Elie Aoun, CEO of Ipsos Media in MENA, will take the helm as the new global leader for Adex service. Communicate spoke with Aoun to learn more about the service and how it’ll benefit the region.

What is Adex?

Adex (Advertising expenditures), is a service that measures the advertising expenditures on different media, in different markets.

What is the specialty of this service?

The advertising expenditures on different media will be measured on a daily basis, using advanced technology like AI. For TV and Radio, [we use] what is [known as] ASR(Automated spot recognition), where every TV and Radio spot is fingerprinted the first time it’s on-air, and then the system will automatically [start to] recognize it

For measuring digital ads, Ipsos creates all the different possible profiles which then visit the websites that are monitored, up to 300 times per day, to make sure they are served all possible ads so that the system captures them. Ads and their costs are reported on a daily basis using proprietary software called STATEX.

How will this service benefit the region?

This will be the first time where service is created in our region and exported globally. We’ve been a region that [usually] imports services but we’re now on the export side of the business.

What challenges do you foresee during the expansion of this service?

There are a lot of challenges but the main will be convincing other countries about the benefits and importance of such a service because there might be a more established competition in those countries. We need to [ be thorough] with the market, competition, and cost to launch this service in other countries.