A record year for outdoor ad spending: Businesses spent a record EGP 3.9 bn last year on out-of-home (OOH) advertising — billboards, bus posters, and checkout advertising — in Greater Cairo and Alexandria, up almost 22% y-o-y, according to a press release (pdf) from outdoor ad aggregator AdMazad.

The number of OOH advertisers rose 8% y-o-y to 1.1k, while the number of billboards increased 5% y-o-y to 32.2k. Real estate advertisers were the top spenders for the second year in a row, accounting for 49% of OOH ads in 2023.

It was a big year for FMCGs: Advertisers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) — affordable, essential products that are in high-demand (think household essentials) — came in second with an 11% market share. It was followed by the hospitality sector (6%) and the telecom sector (5%).

Advertisers were getting more value for their money, AdMazad’s data suggests. Total impressions on outdoor billboards — a metric used to refer to the number of times an advertisement is viewed — were up 26% y-o-y in 2023, reaching 141.7 bn.

The cost to reach 1k people whizzing by (or stuck in gridlock): EGP 27.4, down 8.3% from 2022.

More brands pile into outdoor billboard ads: Businesses opting for OOH advertising increased 8% through 2023. “The limited currency exposure of the medium, resulted in a growing share of OOH in the media mix of large advertisers,” said AdMazad Founding Partner and Managing Director Assem Memon.

The caveat: The figures were accumulated based on audits from 42.7k billboards across Greater Cairo and Alexandira.

** We sat down with Assem Memon for our Morning Routine column back in 2021.

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