The month of Ramadan is a strong moment for the advertising market in Morocco. Installed in front of their screens at ftour time, viewers “consume” commercials and trailers as inevitably as they break their fast.
Because it was during this period that the small screen came out of the shadow of social networks and reconnected with its audience, bringing together a large audience around its entertainment programs and its Ramadan soap operas.
In the space of a month, consumption habits also change, which most often translates into an increase in household expenditure, particularly with regard to the purchase of food products.
This means that the month of Ramadan is a godsend for advertisers who are snapping up high-traffic slots to maximize their visibility and target consumers prone to distraction and, exceptionally, budget sloppiness.
The Director-General of the Impérium Agency, Anouar Sabri, explains that each year, during Ramadan, the advertising market experiences an upward trend that can go up to rates of more than 100% increase.
This primarily concerns television media which are experiencing peak audiences, explained the information processing specialist, noting that advertisers are adapting their strategies during this month, particularly in terms of budgeting.
The month of Ramadan generates strong audiences on the various media, which is to be correlated with a change in consumption habits, with a marked increase for goods, services and the media, he said.
And to add that in this context, the month of Ramadan generates more or less notorious eminences of advertising investments in Morocco, whose budgets are planned in advance, because of the occurrence of this occasion.
While information media and advertising channels are multiplying and becoming digital, advertisers’ interest remains mainly oriented towards traditional media, contrary to what one might think.
As such, Mr. Sabri, said that television remains the most popular vector of communication for advertisers, absorbing more than 50% of market share (market share) of advertising during the month of Ramadan.
Display comes in second place with 19% market share, followed by radio with 12.5%, and digital, which has seen an increase of 9.1%, for 6.1% market share, he said. clarified, noting, as a highlight, that the written press experienced a nice rebound of 139.4%, with 6% market share.
If the advertising campaigns present a wide variety of goods and services, the boss of the Data providing agency affirms that the food sector occupies the first place of investments with a growth of 6.2% compared to the same period of last year.
The offers of telecommunications operators are in second place despite a 12.4% drop in their advertising investments compared to Ramadan 2022, while banking products, in third place, also show a decline of 16.3%.
The advertising budgets allocated to beverages recorded a strong increase of 23.5%, while those of real estate products fell by 21.7%, noted the specialist.
The overall amount of advertising investments during the first days of the month of Ramadan, amounted to more than 394 million dirhams (MDH), down 3.2% compared to the previous year.
Compared to the annual turnover of 2022, which is 7.2 billion dirhams (MMDH), all media combined, the ratio is therefore 5%, which confirms the very strong attractiveness of this period for advertisers, observes Sabri.
This year, no less than 990 advertisers animated the advertising market during the first days of the month of Ramadan, compared to 726 the previous year.
The contrasting decline in advertising investments should be explained by the complexity of the current economic and financial context marked by galloping inflation which is hampering consumers’ purchasing power. A situation that leads companies to reduce their expenses to compensate for the drop in demand for certain products.