J. Walter Thompson Innovation Group MEA released its Future 100 Trends and Change to Watch in 2017 report, which highlights the top 100 consumer trends driving change across the Middle East and North Africa today. Gene Editing, New Mental Health, Halal Tourism and The Year of Giving, are just a few of the trends that describe a region advancing social change for itself and others, through diversity and inclusion. For brands wishing to keep pace, and tune in to current consumer attitudes, the report is a must read guide about sectors and personal needs that have been ignored for way too long.
Authored by Mennah Ibrahim, the 100 trends are categorized into 10 major consumer categories, including travel & hospitality, retail, health, and food & drink. Last year’s report outlined how societies are embracing topics previously considered taboo. Businesses heard and reacted. This year change is centered around aspects of life that consumers have firmly reclaimed.
An increasing demand for brands and lifestyle products to offer Muslim-centric options, has fueled a wave of innovative solutions from start-ups all over the world. Created by and about a diverse yet inclusive Muslim identity, they prioritize social justice and social impact within the business models.
Gene Editing : The Arab world is poised to take off on the biotech frontier. Pioneering initiatives are surfacing that will fill the lack of Middle Eastern genomics data, and potentially revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The Saudi Human Genome Programme looks to sequence the genomes of 100,000 Saudis, to identify population-specific risk variants. This programme makes the Kingdom the region’s leading centre for human genetics research. And Egypt is planning an Egyptian reference database which they will use to micro-dissect Egyptian cancers.
New Mental Health : Suicide rates have skyrocketed within the last year with drivers of mental illness such as – violence, injustice, inequality and the impact of modern-day living – all taking their toll on MENA societies. One suicide is reported every three days in Lebanon; and in the UAE a 2013 Dubai Health Authority study uncovered that one in five teenage students in the emirate were showing symptoms of depression. Companies are now partnering with government organisations to offer consumers support; a much needed initiative when anxiety rates for Generation Z are already through the roof.
Halal Tourism : The tourism industry has woken up to the growing spending power of the Muslim traveler well beyond the Arab world. Asia and Europe already account for 87% of the entire market. Muslim business travel is expected to reach $22 billion by 2020, with Muslim travel overall expected to be worth $220 billion (MasterCard and Crescent Rating, Oct 2016). Closer to home, Mecca is gearing up as a MICE travel destination in Saudi Arabia, combining Umrah pilgrimage trips with business visits. Hospitality brands are making sure they do not miss out on the segment.
The Year of Giving : Underscoring the importance of humanitarian work, HH Sheikh Khalifa has decreed a philanthropic approach to strengthening social responsibility in the private sector, with The Year of Giving. Promoting the spirit of volunteerism and instilling loyalty and commitment in the next generation, it harks back to Sheikh Zayed’s legacy that measured generosity not only by donations, but by positive impact on a person’s life, on society and the UAE nation. Partnerships with the private sector are expected to bring something exceptional to the community, and contribute effectively to societal development.
Data the New Luxury : In an age that has become increasingly beholden to data, people are coming to consider their data as highly precious. Evolving past conventional security on devices, the psk series of jewelry have replaced diamonds and gems with something far more valuable per square millimeter – personal data. Founded by Wagenknecht and Sunde, the psk series shines a harsh light on the tech industry that relies on users’ data, instead of direct payment, to fund their operations. Entirely in line with our SONAR data which revealed that 81% of people in MENA believe they should be compensated for their data.
Mennah Ibrahim, MEA Director of the Innovation Group, said, “Having documented how consumers are evolving for over five years now, it is incredible to watch the pace of change accelerate so much across the region. We are experiencing technological developments – and the ethical questions they bring; we are taking huge progressive societal steps across major markets; and we are embracing our polycultural, influential and forward driving momentum for hope. It’s not easy living in today’s constant state of uncertainty – not for brands, nor consumers. Yet the trends we have identified all point towards an exciting, collaborative and compassionate future.”
To view a sample of the report, click here. To download the full report, click here.
Each week Digital Boom posts available positions within the marketing and advertising industry in Egypt in collaboration with Wuzzuf.com.
Email [email protected] with the details of your vacancies by 5.00pm Thursday for listing on Sunday morning. Listings are free.
This week’s employment opportunities:
Social Media Advertiser – Egypt Yellow Pages – Apply
About the job
Developing, maintaining and optimising social campaigns to meet clients goals & reach the maximum ROI.
Campaign analysis to be on top of the strengths & weaknesses of each campaign and deliver in deep reports regarding campaign performance to customers in specific time manner
Building strong relationships by regular follow up with internal/external customers to maintain an effective flow of information and meet their expectations.
Review new technologies and keep the company at the forefront of developments in social media, including the evaluation of emerging new trends and technologies
Marketing Representative – Upper Egypt – Tecno Mobile – Apply
About the Job
Responsible for the local management of marketing and sales activities according to the instruction from the head office.
We are looking for a driven Social Media Specialist to attract and interact with targeted virtual communities and networks users.
The goal is to gradually achieve superior customer engagement and intimacy, website traffic and revenue by strategically exploiting all aspects of the social media marketing road map.
An imaginative writer who has experience turning script to viral digital content.
Working closely with our marketing team, you will create content and develop the app’s brand. Including product overviews, case studies, FAQs and more to highlight our brand, our product features, advantages and benefits, as well as company differentiation.
You may also create content for influence’s broadcasts.
A part of the job is assisting in marketing strategies and creation of successful single and multi-channel marketing campaigns.
Work collaboratively with marketing team to create regular social media and other content that engages the audience and drives traffic to the app.
The Account Manager develops day-to-day client relationships and drives client’s business through innovative digital and integrated campaigns, e-commerce and media.
Needs to manage multiple clients, partners; to represent our ideas clearly and be confident in the work we show.
Leveraging of client relationships for introductions and additional business. Key Account Manager can identify the opportunity for new business and go for it with all you’ve got.
Connect our Identity to our clients—so facilitating communication between external clients and internal teams is essential.
Knows how to represent our ideas as strongly as she can represent our clients’ wishes, and at the end of the day, she leads our team to deliver an amazing, ground-breaking product.
Build outside relationships, maintain project revenue, help generate profit and deliver excellent digital products.
They will have a comprehensive understanding of the mass marketing and digital marketing arena and how emerging technologies and avenues can add value to client business, and still deliver visually stunning design.
Identifying potential clients through research in the internet or through telephone based research, potentially including follow-up meetings in Egypt
Contacting potential clients and sending them information about the company and its services
Solicit orders from these clients by following up from the initial contact and providing them with more detailed information and samples
Dealing with price quote requests from potential clients, monitoring the progress of other departments in supplying the necessary information, clarifying missing information with the client and preparing an offer to be approved by management
Senior Marketing Director – Harvest British College – Apply
About the job
Develops marketing strategy by studying economic indicators; tracking changes in supply and demand; identifying customers and their current and future needs; monitoring the competition.
Contributes to marketing effectiveness by identifying short-term and long-range issues that must be addressed; recommending options and courses of action; implementing directives.
Obtains market share by developing marketing plans and programs for Harvest products; directing promotional support.
Maintains relations with customers by organizing and developing specific customer- relations programs; determining company presence in the Egyptian Market.
Provides short- and long-term market forecasts and reports by directing market research collection, analysis, and interpretation of market data.
Influences present and future products by determining and evaluating current and future market trends.
Develops new uses for existing products by analyzing statistics regarding market development; acquiring and analyzing data; consulting with internal and external sources.
Maintains research database by identifying and assembling marketing information.
Provides marketing information by answering questions and requests.
Achieves financial objectives by preparing an annual budget; scheduling expenditures; analyzing variances; initiating corrective actions.
Completes marketing department operational requirements by scheduling and assigning employees; following up on work results.
Maintains marketing staff by recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training employees.
Maintains marketing staff job results by counseling and disciplining employees; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results.
Develops marketing staff by providing information, educational opportunities, and experiential growth opportunities.
Maintains professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; participating in professional societies.
Contributes to team effort by accomplishing related results as needed.
The second edition of the Marketing Kingdom Amman, taking place from 1-2 March at King Hussein Business Park includes presentations by global and regional marketing gurus from Facebook, Twitter, Shell, Unilever Hair Care, VISA and Rolls Royce.
In an interview with some of the event speakers, they shared a list of five tips and predictions for 2017:
1. Ian Manning, Head of Agencies MENAP, Facebook
“Think Mobile Video – In today’s fast paced world, consumers want relevant, targeted messages and are able to determine the key message in a fraction of second and remember key outtakes in a matter of seconds. So in a mobile world, we are able to deliver meaningful messages in only seconds, potentially changing the way we think about advertising. “
2. Tom Webster, Global Social Media Strategy Manager, Shell
“Look beyond the platforms you know, and look to where your customers are. Some people get trapped in a mind-set that social is just the platforms they use. ‘If I’m on Facebook, that’s where our customers are!’ Not so. And this is especially relevant to those working internationally. Find where your target demographic are, and where communities may already exist. They may be on Reddit, or Swarm, or WeChat. Learn these platforms. Conversely, don’t be tempted to be everywhere. Snapchat may be pretty cool, but it might not be the place for you.”
3.Abraham and Maksimilian from the Pop Up Agency
“Stay agile as long as you can. You don’t have to be big to be extremely successful.”
4.Jamal Al Mawed, Regional Public Relations and Corporate Communications Manager, Middle East, Africa, Central Asia and Latin America, Rolls Royce Motor Cars
“Don’t ignore the science: You can become a better communicator by learning about the basics of Behavioral Psychology, Visual Analytics, Political Science, Philosophy, etc. There are so many disciplines that feed into the art of communicating, formulating strategies and influencing – understanding them gives you an edge over your competition. “
5.Tim McLoughlin, Global Social Media Director, Hotels.com
“Keep it simple: do one job and do it well, don’t try to do too many things at once as that will confuse your consumer and dilute your message”
In Saudi? Feeling hungry? You may have to wait a little longer to grab a bite of your favorite Snickers. The snack brand, which goes by the tag line ‘feeling hungry’, has been forced to apologize and pull its latest in-store activation in Saudi after consumers complained via social media about the words being used by Snickers on the bar’s packaging.
Using local terms such as “troublemaker”, “annoyed”, and “careless”, the brand aimed to build on its promise of being the snack that beats away hunger with Saudi consumers. However, the campaign which was launched at the end of last year hasn’t been universally well received by Saudi consumers, with a number of them tweeting their distaste and requesting the Ministry of Trade and Investment take action.
In response to consumer complaints the Ministry of Trade and Investment tweeted that it had considered the language used on the Snickers bars to be inappropriate for public use, and that it had called in a representative from Mars, the producer of Snickers, to ensure that the activation would not be repeated.
لوجود عبارات خارجة عن الذوق العام على منتج شوكلاتة، تم استدعاء الشركة وتطبيق الإجراءات وأخذ التعهد عليهم بعدم تكرار ذلك. https://t.co/THfsbR867u
Public reaction to the in-store activation by Snickers has been sharply divided. Many young Saudis have applauded the company’s use of the Saudi dialect in a global campaign. Older Saudi consumers have objected to the language used, claiming that it’s not in keeping with the country’s values.
Speaking to Digital Boom, unconventional brand and marketing advisor Said Baaghil praised the concept behind the campaign, but criticized the brand’s lack of cultural awareness.
“I like the campaign very much but execution was done poorly,” said Baaghil. “They should have considered all stakeholders, but they only focused on consumers. Today we have mediums that exposes marketing to all, such as social media. Mars, the owner of Snickers, believe that segmentation is dead and everyone needs a candy bar. The insight works very well for them but we need to consider culture, norms and habits when addressing different national groups. When in Rome isn’t always the same as when in Riyadh.”
With the skyrocketing price increases in Egypt today, consumers are bound to cut their expenditure, regardless of their social economic class. This decrease in consumer expenditure is inevitable, especially among the most consumed and easily measured categories, food and beverages.
Marketeers Research asked a sample of 120 millennial married women about their change in spending behaviors. With the current price increases, which product categories did they decrease their expenditure?
Source: Marketeers Research
Based on the results, we ranked the list on a spectrum from the most to least categories affected by price increases, and divided them under panic alert, warning, and watch out based on their urgency for price management.
For brand managers, an opportunity takes place.
Now the pie (market size) is getting smaller, so brands will start fighting to take the larger portion (market shares) of the new smaller pie. Hence, whoever can figure out the right strategy in optimizingtheir offers, will be the winner. And thats where the opportunity lies.
Smart Shopper™ answers the business issue for most industries in Egypt today, by creating strategies for optimizing your brand’s offer to improve your market position, while minimizing any loss during the era of economic pressure.
Request more information about Smart Shopper – Get in touch with Marketeers Research
You’ve probably heard fellow marketeers tell you before that developing your marketing digital persona (Also referred to as user persona, customer persona, or buyer persona) is the first and most important thing you have to do before you begin marketing a product or a service, and I’m sure you’ve even given it a try, only to realize that it’s not as easy as you thought it would be.
If you read about the process, you’ll either go through articles vaguely explaining the process, or articles telling you to send out surveys, build focus groups, and call/email your customers, but those somewhat traditional methods don’t always work out.
Some customers are too busy to answer an email or fill out a survey, some simply don’t care enough about your business to do so, some are embarrassed to answer certain questions or could answer them dishonestly.
Luckily however, if you have a digital business, you already have access to a wealth of data that you can use.
But, before we start, let’s answer the following:
What’s my persona’s name? How do they look like? How old are they? Are they male or female? Where do they live? What’s their relationship status?
Is my persona a business owner, a student, or an employee? If it’s the latter, what do they do for a living? What are their seniority level within his company?
What’s important for my persona? What motivates them to buy products/services? What are their goals in life? And what’s stopping them from achieving those goals?
What are the best marketing channels to engage them? What tone of voice should be used with them?
User Persona
This step by step guide will use a combination of Google Analytics and Facebook Insights. If you’ve got the time and want to go further, you can always source more data from tools like Twitter Analytics, Facebook Page Analytics, Adwords Remarketing lists, Google Search Console, or any other analytical tool you might be using.
Step 1: Set up Google Analytics, and let it run for a month
If you don’t have Google Analytics set up yet, you won’t be able to get any value out of this guide. Go set it up, test that it works fine and that it’s collecting data properly. If you’ve already went through this, skip to step 2, if not, read on.
Head on over to Google Analytics, register for an account, and follow the sign up procedure, you’ll be required to provide your business name, URL, timezone, business category, and answer a bunch of other questions.
You’ll then be required to prove to Google Analytics that this is, in fact, your website, there are a number of ways you can verify this, if you have Google Tag Manager set up, you’ll be able to do this without having to play around your website’s code, otherwise, you’ll be required to copy/paste GA’s tracking code that’s provided to you, into each and every page header on your website. You might need to get the help of your webmaster here.
Once the above is done, your Google Analytics will come to life. Make sure you set up your Google Analytics goals now, you can find those under Admin> Goals> New Goals.
Google Analytics Goal Setup
You might want to spend a bit of time here figuring out what your goals are.
For instance, if you’re the owner of a content website, you might want to track users who spend 2+ minutes of time on a specific content piece, or track email newsletter sign ups, but if you’re an eCommerce platform, tracking purchases/checkouts is probably your number one priority.Another thing we need to check, is whether we are collecting demographic data or not, this is disabled by default, so if you haven’t already, you need to enable it by going to Admin> Property> Property Settings, and then checking ‘Enable Demographics and Interest Reports.’
How to enable Google Analytics Demographics Tracking
Step 2: Begin user segmentation on Google Analytics
Now it’s time to break down your audience into its most obvious and common denominators; age groups, gender, and country traffic is generated in. We’ll then look into who’s a customer and who isn’t, and the behavior of each group on our website.
To start, on Google Analytics, go to Reporting> Audience> Demographics> Age, then pick “Gender” as your secondary dimension. You should be seeing a 12 row table (6 Female & 6 Male) for different age groups (18–24, 25-34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64, & 65+).
On the same table, you’ll find many columns for Acquisition, Behavior, & Conversions. Keep what you need and what’s important to you, then export the entire thing into Excel or Google Sheets to be able to properly examine the numbers.
Ensure that you have data for all the goals that you’ve set up and not just the default goal or the ‘All Goals’ tab. If it’s important enough for you to have it as a goal, then you’d want to look at the persona most actively accomplishing this goal.
Also, ensure that the duration set for data collection is long enough to avoid being deceived by trendy or unusual activities on your website, I usually look at a 90 day duration when developing personas, however, if you’ve had a major change on your website that would change results one way or another, you should wait until those changes are out of the scope of your duration.
Google Analytics
Look at your exported table, remove and add data columns as you see fit. Then take a long and hard look at your numbers and try to understand them, then figure out what segments you’d want to study further.
Now say you have an eCommerce platform that sells glasses in Jordan, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia, you would need three of the above mentioned tables for each country. Finally, you should end up with broad groups/segments such as “Male users browsing my website in Saudi Arabia, between the ages of 18 and 24”.
Let me point as well that the above is not set in stone, you might want to segment your audience differently, if your website is new and you’re not getting enough traffic, you’ll probably end up with broader groups, and if you’re managing a high traffic website, you might want to go with even tighter segments. Do what YOU see is best for your business!
Step 3: Build a segment out of each group above, and look into it further
Go to user segments (Default is ‘All Users’), and create custom segments for the ones you want to study, fill out the age group, language, gender, and location.
Look at what you have now, and try to put yourself in the shoes of each one of those groups (In fact, go a mile in their shoes, take your time here), try to understand their behavior. Go through the entire navigation menu on Analytics left side, do a content drill down, and try to gather as much information as possible. Keep track of everything, take notes, you’ll need them soon enough.
Demographics on Google Analytics
Now, does one group of users come too often to your website, with a pageviews per session and time on site higher than average, yet, lower conversion? Well, they could be more interested in your blog content than they are in buying from you, or might be leaving because your products are too expensive, or perhaps they’re confused by your checkout process. Do the above over and over again, focus and look at everything, and redo this for every group of users you want to build a persona for.
Pro Tip: If you can’t make sense of their behavior, you might want to consider installing a mouse tracking software to watch in real time what they’re doing on website, you might find usability issues that you did not know about.
You should be able by now, to expand on your description of the group from step 2, you’ll have something like “Male users visiting my website, from Saudi Arabia, between the ages of 18 and 24, + Mostly speaking one language, and mostly come through mobile devices (70% of which come through Android devices with Android 4.0 or older), use the search functionality on my website often to land into products, and don’t checkout as often as other groups”.
What does this mean? Perhaps they’re middle class, young, male users with a moderate degree of education, who are after a specific product (Hence, the search functionality), and do not seem to be able to checkout. Perhaps the price is too high for them, perhaps they don’t have access to a credit card being relatively young, or maybe they’re still in the consideration phase and are doing their research to see which platform offers the best price.
Step 4: Look up the above segments on Facebook Insights
You’re almost there. With the above, you already understand where those groups of people who buy (Or use your service) are from, how old they are, how much do they spend on our products usually, and how do they behave on our website. But, who are they really? Are they sports fans, do they follow technology? If they are, are they Apple fans or Microsoft fans? Are they rockers or hip hop fans? Do they tend to use Facebook heavily?
All of the above can be understood through Facebook Insights, even if you don’t have access to your page, or if you don’t have a page to begin with. You get to fill the information you got from step 3 into Facebook insights and learn about your persona’s lifestyle, income range, job titles, pages they like, and much more.
Facebook insights
Take all of this, add it to the information you already know, and you’re there! You’ll have enough information to be able to build a persona.
Now comes the fun part, give your persona a name and a bit of character, print out all of your personas and attach them to the wall in front of your office, you’ll find yourself looking at them more and more whenever you’re about to make a marketing decisions.
I understand that the above is by no means conclusive, it only accounts for your current users/customers and not your potential ones.
And just like life, if you put people into boxes, you’ll lose track of the small boxes, those may be your biggest fans and advocates but are not big enough of a group to be considered, but we have to start somewhere, and this approach will give you a close enough idea on who your personas are.
Let me know if there’s anything you’d add to this approach.
Coca-Cola Israel teamed up with creative agency Gefen Team to bring a new campaign called “The World’s First Selfie Bottle”. They attached a camera-equipped base to a 500 ml Coke and it automatically takes photos when it detects a 70-degree tilt, and you can transfer photos through its USB port.
The selfie bottle was created as a marketing gimmick for Coke’s Summer Love outdoor event in Israel, targeting millennials and the selfie generation. The ad agency, Gefen explained that the picture are shared directly to the user’s Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat as well as Coca-Cola’s page, where users can then tag themselves and their friends to the posts.
It’s not the first time Gefen Team and Coca-Cola had worked together, the agency had developed one of it’s kind campaign using Ultrasonic waves to activate mobile notification during the airing of Coca-Cola’s commercial on TV.
Over to you, let us know what you think of this campaign, creative or yet another bizarre selfie product.
With every meeting i have with either an advertising agency or direct clients, this question pops up “How do we win over our competition?”.
It’s no a secret that the competition is getting tougher by the minute, whither you’re a telecom company, car dealer or even a food blogger. To be honest, there is no one straight answer for this question.
However, as a digital marketer, I’ve recently been able to come up with ways and strategies to help brands (especially those who are late in the game) to find unusual ways to win over their competitors in the advertising and audiences reach zone.
Here’s a list of four strategies you can make use of:
1. Create Content Outside Your Niche
Creating content outside your niche is basically just like introducing a side service to your shop. Let me give you a live example of what I mean.
In Egypt, streets are filled with kiosks (they usually sell defined items like chips, biscuits, soda and etc…), few ones decided that they want more customers, so they started providing photocopying service, bought a photocopy machines and waited for the massive amounts of students wanted to photocopy the lectures and books for their study.
Image credit: Al-Ahram
When the photocopying machine was introduced, it hasn’t only introduced new line of business for the Kiosk, but it has boosted audiences. The audiences often drink a soda or eat some biscuits while photocopying their documents.
It’s basically the same for writing content outside your niche. When you create content outside your regular audiences you’re reaching out to new audiences that your competition might have not reached yet, even if you didn’t instantly see massive results, you’re still basing these audiences for future.
2. Increase your content frequency
In 2013, Facebook recorded 2.5m posts per minute, Twitter recorded 280k tweets per minute, while WordPress recorded 817 blogs per minute.
2016 Facebook recorded 3.3m posts per minute, Twitter recorded 500k tweets per minute, and 1,212 WordPress posts per minute.
Google indexed pages over time
A huge boost in Google indexed pages, as it has grown from 1 trillion to 30 trillion in the last 7 years.
In Google indexed pages about future is more content, he talked about “The Post” strategy of increasing their articles per day, The post now posts 1,200 articles per day and they saw 28% increase in their traffic, this tell us that it’s no longer about the quality -as we always thought- but rather about the quantity too.
Worth mentioning is Content Shock – a term that was coined by Mark Schaefer who believes that there is a limit to the amount of content a person can take in.
3. Target Your competitors’ keywords
You should not stop at targeting your very own keywords only, use your competition’s success by targeting their keywords or products names.
Here’re 4 strategies on Gmail, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
GMAIL
Email marketing is one of the highest lead generation sources, your audiences are receiving and opening marketing emails from your competition, Luckily, on Gmail, you can advertise within Gmail itself, by targeting your competition’s keywords, your product can be displayed for the reader while reading your competition’s Marketing email. Make sure to subscribe to your competition’s newsletter to get an understanding of what they send. Find more tips about cracking the code for GMAIL ads
YouTube
Similar to Gmail, you can target your audiences who are watching competition’s videos on YouTube, use their keywords to interrupt their videos. Your goal is simply whenever someone searches for your competition’s video, your ad is displayed on that video.
Facebook
On Facebook, you can’t use keywords targeting, but In many cases, Facebook treats our pages as interests, use the interest-based targeting (by searching for your competitions brand name or URL) to target your competition’s audiences.
Twitter
Twitter is very dynamic and public, I’ve written a separate article to 5 hacks you can use right now to improve your Advertising Strategy on Twitter. Basically, Twitter allow of exporting public lists and followers list, these lists are valuable information for you, you can export your competition’s list and targeted them using Tailored Audiences.
4. Try different media forms with your own touch
How many of us got super excited when they were just getting started in this business and got their content featured by a well-established company of account.
When I was starting in building my followers on Instagram (which I still am) I thought of new format that would catch these brands attention and maybe get my content featured by them.
Before I got my rover, I was thinking of by a 4×4, living in Saudi Arabia, the 1st car came in mind was the FJ Cruiser, while searching for the car picture, I stumbled upon one particular photo that I liked, the digital marketer in me and with my little knowledge about Photoshop, I decided to put identity on the car I was about to buy and made this design of the car, which was later on reposted on Instagram by @ToyotaALJ (Toyota Saudi Arabia)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDq81VxgRiq/
They had posted the same exact photo, but I took the photo and added my own effects and identity (made it a bit cartoonish) and that made it stand out and my post was featured.
What I’m trying to say, your content must stand out in order to gain on your competition.
Any entity that wants to make a splash online has dreams of going viral. Unfortunately, there’s no set formula people can follow to get to this point. The internet audience is fickle. They change what they want constantly and what used to be viral might become a cliché sooner rather than later. Small businesses also have a problem in this regard because they lack the resources necessary to hire a full-time marketing professional. This is why they enlist the services of a local SEO company to help them out.
Local search engine optimization (or SEO) companies offer a wide variety of services devoted to increasing the visibility of their clients. They’re staffed with some of the best marketing minds in the business and have a track record of getting more people interested in the companies they serve. A company who wants to hire one of these organizations doesn’t even need to have a clear idea of how they want to present themselves to the public. The marketing professionals with whom they work will take care of it for them.
The services of a marketing business particularly come in handy when it comes to generating branded content. Few people like to be hit with a marketing ploy right out of the gate. That’s why companies pay for other entities to create this content for them. A piece of branded content might not include the name of the brand until the very end or in some subtle way. The company who financed its creation could leave their name out of it, choosing to become involved merely from a promotional standpoint. This article makes a case for branded content being the main thing companies need to go viral.
In previous eras, companies didn’t have very many options. They had to rely on the inflexible marketing methods that were available at the time. That’s not the case today. Modern companies can pull out all the stops to take advantage of what the internet has to offer. Regardless of what audience they want to address, there’s a method they can use to address them. It all goes back to the amount of expertise a company has on their workforce. The more experience a company has on their side, the more likely their marketing efforts will prove successful.
Paying another company to market the one you created might seem like copping out. On the contrary, not every company is devoted to putting in the work necessary to market their organization properly. They have so many other things going on that they cannot put other more pressing matters on the backburner. Odds are they lack the personnel needed to have an adequate marketing initiative. There’s nothing wrong with this. Not every company has all the time in the world.
First and foremost, the main thing that you’re buying from a marketing company is peace of mind. They give you the peace of mind to know that your company is being taken care of. Before you know it, more people will be looking at your company that you ever anticipated. All you needed to do was call one of these companies and schedule an assessment. Everything else was handled form that point forward.
Your company will always be yours and yours alone. Hiring an outside agency to help you make it better won’t take that away from you. When they’re done doing what they do best, you will find that it was the best investment you ever made. There are so many marketing companies out there, so you will have your work cut out for you. Each one of them has a great deal to offer, so you’re in good hands no matter which one you choose.
Magnus Zar, Founder of Think Agency and Sweden and one of Europe’s biggest experts on video marketing is speaking at the Marketing Kingdom Cairo 2, Egypt’s most anticipated marketing event, taking place from 26-27 October at the Fairmont Towers in Cairo.
Prior to starting Think Agency he was the Director of Television at Aftonbladet, Sweden’s leading news provider, with more than 3.2 million daily users (in a country of 9 million). Magnus is specialized in online video news and has developed online video strategies for international players such as The Telegraph Media Group, for Aftonbladet (where he previously was Director of Television) as well as for local media networks and online video news ventures.
Here are his five golden rules for successful online transition:
Video is not an option – it’s a must. (Tomorrow’s main communication on line will be video – in all forms and shapes. And for all functions…)
Don’t be click bait opportunistic – the video transition is a process, not a project
If you want to have r-e-a-l success with your video – make sure you do it with the right set of KPIs
Be platform agnostic. Be platform specific
Be serious about you video. It’s your future
To meet Magnus and 15 other marketing gurus from Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram, Tetra Pak, Unilever and Sony Music get your ticket today for the Marketing Kingdom Cairo 2, by visiting the event’s official website PWorld
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