Region's ad sector looks to Ramadan

In culturally diverse countries like the UAE, it's tough for advertising agencies to make commercials that appeal to all. But the Arab ad industry is becoming ever more creative.

In culturally diverse countries such as the UAE, it is tough for agencies to make commercials that appeal to all. But the Arab advertising industry is becoming ever more creative, according to the people who work in the sector.

Lance de Masi, the president of the UAE chapter of the International Advertising Association:

Good advertising has an entertaining element. [In the Arab world], it exists at a lower level. In markets such as the US and UK, while there are regional differences, there is [always] target audiences for any piece of advertising.

You take a market like the UAE, which is so highly fractionalised and splintered - with different languages, different nationalities and different cultures - and it's not easy for a single piece of advertising to become talked about.

Reda Raad, the chief operating officer for the Middle East and North Africa at the advertising agencyTBWARAAD:

The closest that we've got to the Super Bowl is probably Ramadan. That's the time when a lot of the packaged-goods companies put on their greatest [advertising].

It's a different context altogether, but in terms of eyeballs on TV, that's the closest we have.

Advertising in the US tends to be a lot more entertaining, a lot freer. There's not as many restrictions or taboos; it's much more sophisticated and advanced. But that's not to say that our stuff is not getting there. I think in the past five to six years there's been an improvement in the entertainment value of [ads] being produced across the Arab world.

Vincent Raffray, the creative director and founding partner of theagency Tonic International:

The reason the Super Bowl advertisements are so expensive is that it's the highlight of the sporting calendar in the States. So many people are watching. In our region, there's nothing close to it.

Advertisers launch the adverts online before they are shown on the Super Bowl, on YouTube and things like that. They build that story around the Super Bowl ads. They take advantage of social media to push their media budgets much further. If the clients are going to spend that much money, they might as well make the most of it.

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