Find Advertising, Marketing and PR expertise in Mozambique
- Overview
- Industry media
Advertising, marketing and PR is a developing industry with an annual turnover of US$120 million in the advertising sector alone. In May 2012 the AMEP (Mozambique Association of Advertising Agencies) hosted the International Advertising Festival in the capital Maputo. It celebrated the creative work of advertisers around the world with a particular focus on Africa.
The media reforms of the 1990s resulted in a sudden growth in the advertising industry and a shift away from the public advertising body Intermark.
Whilst work tends to be done in-house, some specialised firms do exist and two subsidiaries of the global firm WPP are operational in Maptuo. In addition, the Sub-Saharan outdoor advertising firm Alliance Media also has offices in the country.
The principal industry bodies are AMEP (the Mozambique Association of Advertising Agencies) and the Advertising Confederation of Portuguese Language Countries (CPPLP).
The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report (2012-2013) scores countries on the extent of marketing where 1 indicates that marketers make little use of sophisticated marketing tools and techniques and 7 that extensive use is made of these. In this section Mozambique scores 3.3, below the world average of 4.1 and in 115th place out of 144 countries worldwide. In buyer sophistication 1 indicates that buyers place more emphasis on lowest price than on a sophisticated analysis of performance attributes which scores highly. Mozambique scores 2.7 (below the world mean of 3.5) indicating that buyers strongly prioritise cost in their decisions and ranks the country 121st out 144.
There are a number of daily and weekly newspapers in circulation in Mozambique and several online newspapers which carry important advertising space.
State radio and television dominates the broadcast media sector and thus commercial stations have much to compete with. Whilst radio is one of the most important communication tools in Mozambique, these industry constraints mean that advertisers have not been able to fully exploit the medium.
Social media uptake in the country is low with only 1.65% of the population holding a Facebook account, the emerging importance of social media as a marketing tool has been recognised but as yet no formal industry has developed.