Business Today Egypt | October – November 2023, Special Edition

Advertising
By Jehad El-Sayed
Egypt’s advertising industry has evolved
over the years from traditional billboards
on main commuter routes to
a huge hub of entertainment with
countless innovative strategies and approaches.
Today advertisements create memorable content
that entertains consumers and achieves
high revenues.
Intertwining advertising with entertainment
has generated the “entertainment marketing”
concept, which engages the larger
audience drawn by an entertaining advertisement,
thus leveraging the popularity of the
advertised products and generating higher revenues.
Business Today spoke with Mohamed
El-Chime, professor of economy at Helwan
University, about the new entertainment marketing
strategies and their contributions to
economy.
“Entertainment marketing approaches,
whether product placement, celebrity endorsements,
or brand integration and so on—have
trumped traditional advertising techniques
among millennials in recent years,” El-Chime
says. “In recent years, many Egyptian brands
prefer to pay to have their products displayed
in a prominent show or used by its characters
rather than paying for a traditional billboard
in the street.”
“Think of movies you’ve seen. If the lead actor
is drinking a clearly labeled soft drink, or
using a clearly labeled cell phone, this is called
product placement,” El-Chime elaborates,
adding that these placements can be subtle or
more overt, depending on the agreement between
the brand and the TV production company.
There is no statistical data on the size of rev-
enues of product placement in Egypt; however,
according to statista, product placement revenues
worldwide will amount to an estimated
$29 billion in 2023, up from approximately
$25.8 billion a year earlier—a growth of over
12%. The annual figure is projected to continue
to expand, surpassing $40 billion by 2026.
“Celebrity endorsement is another main entertainment
marketing approach, where popular
actors, singers or influencers are appointed
as brand ambassadors to endorse products or
services,” El-Chime says.
Telecommunication companies always compete
to partner with popular musicians to release
limited-edition albums or videos exclusive
to the company’s customers. These collaborations
not only promote the company’s services,
but also enhance the reach and popularity of
the music videos and the artists involved.
www.businesstodayegypt.com
November 2023
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