Targeted digital ads are a perfect fit for Mena’s growing market, YouTube says

The platform says its advertising flexibility lets local companies reach specific audiences in a way that regional broadcast media cannot.

Google is creating a YouTube Space, a place where YouTube creators can use the space to learn new skills, connect with other creators and create new content, in Dubai – a sign of the Mena media and advertising market’s importance to the company. Randi Sokoloff for The NationalShow less

LONDON // YouTube offers a powerful new channel for advertising in the UAE and Mena, says Wassim Kabbara, the head of branding and agencies at Google/YouTube.

“In Mena, YouTube has been growing strongly in both audience reach and watch time. People go to YouTube because they can find exactly the content they want there, as opposed to broad programming on broadcast media. Advertisers know what they’re paying for on YouTube, and the results are measured with accuracy and transparency,” Mr Kabbara says.

Using digital advertising offers great opportunities for advertisers. Not only can brands target very segmented audiences or reach huge audiences with their messages, they can also evaluate the effectiveness of their ad spend much more easily than in traditional media.

“YouTube offers brands a powerful video platform in Mena, boasting large and highly efficient audience reach across the region’s key markets,” says Mr Kabbara. “YouTube has proven highly effective in improving brands’ key metrics, such as awareness, recall and consideration, and delivers demonstrably higher sales uplift and ROI [return on investment] than other media. The sales uplift research we have conducted globally has shown this clearly and we have similar studies ongoing in the region.”

Debbie Weinstein, the managing director for global brand solutions and innovations at YouTube, concurs. “It’s a phenomenon of being able to find scale with your message in complement with other media. One of the things driving our success is that we’re really big, you can find a lot of people on our platform. Second, Mena has a less developed advertising ecosystem than other parts of the world, and I think that’s frankly making it easier for digital to get in there because digital is a highly measurable medium and it’s a place that you can measure clicks, you can measure activity, you can measure engagement and that sort of thing, so that’s wind in our back.”

YouTube also allows advertisers to reach specific geographical markets in Mena, where advertising is often deployed across the region, and the TV ad market is pan-regional. “Using a platform like digital, you can be incredibly local with your message,” says Ms Weinstein. “I’m not sure anyone is doing as much of that as they could but it’s a big opportunity. The network operator is a really great example. If you’re a network operator it’s hard to run on TV in Egypt, but you could run on digital, somewhere like YouTube and have your message reach lots of people just in the geography that’s relevant to your business. Obviously if you’re a mobile operator in Egypt you don’t want to reach people in Lebanon for example.”

The flexibility of the platform allows brands to advertise in traditional ways, placing their existing TV on the platform or short “bumper” ads before videos, but it also gives them scope for being more creative by partnering with content creators, or creating their own content.

YouTube also allows for brands to connect with consumers in a very personal way. “What’s premium and happening and influencing culture looks different from how it used to back in the day,” says Ms Weinstein. “It might not be a 45-minute drama or a 25-minute sitcom, it might actually be something created by a woman in her bedroom, and she has this incredibly profound relationship with her audience. A brand can either weave into the content she’s creating, or run an ad alongside it. It is a really unique place to be and it allows you to have cut-through with your message.”

The platform is a highly effective channel for brands in the UAE, says Joe Akkawi, the founder and chief executive of the Dubai-based communication agency Paz Marketing.

“We currently consult for multiple businesses including mobile apps and technology that have seen fantastic results working with digital influencers on YouTube. The staggering reach provided by digital personalities to their communities is overshadowing the classical marketing/PR model and is delivering mass reach to a multitude of people that were otherwise unreachable. Such example is SellAnyCar where leveraging the network of YouTube UAE influencers provided a direct impact on our brand awareness and user conversion.”

Video is so important that Paz Marketing is launching a video conception and production department to create films for social media next year. “Our focus on video is because we see it as the most exciting medium that’s growing quickly. Also with the general growth of Arabic online content, it’s an opportunity that can’t be missed. Also we are seeing so many providers move towards VR and 360 videos. So a general video content development strategy is a great stepping stone to when hardware like the Google VR Headset becomes mainstream.”

He predicts that vlogging, or video blogging, will be the biggest area of growth online. “We are seeing a very big shift towards video from both clients and the influencer community,” says Mr Akkawi. “A lot of focus is being generated on developing HD content for YouTube because while Facebook and Instagram keep inflating their video numbers, YouTube remains the main authority for video series, search or archiving in the region.”

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