DIGITAL GROWTH HACKS A MENA MARKET PERSPECTIVE

By - Adveta Dwivedi, Head of Digital, Whoopey, DUBAI, UAE Smartphone penetration in middle east

KSA – 63% 65% smartphone penetration in TOP 3 MARKETS – 70%

40% smartphone penetration Across the UAE– 74% region

Source : eMarketer’s latest Global Media Intelligence Report

QUICK FACT QUICK

SOCIAL MEDIA MEDIA SOCIAL

users: A number that has increased by 45% in only 1 year 1 only in 45% by increased has that number A users:

1.6 million million 1.6 with penetration Linkedin highest the has UAE •

across Internet users: 88% 88% users: Internet across

Jordan has the highest penetration rate of social networks networks social of rate penetration highest the has •

highest penetration of Twitter in the whole world world whole the in Twitter of penetration highest

KSA has a penetration rate of 33% for Twitter. It is the the is It Twitter. for 33% of rate penetration a has KSA •

44% 44% Facebook for rate penetration highest the has UAE “ •

day. EVERY tweets million 10 around produce Arabs •

are active users users active are million

3.7 3.7 Twitter: on are East Middle the from users million 6.5 •

them from KSA. KSA. from them

90 million of of million 90 Youtube. on views daily million 258 are There •

Linkedin counts over 5.8 million users from the Middle East. East. Middle the from users million 5.8 over counts Linkedin •

Facebook on are who users media social East’s Middle

94% of the the of 94% with network social popular most the is Facebook •

uses social networking daily daily networking social uses population online this of 88% •

accesses the web web the accesses population East Middle total the of 40.2% • (لغة)Language العربية/English Beauty bloggers in particular have found a huge audience in Middle Eastern countries. According to the New Yorker, it’s L’Oreal’s fastest-growing new market. It will be interesting to watch if other popular influencer verticals, such as food, fitness, and travel, become as popular on these channels for the Middle East.

Fashion Brands - Gucci, Cartier , D&G, Burberry works with the popular influencers like Zahra Lyla, TV presenter Raya Abirached and others.

By working with such popular influencers, brands hope to increase reach by gaining access to the influencer’s followers, most of whom are their target demographic.

AGE OF INFLUENCERS Instagram following of 19.6 million, she was named by Forbes magazine as one of the top three beauty influencers in the world.

Sephora, for one, was surprised at how well her lip liners (called Lip Contours because Ms. Kattan uses them to make her lips look bigger, she said) sold. As a category, lip liners are often an afterthought because they were created to support lipsticks. Yet Ms. Kattan’s Lip Contour release was “one of the biggest launches in years,” said Artemis Patrick, the senior vice president for merchandising at the retailer. - NYTIMES Saudi Princess Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz was Vogue Arabia's inaugural editor-in-chief, appointed in July 2016 Futaim Al Falasi leads a double life. During the week, she has a job on the front desk of a bank in her hometown of Dubai. But on Saturdays, the 22-year-old drives to Abu Dhabi to produce her own online Arabic radio programme, Taim Show, which about 40,000 people tune into from all over the Middle East 25-year-old Emirati vlogger Futaim AlFalasi, whose #AskTaim YouTube channel has had almost 80 million views and who has 2.3 million Instagram followers,. 22-year-old Dubai-based comedic social-media influencer Abdulaziz Al Jasmi’s (@bin_baz), who has amassed 2 million followers thanks to his humorous videos and pictures, which appeal with the Arab millennial crowd. POPULAR INFLUENCER DIRECTORY IN ME

• INFLUENCE.AE - https://influence.co/category/middle- east

• FRONT ROW - http://www.frontrow.ae/ CONSUMER REFERRAL

Get your customers to benefit from referring your brand to their network. Turn them into your extended sales force. Twin benefits of earned media creation and incremental revenue generation. TYPES OF REFERRAL CAREEM - UBER of ME

Careem is a Middle-East based company just focussing on prominent cities in countries such as UAE, , , , Egypt, , Morocco, Pakistan & Qatar.

“The Middle East Consumer Trends” reports that Careem is gaining traction over Uber because it is perceived as a “local” brand as regional consumers now prefer and support a home-grown brands.

Local is the key in Middle East

The report also shows “Uber conversation is only 4 percent more positive than negative, while Careem conversation is 25 percent more positive than negative” DIGITAL PR

A highly underutilized channel. When done well it can create short-term benefits in terms of pushing the envelope on brand awareness, credibility, referral traffic through backlinks and long term domain authority improvement for the website. DIGITAL PR

Digital PR is all about combining traditional PR with content marketing, social media and search: transforming static news into conversations and bypassing media to speak directly to your target audience online. News can be spread further, faster, and more directly to a specific target audience than ever before in history. It allows us to maximize news like never before. Instead of being satisfied with a single placement, your news can be shared exponentially. Not only that, but we can now use social media, blogs, reviews and content to not just share news, but CREATE DIALOGUE. Connect. Repurpose + Value = Content Marketing #GIVEMOMBACKHERNAME

UN Women – ‘Give mom back her name’ A campaign encouraging Egyptian men to say their mother’s name has helped in the fight for gender equality in the country. Within less than 24 hours of launching the film on Facebook and YouTube, the campaign – created by Impact BBDO – was the second most shared film on Facebook worldwide, with more than 25,500 shares. In the first week, more than three million views rolled in and numerous regional and global news networks ran the story. The film simply asked a number of men what their mother’s name was. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF4ZslUqgDY

RETHINK DIGITAL