IRAQ
Iraq Media Research Executive Iraq has witnessed tremendous political instability in the past year, which drove advertisers to significantly reduce their media spend by 22% ($546 million) compared to $700 million in 2014. At Ipsos, we have been monitoring the advertising expenditure in Iraq since 2005 and throughout those years TV has been the dominant media in the advertising scene with almost a 97% share ($527 million). The significant drop that took place in the Iraqi market in 2015 saw all the media outlets cut spending except for Radio, which was the main beneficiary that year with a slight increase of 7% reaching $2.3 million up from $2.2 million in 2014. TV dropped 21%, Outdoor 25% ($12 million) instead of $16 million in 2014, followed by Print with a drop of 38% closing at $3.4 million instead of $5.5 million. Lastly, Cinema dropped 61% almost $1 million, which was $2.3 million back in 2014. The top 10 brands in the Iraqi market spent roughly $152 million amounting to almost 28% of the total media expenditure. The top 10 brands have four new entrants in the list compared to 2014. Zain managed to maintain its top spot with more than $38 million, followed by Al-tunsa and Mahmoud who managed to occupy the 2nd and the 3rd places with $21 million and $20 million respectively. This was followed by Asia Cell, which maintained its 4th place since 2014 with more than $19 million. The last and final place was snatched by Wild Tiger with more than $10 million. As for the advertising agencies operating in Iraq, Mindshare heading at the top, Comfortably far from Starcom who occupied the second place, while Eddico came in the 3rd place, then Mediacom in the fourth place; it’s worth mentioning that the top 4 agencies got the same places for the second year in row, as for the 5th place it was for Universal Media, then Drive Dentsu, followed closely with OMD, then in the 9th place Havas Media, followed by Initiative, and lastly with Zenith Media.the expectation for the advertising scene in the Iraqi market in 2016 is unpredictable due to the current turbulent despite the fact that the Iraqi market has always shown the ability to withstand tremendous political and economic pressures.
Top 10 Media Agencies- All Media 1. MINDSHARE 2. STARCOM MEDIA VEST GROUP 3. EDICOO 4. MEDIACOM 5. UNIVERSAL MEDIA 6. DRIVE DENTSU 7. OMD 8. BPG MAXUS 9. HAVAS MEDIA 10. INITIATIVE
Top 10 Brands - TV 1. ZAIN 2. ALTUNSA 3. MAHMOOD 4. ASIA CELL 5. WILD TIGER
6. MELODY 7. PELEMALL.COM 8. PELEPARE
10. JANNAT AL AASHAB
1. ZAIN 2. ALTUNSA 3. MAHMOOD 4. ASIA CELL 5. WILD TIGER 6. MELODY 7. PELEMALL.COM 8. PELEPARE 9. CONFY BABY 10. JANNAT AL AASHAB
Top 10 Brands-press 1. ASIA CELL 2. ZAIN 3. KOREK TELECOM 4. LUKOIL 5. SOUTH OIL COMPANY 6. STATE CO. FOR MARKETING
DRUGS & MEDICAL APPLIANCES 7. CNOOC LTD. 8. PETROCHINA COMPANY 9. AL WAHA PETROLEUM CO. 10. STATE COMPANY FOR GRAINS
TRADING
Numbers and rankings are based on the official rate card.