Chiraz Ben Saïd

The Tunisian communications market is following the worldwide global trend, a period full of uncertainties and challenges, as well as great opportunities. It is a new era for the market where technology, data, content and especially consumers are at the heart of what we do as media and digital agencies.

In Tunisia, despite media spends dropping by 10 per cent last year, and where online spends are unfortunately not monitored, digital and mobile are gaining a bigger place, not only in the brands’ media mix but also in the consumers’ lives.

The fact today is that digital is booming, and is the most used media at a rate of 95 per cent of use for more than once a day frequency, just before TV with 92 per cent, according to our Digital Behaviour study in January 2018, conducted by Mindshare Tunisia and Ipsos.

On the other hand, the Tunisian market size is growing and getting more diversified with new advertisers and foreign brands freshly established in the country. This includes small agencies, start-ups, digital agencies, production agencies, and others.

If there is one main issue today, it is that there are no clear regulations about our market, even if the different communication partners (advertisers, agencies, media houses and so on) are acting for that through the SAPA (National Union Chamber of Communications Agencies and Advertising).

WPP, the largest communication group in the world, is uncontestably the most established network in Tunisia through two GroupM media agencies – Mindshare and Mediacom – and two creative agencies – JWT and Ogilvy.

Mindshare is by far the leading media and digital agency in the Tunisian media market, with the largest client portfolio, billing (36 per cent market share between media agencies), tools and departments (strategic, planning, content, buying, social media, performance, research and others).

GroupM, with Mindshare and Mediacom, constitutes the largest media buying group in Tunisia, with more than 41 per cent of the market share.

There are some promising independents that are growing within the market. As an example, Banni Banni is a production and post-production company specialising in creative content development and 2D and 3D animation. Without doubt it is leveraging the quality of content distributed in Tunisia.

Also, we have Placeholder and Cyntillon, which are two start-ups specialising respectively in mobile (by providing cutting-edge mobile solutions and technologies) and in developing hardware robotic solutions.

All of them are GroupM partners, with whom we are working very closely by offering new media, content and technological and digital solutions.

Telecoms is the leading sector in the Tunisian market, with 32 per cent of the total spends, followed by food & beverage. This has been the trend for many years. However, many categories have evolved in the past three years, including the automotive industry, which has seen many new entrants including Japanese, Korean and Chinese car brands. The market has traditionally been predominantly led by German and French car brands. Also, the textiles and fast food categories are growing, with many new foreign entrants. Yet these brands are still smaller players in term of media spends.

Since the 2011 revolution, the Tunisian population has gained its freedom of speech and media has become more powerful than ever.

The general mood is still complex as the political and economic situation is unstable.

Tunisians are facing a tough period with a difficult economic situation and increasing unemployment (15.5 per cent in Q4 2017, according to the National Institute of Statistics). On the economic side, the inflation rate has incerasesd to reach 7.6 per cent per cent in April 2018, according to the same source.

In addition to that, taxes are increasingly applied, especially to imported products, as well as real estate, fuel, cars, snacks and more. Therefore, purchasing power is adversely affected and the Tunisians are doubtful about their future and the future of the country.

Yet we will not give up the fight for a brighter future. Chiraz Ben Saïd is director of client leadership at Mindshare Tunisia