10/14/2008 - Top Ad spender for 2008 goes to Dynasty Zarooni for H1in the UAE

Private developer Dynasty Zarooni emerged as the country's top spender in advertising during the first half of 2008, overtaking Emaar, last year's top spender by almost double.

Real estate firms account for the majority of ad spend in the UAE, pumping more money into their advertising budgets than ever before. An industry expert described the situation as an advertising mania, escalating the price of outdoor advertising.

According to a half-yearly report by Pan Arab Research Centre (PARC), four out of the top five firms in the list of top advertisers were property companies. In the top 10 list, eight of them were from the same industry.

Dynasty Zarooni was followed by Nakheel, Deyaar, Emaar, ACI Real Estate, Al Qudra Holding, Better Homes and Dubailand.

Hilal Al Zarooni, President of Dynasty Zarooni and Chairman Kabir Moolchandani said in a statement that the primary reason for the increase in advertising spend was the merger in September 2007 of the Hilal Al Zarooni Group with Dynasty Enterprises Inc to form Dynasty Zarooni Inc with a net equity of Dh1.35 billion. The firm's ad spend for the first six months of 2008 was estimated at $10.58m (Dh38.8m). Leaping from an almost non-existent advertising spend in 2007, the new ad budget accounts for around 1.8 per cent of the company's total business of Dh21bn.

The company, which recently suffered a defamatory campaign with allegations of fraudulent operations in India, stated that it did not have to realign or alter its advertising campaign because "allegations were baseless and withdrawn by the publisher".

Company representatives denied any relation between the allegations and the massive ad spend. "The recent negative coverage abroad was promptly corrected by the publisher as there was no proven substance in any of the original articles. All of these reports were proven to be factually invalid.

"Our advertising plans are meticulously designed to promote the company's overall brand values, brand strategy and its products."

Interestingly, the PARC report revealed that the majority of real estate ad spend was channelled into the print media. Newspapers' share of Dynasty Zarooni's ad spend was almost 99.8 per cent. Magazines accounted for the remainder. Nakheel, second on the list, allocated 1.27 per cent for TV, 91.1 per cent for newspapers, 3.21 per cent for magazines and 4.51 per cent for outdoor and radio. Of the top 10 spenders, only Al Qudra devoted 12 per cent of its budget to TV adverts.