The World: Insider's View - Turkey.(Television advertising is effective as the population consists of younger generation)

Turkey is benefiting from a new period of economic and political stability. But its developing ad market will have to continue to rely on TV to reach young consumers, Meral Akyel says.

This month saw European Union membership negotiations kick off for Turkey, a country that is at last enjoying an era of relative political and economic stability. As Europe's second-biggest consumer market after Germany, the marketing focus is in many ways on the younger generation - 66 per cent of the 70 million population is under 35, while 41 per cent is under 19. Exposed to the world through TV, these consumers are ready to upgrade their lifestyles to match those they see in international TV shows.

Increasingly, local companies are realising that they have to build a brand bond with Turkish consumers. This new-found awareness is partly the result of long-term efforts by the ad industry to communicate the power of branding, but also because Turkish companies' Asian competitors have far lower production costs.

Growing confidence in the Turkish economy and a high rate of privatisation is at the same time resulting in increasing investment in Turkey by multinational companies. The outcome? A level of competition not seen before between local and international brands and, thankfully, an increasing share of the budget being set aside for marketing.

No surprise, then, that the ad market has grown by around 30 per cent in each of the past two years, and is expected to grow a further 20-25 per cent per year into 2007. Still, the base remains relatively small: adspend per capita is dollars 32, while ...