“Abu Dhabi is dominated by lampposts. You might have a very good press campaign, an awesome TV commercial, and a very funny radio commercial, but if you don’t capture people's imagination with lampposts, you haven’t stirred the market. It's a reality we have to cope with.” So says Sam Husaini, managing director of Impact BBDO Abu Dhabi, about what media works best in the UAE’s capital. Advertising agencies, clients and media buyers agree on that point: Abu Dhabi is definitely a lamppost kind of city, as the shortest of drives will indicate. But the capital’s media scene is diversifying, and growing fast.
Advertisers may still rely heavily on outdoor, but Abu Dhabi media agencies have witnessed changes over the past few years, brought on by a maturing industry and a slew of new clients looking to stand apart from the competition. “I would say 2009 was the year Abu Dhabi broke ground in terms of advertising and media,” says Fadi Chamat, general manager of PHD in Abu Dhabi, whose offices are soon set to open in the grounds of the twofour54 media complex. “There is a new market opening up in Abu Dhabi, with government subsidiaries spending a lot, and a lot of new brands and clients.”
One such government subsidiary is Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), a multi-platform media organization which owns and operates various television channels such as Abu Dhabi Television and National Geographic Abu Dhabi (which it part-owns), radio stations including Star FM, and Arabic and English publications including The National and Zahrat Al Khaleej. Vida Rizq, chief marketing officer for ADMC, says 2009 was a milestone year for the organization, as it celebrated its 40th anniversary. “There were relaunches for publications like Zahrat Al Khaleej and Majid magazine, so they had campaigns associated with them,” explains Rizq. “We also relaunched television brands under one umbrella, and won the rights to the English Premier League, and launched radio stations like Star FM.” ADMC is set to be a big advertiser in 2010, as well as a media owner.
THE PASSING OF PRINT. Another advertiser closely related to the Abu Dhabi government is Etihad Airways, which – like the rest of the airline industry – had a tough year in 2009. But Andrew Ward, vice-president of marketing at Etihad, says the tougher market has made the airline smarter with its marketing. “We’ve had more tactical activity than in previous years,” says Ward. “We predominantly use outdoor, press and radio, but we’ve started to move further into the online space. We’ll still be relying on television to reach global audiences, but I see the role of press declining, actually. There’s been a decline in magazine and newspaper readership figures, but they have diversified and provided their own online environment. So we’ll be moving more online with our marketing activities and spend, as we’re seeing a greater return from online marketing.”
At ADMC, Rizq explains that while the organization was “quite active” on the outdoor advertising front for their publications and television channels in both the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the organization did its best to “be 360 across all mediums: outdoor, television, radio, bluetooth, and digital”. “Digital was key for us when we launched Goal Arabia [an online fantasy league],” says Rizq. “We used television to get to people, but it was a very digitally focused campaign. We managed to quadruple, if not more, the number of people who took part.”
Other ADMC brands, including Al Ittihad newspaper and Star FM, employed digital to either refresh their brand or launch it. And Rizq says that 2010 will see the integration of brands across platforms. “You’ll see that when the English Premiere League comes, as they own all the rights including mobile, digital and television. [At the MENA Cristals last month, ADMC’s CEO Edward Borgerding announced his company would stream matches over the Internet.] You’re already starting to see brand extensions like The National, who have their television show Inside the National [a documentary/news program focusing on daily developments in The National’s newsroom], and we started Zahrat Al Khaleej [a weekly variety show]. These are partly a marketing drive, and partly for brand development, to understand what consumers want and how they get their content. We’re taking necessary measures to ensure our brands aren’t one-dimensional.”
RINGING THE CHANGES. Antoine Deeb, account director at Mediaedge CIA ME in Abu Dhabi, says real estate companies were big, but the past few years have seen the telecommunications industry dominate the media. “Telecom is huge, and Etisalat and du have huge expenditures,” says Deeb, whose company handles the Etisalat account. “Otherwise, of course, you’ve got the government initiatives picking up.” He adds that while outdoor media is still extremely popular in Abu Dhabi, the ongoing restructuring of roads in the capital has resulted in the loss of some prime locations. “Outdoor advertising has diminished a bit, but print is still very strong, and people are of course talking about digital,” he says. “I can tell from my clients (which such diverse brands as Reed Exhibitions, Paris-Sorbonne University, and the Al Ain Zoo) the emphasis always goes to print, outdoor, and radio still; digital is progressing, but not as fast as we would expect.”
With more clients fuelling the advertising industry in Abu Dhabi, media buying agencies are now setting up. Deeb says Mediaedge CIA has been in the capital for 14 years as part of Team Y&R, and became an independent MBU in Abu Dhabi in 2000. With Mindshare, Initiative, and PHD among a few other media buying and planning companies in Abu Dhabi, the market is looking healthier. PHD is in the process of setting up in Abu Dhabi, and Chamat says the clients that drive the industry are now ready to deal with global media companies rather than work with advertising agencies, which used to handle the media buying and planning process.
GROWING UP FAST. “Clients are now seeing the value of dealing with big multinationals, in terms of the tools, services, and research we can provide,” says Chamat. “They are benefitting from it and seeing the difference. Clients in Abu Dhabi know what they are doing, and the plans they have are very big. They have the vision; all clients have a five year plan ahead of them, so they are structured in their advertising.”
However, as with every growing industry, there are growing pains. Deeb says that one of the major challenges for media companies in Abu Dhabi is signing clients on retainer, as many work on a project-by-project basis. “You’re never secure, you’re always on the run, you always have to pitch for everything,” explains Deeb. “It’s a challenge to tell clients that it’s better for them to invest in one agency, so that the return and added value they will get will be much higher.”
Chamat says he hopes that a healthier market will emerge with the coming of media buying and planning agencies in Abu Dhabi, as many clients and agencies are still just discount-driven. “I would hate for the industry to boil down to a price war between agencies,” he explains. “Sometimes small, unprofessional agencies come on board and they just concentrate on prices and breaking margins. Not all clients really realize the value of strategic planning versus just buying. We have so much to offer in terms of services and tools and research, so we want to drive clients to strategic planning.”
Lamp posts may still be a part of any media plan in Abu Dhabi, but as the market develops and matures, it’s clear that other options are coming to light.