A long-awaited system to monitor TV audiences in the key advertising market of Saudi Arabia is expected to launch by September next year.
Television is the dominant medium in the Arab world, and accounted for 62 per cent of the region's total advertising spending last year, according to the Pan Arab Research Centre (Parc).
Yet there is no accurate way to measure TV audiences in Saudi Arabia, the region's third-largest advertising market, according to Parc.
A system is currently in development in the UAE, and advertisers expect a similar initiative to launch in Saudi Arabia next year.
"We would expect that to land [about] or just after Ramadan next year … in terms of live ratings being available to the market," said David Porter, the media director for the Middle East and North Africa at Unilever.
Mr Porter is also a board member of the Advertisers Business Group (ABG), a membership-based organisation of key advertisers in the Gulf region.
He said ABG had been in talks to participate in Saudi Arabia's planned TV-measurement system, initiated by the ministry of information. The consultancy firm Oliver Wyman is also involved in the process, he added.
Advertisers have long called for reliable statistics on TV audiences. The introduction of such a system on a pan-Arab basis would boost regional advertising spending by US$2 billion (Dh7.34bn) within five years, according to a report issued last year by the management consultancy AT Kearney.
Mr Porter said it was unlikely spending would rise by such an amount, but the "people meters" initiative would help "grow the market".
"Because we know where we are getting our value, it will allow us to invest in winners in terms of stations, and programmes and times of day," he said. "And it will allow the stations to raise their game and their product, so it will improve viewership generally. So that will grow the market."
There are no accurate statistics about the size of the total advertising market in Saudi Arabia. According to Parc, the total domestic spending across all media amounted to $1.2bn last year, but that did not take into account the large amount of discounted or free advertising.
Mr Porter said the introduction of the system would also help TV broadcasters plan their programming.
"What's sorely missing in the TV industry in the region is great, professional programming scheduling. And you just can't do that without virtually live ratings," he said. "The vast bulk of most stations' programming budgets is spent in creating Ramadan schedules. Not to have any idea of your return on investment in terms of audience, yet alone ad revenues, must be debilitating for most TV stations. I think that is one of the driving forces behind this [initiative]."
Fellow ABG board members said they would welcome the launch of a TV measurement system in Saudi Arabia.
"The best thing that could ever happen for us is to be able to understand where we are putting our money, and what we're getting out of it. It's not about investing more or investing less," said Raef Labaky, the communication and marketing services director at Nestle Middle East.
The ABG, which has 33 members, recently voted in a new board. Fadi Ghosn, a member of the board who is also the chief marketing officer at GM Middle East, said the group had four priorities.
These include encouraging the measurement of TV audiences in the region, working on the regulation and measurement of outdoor advertising, and helping to establish a code of conduct for the advertising industry.
bflanagan@thenational.ae
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
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Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
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