Search Results for : Data

Data is the most valuable currency in the 21st century. Data and analytics guru, Bernard Marr said: “While the average small business has less self-generated data than big players. . .this doesn’t mean big data is off-limits. In fact, in many ways, big data is more suited to small businesses, because they’re generally more agile […]

UAE-based podcast network Amaeya Media, launched in 2017, has become a key player in the region’s audio space, with 16 different shows and the UAE’s first audio-dedicated agency. Founder and CEO Chirag Desai explains how this industry is slowly but surely moving forward. In which markets are your podcasts listened to? We now have individual […]

As part of Ipsos MENA’s ongoing commitment to deliver fast, high-quality data, the company introduces a new online panel in the country of Iraq. Iraq is the latest addition to Ipsos Interactive Services’ (IIS) MENA panel which already covers Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, and Kuwait. Communicate spoke with Joseph […]

Communicate sat down for an exclusive interview with Siddharth Puri, CEO of Tyroo, to talk aboutVidtech.ai, the new AI-based tech solution that converts data into video content. How did the idea for Vidtech.ai come about? Back in 2016, we were creating this e-commerce company with a 24-hour video experience. And we thought that if we wanted to […]

Saudi-based online entertainment network, UTURN Group and digital media company, Webedia have joined forces to create Webedia Arabia. Webedia Arabia stands as a new key entrant and one of the largest networks in the digital media landscape. The company has a following of 30 million across all social media platforms and four million monthly visitors […]

Hamish McPharlin, head of Insights at BBC Global News, says that, understood and used the right way, data can fuel creativity. If there is something that media companies are not lacking in, it is data about their consumers. With the rise in connectivity and an ever-increasing connected user base, we know about our audiences more than […]

WPP’s GroupM MENA’s former head of digital now is Experience Services Lead for Accenture Interactive in the Middle East. With nearly two decades of industry experience in the US and the Middle East, TJ Lightwala was officially appointed Experience Services Lead for Accenture Interactive in the Middle East. For seven years, Lightwala was leading regional […]

By Sarah Longbottom There have never been so many challenges facing the communications industry. Technology, AI, diminished brand trust, balancing truth with public interest, and the impact of social corporate responsibility are just a few of the key issues the industry is grappling with today. This industry is tasked with identifying current and future challenges […]

By Hussam ElHage Have you ever thought what element(s) within Emails and SMS’s that hold(s) the real value?  Hint: it is not the ad copy. It is something called PII data, which most of us in agencies do not really deal with; as agencies almost exclusively deal with 3rd party cookie data. PII or Personally […]

WARC revealed the Effective innovation Report – Lessons from the 2019 WARC awards, which highlights the key innovation trends for effective marketing.  The report itself includes opinions from judges who highlights the ideas that have transformed a business or disrupted category conventions and delivered major results. The WARC awards feature some of the marketing industry’s […]

In the latest of big data beaches, bank holding company, Capital One Financial Corporation, released a statement discussing a breach in their database. The breach has allowed an unauthorized individual to gain access to  sensitive information of millions of their customers. Capital One stocks went down by 5.73 percent in response to the incident on […]

One of the main challenges viewed in adopting Artificial Intelligence is the gender biases available in the data. Hence, as part of an ongoing discussion on creating a non biased data, companies are looking into various ways to ensure the role of women throughout the process.  We spoke to Francesca Gori, Regional Director of Legal […]

By Laurent Sirgy In today’s hyper-connected world, data security and privacy are integral in everyday life. Data forms the very foundation of any modern digital enterprise. It drives everything from new user experiences to products and business insights.  Sharing data brings many benefits but carries a substantial amount of risk. Personal or organizational data can […]

We spoke to Puja Panuum, the Managing Director of Blis, about how companies can leverage geolocation data while maintaining people’s privacy. She said that in today’s age companies only work with others who are privacy conscious and take the matter seriously. Today, businesses use data very differently which is why it is considered the “new […]

By Afreen Khan The luxury world’s biggest conference in the MENA region, Arab Luxury World, returned for its 5th edition on the 12th of June 2019 with a changed perspective on the marketing of luxury goods. One that is described as not only  more inclusive but also open minded and forward-thinking, targeting a newer and […]

By Puja Pannum Let’s face it, you can’t truly get to know your audience based on the content they read. Imagine someone reads a football article, for instance. Based on this information, it would be understandable if a brand thought that this person might want to buy some football boots, when in actual fact they have […]

Muhammad Chbib may not be heading Tajawal as its CEO anymore, but his future plan is still brimming with his innovative ideas anticipated by the industry. He is currently working on a new online travel start-up, that is set to launch in the first half of 2019. The “trip builder” uses a combination of frontend […]

Amazon and Souq announced the launch of Amazon.ae, a new local shopping experience for customers in the UAE. The website Amazon.ae features over 30 million products from local and international businesses, including products previously available on Souq and five million products from Amazon US, the company said in a statement. Customers can shop on Amazon.ae […]

Launched during SXSW in April 2016, The Tempest is a media company by women, for women, with a focus on media presentation of various groups across the world. Not only content wise, but also on employees level, and other levels of stallholders. Communicate spoke with  Mashal Waqar, the co-founder of The Tempest, a media company […]

Whether there is an appetite or not they [brands] have to face the changes said Imad Lahad, Head of APCO’s AI Comms Lab, during an interview with Communicate . He spoke to us about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is moving at a pace that is 10 times faster than digital transformation. “Companies that won’t be […]

By Christian Reilly For modern Chief Intelligence Officers (CIO), success is not about the technology; it’s about using technology to drive business innovation and value. It’s about providing an always-on, secure digital workspace — without a costly outlay of capital. And it’s about efficiently and securely expanding into new markets and regions. In other words, […]

By Puja Panuum It is safe to say that the relationship between consumers, content and brands has undergone seismic change in the last 10 years. Understanding the needs of the consumer has become much simpler because of the increasing availability of real-time data, which allows brands to target their messages in a way that marketers […]

Facebook has asked Amazon to take down the data bases, in response to millions of user information being exposed. Researchers at a cybersecurity firm, UpGuard, found user information, posted publicly on Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud computing servers. The data that was exposed has been used by a Mexican social media firm, Cultura Colectiva. The firm said in an […]

By Bianca Best The future is being incubated at our schools, but in the wrong way. Just ask education guru Ken Robinson, who delivered the stimulating Ted Talk about how schools are killing creativity. He spoke about an antiquated ethos that enforces learning by rote, an approach that yields little value later ‘out in the […]

By Hussam El-Hage, digital marketing manager, Arabian Automobiles Buried treasure; the epitome of every pirate story. The infamous “X marks the spot” leads us to the hidden troves of gold and jewels; treasure chests filled to the brim with coins. Blackbeard’s hidden gold has modern age treasure hunters scouring the oceans casting their “prospecting nets” […]

Image Credit: Illustration by Josh McKenna Two thousand eighteen is the new 1859, says Michael Kassan, MediaLink chairman and CEO. It was, of course, in 1859 that Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities, which kicks off with one of the all-time great first sentences: “It was the best of the times, it was […]

This media agency, for lack of a better term, has neither the word ‘media’ nor ‘agency’ in its name. Instead, it is a “data-driven marketing company,” says its MENA general manager Fadi Maktabi. We’re talking about Omnicom’s Hearts & Science that was first launched in North America in 2016 to handle the P&G business. A few […]

(Image: Jack Dorsey and Sheryl Sandberg testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Credit: Bloomberg) Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey received praise from lawmakers for just showing up to hearings in the Senate on Wednesday, while Google’s refusal to send someone sufficiently senior to please the Senate Intelligence Committee was represented […]

Although it’s early days, brands such as McDonald’s, Staples and GM are paying cash and purchasing data direct from the consumer, giving literal meaning toward the notion that “data is the new currency”. Between regulation such as GDPR and scandals like those plaguing Facebook, consumers are aware more than ever of the so-called value exchange when using […]

Brands of today need to group their efforts on delivering the best ‘return on creativity’ to fuel their performance. It’s impossible for a brand to rise above the noise without creative strategies to help them shine. The current renaissance of technology has created huge challenges for brands, but they have also created a playground for creativity. […]

There has been a huge hue and cry about GDPR as companies scramble to get their data and privacy laws in order. You would’ve known from the 10,000 emails you have received to opt-in to continue receiving newsletters and such. [Tweet “The EU’s GDPR went into effect on May 25 and on the same day […]

By Fadi Ali, CRO Manager, RBBi Every time I mention “CRO” to friends or associates, the usual response I receive is: “you mean A/B testing right?” In hindsight this is to be expected, a few years ago CRO never really existed. It has grown out of the digital revolution and is still evolving as a […]

Just 3% of CMOs think they have the perfect internal skill set 72% are increasing content marketing budgets Only 25% say they make full use of data they have access to   A recent survey by marketing and advertising consultancy NewBase shows that globally CMOs are appreciating the changing media landscape, but the budgets show […]

Carolyn Everson, vice-president of global marketing solutions at Facebook, says she actually started her fix-it tour (our words) days before CEO Mark Zuckerberg ventured out to speak on the Cambridge Analytica affair. She called the company’s top advertisers on Saturday, the day after the company first acknowledged the harvesting of data from some 50 million Facebook users […]

Image credit: Guillermo Gutierrez/Bloomberg Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally broke his silence about the abuse of data on the platform by Cambridge Analytica, promising to redouble efforts to safeguard user privacy after the exposure of the massive data breach. Since Friday, Facebook has been on the defensive over reports that Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained data […]

By Danielle Jamal, communication director, Leo Burnett It’s been three years since I landed in the UAE and the same question still comes to mind: DMPs, dynamic banners, A|B, multi-variant, and programmatic, are all buzz words being discussed among agency and brand peers; however, are brands in the MENA region really using these capabilities to […]

By TJ Lightwala, head of Future Adaptive Specialist Team (FAST) and Performance, Mindshare MENA Telco data provides user level, location data married with contextual or interest data. Hence, it is now highly possible to target a GITEX participant, at a certain location, at the time the event is taking place with the desired ad of […]

Social media marketing and analytics platform Socialbakers has launched the world’s first near real-time advertising performance benchmark for social networks. The benchmark, powered by data from billions of dollars in ad spend, provides marketers with a continuous view into how their ad spend performs against their industry, country or region. “This new addition to our […]

Choueiri Group’s digital arm, Digital Media Services (DMS), launched its audience targeting solution toward the end of February, making it one of the few media representation companies to offer such a solution. We caught up with the agency’s head of data science, Youmna Borghol, to learn more about everyone’s favorite not-just-buzzword, data. Can you tell […]

The term Artificial Intelligence (AI) was coined in 1956 when American computer scientist John McCarthy defined it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs”. AI, also known as machine learning, now refers to a machine’s use of algorithms to understand human activity and provide a response to it. There […]

Facebook knows a lot about where you go online, but it also knows a lot about where you go in the real world. And now it’s going to start sharing some of that information with marketers. Starting in the US, Facebook will provide marketers with more information about the people in the vicinity of their […]

Data is arguably the hottest commodity in marketing, which makes it a tempting target for bad actors. But it’s not just Eastern European hacking networks that companies have to worry about. Marketers are also increasingly facing questions about how to keep other countries and even competitors out of their data troves. Data breaches in recent […]

Posterscope MENA, Out-of-Home (OOH) communications agency network recently announced a new collaboration with global airport and airline data analytics firm, OAG. This partnership aims to provide Posterscope and its clients access to a wealth of travel data which will help better plan airport campaigns and more efficiently target passengers in the airport environment. Abdallah Saab, General Manager […]

To improve media inventory and campaign quality, Havas Media Group announces the launch of a unique Meta Quality Barometer, based on a comprehensive, inclusive approach to data. Dominique Delport, Global Managing Director of Havas Media Group explains in a press statement, “Confidence in data quality is a critical issue for our industry. The scale of fraudulent […]

According to research firm Morgan Stanley, one billion smartphones were shipped globally in 2013, compared with 175 million in 2009. These smartphones now represent 30 percent of all mobile phone sales worldwide. Interestingly, smartphones were shipped at three times the rate of tablets and at almost three times the rate of computers in 2013. Fast […]

Ericsson and Etisalat have partnered to deploy Ericsson’s innovative Radio Dot system. This is the first implementation of its kind in Egypt and demonstrates the solution’s capabilities catering to the fast-growing demand for data traffic in Egypt. Ericsson Radio Dot system is designed to support operators in consistently delivering a better user experience for both […]

  You have probably heard it many times already, haven’t you? Data — big or small — is the new “Holy Grail of modern marketing”.  When it comes to programmatic trading of advertising inventory, data — in a similar fashion to Jerusalem for the Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam – sits at the epicenter […]

  Tire manufacturer and international automotive supplier Continental has launched its augmented reality head-up display system (AR-HUD). The system supplements the exterior view of the traffic conditions in front of the vehicle with virtual information for the driver, with production planned for 2017. The AR-HUD provides drivers with better quality of information. The augmentation connects […]

  LinkedIn wants to overtake Twitter and Facebook as executives’ social news service of choice. On Monday the business-orientated social network added to its news arsenal, acquiring people-centric news aggregator Newsle to bolster its burgeoning media business. A LinkedIn spokesman declined to comment on financial terms of the deal but he confirmed that the company […]

  CNN International has announced several upgrades for its TV, web and mobile platforms for real time and live coverage of the 2014 World Cup. The network’s coverage will include live programming from Brazil, feature programming from around the world, and online initiatives that will bring audiences up to the minute reaction and analysis from all […]

  Digital Media Services (DMS), which serves as the digital arm of Choueiri Group recently announced its exclusive partnership with Screen-it By Strategies, a Dubai-based rich media and digital brand experience specialist. The tie-up focuses on offering DMS’ clients creative and executive expertise in crafting rich media campaigns. Screen-it By Strategies offers a distinct approach […]

  Angel investor, entrepreneur and founder of The SmartStart Fund, Prashant Gulati, has grown his share of MENA startups over the past years. He’s also grown intolerant to repetitive business concepts in the regional entrepreneurship scene – with a “What’s Not Next” list to match. The list goes something like this: “Don’t come to me and start with, ‘I’m developing an app’. […]

  Pulitzer Prize-winning senior reporter at Pro Publica and author of Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance, discussed how, in the last year alone, she spent more than $2,000 on goods and services meant to protect her against identity theft and data mining. In effect, the […]

Last month, Spanish telecom company, Telefónica, beat its competitors to the punch: it teamed up with private equity firm Blackstone to buy the technology behind MobClix, a defunct mobile ad exchange. On the surface, it’s a natural move. For mobile advertisers hungry for user data, the richest sources are the mobile carriers themselves. And, for […]