Gov't-backed DOOH company starts rollout in Emirates

July 19, 2010 by Dave Haynes

The government-backed Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) has launched a pure-play digital out of home ad media company that is all about advertising and media services in the Emirates and around the Middle East. The company already has a broad portfolio of broadcast and print assets.

Bankrolled by the Abu Dhabi government through ADMC, the first digital signage brand to be launched is Al Barq Digital, which is rolling out interactive advertising and wayfinding units in prominent shopping malls in the UAE and Middle East. The first units go in this summer in Dubai and more than 300 screens should be turned on by the start of next year.

The units are interesting in that they combine big digital screens in the high-traffic areas of malls with secondary interactive wayfinding units that direct shoppers to stores and deals.

The mall environment is attractive for a few reasons in that region. There is obviously a lot of money in the region, but also the blast furnace conditions of that region mean a LOT of people use malls to cool off and they spend hours, not minutes, in those malls with each visit. Great DOOH environment, as a result.

(Disclosure: Andrew Wood – see pic – is running Al Barq, and he and I were colleagues for a while at EnQii. I am doing some writing for ADMC as they ramp up.)