GCC Spending on Health Ads from UAE

The health advertising industry in the region has become a multimillion-dollar business over the years, according to a study prepared by the Pan Arab Research Centre in Dubai.

General manager of the Centre Sami Raffoul told Khaleej Times that total advertising spend value of the whole healthcare sector in the GCC has been estimated at approximately $162 million.

“This is for the period from January to September of this year. The full-year estimate could reach some $215million,” said Raffoul, who presented these figures at the UAE’s first conference on health advertisements.

He said only nine per cent of the ad budget of $162 million comes from the UAE. The rest was distributed as: 41 per cent on Pan Arab media, 12 per cent in Saudi Arabia, 29 per cent in Kuwait, and nine per cent in other GCC countries.

“Current advertising activities extend over fewer segments of the healthcare sector than we might be given to understand,” he said.

The study showed that some 30 per cent of the total volume is spent to promote hospital services. Nearly 25 per cent is spent to announce or promote medical services of clinics and laboratories of a wide variety of specialties.

Some 22 per cent is spent to promote drug brands, manufacturers of medical equipment and suppliers whereas some 14 per cent is spent on public health announcements by the health ministries in different countries, or health authorities and departments of different emirates.

“The balance goes to the promotion of miscellaneous services and commercial activities of pharmacies, distributors etc,” Raffoul said.

According to statistics from the UAE Ministry of Health, establishments in Dubai and Abu Dhabi alone have paid about Dh4 million in fees for advertisement licences from its Health Advertisement Department last year.

Pharmaceutical products, and medical devices and accessories are the next categories for which ad licenses were issued by the department.

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