The OOH landscape of Greater Cairo has welcomed November with a significant increase in the outdoor occupancy share. Reaching up to 84%, the billboards of the city have celebrated the Prophet’s Birthday amid the promotions of Black Friday and the ferocious elections at the major football clubs of the city. Most leading industries have diminished their presence to give way to the major events of the month. The Food & Beverages industry has lost almost 1% its occupancy share, even though the Mawlid had brought Egyptian bakeries back to the billboards. For instance, El Abd Patisserie has amazed the city with a joyful and very lively campaign to celebrate the Prophet’s Birthday, and La Poire and Tseppas have promoted the sweetness of the celebration. Telecom Operators have also gone down to 6%, with very few new campaigns. Vodafone has continued their Flex campaign, while Etisalat prepared their new promotion of the strongest card. In contrast, Orange has hired comic character Abu Hafiza to launch a joint offer with Carrefour, and Telecom Egypt’s we has started to launch offers to gain mobile customers. Other constant industries, such as Automotive, Education, Fashionwear, and Furniture & Interiors have experienced a similar decline. Nevertheless, the outdoor arena has increased in number of advertisers and campaigns, with Black Friday inspiring Home Appliances and Online Portals to launch special promotions. Such was the case of B.Tech, who started the month with creative die-cuts and ads full of color. With comedy actors Khaled Mansour and Shadi Alfons, leading portal Souq.com launched their “white” version of the promotion, while Jumia invited top-notch personalities to celebrate a “Black Friday Festival”. And despite decreasing in occupancy share, Shopping Malls have also celebrated Black Friday. Leading retailers like Mall of Egypt and Mall of Arabia launched focused campaigns for the occasion, with Mall of Arabia planning their media on the highest-trafficked roads of Greater Cairo to announce their sales dates. We have also seen some action in the field of Mobile Devices, with the occupancy share growing to almost 3%. Huawei was the first one to hit the roads, with the launch of their new Huawei Mate 10. Nokia followed suit and relaunched their promotion of Nokia 3, Nokia 5, and Nokia 6 – probably as the preamble of a new and bigger OOH media strategy. The Banking industry has been very active during November, too. At last, the much-expected public appearance of Attijariwafa Bank after the takeover of Barclay’s Bank in Egypt came with a branding outdoor campaign that has ranked among out Top 20. QNB ALAHLI has also launched a branding campaign, while ALEXBANK has taken to the streets to announce their new regional partnership with Liverpool FC, current team of Mohamed Salah, and Kuwaiti ABK has joined the modern world of mobile finance. The biggest increase has been in the Ceramics & Sanitary ware sector, who has almost doubled their occupancy share to 6,2%. Leading Egyptian brands such as Mazloum, Remas, and Mahgoub, and international brands like Ideal Standard, have all appeared on the billboards with attractive discounts and love stories targeting Egyptian customers before the end of the year. Among them all, Mazloum’s campaign has surpassed their competitors in number of locations and ranked 3rd in our Top 20 of the month. Real Estate has once again been the leader in number of advertisers and locations across the city, though the total occupancy share of the sector has decreased to 36%. Despite its ups and downs, the month has been full of surprises for this sector. The market was amazed with OUD’s die-cuts in Salah Salem road for Heliopolis Hills, which were revealed following a very efficient teaser and the feedback from the industry flew the campaign to the top of our Creative Concept Section. Kuwadico, Capital Developments, Al Marasem, Life Park, Tameer, and Eastern have all creatively strengthened their campaigns during November, while on a more conceptual line MNHD developed a cultural twist for Taj City and Tatweer Misr evolved their Maestá concept for Il Monte Galala. There was a bit of uproar with M2 Developments’ OOH campaign, which has challenged competitors before the new brand has even proven their value in the country. We have also seen some new launches: Arco has announced the launch of The Wharf at Citystars Al Sahel, and Al Burouj has released Gemini and started a medical project with Redcon, while SODIC has joined forces with HHD to start a new project in New Cairo. Seeing that the New Administrative Capital has started to bloom with new projects, Better Home has reinforced their outdoor campaign and launched stand-alone villas at Midtown. And some projects have come back with renovated campaigns, such as Sabbour’s L’Avenir in New Cairo, Neopolis from Wadi Degla, and Swan Lake El Gouna by Hassan Allam Properties. Lastly, and out of industry and market-shares, the city was impressed with the competitive election race for the presidency of Al Ahly S.C., which took place on every available media, including outdoor. Former club president Mahmoud Taher took to the roads only to be beaten by rival candidate and beloved former player Bibo. Stay tuned to our daily updates on the outdoor media strategies across the Greater Cairo, and sign up to our newsletter for further insights. And remember: the better the insights, the better the strategy!
