North Coast billboards utilization higher than Cairo’s during August: AdMazad

CAIRO - 6 September 2020: During the summer, 73% of billboards around the North Coast were utilized, while Cairo’s peak reached 59%, based on data insights by AdMazad, the data-driven solution provider for out-of-home (OOH) advertising. The company realized a 29% slump in the vacancy rate of billboards across Cairo month-on-month in August, as the OOH industry is recovering for the second consecutive month.

Utilization rate around Cairo jumped to almost 60% in August after reaching an all-time low of 39% in June. Billboards by candidates for the Senate elections helped in inching that number upwards, as well as the automotive sector taking up 102 billboards in Cairo during the last month of the summer, compared to only 13 billboards in June. 

“Real estate, media, home appliances, and the automotive sectors were the only ones who either met or beat their figures from the previous year,” AdMazad Founder Assem Memon said. “They rose by 101%, 266%, 171% and 175%, respectively.”

Egypt-based AdMazad analyzed the performance of over 3,000 large billboards across Greater Cairo and the North Coast throughout the months of March and August 2020, examining how these billboards perform in terms of utilization, visibility, dwell-time of viewers and maintenance. The company helps advertisers make better OOH ad placements by identifying trends and opportunities through real-life, real-time data.

Advertisers focusing on holiday-makers

The utilization rate of billboards in the North Coast, one of Egypt’s most popular holiday destinations, stood at 73% during the summer of 2020, which is 8% higher than during the same season last year. 

The real estate sector took up 10% more billboards than in 2019, representing 28 different developers and 78% of all utilized adspace, while the presence of FMCGs, financial services, healthcare and automotive significantly shrunk year-on-year. The Ministry of Health utilized 5% of all adspace with its COVID-19 awareness campaign.

“A large segment of targeted audiences decided to flock to the sea over the summer after the coronavirus fears had rattled the year 2020,” Memon said. “Advertisers realized that; however, this year’s advertising season was much shorter. Typically, most installations are done by late June - this year, most of them were put up by late July.”

Recovery of the OOH sector overall is expected to continue in September with the “back-to-school” season, and October with the expo-season. 

“We are expecting the utilization rate across Egypt to continue improving as the economy solidly opens up,” Memon explained. “However, pre-COVID-19 numbers will probably only be attained by the first quarter of 2021.”