CMO COUNCIL

Big ideas, local insights: multicultural content marketing made easy

Effective multicultural marketing is not easy, but it is valuable. It combines the good old-fashioned concept of high-quality content with up-to-the-minute marketing techniques, big data, and on-the-ground knowledge of the cultures you are targeting.

According to a new study carried out by Google Insights, 87 percent of smartphone users in Saudi Arabia notice mobile adverts.

In the Middle East, particularly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, many internet marketing companies are beginning to make it their job to help other companies make full use of their online potential, by creating beautifully designed websites that are there to attract more customers, and subsequently more business.

The region’s market research sector is at last finding itself in demand as marketers strive to discover what the consumer really, really wants in the post-Arab Spring era, according to Steve Hamilton-Clark, CEO of TNS MENA, the world’s largest custom market research organisation.

As governments fell in Tunisia and Egypt, the events were dubbed by some as a "Twitter Revolution" because of the important role played by social media at the height of protests.

The demand for digital marketing professionals is set to rise in the Middle East.

Emerging markets can be fertile ground for enormous sales growth but each market has its own unique hurdles. Without a deep understanding of the local customer you are likely to trip over those obstacles—or abandon the market prematurely like our apocryphal salesman above. To break into emerging markets and capture the potential, the best sales leaders have realized they have to think like a local.

Nine Essential Skills for B2B Marketers

The marketing industry is constantly in flux as new technologies emerge and others fade into obscurity.

For a long time now Facebook has ensured that its constant amendments maintain marketers keep catching up with its changing trends.

Internet banking is one thing that has nearly acquired roots in our daily lives.

For the past few years, cloud computing has been heralded as the next biggest trend in enterprise IT with benefits set to meet every business requirement in the Middle East.

LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, plans to boost its Middle East connections by opening an office in Dubai, just months after Facebook's high-profile entry to the market.

As wireless Internet access including the use of cellular networks grows in popularity, users are increasingly using their mobiles as a replacement for desktop computers.

Over the past several months, we've seen studies on the reactions that iPad and iPhone users have to mobile marketing initiatives.

With more and more tourists searching for information on their Smartphones and the rise in use of social media, the travel industry is also embracing new opportunities to reach and engage with this audience.

Top 5 mobile commerce trends

The mobile commerce space is growing rapidly and marketers are increasingly turning to new technologies such as NFC and augmented reality, as well as classics including SMS and mobile advertising to increase revenue.

The essential compendium of need-to-know statistics.

Scanning barcodes makes communication, engagement, and shopping faster and easier.

More than 1000 mobile money industry experts and speakers as well as 70 global technology providers will gather for the annual Mobile Money Global Summit & Expo as part of the Connected World Forum in Dubai in November.

Xerox Emirates with the support of Avis Al Otaiba Bus Transportation Service and Corporate Connection, all of whom are member of the Mohamed Hareb Al Otaiba Group Companies, alongside with the The Make-A-Wish Foundation UAE, granted the wishes of 11 children with the "Make a Difference" campaign which ran throughout the holy month of Ramadan.

Ramadan Night Market, a 10 day shopping extravaganza concluded successfully on 19th August 2012 at Dubai World Trade Centre.

Both consumers and marketers are faced with an ever more fractured media landscape in which informative and engaging content can be hard to find.

Advertising Spree

Commercials have flooded television stations this Ramadan, giving a boost to an ailing industry, Ahmed Kotb reports.

Lebanese Film Festival rides again

About a year go, Pierre Sarraf and his colleagues at Ne a Beyrouth decided it was time to put down the Lebanese Film Festival. Everyone has the privilege to change their minds.

As part of its continued effort to strengthen its relationship with the media, leading provider of digital technology, mobile handsets, and home appliances, LG Electronics, recently met with prominent bloggers and social media activists at the Metropolitan Hotel in Lebanon.

Middle East, the World's Brand Central

The Middle East Market has now become the new hub of international retail brands.

Neither the international financial downturn, nor the economic impact of the Arab spring over the past year have taken the shine off salaries for gulf jobs in the past year.

By a large margin, more enterprises worldwide rely on SAS advanced analytics than any other brand, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC), a leaading business research and intelligence firm.

Digital Evolution

While flipping through the morning dailies during Ramadan, consumers in Oman found lucrative deals in the consumer electronics space amidst numerous festive seasons' greetings and auto dealership offers, captivating an average individual's wandering eye.

National rulers in the GCC are increasingly turning to Twitter to engage with their citizens, according to a new study - following a popular trend, but signifying revolutionary changes in communication.

Television companies across the region are enjoying a 20 per cent increase in advertising revenues this Ramadan as the industry makes it most significant step yet towards recovering business lost since the Arab Spring.

Visa once ran a mobile-advertising campaign that featured divers in the shark-filled waters of the Dubai Mall aquarium.

Cinema chains in the Emirates are looking to expand overseas after years of blockbuster growth at home.

Sharp rise in number of cinema halls

The film and entertainment scene has changed drastically in the country over the past five to six years, thanks to rising population coupled with people's increasing income and an equal jump in the number of cinema.

This Ramadan numerous brands are in the limelight to grab the attention through various marketing and advertising turns in the air. Most of them are coming out with special offers and once in a lifetime opportunity to make people do a hefty purchase now.

SMS YES or NO to 53421, asking for feedback on a poll or a question was the way conventional media started to interact with mobile. This feedback mechanism due its soaring popularity has certainly housed many pockets in India and has become the rationale of augmented usage by the marketers.

Infographics are becoming more and more popular in digital marketing circles in the Middle East, particularly, as the volume of statistics, market data and research increases in the region.

Google has announced a trial which will enable people using the search engine to see search queries feature results from their Gmail account. The search giant also said it is extending Google Knowledge Graph to every English speaking country.

A UAE-based company Arabi on TV has developed Touch TV Arabi in collaboration with SkyGrid, a US-based company in Silicon Valley, to develop the first free application to watch and share television shows and news on Facebook.

Simply Measured today announced that brands are seeing strong success engaging with consumers on Instagram and are increasingly incorporating it into their social media mix.

Every country and region dwell on a unique trait, be it the way people of that region dress or eat every feature signifies a distinctive characteristic for an economy.

With about half the world's indigenous people living in cities - where connection to the wired world is comparatively easy - electronic media is playing a growing role in promoting their rights.

Leaders in the Middle East are increasingly using Twitter as an effective tool to inform their people and engage with them, according to public relations consutlancy Burson-Marsteller's recently released "Twiplomacy" study.

Gone are the days when watching TV was an entertaining and relaxing process, now people like to react and communicate while watching television.

The use of online television has doubled during Ramadan, according to two of the Arab world's biggest broadcasters.

Egyptians are some of the most active in the world on Social Networks.

Media: Exponential Growth

The Middle East's entertainment and media industry is set to grow by more than 10% and emerge as the sixth fastest growing market over the next five years, according to management consultancy PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PWC).

The Arab region is enriched with countless family-owned businesses that slowly transformed from small trading firms in the early 60s and 70s into regional and global conglomerates and have now started seriously looking at succession planning to manage and preserve their wealth for future generations, according to CTPartners, a leading executive search firm with offices across the globe.

Social media has played a significant role towards increased demand for public sector accountability across the Middle East, and Deloitte specialists say reform is imminent.

Follow Us: