sharif Abukhadra, managing director of Y&R, an Amman-based advertising firm.
Abukhadra says that there needs to be more thinking "outside the box" to generate innovative ways to reach an audience.
Advertisers are beginning to foray into more diverse marketing approaches. They are dabbling in direct marketing - using online, direct mail, and point of sales techniques. Outdoor advertising has also seen a growing popularity in recent years - rising from 1% of total spending in 2001 to around 9% in 2004.
But even with the impressive gains of outdoor and radio advertising, these sectors still make up less than 15% of total spending. Meanwhile, television has continued its downward spiral - watching its share drop from 28% in 2002 to 7% in 2004. Unless Allayan's private Channel 2 can attract significant advertisers, there is not much hope for Jordan's terrestrial stations, which are facing heavy competition from satellite channels.
Until major changes shake the market, it seems unlikely that print is going to cede much ground, especially now that there are so many print sources to choose from. Advertisers can begin to target their audience much more specifically than they could when daily newspapers were all that was on offer. While the billboards will continue to coo around the Abdoun circle, advertisers will still count on dailies and weeklies to most effectively market their products.
Last year's results for the sector may herald a return to form too, as after 1998, the media sector exploded in Jordan, growing 15% on average per year. This was then followed by a drop off in 2003, blamed primarily on the deteriorating political situation in Iraq and Palestine. It seems that 2004, thankfully for advertisers, saw a return to double-digit percentage growth.
"The economy always grows after a war," asserts Nahed Hattar, media manager of Promoseven, a leading local advertising agency. "People have moved out of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia because of security... and they have come to Jordan."
If the strength of the advertising sector can be gauged by the number of new media sources that emerge during the year, Jordan is in extremely good health. Jordan has seen an unprecedented boom across the board in numbers of private radio, magazines and newspapers in the past year.
In 2003, Amman saw the launch of its first private radio station, FUN FM. FUN broke the ice, as three new stations - PLAY, MOOD and BEAT - fired up operations in the following year. The radio market in 2005 seems prepared to mirror, if not trump, the growth seen in 2004, too. Last week, Audiovisual Commission (AVC) Director General Hussein Bani Hani signed agreements for three private radio stations to join the growing pool on the airwaves. All plan on being on the air in the next few months.
On the back of this growth, radio has welcomed increased advertising attention. An insignificant player before the emergence of private stations, radio has begun to make a case for being a more serious marketing tool. In 2004, radio achieved a record high of 3.2% of media spending, compared to only 0.3% in 2003, according to IPSOS-STAT, the multinational advertising statistics association.
Yet despite radio's rise, print still remains the undisputed champion of advertising expenditure. After some predicted that 2004 would be the year that print started losing its market share, it defied pessimists and solidified its hold at the top. In 2004, according to IPSOS-STAT, 81% of advertisers choose print to spread their message to Jordanians - up from 79% the year before. With this continued preferential treatment, the print sector saw growth that was even stronger than radio.
Magazines made even better progress. Some 25 new magazines surfaced in 2004 - and more are expected soon. Any casual reader can notice the ever-increasing number of glossy-type lifestyle weeklies adorning the newsstands in all of Amman's hippest hangouts.
Newspapers have also showed good growth. The new daily newspaper, al-Ghad, started in August 2004, and has since made a major impact - quickly becoming Jordan's number two daily. But while the paper is showing promise, the far more important story is the man behind al-Ghad: Mohammed Allayan, the private sector media mogul who is trying to single-handedly jumpstart the reluctant sector.
Allayan has poured a lot of money - JD2m-3m ($2.8m-$4.3m) in just advertising costs - to make his newspaper a success. A good start, but his future goals include unseating perennial market leader al-Ra'i as Jordan's most read daily. This is an ambitious goal, to say the least, as the public-sector owned al-Ra'i is in essence the government's mouthpiece and has been unchallenged for most of its existence.
Allayan hasn't restricted his interests only to print either - he also owns FUN FM and has gained a licence for Jordan's first private television station. He plans to be on air by November 2005.
This boom in titles also indicates that private investors see excess advertising revenue floating around. The numbers reflect the fact that advertisers have been spending more money in the market - and that the trend will continue. After the tail off in 2003, when spending dipped to $96m, 2004 saw a return to the strength of the past, with some $111m spent, according to local advertising agencies.
But even though last year's numbers show that spending is on the rise again, advertising in Jordan still remains underdeveloped. The major money is still coming from a few sources, and this shows little prospect of changing in the short term. Ads for telecommunications, banks, and automobiles dominate the newspapers, airwaves, and billboards. These "big three" accounted for around 30% of the advertising revenue, and this domination is set to grow as new players try their luck in the expanding Jordanian telecoms market.
But while the big guns continue to outdo themselves by spending more each year, the rest of the market will be left behind. According to IPSOS-STAT, no other advertising area spends more than $2m a year.
Part of this has to do with the scale of many Jordanian companies, which lack the size to compete on a more international level. "The top 10 firms [in spending] are usually tied to international firms," says Sharif Abukhadra, managing director of Y&R, an Amman-based advertising firm.
Abukhadra says that there needs to be more thinking "outside the box" to generate innovative ways to reach an audience.
Advertisers are beginning to foray into more diverse marketing approaches. They are dabbling in direct marketing - using online, direct mail, and point of sales techniques. Outdoor advertising has also seen a growing popularity in recent years - rising from 1% of total spending in 2001 to around 9% in 2004.
But even with the impressive gains of outdoor and radio advertising, these sectors still make up less than 15% of total spending. Meanwhile, television has continued its downward spiral - watching its share drop from 28% in 2002 to 7% in 2004. Unless Allayan's private Channel 2 can attract significant advertisers, there is not much hope for Jordan's terrestrial stations, which are facing heavy competition from satellite channels.
Until major changes shake the market, it seems unlikely that print is going to cede much ground, especially now that there are so many print sources to choose from. Advertisers can begin to target their audience much more specifically than they could when daily newspapers were all that was on offer. While the billboards will continue to coo around the Abdoun circle, advertisers will still count on dailies and weeklies to most effectively market their products.
