IRAQ

For the past two years, the massive instability that Iraq has been witnessing has forced the advertisers to reduce their expenditure. This volatile situation has caused a significant drop of 15% in comparison to the expenditure of $463 million in 2016 compared to $546 Million back in 2015. TV has always been the prevalent media when it comes to advertising with around 96% or a total worth $446 million. Staying on that front, all the media outlets have seen a decline in variant degrees except for the Outdoor sector, which witnessed a 6% increase in 2016 compared to 2015. On the other hand, TV saw a drop of 16% and Radio witnessed a slight 2% drop. As for the Press, the drop was around 25% reaching $2.5 million compared to $3.4 million in 2015. As for Cinema, the drop was around 54%. Although the advertising expenditure has witnessed a significant drop in 2016, the top 10 brands in the Iraqi markets managed to increase their advertising spend to $156 million in 2016 compared to $152 million in 2015. Some of the brands managed to stay in the list of the top 10 Advertisers in 2016, while others lost their standing to other brands. Zain succeeded in maintaining its momentum as the top contender for the second year running with more than $40 million, followed by Mahmoud who was ranked 2nd this year as opposed to the 3rd place back in 2015. This was followed by Asiacell in 3rd place, which was ranked in 4th place in 2015. Altunsa came in 4th place, which previously occupied 2nd place in 2015. The new entrants Chavy Land, Fastlink and Floria City came in the 5th, 6th and the 7th places respectively, followed by Confy baby in 8th place with around $7.2 million. Other entrants were Tazech and Dania City in the 9th and the 10th place. As for the Advertising Agencies operating in Iraq, Eddico managed to occupy the first place leaving Mindshare in 2nd place, which used to be in first place, followed by Starcom, Universal Media, Mediacom, Drive Dentsu. Initiative came in 8th place, leaving Havas and Zenith Media in the last two places in the top 10 agencies’ list. Given the continued instability of the political situation in Iraq, it is hard to predict the state of the advertising scene for the coming year. However, if all circumstances remain the same, the confidence in the Iraqi market will increase leading the top spenders to spend more, thereby raising the advertising sector to the next level.