During the summer, 73% of billboards on the North Coast were utilised, while Cairo’s peak was just 59%, based on insights by AdMazad, the data-driven solution provider for out-of-home (OOH) advertising.
The company realised a 29% slump in the vacancy rate of billboards across Cairo month-on-month (m-o-m) in August. This comes as the OOH industry reports a recovery for the second consecutive month on the back of the stagnation wrought by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Utilisation rate around Cairo jumped to almost 60% in August, after reaching an all-time low of 39% in June. Billboards by candidates for the Senate elections helped in inching that number upwards. The automotive sector took up 102 billboards across Cairo during the last month of the summer, compared to only 13 billboards in June.
“Real estate, media, home appliances, and the automotive sectors were the only ones who either met or beat their figures from the previous year,” AdMazad Founder Assem Memon said. “They rose by 101%, 266%, 171%, and 175%, respectively.”
Egypt-based AdMazad analysed the performance of over 3,000 large billboards across Greater Cairo and the North Coast during the months of March and August 2020. The company examined how these billboards performed in terms of utilisation, visibility, dwell-time of viewers and maintenance.
The company helps advertisers make better OOH ad placements, by identifying trends and opportunities through real-life, real-time data.
The utilisation rate of billboards on the North Coast, one of Egypt’s most popular holiday destinations, stood at 73% during the summer of 2020. This reflects an increase of 8% on the same season last year.
The real estate sector took up 10% more billboards than in 2019, representing 28 different developers and 78% of all utilised ad space. The presence of FMCGs, financial services, healthcare and automotive companies, however, shrunk significantly year-on-year (y-o-y). The Ministry of Health utilised 5% of all ad space, with its coronavirus awareness campaign.
“A large segment of targeted audiences decided to flock to the sea over the summer, after the coronavirus fears caused considerable disruption this year,” Memon said. “Advertisers realised that, although the significant disruption also meant that this year’s advertising season was much shorter. Typically, most installations are done by late June – this year, most of them were put up by late July.”
Recovery of the OOH sector overall is expected to continue in September with the “back-to-school” season, and October with the expo-season.
“We are expecting the utilisation rate across Egypt to continue improving as the economy solidly opens up,” Memon explained. “However, pre-COVID-19 numbers will probably only be attained by the first quarter of 2021.”
