Advertising – Page 3 – StartUpArabia

Middle East Businesses Missing Out On Online Marketing Power

August 30, 2008August 30, 2008 MMM 5 Comments

Middle East businesses could be taking far greater advantage of the marketing power of the Internet.

That was the message presented by Flip Media CEO, Yousef Tuqan, as he discussed the best ways for Qatar companies to build their web presence at this week’s QSTP TECHtalk.

Tuqan said: ‘Online advertising has been growing at more than 50% a year since 2004. Despite this frenetic increase the total last year came to just $35m, or less than 1% of what Middle East companies spend offline.’

On the plus side, he said, this low demand translates to low prices for online ads, an opportunity that Qatar companies can take advantage of. For example a life-insurance company in the US might pay $30 or more if someone clicks on their advertisement. In the Middle East, a company in the same industry may only have to pay a dollar or two.

Tuqan was presenting at a TECHtalk seminar hosted by Qatar Science & Technology Park. The bi-monthly seminars focus on the intersection between technology and business, and are open to the public.

Joining Tuqan in a panel discussion were ictQatar QCERT Center Director & Manager, Khalid Sadiq Al-Hashmi and Fuego General Manager, Karl Gretton. They agreed that although Qatar has one of the highest rates of Internet usage in the region, with 26% of the population now online, local businesses are not yet making the most of the web.

Tuqan said: ‘The most effective regional online advertising strategies take advantage of the latest technologies in relation to making users active participants instead of passive viewers, but within the social and cultural contexts of the region.’

He gave a case study of a Dubai property developer who set up a website where people could make good wishes for Ramadan. It attracted almost 40,000 participants in less than one month.

Yousef’s PowerPoint presentation is available here (PDF).

Online Advertising in the Arab World: Impacts and Opportunities – August 21st – Amman, Jordan

August 14, 2008August 14, 2008 MMM 57 Comments

The Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship and Google have announced a new seminar titled “Online Advertising in the Arab World: Impacts and Opportunities“, with Google Country Business Development Manager (UAE) Husni Khuffash.

The event will be taking place on August 21st (5:30 PM) at the Friendship auditorium in The Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Al Jubeiha, Amman (Jordan).

As the title implies, the seminar will be tackling the topics of online advertising in the Arab world, the existing opportunities, and the impacts of pursuing advertising online.

If you’re interested in attending the seminar, you can register by sending an email to: google@qrce.org

Javna Launches MobiAd Mobile Advertising Platform

August 10, 2008August 10, 2008 MMM

Javna, a leading Arab company in the field of mobile software solutions and wireless applications has launched MobiAd, the first mobile ad application that allows users to earn money.

The Amman-based company said the program needs only to be downloaded on users’ cell phones free of charge, to start immediately accumulating points and collecting money. In addition, subscribers will also be eligible for periodic drawings on prizes offered by advertisors .

Underlining the feasibility of MobiAd as an ad platform, Javna said companies can now resort to this state-of-the-art application to get their messages across to the targeted segments of consumers who, for the first time ever, will have the chance to earn money rather than just spend it.

Javna hopes MobiAd will meet the growing needs of companies for innovative and out-of-the-box marketing techniques that ensure the achievement of the ad campaign goals while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.

MobiAd allows advertising companies and ad agencies to reach out to the targeted segment of consumers in a modern and more interactive fashion, by defining the targeted age range, gender, and geographical location, among other data necessary to render the ad campaign a success and ensure its objectives are met in an optimal manner. In addition, the program provides technical reports to evaluate the campaign throughout its various phases.

All telecom companies’ subscribers, regardless of the type of their subscription, can download the software by visiting its official website: www.mobiadhome.com. Subscribers will have the choice to voluntarily join the marketing programs according to their interest and be rewarded for their choice; they will be also be able to invite their friends to Join the program and share the benefits with others.

Javna expect the mobile advertising platform to have a significant share of the Arab ad market, estimated at $7bn annually, especially since the new technology is based on interactive solutions through multiple delivery channels starting from SMS and MMS messaging, to flash interfaces that appear when a call is received or made by the user. These marketing tools can be programmed to appear regularly on set dates and times.

Madar Research Reports Growth In Online Advertising Spend

July 30, 2008July 30, 2008 MMM

Madar Research reports that online advertising spend in the GCC-Levant region registered a growth twice the global rate in 2007. Travel/Hospitality and Real Estate sectors emerged as top online advertising spenders in the region during the past year with a combined outlay comprising nearly half (45%) of the total online spend.

As in previous years, the ongoing rapid growth in online advertising spend in the GCC-Levant region still failed to deliver a market share on par, or at least comparable, with the current world statistics. However, this scenario is expected to improve over the long term as the global market reaches maturity, causing a stable, less rapid growth compared to that of the regional market.

Overall global advertising spend grew by 5.2% last year (2007) fueled by developing markets, whose advertising spend growth managed to offset the comparatively slower growth experienced in developed markets like the United States. On the other hand, total ad spending in the GCC-Levant region rose by approximately 19.4% in 2007, with UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar registering the most growth.

# Source: MediaME

Middle East & Africa Online Ad Spending Will Grow 29.8% By 2011

June 26, 2008June 26, 2008 MMM

IDC: Global Online Ad Spending to Hit $106B in 2011

Marketers worldwide will increase their spending in online ads at a 15 percent to 20 percent clip in the coming years, a growth rate that is “phenomenal,” IDC said Wednesday.

This year, global spending in online ads will reach US$65.2 billion, or about 10 percent of the total advertising market.

In 2011, online ad spending will hit $106.6 billion, accounting for almost 14 percent of the total advertising market, according to IDC.

[…]

The U.S. will lead the global market in online ad spending with $45 billion in 2011. But the fastest growing regions will be Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa, with average annual growth rates of 42.1% and 29.8%, respectively.

[…]

Today’s leading categories of online ads, adult content and gambling, information, electronics, and computing, will still be the top ones in 2011, IDC said.

# Source: ComputerWorld

Logta, Online Service To Help Find Best Deals & Promotions

May 22, 2008May 22, 2008 MMM 3 Comments

Logta is a new online service aiming to provide shoppers with a one-stop shop for promotions covering Electronics, food items, travel and leisure, real estate, beauty & personal care, clothing, and apparel amongst other categories.

The service also provides retailers and brand owners with a new channel to advertise & publicize their promotions, getting their message and products across to the site’s visitors, who will be able to search through these categorized promotions and pinpoint the location of the product they are looking for with the best deal.

Additionally, visitors can register for alerts and notifications by building special profiles for the products or services they are looking for; making it a lot easier for them to find what they’re looking for, but also building a rich database for Logta.com, with the community member’s preferences and details, making targeted advertising a strong opportunity for them.

Even though Logta is essentially just a place to find promotions for people to use at retailers’ stores; they plan to start providing retailers with online payment & delivery capabilities for certain categories and items in the future.

The service has built-in analysis tools that retailers and brand owners can use to measure the effectiveness of their promotions and advertising campaigns by analyzing traffic from the site vs. products sold at their stores.

Logta was developed by Dubai based Danat e-ventures, and is available in Arabic & English. The service mainly targets users in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with future expansion plans to the GCC and other Middle Eastern markets.

# Logta

Yamli Enable Advertising In Their Language Tool

May 7, 2008May 7, 2008 MMM 4 Comments

More news from Yamli, the cool web-based tool that solves the problem of Arab users who don’t have an Arabic keyboard or who aren’t as comfortable typing in Arabic; They have come up with an interesting way to start generating revenue with their tool: they enabled advertising on their Yamli editor menus.

The ads are in the form of small 120×30 banners, simply and neatly placed at the bottom of the word suggestion and option selection menus.

A number of advertisers have already started buying these ad spots with Yamli, and users of the Yamli editor tool on the Yamli website, facebook, or elsewhere should start noticing them now.

No details about the pricing of these units are available on the website, but advertisers can contact Yamli to place their ads through the following contact form.

Very good move from Yamli, who just released an API to use their tool recently, and who should be seeing an increase in their tool’s usage over the following weeks as more Arabic websites integrate their tool. SouqElArab just announced integration of the tool from their side yesterday.

It will be interesting to see how well these ads will perform, and how successful they’ll be for advertisers as a new advertising channel and for Yamli as a revenue model.

New Version Of Kalimat Araby Advertising Platform

May 5, 2008May 5, 2008 MMM 2 Comments

The new version of the Kalimat Araby advertising platform, by Maktoob subsidiary Araby, will be released in private beta soon for current users of the platform, both advertisers and publishers, to try and get their feedback on the new system and integrate any important suggestions before its official launch.

Kalimat Araby was originally launched in June 2007; and the new system will bring a set of technical and functional enhancements.

While the old system was displaying keyword-related ads on search pages, the ads displayed on publisher’s content pages were pretty much random ads; with the new platform the displayed ads are contextual ones for both content and search pages.

Another feature being rolled out for Ad Agencies is the addition of a new special interface and an API to make their work buying ads and setting up campaigns for their customers easier.

From the publisher’s point of view, a set of new features are being introduced as well; from Ad filtering, to registering multiple sites under one account, to management of ad zones and more; making it easier for them to better serve and optimize ads from the Kalimat Araby network.

Technically speaking, the system will be able to scale a lot better with the changes that were made under the hood; and a very important and interesting addition for advertisers is a new click audit mechanism that should eliminate most common click fraud issues.

The new system’s interface will be in two languages now, both Arabic and English, instead of Arabic only for the old system; with the possibility to add more languages.

With Kalimat Araby maturing into a well-rounded product, I expect we’ll slowly start to see it spreading onto more publisher websites and being generalized on to the whole Maktoob network of web sites and properties, making it a sort of one place stop for placing ads on Maktoob’s content network, online services, and even newly launched Maktoob TV; as well as a list of other publishers’ web properties.

# Kalimat Araby

Arab Online Ad Spending To Grow To $142 Million By 2011

April 13, 2008April 13, 2008 MMM

According to a recent study by Madar Research, online ad spending in the Arab region is expected to grow to $142 million by the end of 2011.

Madar looked at the Arab regions of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Levant countries bordering the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, leaving out the Arab countries in North Africa.

The company said that marketers in the GCC countries spent less than 5% of their overall ad budgets on online media in 2006 and that online ad spending there represented less than 1% of the global total.

Companies in the region generally say they can still reach their target audiences without campaigning online.

Aviation travel and hospitality accounted for almost a quarter of online ad spending in the GCC-Levant countries in 2006, at $4.68 million. Banking and finance companies in the region spent $3.28 million on online ads in 2006.

The growth rate averaged of more than 50 per cent took place over the past six years. However, by end of 2006, online ad spending in GCC-Levant raised 54.6 per cent from the previous year that cost $18.71 million. Marketers saw this development as a promising sign that will push online ad spending to break the 1 percent share in the overall advertising market in the upcoming years.

# Sources: eMarketer, mediaME