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Dubai: Millions of dirhams are probably being wasted on advertising in the UAE because some adverts are failing to build a bond between brands and consumers, an official from YouGovSiraj said.
The market research firm earlier polled more than 1,000 UAE residents and found that 68 per cent of consumers believe most ads do not make them feel good about the brand being advertised.
An overwhelming majority, 71 per cent of UAE consumers, believe only a small percentage of advertising is relevant to them.
About 55 per cent of the residents also believe advertising is not original, while another 55 per cent say they do not even talk to their friends about the commercials they see and hear.
"Our research seems to indicate that the advertisers have a long way to go in terms of truly engaging their target audience," YouGovSiraj Chief executive Nassim Ghrayeb told Gulf News.
In a separate interview, Stroer Concept Chief Executive Officer Pierre Pereira also said the UAE's advertising industry still lags behind other countries in terms of creativity.
"There is clearly a need for more local talent to emerge out of this market and therefore they need to be exposed to this form of expression. Yes, the UAE has a long way to go, but it doesn't have to follow the rest of the world in its approach," said Pereira.
"There is a long way to go in terms of how they measure the effectiveness of the creative, the focus thus far has been on the medium itself and even that is lacking in terms of quality and depth. As a consequence and by our estimates, a significant portion of dollar spend on advertising here is wasted," Ghrayeb added.
YouGovSiraj released late last year the results of its study on UAE residents' attitude to advertising content and creativity. It surveyed a total of 1,066 consumers. About 57 per cent of the respondents were Asians, 20 per cent were Arabs and 14 per cent were Western.
To make adverts more effective and avoid wasting money, YouGovSiraj is urging companies to spend more time on understanding consumers and to test advertising concepts "before they go live".
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