OPINION
Ali Abbas Sabir
The whitespace in the $2 billion advertising industry of Pakistan The urge to create relatively demanded goods along with services is the most challenging task out there
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akistan is ranked as the 6th largest country in the world, and is one of the fastest growing economies in the South Asian region. This is mostly because of the fact that Pakistan’s internet penetration is only slightly higher than that of many of its neighbors. Behind these positive numbers has been the success of mobile internet, and how quickly the proliferation of 3G and 4G internet connections has taken place in recent years. While Pakistan was late to the mobile internet party, people are catching on quickly now that it has been here for a while. It is also precisely because of this that the business-to-business (B2B) market has seen great growth in recent years. The importance of B2B clients for businesses may be understood from the fact that the B2B market is roughly four times the
Ali Abbas Sabir is a former research fellow at the Centre for Security, Strategy, and Policy Research at the University of Lahore. He can be reached at aasad6889@gmail.com
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size of the B2B industry, with a global B2B e-commerce market size of $12.2 trillion in 2019. Businesses have begun to employ social media for marketing purposes to attract more customers and consumers to their doorstep. This was done through various digital marketing ad campaigns on social media platforms. With the usage of technology and online media growing in numbers and scale in recent years, Pakistan has been able to create a growth-oriented, dynamic, digital, society. Since the turn of the century, Pakistan’s mobile market has grown at a rapid pace. Yet, the pervasiveness and mass consumption of modern technology, as well as the accompanying digital services, is yet to completely materialize. It is a basic principle that advertisement expenditure follows any gains or dips in GDP. Over the last decade, the advertising sector grew at a pace of 3-6 percent each year, reaching $646 billion USD in 2019. Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19, the ad industry was expected to increase to $865 billion USD by 2024. In response to changes in customer behavior, advertising expenditures have shifted. Splurging on publications that have no viewership is basically squandering money compared to marketing. When protective measures were implemented all throughout the world in the name of innovation (COVID-19), out-of-home and cinema advertising, as well as print advertising, fell virtually immediately. The accompanying consumers have reacted to marketers around the country, demonstrating that advertising sales are now a top priority. That digital atmosphere is conducive to “direct response” marketing, which encourages clients to make quick
