Casta Diva Group opens in Lebanon.
Heading the unit is Marwan Nicolas

July 13, 2015

With its latest opening in Beirut, Casta Diva Group is now present in thirteen cities across the world.

“We keep a very close eye on international economic trends,” say Andrea de Micheli and Luca Oddo, CEO and President respectively of Casta Diva Group. “This awareness of ours has allowed us to penetrate foreign markets at the most opportune moment, when expansion was just at the start, so we were ready to be operational as the boom took hold.”

“One telling example is the opening of our Argentina office in Buenos Aires, which Nielsen considers to be a country experiencing strong growth in the advertising market.  Latin-America in general has recorded a 6.8% increase over the previous four months (2nd quarter 2014) and a 15.2% increase over the 3rd quarter in 2013. And it is Argentina in particular that has shown the most marked growth (+24.3%),” continue De Micheli and Oddo.

“As regards Lebanon, we are the first independent Italian communications company to set up in the country. Heading the unit is Marwan Nicolas, a highly regarded Lebanese expert with 400 projects to his name across fifteen countries. This is a regional branch looking after the Arab market, from which we expect a substantial performance over the next few years. Among current clients we already have STC (Saudi Telecom), Zain Telecom, Schweppes, Cappy Juice, Egypt Food, AlMarai, flynas, P&G, Goody KSA, Rabea Tea and Bolton Group Dubai.”

Confirmation of the expansion strategy of Casta Diva Group could also be seen in March during Global Marketer Week 2015, the world trade fair for advertising and marketing, held for the first time in Africa, in Morocco.  Interviewed by L’Economiste, the country’s most important financial newspaper, managing director Stephan Loerke was quoted as saying: “The advertising market in Africa will be one of the most dynamic in 2015 and over the next ten years. We expect sustained growth, around 8%. Companies are still at the stage of investment and integration, and it is this which will drive market growth.”

Nielsen too agrees. Nielsen Global Adview Pulse 2014 Q3 LITE has highlighted positive signs in the Middle-East market and Africa: +0.9% and +4.4% respectively. In particular, Egypt (+11%) and South Africa (+8.4%).