Digital Marketing eyes strong growth in the Middle East

The digital age has drastically altered how businesses market their products. Thanks to the meteoric rise of digital solutions, marketing has now emerged as a more powerful and a resource-rich function of business. Marketing, now more than ever, is the most integral function responsible for creating and sustaining an enduring relationship with the most important asset of business: the customer. As a part of Outreach 2016 - The Digital Marketing Summit that’s being held in Dubai today at the Grosvenor House Hotel, where digital marketing leaders will be gathering for the next two days to discuss the latest trends, key elements and breakthrough strategies in digital marketing.

As marketers have come to realize that customer engagement is key to winning in the digital age, creating immersive customer experiences is what will make brands stand out against all the white noise out there. “Marketing is no longer telling people what you do, it's about telling stories and engaging people”, said Anwar Al Amin, a Dubai based ad film director. “A successful digital film is like the golden light at the end of a tunnel, however the fact remains that 90% of all attempts at making a successful digital film end in failure. So what exactly defines good digital film that goes viral? I am not surprised that most people don't have a set definition, given that even the biggest names in the industry don’t seem to be able to agree on a single definition and scope.” he added.

Outside of their comfort zone, digital marketers are faced with a series of challenging tasks. From understanding the need to market across cross-platform devices and channels, to running customer segmentation based messaging campaigns; these and other digital marketing trends are defining the future of marketing. A special panel of entrepreneurs at the 'Entrepreneur Talks' session agreed that while content is an integral part of any brand strategy, deriving real value for content is what consumers look forward to the most. Luma Bourisly, Founder and Vision Creator of KOOOT.com said “From quick makeup tutorials to Trump's latest antics, there is no shortage of content out there. So, as brands, how can we convince our customers that we offer them something valuable? As someone who's been in the communication industry for almost three decades. The answer is to show people how your product can transform them, people they know and their community”.

From her side, and speaking about embracing and translating failures into success for startups and entrepreneurs, Her Excellency Sara Al Madani, Board Member of Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Board Member of ShjSEEN and Founder of Rouge Couture, said: “To overcome failure you have to overcome the fact that you have failed. If I succeeded 3 times I have filed 300 times. I wouldn't be standing here speaking in front of all of you if it wasn't for all my failures. I am who I am today because I failed. Failure makes you it doesn't break you, if it broke you that means you chose to break yourself. Take that experience that's called failure, turn it into fuel that will move your car towards success”.

With television viewership transcending screens, the Middle East, especially Dubai, has emerged as one of the fastest growing video content markets globally. “As viewers increasingly rely on their smartphones and tablets for their daily television consumption, the advertisers have begun to acknowledge this change and have accordingly positioned their campaigns to target the online television viewers” said Rajesh Menon, Head of Marketing at Janam TV. “In a nutshell, internet and social media will now emerge as the most sought after to reconcile the performance of television channels”. Rajesh added.

In a special address, Antoine Caironi, Senior Client Partner (MENA) at Twitter addressed how brands can capitalize on the rise of mobile usage and video to create live connections. “The growing trend in live video and mobile usage in the region provides a great opportunity for brands to capitalize on. The public nature of Twitter, a platform where live events come to life, allows brands to play a significant role in offering premium mobile content to tailored audiences where people can both tune in and engage in real time conversations”. Caironi added.

Per Caroe, Global Evangelist at IBM Marketing Cloud spoke, in his key note session, about how businesses could harness innovative solutions to gain a competitive edge today. Caroe also stressed how providing the right message, to the right customer, at the right time, is harder than ever in 2016. In his session, he also gave actual case studies on the phenomenal power of IBM Watson, a virtual cognitive assistant, has already been leveraged in many ways, including creating successful marketing campaigns. “Watson marketing combines business and marketing expertise with industry-leading solutions that are embedded with cognitive capabilities”. Caroe added.

Big data has taken over boardrooms as one of the most frequently used buzzwords today. The ultimate goal for marketers has long been making sense of the ever-increasing data about consumer interactions with products, services that result from different marketing programs. “Gone are the days when marketers could only make broad sweeping generalizations about consumers & their behavior. Today technology has made it possible for us to understand our customers down to the unit of one, create a one-on-one relationship with each one of them and take per-customer decisions; and predictive analytics is what makes this possible!” said Nitin Sharma, Director of Marketing Strategy at UAE Exchange.

Kinloch Magowan, Regional Director at Latitude Middle East spoke about ROI on content in the MENA marketplace. “We’re really excited to see digital-first events like Outreach gain traction here in the Middle East. The diversity and rate of progression of the GCC market makes it an exciting place to be immersed in at the moment. We’ll be offering Outreach attendees a different take on content marketing and how to generate the best return from it”.

Outreach 2016 will feature diverse line up of more than 40 marketing experts, entrepreneurs and influencers from major local and international organizations, such as Twitter, Coca-Cola, DHL, Landmark, Sky News Arabia, Careem, Fetchr, Uber, Visa, Nissan Motors and Sharjah Chamber of Industry and Commerce. “Outreach 2016 is the ideal opportunity for us to engage with senior marketers from across the Middle East to better understand their challenges and help them, realize the opportunity of social media marketing”. Said, Dave Evans, VP of Social Strategy at Lithium, who presented a keynote address about simplifying social media marketing for digital marketing teams.

Outreach 2016 – The Digital Marketing Summit is organized by Fleming, and held at the Grosvenor Hotel in Dubai from the 16-17 of November 2016. The event is sponsored by Lithium, IBM, Latitude, Skyhigh, Xebec, Addbloom, Exaalgia and Uber. The second day of the summit will witness highly anticipated Coca-Cola and Nissan case studies along with the Start-up Rap which will host Dubai's leading startup founders who will discuss strategies that found success in the Middle East market.