Neticenzy, a Dubai-based digital marketing agency with a focus on social media, recently won TikTok’s B2B account. Communicate had a relaxed chat with Fadi Khater, Founder & Managing Partner, to discuss this big win and more. Much more. Your PR announcing Netizency’s TikTok win does not read like the typical PR. It was kind of […]
TikTok For Business shares exclusive video tutorials with Communicate to help clients optimize the way they use the short-form video app’s new self-serve advertising tools, launched last July to empower small and mid-size businesses throughout the Middle East region. Campaign structure For starters, here is how TikTok’s Ad Manager organizes campaigns and assets on the […]
While marketeers understand their target market holds the key to business success, they sometimes miss the mark when it comes to engaging them. If a brand fails to add value through personalized touchpoints, then, in the words of Arianna Grande, it’s “Thank you, next!” With today’s digital economy characterized by disruption, customized communication is not […]
“A joke is basically two things that shouldn’t fit together, but you make them fit together with a really nice twist that your brain enjoys,” says Adam Hunt, Creative Director at White Label Comedy, a creative content agency based in the UK that is powered by comedy writers. Communicate spoke with Hunt to understand what goes […]
As a brand today, it’s really difficult to stand out on social media because of the massive overload of content that is present on these platforms. Brands, both established as well as newcomers have to be really strategic in their approach, in order to connect with their target audience. Influencer Marketing Hub, the leading resource […]
Social Bakers, a global AI-powered social media marketing company has released the Q2 edition of their social media trends report. The report reveals where the industry is currently standing with regard to spend and engagement globally. Here are the key findings – ADVERTISING Worldwide ad spend increased by 26.2% in Q2 but began declining by […]
In their newly released Digital 2020: July Global Statshot Report, socially-led creative agency We Are Social and social media management firm Hootsuite indicate that a whopping 3.96 billion people use social media today – that’s, for the first time, more than 50% of the global population in absolute terms, but in fact 65% of the […]
Emirates Nation Brand’s Khaled AlShehhi explains how the Emirates developed a unique campaign that celebrates the historic Hope Probe launch. At 1.58 am on June 20, the world heard for the first Arabic countdown ever, marking the launch of the Hope Probe, the first Arab interplanetary mission that will reach Mars orbit in approximately 200 […]
Last month, Dubai launched the New Media Academy as part of its mission to prepare a future workforce, capable of leading the rapidly growing field of digital marketing. The academy aims to train media professionals in the public and private sector in everything related to digital, in order to nurture social media content creators. Communicate […]
Talkwalker, a global social listening and analytics company reveals the list of most loved brands globally as well as in the region. With the world economy experiencing a downturn, brand love can really help a brand grow and connect with the audience emotionally during this difficult time. Using Talkwalker’s enterprise social listening platform, the company […]
Saba Omaish, OSN’s Head of Marketing, explains how the MENA broadcaster challenges us on TikTok to keep our eyes peeled for the world’s best entertainment. What do you do when you have a massive list of amazing TV shows and movies to watch and only 24 hours in a day to watch them in? Keep […]
Shant Oknayan, recently appointed General Manager of Global Business Solutions across the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT) at TikTok, explains why he took on this role and where he sees the platform going in the region. What will your new role at ByteDance, encompass, beyond TikTok? As the General Manager of Global Business […]
Rami Zeidan, Head of Video and Creative at TikTok, explains how the platform’s creative community united to come up with virtual Ramadan traditions during Covid-19. The holy month of Ramadan has always been a time of togetherness marked by reflection, gratitude, charity. This year, with social distancing measures in place, universally-enjoyed Ramadan traditions were, in […]
Consumers look to businesses to feel more positively about how these brands support society. A recent global study by Kantar on Twitter shows that, in fact, only 8% of people believe that brands should stop advertising during the global pandemic. This has been especially evident in the month leading up to Ramadan, when there has […]
The impact of social distancing as a result of the COVID-19 crisis has been felt across industries and sectors, with technology and social media playing a critical role in connecting people, communities, and businesses – this is even more pertinent given the imminent start of Ramadan. Amid this difficult period, it has become even more […]
Rami Zeidan, Head of Video and Creative at TikTok, explains how the platform has grown well beyond lip-sync and funny videos. What is TikTok today? TikTok is a short-form video platform for people who want to showcase their creative expression. [Initially,] creators wanted to react to certain songs or movie clips; that got us into […]
Talkwalker used its social media search engine tool, Quick Search to dive into the online conversations happening in the MENA region around Covid-19. Here are the insights: The conversation clusters around Covid-19 in the Middle East includes insights from various sources as such as media, consumer and social data. The main conversation topic that is […]
Hanin Hamade, Manager, Data Sciences Practice – Publicis Media, explains why and how brands should keep an eye on the booming social media chatter around the pandemic. It is no secret that 2020 has been off to a rocky start. Conversations around covid-19 have no border and are not siloed to specific audiences; we see […]
By Komal Mishra, communications specialist at Active DMC Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can often create uncertainties and discomfort for employees and stakeholders. An effective and accurate communications strategy can ease some of this stress. Without it- you run the risk of rumors, perplexed brand messaging, disappointed employees and distrustful customers. Here are a few tips […]
According to Photography folklore, some of the best photographs are usually taken during the Golden Hour. The period of the day, just before the sun sets or after it has risen, when the light is redder and softer than usual- gives a magical touch to photographs. These 50 photographers with the #GoldenHour2020 gives that serene feeling. Agora images are a […]
Taghreed Oraibi, business director at BPG Orange, shares tips on how to address the issue of influencers lying about their real Instagram following. Influencers play a significant role in driving consumer attention to marketing campaigns, especially millennials. According to research conducted by BPG Group in 2017, 94 percent of in-house marketeers in the UAE believe […]
Socialbakers, a media analytics firm hosted its sixth Engage conference at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Dubai today. The event brought together a variety of experts from the digital space, to deliver insights into the latest trends that are happening in the social media spectrum for the audience and how they can take advantage of […]
By Gregg Fray, owner of Seven Media and Seven Studios There’s a school of thought that suggests humans are unique among animals due to our ability to tell – and believe in – stories. We’re able to engage huge numbers of our species using facts woven together as narratives, and through fictional stories that get […]
By Elías Jabbe The ongoing impact of digital on the tourism industry in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia emerged as a popular topic of discussion at the annual MEASA Aviation Show in Dubai on October 14. The event, which has been organized for several years by Terrapinn Middle East, featured tracks such as […]
Since January 2019, TikTok has been ranked the top downloadable app behind WhatsApp and Messenger. The app is believed to be popular among the younger generations who could use it to upload their content using elements such as music and effects. The app’s technology sheds a light on how the algorithm is designed to bring […]
By George P. Slefo A new study suggests that Fortnite has more in common with Facebook than Call of Duty, with the massively popular game emerging as a new kind of social network for a key demographic of younger consumers that brands covet. “Unlike other platforms and services, Fortnite uniquely combines benefits from gaming, social […]
With an aim to capture people’s attention and increase donations, the UNHCR has been telling the story of refugees differently. “The current realities of refugees have forced us to look out of the box and for non-traditional ways of how we as a UN agency want to communicate,” said Omer Elnaiem, Campaign and Advocacy Officer […]
According to Facebook IQ, brands have 57.6 million more hours to capture attention during Ramadan due to the additional time spent on Facebook during that month. Hence, they say that “SHARED by Facebook” offers brands and people an easy-to-navigate platform to help them make the most out of these moments. So what is Shared by Facebook? […]
Infiniti has been telling stories in the form of advertising. For them, digitization has changed the way brands are perceived today. “People come to the show room knowing the exact car they want,” said Karsten Jankowski, General Manager of Marketing & PR at Infiniti Middle East. Hence, he explains that the brand uses all sort […]
By Mike Proulx With four simple words printed on a slide behind Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg during his recent F8 keynote, 15 years of social media playbooks essentially vanished: “The future is private.” Indeed, in what felt like a snap from Thanos’s infinity gauntlet, Facebook is pivoting to messaging apps as the foundation […]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rolled out a redesign of his social networking app with a focus on communities known as Groups, and a layout that loses the blue. On Tuesday, Zuckerberg opened Facebook’s F8 developer conference by announcing an overhaul of the apps, including the new look for the main property. Zuckerberg also laid out […]
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 […]
An analysis of the languages used through social media shows that Arabic is a dominant language within Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE. Findings of the research reveals that 90 per cent of the posts, across the studied industries, were in Arabic, compared to only 10 per cent in English. However, the majority of the users […]
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 […]
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 Rebecca Koch, social media executive, 1000heads Dubai With nearly 12 million daily Snapchat users in the GCC and 42 percent of the region’s population on Instagram, there’s no mistaking that your audience likely lives online. Recent updates to Snapchat and Instagram have added even more opportunities to diversify your content offerings and interaction points […]
By Josh Beckwith, Senior Sales Director, Middle East & Africa at Sojern Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few years, you will have witnessed the rapid growth of social media impacting all aspects of how marketers reach and interact with their audiences. In fact, over three billion people use social media […]
By Tala Amin, social media director, Bruce Clay MENA With 2019 right around the corner, it is time to analyze the social trends for the coming year. So far, social media has continually stepped up its game when it comes to augmented reality, influencer marketing, and video content. With that in mind, we must ask […]
By Atif Altaf, associate marketing manager, and member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Life is no more a straight road leading toward dreams; it is now a steep mountain to climb up high. Days from being ‘slow & steady’ are geared up to be ‘fast & ready’ for people to run, change […]
The unprecedented use of social media in the Middle East has seen people get addicted to their phone – even more than their partner – and so, of course, brands want to make the most of it by targeting audiences where they spend the most time i.e. social media. But, targeting them alone isn’t enough. […]
Today, Facebook is launching “Ad Breaks” in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. An Ad Break is a video advertising format that can either be a pre-roll before the video, a midroll during the video or an image ad in the player directly below the video. The feature allows publishers and creators to monetize their […]
The rise of the Internet and smartphones – and their prevalence especially among the younger generation – has led to a multitude of consequences ranging from data privacy, election tampering to mental health disorders. The push to address the first two issues began much before the third but this year the momentum seems to be […]
Advertisers are worried that Facebook is about to become a data desert as it deliberately dries up a once easy source of rich data on its users. On August 15, Facebook will shut down a program called “partner categories,” which gave its advertisers a way to tap directly into the largest consumer data brokers within […]
Millennials spend 1 hour every week on selfies – from clicking to editing – according to a 2017 study by design agency Now Sourcing and online eyewear retailer Frames Direct. 55 percent of social media selfies come from millennials, but Gen X follows with 24 percent and baby boomers with 9 percent. Selfies are an […]
If you have noticed a dip in your Twitter followers recently, you’re not alone. Twitter has warned users and brands that it is purging more accounts from the service and they could see a dip in followers. The media-messaging service is focusing on locked accounts in its latest effort to clean up spam, bots and […]
The role of advertising and media industry role in restoring humanity social, emotional and physical health by Tarek Ayntrazi, CEO, Generation C The advertising industry has a unique opportunity to regain relevance and assert its indispensable role in influencing and regulating the type of content that is funded by advertising dollars. Advertising played a crucial […]
Facebook is not just losing its audience, it’s losing its youth. The social network is expected to shed 18-to-24-year-old users this year for the first time, according to a new report from eMarketer, which predicts a 5.6 decline for the age group on Facebook. The analytics and data firm had already predicted a decline in usage of kids […]
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 […]
By Moses Velasco, chief product evangelist, Socialbakers Snapchat has been the darling of the social media world for the last couple of years. It was mysterious… that hard to get young adult market loved it and it played hardball with advertisers, meaning we only wanted it more. The last few months have seen Snapchat challenged […]
By Jared Carneson, regional director, Global Innovation Lead | Social & Innovation at FleishmanHillard Middle East Social is no longer a medium. It’s a lens through which we have re-imagined services. It has changed commerce, travel, entertainment, product development and so much more. It has shifted the power of creation from well-capitalized corporations to the crowd. […]
Matic Babnik, digital communications coordinator at Renault, conducted a workshop at Socialbakers’ annual Engage event on “Strategize globally, engage locally” focusing on global strategies and local execution especially content. Workshop recap: Babnik’s talk focused on the usual behavior of global corporations tendency to focus on centralized content without always considering specifics of local markets. Local […]
Vesselin Popov, business development director for the University of Cambridge Psychometrics Centre, delivered a fascinating keynote at Socialbakers’ annual Engage event on the accurately creepy research at The Psychometric Centre that enables them to know a person better than even their spouse through their Facebook likes, and how brands can benefit from personality-based targeting. We […]
By Hugo Crispim, head of social media, Socialbakers Using social media to promote your business events is a great opportunity to increase your brand awareness and engage with your community. However, many marketers wonder how to do it properly. We compiled five proven strategies to help you get the most out of leveraging your events […]
(L to R: Khaled Sharrouf and Adrian Turcsan) We were recently at SMX London, Europe’s largest search marketing conference, and were pleasantly surprised to see the transformation of search. Having attended the conference for many years now, it was interesting to witness the breakdown of barriers between search and other digital marketing practices this year. […]
Abdulla Al Gurg In a continuous changing market environment, operational efficiency remains important. However, retailers are leveraging data and new technologies to optimize demand processes, attract and retain more customers, and drive future growth. Understanding consumer behaviour is necessary, albeit challenging, as it not only helps in marketing your products better by increasing their visibility, […]
While the month of Ramadan is regarded as a spiritual time for Muslims around the world, Twitter users took the conversation onto the social network, sharing their most precious moments and events from the holy month with the world. According to data released by the social network, tweets related to #Ramadan were viewed more […]
UAE residents spend an average of approximately five hours of their day on social media, a new YouGov survey finds. Through surveying over 5,000 UAE residents, it was revealed that the time spent on social media varied among different age groups. Younger users, aged 18-35, spend between two to six hours of their day […]
We’ve all seen how social media has changed the way people communicate with one another and also how they engage with brands. On an average, consumers spend around six hours a day online. Of this, 28 percent is spent on social media platforms. 70 percent of Facebook users log on daily, including 43 percent who […]
Let me start by asking you the much-debated question – which came first, the chicken or the egg? Many scientists and researchers have come up with expert theories and explanations, only to contradict each other. An equivalent situation arises in engineering and science, and is known as a circular reference, wherein a parameter is required […]
In March 2015, Twitter announced its plans to open an office in Dubai. The plan saw the light of day in late August, marking the Middle East’s first Twitter office. Explaining why the company chose to open its regional office this year, Benjamin Ampen, head of sales at Twitter MENA, says that Twitter has been around […]
In a world where Kim Kardashian rules social media and Donald Trump runs for the US elections, it might seem rather easy for things to be misunderstood. However, people aren’t always the cause. Sometimes it’s just the context. For instance, the quote, “Rather thicker than one usually sees…quite rigid…ten-and-a-quarter inches,” didn’t sound wrong at all […]
Recently, a small survey pushed out by Communicate in a effort to get a pulse on the MENA region’s PR industry showed that the region’s PR professionals believe that Instagram is the social media platform with the greatest potential. The platform seems rather self-aware of its potential, as recent news is saturated with details of Instagram’s latest […]
Sarah Personette is Facebook’s head of global business marketing and was the opening keynote speaker at Festival of Media MENA, which was held in Dubai this April. She chats with us about branded content on Facebook and how platforms like it have changed the creative approach of marketers. Is innovation making the job of a […]
National airline of the UAE, Etihad Airways, has announced the appointment of Cheil Network to assume global and social marketing duties. The network’s new responsibilities will include driving creative and strategy across all digital and social channels, in addition to support with performance-based marketing, analytics and reporting. Digital specialists, The Barbarian Group, that work within […]
Global professional network, LinkedIn releases findings from its study that looks at the social media habits of small and medium businesses (SMBs) throughout the GCC region. The survey included responses from over 260 SMBs from 6 GCC member countries. 92 percent of respondents from these companies maintain an active presence currently on social media channels, […]
Chief digital officer at Cheil Worldwide, Peter Kim, delivered a talk on the future of social media at Cannes Lions 2015. Referencing the evolution of Facebook from a university students’ platform and of YouTube that launched with a video of the San Diego Zoo, Kim implored brands to look back at the history of these […]
Increasingly, social media personalities are achieving celebrity status and turning into what brands call “influencers”. The ability of these personalities to connect with their audience is a tantalizing call for brands to use their power to influence and cut through the Internet noise to reach their consumers. This is probably what has given rise to […]
Facebook announces the Creative Accelerator, a program intending to help brands target audiences in high-growth countries. For this accelerator, Facebook Creative Shop is currently working with clients and agency partners in India, Indonesia, South Africa, Kenya and Turkey. The goal is to develop campaigns tailored to the people and the devices they use to access […]
Digital and social media agency AccelerateME Online launches a new campaign titled “Nothing is created, everything is transformed.” The agency, based in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, featured the campaign on its newly created website, acceleratemeonline.com. The campaign emphasizes the transformational power of social media in our days and reflects how social media has created a […]
Yet another social platform has been launched under the name Jeera. It has been described as a “social discovery platform based on interests that enables its users to connect, communicate, and socialize with each other in groups and communities,” according to a press statement by the company. Tareq Abuissa, founder and CEO, says in the […]
In a press statement yesterday, IBM and Twitter announced a partnership to help inform business decisions. This move comes three months after IBM announced its partnership with Apple. The statement says that “Twitter represents the public pulse of the planet. Coupled with IBM’s industry-leading cloud-based analytics, customer engagement platforms and consulting services, together we have […]
Tell a globally relevant story In the luxury business your target customer is a global citizen. These consumers are often internationally educated, own a number of homes – often in different cities – and travel extensively. Pinning them down to one place or time zone does not make sense. They need to be able to […]
Money transfer company Western Union (WU) recently launched “Face of My WU”, a Facebook competition where, as its name indicates, one UAE resident will become the face of a media campaign for its recently introduced loyalty program, “My WU”. To date, more than 1500 took part in the competition. Participants were asked to upload […]
In May 2014, the number of active Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter users reached nearly 81 million, 8.5 million and six million, respectively, in the Arab world, nearly doubling from the previous year, according to the Arab Social Media Report. The regional average for Facebook penetration jumped to 21.5 percent for the same period, up […]
Twitter has introduced new tools for what it calls “objective-based campaigns”, offering four new ways in which advertisers can buy ads on the social media platform. Previously, ad buyers worked on a cost-per-engagement model, paying for promoted tweets only when users interacted with them – a click, reply, retweet or ‘favorite’. Now, advertisers can […]
BuzzFeed, the website that has branched out from lists and quizzes to international news coverage, got a $50 million investment from venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz. The deal values BuzzFeed at about $850 million, the New York Times reported. Chris Dixon, an Andreessen Horowitz partner, wrote in a blog post that he will join […]
Skoda recently conducted a marketing campaign in Moscow, Russia effectively combining guerrilla marketing and social media. Proximity Russia and Skoda worked together to convert the Skoda Fabia into a hostel room with a double bed, pillows, wifi, and towels. The ‘hostel’ was placed at Izmaiolovo Park in Moscow. The campaign came at a time when […]
In this day and age, each and every one of us lives two distinct lives: one offline, which is the real life we all know, and another life online, which so many of us are now enjoying. This new online lifestyle has attracted all sorts of people, both sane and mad, to Madison Avenue. […]
Ramadan, the most important month on the Islamic calendar, is characterized by communal iftars or special evening meals. Muslims across the globe participate in the iftars enthusiastically, spurring a spike in consumer spending during this time – especially in the food and beverage (F&B) industry. Economic studies, data analysis and experts opined that Saudi […]
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’. […]
The Social Network, a movie detailing the early days of peculiar, somewhat reclusive and smug Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, started an irrevocable trend in the startup world – a new generation of young entrepreneurs whose personas preceded any promise of a success story, or one of survival. The temptation to follow in Zuckerberg’s footsteps was too irresistible for even Evan Spiegel, the […]
Early in November, Facebook announced objective-based ad buying — an easier way for businesses to buy Facebook ads based on the objectives that matter to them. Soon after that, the social network decided to further enhance ad buying by giving every advertiser, including small businesses, access to Custom Audiences targeting. The online marketing tool […]
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