Flabby media dodges another bullet

How can a manufacturer of soap powder, shampoo and skin creams be an agent for change in the Middle East's media industry? The answer, of course, is advertising spend. With newspapers, magazines, radio and (most) TV being distributed for free, media owners rely on advertising to generate revenue. Knowing this, the advertisers have the right to expect certain demands to be met. Chief among these is asking media owners to tell them how many people read/viewed/listened to their magazine/TV/radio station. In developed markets, the cheeky advertisers even ask media owners to prove their figures are correct. This information helps both sides work out how much an ad should cost. That is not the case in the Middle East. With very few exceptions media owners are allowed to pluck figures from the air; whether the advertiser believes these figures, it has to negotiate a fee it feels comfortable with. The system penalizes good media and keeps bad media in business.

Understandably, such a situation is not popular among advertisers. It wastes their money and makes them complicit in potentially fraudulent transaction. The biggest advertisers in the Middle East have been working for years to change this. So it will be off great relief to media owners that Jan Zijderveld, chairman of Unilever MENA and champion of the Advertising Business Group, is leaving to take up a new position in Singapore. Zijderveld has been a vocal advocate of change, and has worked hard to bring bring both sides together. But, not for the first time, media owners have played the long game and seen off an ambitious expat with designs on bringing the Middle East up to international standards. No doubt someone else will pick up Zijderveld's baton, but momentum will be lost. Expect more stalling tactics, and no visible uplift in the quality of media.