GCC advertising expert predicts: three billion will be the volume of advertising in Saudi Arabia (page 1 of 3)

He attributed this prediction to the huge projects planned for Saudi Arabia, which are estimated at US$ 300 billion. Advertising expert Faisal Abdulla, Group CEO of Visuals Marketing Communications Group, a member of the International Network of independent Advertising Agencies "IN", has said that the advertising expenditure per capita in the Gulf region is still far below the international rate. He pointed out that the Gulf advertising expenditure per capita was US$ 29.00 during the first quarter of 2006, against US$ 110 per capita during the first quarter of 2006 in the United States of America.

As to the continuation of newspaper advertising amidst increasing satellite invasion, Faisal said: "Relatively, this will continue in our region for a longer time than in the West in view of the loyalty of people of the region to the sources of news and information, unlike the West in which I expect shorter life for newspapers. US statistics show an increase in expenditure in electronic publications that reached 34.9% during the first quarter of 2006, compared to the increase of 0.3% in the printed publications. The difference between the first quarter of 2005 and the similar period in 2004 was 24%. This indicates that the annual increase in advertising expenditure is declining for printed publications and increasing for electronic publications".

In an interview with Al Sharq Al Awsat, Faisal Abdulla said: "We witness a growth that is naturally commensurate with that of all sectors. The quantum leap forward being experienced by the region is the main reason for the growth. What is pleasing is that the advertising awareness among advertisers is improving over previous booms and years. Advertisers' view was that so long the market was in a good position, advertising was unnecessary. Today, however, with the increase in sales advertising expenditure has relatively increased. This is in addition to reinvestment of the profits of regional companies instead of taking such profits overseas, as in previous years. All this has created new opportunities for the advertising market and encouraged it to grow, although the market is not relatively as large as expected. The statistics published my Marylinch about the sums of money expected to return after the September 11 incidents were estimated at more than one trillion dollars. With the boom the region has been experiencing since then, the volume of liquidity would have been more than the three trillion dollars new being invested in regional projects. If we assume that advertising expenditure is 3%, such expenditure would now exceed 90 billion dollars. However, it was hardly over 10 billion dollars over the last three years. The liberalization of markets and the relative elimination of monopolies of certain sectors, such as the telecommunications, have resulted in an increase in expenditure. Statistics indicate that Mobili spent more than 8 million dollars during the first quarter, compared to 3.8 million dollars by the Saudi Telecommunications. Thus, the Saudi telecommunications sector alone has contributed to more than 11% of the total GCC expenditure during the first quarter, according to statistics by a specialized company. Therefore, we anticipate a prosperous future for the industry".

He also said: "Statistics for the first quarter of the year indicate that the advertising expenditure was US$ 29 per capita in the first quarter of 2006 (approximately 1 billion dollar by 35 million people) in the GCC countries, against US$ 110 per capita (35 million dollars by 270 million people) during the first quarter of 2006 in the United States.