Nick Barron is CEO of MediaCom MENA
“A client asked me the other day if our region was getting the right proportion of his global advertising and media budget. As you can imagine, my instant reaction was a clear ‘no’. The Middle East and Africa account for some 3.7 per cent of global media spend but has some 7 per cent of the world population. North America has an average adspend per head of population 10 times that of our region. With an average age of just over 30, we have a population with a lifetime of brand decisions to make.
Sure, there are a few stability and transparency issues, but everything points to an under-invested market. But that’s not the whole picture. When you look at media spend as a proportion of GDP, the MEA zone spends more than Western Europe and central Europe.
Logic follows then that if GDP was bigger, adspend would increase, or better still, if current adspend could drive GDP growth it will be self-perpetuating. The better question my client could ask might be, ‘is my advertising working as well as it does elsewhere in the world?’
Digital as a proportion of total adspend outside MEA is between 18 per cent and 27 per cent, yet here it’s 6 per cent. Forecast growth in digital spend elsewhere is double digit. Here it’s 3 per cent. This under investment is baffling and it’s going to get worse, even though we have a young, highly connected population with the highest smart phone penetration in the world.
The time has come for a step change in attitude and skills in the region. Spending money in one medium versus another will not, in and of itself, change things, but we clearly need to be far more dynamic and braver than we have been. As a start, media agencies need to recommend what’s right for their clients, not just what’s easy to execute.”