JEDDAH, 17 March 2004 — The advertising and PR scene is expected to change for the better, with the business investing “more than before.” This was the consensus among speakers and participants at the Advista Arabia VI, which ended after a four-day run at Jeddah Hilton yesterday.

The Kingdom’s per capita advertising spend has been relatively small. “The advertising spend in Saudi Arabia amounts to around SR1.5 billion a year, which is a little less than $20 per capita compared to other parts of the world; the United States, for instance, has over a $100 spend per capita,” Louay Gazzaz, managing partner, Focus Euro RSCG, told Arab News.

“The event is expected to encourage local businesses to invest in advertising and PR much more than they did in the past,” Talal Dhulaymi, chairman of the GCC Advertising Association, said. He said the event had been a “big success” and expressed hope it would have an impact on local business.

The event, held here for the first time, was inaugurated by Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was the keynote speaker highlighting the need to accept and manage change.

The Arab world as a brand, the dynamics of change in the Arab markets and the evolving Arab consumer, brand experience and the Arab world, creativity and branding, new horizons open for marketing communications, evolution of advertising and media market in the Arab world were among the subjects dominating the sessions. “That gives us a little good feeling that there is a lot of room for improvement and we hope that people will look at advertising as an investment and not as an expense, he added.

Louay Gazzaz said the industry faced many problems, including “under-spending and low spending” on advertising in the Arab world. He said there is a lot of room to expand. It was a good sign that more local companies are realizing the importance of advertising.

Gazzaz said the conference was a powerful tool in attracting important personalities in the advertising industry and dealt with some very important subjects.

According to him, the theme needed to be clearer and more direct “targeting one of the main issues that we have in the Arab advertising world.” The focus should be on that particular topic and come out with a solution during the conference period rather than talk about many subjects.

“We have many issues in the advertising industry that we need to tackle and that we need to concentrate,” Gazzaz said.