Oman
Similar to last year, Oman still holds an estimated share of 1% of the total media expenditure from the MENA with gross spending of 148 million USD in 2017. It has only decreased slightly despite the economic crisis that hit the Middle East last year. In context, the decrease of media expenditure in Oman this year is estimated to be around 18% versus 2016; this is 2 percentage points lower compared to the 2015-2016 drop of around 20%. Looking in detail, the 18% drop from 2016 to 2017 is observed to be coming from print media (newspapers and magazines) which went down by 23%. Despite the drop this year, there is good interest in advertisers’ spending on TV, which is higher by 7% compared to last year. More importantly advertising for cinema compared to the transition of 2015-2016 has greatly increased by 39% for 2016-2017, which showcases positive growth from the drop experienced (43%) in the last transition. Compared to last year, the top three categories in Oman this 2017 are cars, banking, and telecommunications. As for top brands, Bank of Muscat remains in the top position, followed by Mcdonald’s and Omantel, who switched rankings compared to last year. The 4th and 5th positions are taken by Ooredoo and Toyota. Looking at the top media agencies in Oman, MEC remains to be at the top for the past three years, whereas Universal Media dropped to 4th compared to their 2nd place ranking over the past two years which was taken by Media One this year. OMD, however, ran up the rankings this year to be part of the top 10, and is listed as 3rd. Continuing with the rankings, Mindshare remains in the top 5, moving down by one rank to 5th place. Overall, despite recent events, Oman keeps a steady position in the media industry based on expenditures recorded as per rate card, which can be seen as an opportunity of continuous growth with confidence that the Middle East will remain stable in 2018.