JORDAN

Jordan has seen an increase of 5% in overall advertising expenditure in 2016 compared to 2015 reaching $320 million. The relative stability of the Jordanian market encouraged companies to increase their spending on advertising. The market seems to be recovering from the dip experienced in 2015, which could have been affected by the entry of new stations and the increasing role Online Advertising and Social Media are having. This in turn has driven the market to offer higher discounts on all media encouraging advertisers to book more spots. We have new companies entering the top 10 spenders and others leaving the same list. All Telecom companies were present in the top advertising spenders in Jordan, including three banks that have been on the list since 2015.

When looking at the numbers by media, Newspapers, Magazines, and Outdoor advertisement witnessed a decrease in expenditure. The overall decline in the expenditure on these was to the tune of $12 million. Although there was a decrease in the expenditure on Newspapers, they nonetheless retain the biggest share on the total advertisement expenditure of 46%. On the other hand, TV and Radio have seen an increase in their expenditures by 40% and 9% respectively in 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.

The top 10 brands in Jordan spent $7.4 million more than the top 10 brands of 2015, forming 15% of the total advertisement expenditure. Zain has maintained the top spot in the list, with an increased expenditure of $2.1 million, with Samsung also maintaining its previous spot in second place having increased expenditure to almost $1 million compared to 2015. Orange is ranked third this year with an expenditure of $6.6 million. Umniah came in fourth place followed by Safeway, Jordan Islamic Bank, the Housing Bank for Trade and Finance, Dallas Travel & Tourism, and Tahoneh Chicken. The most significant drop in expenditure in the top 10 comes from Dallas Travel & Tourism and the Housing Bank for Trade and Finance.

With the release of the new census, it became evident that the Jordanian market is becoming more diversified with 30% of its population being expats. With this increase, the companies will need to increase their expenditure in order to reach their intended mark. We already saw an increase in the total advertising expenditure in 2016. But whether this trend will continue in 2017, remains unclear. We witnessed a shift amongst Jordanians towards online portals for their news updates, as well as social media, which encouraged companies to start spending more on digital platforms. Will this contribute to another decline in expenditure on Print media in general, is also uncertain.