As the festive season is now well underway it’s time for me to reflect on what I’ve learnt and seen over the past year and see what that means for digital marketers and my clients. 2015 has been an interesting year for digital marketers here in the Middle East. We have SEEN Instagram grow to 30m monthly users, Facebook to just about 100m, while YouTube still remains the biggest platform for entertainment and utility.
Platforms like Beam thrust us into the world of innovative mobile payments, while Snapchat gave consumers a taste of ‘raw’ social media platforms – and some brands like du, Emirates and Qatar Airways waded into ‘raw’ territory as well.
2015 showed us very clearly that consumers in the Middle East no longer ‘go online’, they live online – and most of that living is done through mobile.
There is no crystal ball in marketing, but predicting trends and staying abreast of change are what we do as marketers. So, without further ado, here are the top ways I think that consumers in the Middle East will live online in 2016 and how the online world will change to accommodate demand.
1.Virtual Reality/360 Video Creation Will Revolutionise Storytelling
Virtual reality is set to make a splash in 2016, and its ripples in the tech market will only grow as time goes on. According to a new study, virtual-reality device sales will hit 14 million units worldwide in 2016, providing a strong launch point for the category.
It has been forecasted that around 15 Million people will be in another reality by the end of 2016, and we can expect around 38 Million people to own a virtual device of some kind by the end of 2018. Although it will be VR 1.0 in 2016, there is a rich seam of new kinds of storytelling that can and will exist through this new technology. What’s interesting is how VR will change how we consume and create content.
As gaming is such a huge past time here in the MENA region, I foresee huge uptake of devices as they become cheaper and more prolific. Further, we could see a replication of the New York Times model where big media organisations in the Middle East, like Al Jazeera, distribute devices for its readers to fully immerse them in the news experience. When they download the Times’ new, free VR app (in the Android and iOS app stores November 5), they’ll be able to watch the Times Magazine’s film “The Displaced,” which is about three children from South Sudan, eastern Ukraine, and Syria.
2.The Worldless World of Emojis
The fact is, because emojis are visual, they affect a different part of the brain. The human eye processes visual/pictoral information more quickly than words, making pictures of any kind a shortcut to comprehension and awareness. In fact, visual imagery is processed 60,000 faster than text.
In a region where we struggle to communicate in the ‘right’ Arabic at the ‘right time. I forsee huge usage of Emoji to cut through the clutter and communicate. Emojis are an incredibly simple yet universal form of language. They’re a form of relatable communication, and when it comes to infusing them into a subject line, they tell a better story. No matter how good your subject line is, it’s almost impossible to compete with a complementary visual icon. It immediately stands out in an inbox or on a mobile ad or social media platform.
Earlier this year, Twitter released an exclusive set of custom emoji to celebrate the upcoming launch of the new Star Wars film ‘The Force Awakens’.
The beauty brand Dove teamed up with a developing company to launch curly haired emojis so that they could encourage women to love their curls. The Dove “Love Your Curls” video launched last year got 9.3 million views in one day, he said, and a free customisable “Love Your Curls” children’s e-book on Amazon has had more than 150,000 downloads, all pointing to the gap in representation of girls with curly hair.
3.The Internet of Shared Experiences Will Become More Important
2015 was the year of wearable tech – with the launch of Samsung S2, Apple Watch, Pebble and so on. As the number of wearables, and smart devices continue to increase, we can expect that their connectedness with our social networks will improve.
We can expect our lives to become more integrated as technology increasingly utilises social media to improve wearable devices’ social intelligence. Further, consumers will start to embrace brands that reward them for constructive, healthy self-improving behaviours – students could earn discounts for avoiding cellphone usage in class, and burn calories to give food to citizens in need.
Rewarding and redistributing rewards would be so powerful around key moments in the calendar next year like Ramadan to help causes very close to our borders in Syria and Yemen, for example.
4.Ad BLOCKALYPSE (thanks James Whatley!)
Advertising on digital platforms is becoming increasingly difficult as ad blocker usage by sub 34 yr olds globally increases. Users are increasingly impatient with load times being affected by ad serving systems on publisher pages and when combined with a greater user desire for privacy we have a perfect storm.
Traditional forms of digital marketing is controlled, blocked at every opportunity – people are not watching banners (did they ever?), online advertising space and effectiveness is under threat.
This means that clients and agencies that have been putting a premium on EARNED media, QUALITY storytelling will be in a much stronger position moving into 2016. Combine this with smarter, hyper targeting against audiences segmented by interests, likes and preferences and affiliation and we have a model that focuses on TRUE communications skills.
5.In The “Moment” Will be Key
In 2016, there will be greater growth in immediate and in-the-moment platforms than in retrospective platforms like Facebook and YouTube. Periscope, a relatively new mover, allows users to broadcast a live video, viewable by anyone around the globe. This follows trends by Snapchat and Instagram that support in-the-moment and on-the-go updates. For social media specialists, this could signal the end of scheduled postings as users demand more timely updates. Also, consider less investment on ‘community management’ and more on being relevant to the community at the right time and delivering the right content at the right time.
We will see more and more content being distributed across platform in an omni channel experience that is tied to timing and place rather than one singular destination. Think more about how to maximize the spread of the message across your channels to seamlessly share the right kind of story on the right channel at the right time.
6.‘MeCommerce’ Will Grow in Importance
Our web has become instantaneously shoppable but in 2016 these purchases will be more and more fueled by social recommendations from our networks, our peers and therefore the impulse to purchase will be much, much higher. This year we saw the introduction of “buy” features on both Facebook and Pinterest, for both advertisers and users.
In fact Pinterest is focused on creating animated pins/cinemgraphs that advertisers can target person based on their interest with this animated pin
Brands like the Wendy’s, Walgreens, LÓreal, Unilever etc have already tested this out, and it has been proven to be a success. xInstagram is developing a similar approach, and we expect other platforms to be close behind.
Brands such as Burberry and Ralph Lauren have made their runway videos shoppable, decreasing the number of steps involved in the purchase of an item. As local fashion, beauty and automotive brands see the power of in-app, seamless shopping experiences, they may push to leverage “MeCommerce” strategies at regional events like Vogue Fashion Dubai Experience and Sole DXB.
7.Multi Device Landscape is RIFE in MENA
According to data from Facebook, multi-device usage is the new normal of people surveyed in Saudi Arabia, 95% of the online population in Saudi Arabia uses multiple devices. Why? Because it responds to real needs 78% of people believe owning multiple devices has improved their lives.
5% 1 device
38% 2 devices
58% three devices
Compared to other countries in the study, people in Saudi Arabia are extremely tech savvy when it comes to multi-device behaviours. Research shows that mobile devices – even smartphones – are more likely to be used in the home than out and about. That’s why they’re becoming the primary screen, and it may change the types of content, experiences and use cases that people expect to have on them. This is really important for marketers to adjust their content marketing strategies to reflect this particular behavior.
8.Hospitality & Retail Relationships With Consumers Will Undergo Revolutionary Change
Retail and service providers have more sophisticated competitors now that we have Careem, Uber, AirBnb and Blowout (the Uber for hairdressing), providing cheap, on-demand services. In order to compete, the smart hotel chains and retail operations will start to become more socially savvy, in order to increase demand. I believe that some retailers will even begin to rate their customers’ levels of influence in exchange for services and deals. We could even see a world where in order to protect the brand we could see luxury brands vetting customers before they’re allowed to purchase goods.
9.Influencer as TV Channel
We are about to witness an interesting tipping point for influence and advocacy in the region. There is currently a glut of content, of products, and of marketing messages today. Research firm Yankelovich estimated consumers were exposed to 5,000 marketing messages a day. It’s become increasingly difficult for a marketer to break through the cacophony in order to be heard.
Word of mouth recommendations are far more trusted than advertising and for many younger consumers, there is a diminishing distinction between their friends in ‘real life’ and the entertainers, experts, and ‘friends’ they follow online.
However, here in the region brands have not really understood the true meaning of ‘influence’. We remember brands like Etisalat over paying individuals for one off campaigns or the infamous Nancy Arjam commercial where the relationship between brand and influencer was hardly authentic. This is not ‘true influence’ marketing and in 2016, I predict 2016 will see a shift towards QUALITY content creators with big reach – the new ‘media channel’ of today’s Generation Z. Working with content producers that understand what ‘social content’ creation is specifically for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat really means. 2016 will see the embryonic Makers Studio here in the region start to drive beautiful content creation that really fits both the purpose, platform and more importantly people its trying to influence.
10.Penetrating the Lock Screen
In terms of mobile apps, 80% of people questioned this year believe that very fast and notification centric apps make more sense. 52% of users enable push messaging on their mobile devices and this will make the ability to engage through the mobile lock screen, the new killer app for 2016.
Facebook launched Notify that delivers timely notifications about the things that matter to you, from the sources you love, all in one place.You’ll receive notifications, delivered right to your lock screen, and a quick glance will keep you connected to the things that you care about throughout the day. If you want to see more, just swipe or tap through any Notify notification to open the link in the app’s browser where you can read the full article, watch the video, or view the site.
The Power is in Your Hands
So – to summarise, there is plenty for us to think about as marketers as we move into a year where everything will change around us –AGAIN. It’s up to us as to whether we are willing to drive our vision forward, introduce new business concepts and make changes to how we communicate to connect with consumers as they ‘live online’ or not. Happy holidays!!!