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| Artwork by Tarek Chemaly |
There. It's official.
Lebanon suffered 69% loss in ad spent between 2020 and 2021 as estimated by IPSOS.
For the full breakdown of the figures in the Arab region and the GCC please do the exclusive article in ArabAd (here). As usual, the yearly reveal of the figures creates a yes-no-maybe storm with some agreeing and other disparaging the numbers.
Still, the small miracle seems that in Lebanon, there was an ad spend of 57 million USD in 2020. This is very surprising considering how everything had already broken down by that point and things were spiraling out of control. There was a prognosis that ad spend would go down 90% in 2020 and that the projected figure was 100 Million USD or 25 USD per person (estimating Lebanon's population is 4 Million - and excluding the Syrian refugees which at one point were 1 or 1,5 million) - see here.
The figure ended up 57 million not 100 making the ad spend in Lebanon in 2020 actually 14,25 USD.
Which brings us to 2021 which witnessed -69% loss in terms of ad spend to reach 18 million - an abysmal figure if there was ever one. Or - wait for it... 4,5 USD per person.
Comparatively, KSA witnessed a growth of 96% to reach 1.520 Million Dollars.
So here we are, the numbers are out, and they are really bleak.
Update:
This came directly from trusted source Naji Boulos
"Many ad professionals agree that the ad spend in 2021 was maximum 10 millions. Ipsos always inflate the numbers to make Lebanon look good. So in reality we are at around 2.5$ per capita."