by Ahmed El-Mahdi: Despite a market revival in most trade sectors, the advertisements market is still stagnant compared with the same period over the past few years.
Some areas are displaying more and more outdoor billboards, but others are showing fewer. This brings the percentage of of the advertisements market down to about 60 per cent at a time when the sector was expecting 90 or 95 per cent, similar to the same period last year when the figures ranged between 85 and 90 per cent, according to the head of the Advertisements Section at the Federation of Egyptian Industries’ Chamber of Printing, Ashraf Khairi.
“Prices this year have fallen by 20 per cent compared with last year,” Khairi says. “This is because of the stagnation in the market, which is linked to advertising movement.” He added that a higher number of advertisements would be connected to confidence in a stable market that would allow companies to spend on advertising and impact positively on the market in terms of purchasing and selling.
Khairi says that more than 300 companies are registered with printers, but a more realistic figure would reveal a good many more because some companies are not members of the chamber. He says companies need to iron out certain obstacles in order to increase the movement of advertisements. This might include objecting to fees paid to Giza Governorate, which actually have no legal base.
