In a recent survey conducted by the International Quality and Productivity Centre, 73% of 1,048 respondents have chosen Saudi Arabia as the country they are most likely to position their digital marketing focus for 2010-2011.

In a country of almost 30 million where 40% of the population are Arabic speaking digital natives - there has been a rapid increase in global media and consultancies competing to do business with local companies and brands in their native language.

The acquisition of Maktoob by Yahoo! in 2009 along with Google's recent announcement to launch its Buzz feature in Arabic predicts a robust and sustained future for the digital marketing industry in the region.

At the recent partnership launch between Facebook and Connect Ads it was revealed that 9.7 million people in the region are part of the social networking platform, providing a great opportunity for brands to actively engage directly with this as-yet untapped consumer base.

Click 4.0, a digital marketing conference being held in Dubai from June 20 to 24, 2010 commissioned this survey to gauge what marketers across all industries in the region felt about critical subjects like social media, integration of digital marketing into the traditional campaign mix and tackling transparency issues. The survey aims to provide an accurate reflection of the most pressing issues marketers face in order to help the developers of Click 4.0 feature the strategies and solutions needed to tackle them.

51% of respondents also mentioned that their biggest dilemma in the region was marketing in Arabic, with one marketer wondering how to 'create remarkable, relevant content... which sticks or resonates' with the target market.

Abdulla Al-Dabbagh, Marketing Manager of Yahoo! Middle East, Lead Sponsor for Click 4.0, says: "The Internet is a great tool for advertisers as it provides them with the tools to effectively engage with the region's online consumers through various sophisticated targeting capabilities and innovative engagement opportunities. There is a great potential in this market where the spending on online advertising is expected to grow by 35 - 40% this year in the region, according to Madar Research. Online is definitely the way forward and our region is on the right track!"

Joining Yahoo! Middle East as speakers are the region's digital leaders including Yousef Tuqan of Flip Media, Abdullatif Al Sayegh, former CEO of Arab Media Group, Alex McNabb of Spot On PR, Kapil Bhatia of HSBC Middle East Limited, Islam Zween of Logta.com and Reem Bishara of Burger King. International support for the event has come from all aspects of the digital marketing industry, including Digital Buzz - the world's number one digital marketing blog, Communicate Magazine, Mashable, eConsultancy, Zawya and Visibility Magazine.

The region's largest Arab blogging community, Jeeran is the latest media to sign up for Nielsen's Market Intelligence, the leading online measurement solution for Mena.
Launched in 2000, Jeeran is the first Arab web hosting community, whose vision is to provide Arab users with the latest web technologies and the means to communicate and connect. It is currently the largest site in the Arab world for consumer-generated media. Jeeran is currently expanding its services to North Africa with the release of its French interface.

Jeeran's subscriptions will provide insights into the competitive online landscape through independent, near real-time performance ranking and audience demographic profiling of audited Web and Mobile sites and Video Streaming activities. The Nielsen service tracks unique browsers, page impressions, frequency and session duration and other metrics to build a comprehensive picture of actual domestic and global traffic to audited websites.

"We believe Nielsen's measurement products deliver exceptional value to the agencies and their clients. The reach of Nielsen will help deliver Jeeran's audience to customers on a global scale," said Omar Koudsi, CEO and Co-founder of Jeeran.
Tahir Khalil, Associate Director - Nielsen Online - Middle East and North Africa, said: "We welcome high calibre publishers like Jeeran onto our system. Jeeran will join our growing list of publishers across Mena including Maktoob, The Sarmady group, ITP, 7 Days, Orange Telecommunications and Propertyfinder, who have chosen Nielsen's Market Intelligence for their third party audience measurement solution."

Nielsen believes that when a credible third party supplier is able to provide robust, transparent and accurate data about traffic, then the revenue streams follow accordingly. With today's tighter budgets and the depth of information available to digital advertisers compared to other media it is possible online revenues could jump in the near future.

"The market is demanding credible and transparent 3rd party measurement data. Independent measurement of the Internet within the Mena region will help advertising growth and proper allocation of budgets amongst the websites," said Omar Koudsi.

"Nielsen is committed to bringing such transparent global measurement system to Mena which will not only measure consumption across media but also the interplay between them," said Piyush Mathur, Regional Managing Director, The Nielsen Company, Middle East, North Africa & Pakistan.

"Nielsen's Market Intelligence Solution is a tool designed specifically to provide agencies with the metrics they need allowing them to better target their on line campaigns and maximize the return on investment for their end clients," added Tahir Khalil.

Nielsen's online division now measures online audience and advertising across a geography representing more than 80% of the world's online activity. Its global footprint includes the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, the U.S. and now the Middle East and North Africa markets.
 

Marketing Show Managing Director, Ms. Maysoon Abulhoul

Media and Marketing Show 2009, the region's prime media and marketing related event, announces its strategic partnership with CNN, the world's leading international news provider.

As the show's International News Partner, CNN will be sponsoring the Media Center that will host journalists during the 3 day event.

In addition, CNN delegates will be present at the dedicated stand to network with other media representatives and discuss the latest issues and challenges in the media scene. They will also be attending various workshops and conferences that will take place during the show

Commenting on the partnership, Ms. Maysoon Abulhoul, Managing Director MMS, said:
'Year after year, MMS is proving to be the leading exhibition in the media and marketing field. MMS 2009 has partnered with the finest names in the media and marketing industry such as O3 Productions, Al Riyadh Newspaper, Al Ayyam Publishing, Maktoob, ITP, Mediaquest, Dar Al Sayyad to name a few making the event a rewarding, enriching and successful venture. Today we welcome CNN onboard as our International News Partner and we are very pleased to be in collaboration with such a prominent media giant.'

She further added, 'This has all been made possible with the trust that the esteemed regional and international players have placed in the show and with our organization's unwavering commitment to doing all that we can to enhance the overall communications industry across the globe.'

Managed by the Domus Group, MMS 2009 features innovative resources such as workshops, seminars, knowledge sharing discussions and extensive networking opportunities for members of the industry. MMS 2009 is the ideal forum for communications professionals, producers, service providers, specialists and media and marketing executives.

CNN, the world's leading international news provider, has become synonymous with fast, accurate and impartial coverage since it went on air as the world's first 24-hour news channel in 1980.

CNN's branded networks and services across television, radio, mobile services and the Internet are available to more than one billion people in more than 200 countries and territories, and has global and local reach through 47 bureaus worldwide.

Moreover, in 2000 CNN launched its first Arabic Dubai-based website, a leading online news and information site providing the latest international and regional news in Arabic.

The Nielsen Company in conjunction with Dubai Media City today revealed some of the largest companies in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region that have signed up to its Market Intelligence service.

The Maktoob group, Samardy (a Vodafone company), the ITP group, Propertyfinder and Orange are now using Market Intelligence - a service based on a precise site-centric measurement technology that provides competitive benchmarking and market-level information on Web sites for the publishing and advertising industries across the world.

Ahmed Nassef, Vice President Maktoob Group, said, "Using measurement technology from a globally recognised and trusted research provider like Nielsen gives advertisers greater confidence in the accuracy of our numbers and, consequently, drives greater levels of ad spend across our properties."

Diego Sempr?n, Senior Director Commercial Development EMEA, Online, for the Nielsen Company added, "The MENA region is benefitting from a tried, trusted and transparent technology that has helped develop the online advertising market around the world for both small domestic players and large international brands."

Semprun continued, "We are essentially aiming to create a unified advertising market, covering two continents and 13 countries, which will make the Arabic Internet an extremely attractive option for advertisers when it comes to spending their budgets. This is a big first for the region and the caliber of companies already signed up is testament to the huge potential that lies ahead."

Nielsen provides market-leading online audience measurement solutions worldwide.  Nielsen data is the official industry online currency in Australia, China, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain and Switzerland as well as being the local currency of choice in Brazil, Japan and Taiwan. Market Intelligence also has strong industry-wide take up in Bulgaria, Greece and Sweden.

To help establish a currency in the Arabic market, and drive its online advertising industry, Nielsen will utilise its global partnership with the BPA who use Nielsen's technology to audit business publishers worldwide to improve the transparency and credibility of the online medium to advertisers.

"BPA chose to work with Nielsen, because like BPA, Nielsen is a globally recognized brand in the media industry. It has cutting edge, patented web measurement and reporting systems in place, and an installed base of media buyer users," said Glenn Hansen, CEO & President BPA Worldwide.

He adds, "The "BPA powered by Nielsen Online" solution offers website traffic metrics providing an industry standard that gives advertisers and media buyers an apples-to-apples comparison when making their marketing decisions. There are a number of web measurement tools available to media owners but this new solution will create a level playing field with a single set of standards - provided on a constant basis and performed by one analytics tool - that advertisers and agencies can trust as accurate. A single, standard web measuring system across BPA membership eliminates any guesswork on why data is different amongst competitive sites."

Mohammed Abdullah, Executive Director, Dubai Media City, said: "Our unique media-cluster environment at Dubai Media City is instrumental in supporting all kinds of media work at the regional level, through the creation of new standards and the application of global best practices, as well as the use of state-of- the-art techniques and mechanisms. As a regional destination that hosts global media organisations, Dubai Media City is confident that our business partner Nielsen's Market Intelligence Solution in the MENA region will effectively guide the publishing and advertising industries across the region to better understand prevailing market conditions and develop appropriate solutions."

The Nielsen Company is planning to enlarge its portfolio in the MENA region over the next two years with more global standards for the measurement of online media including AdRelevance, BuzzMetrics, Video Analytics, Campaign Analysis and NetEffect.

Piyush Mathur, Regional Managing Director MENAP, The Nielsen Company, adds, "We aim to bring relevant media and Internet services that exist in the Nielsen world to the MENA region, in order to demystify different forms of media consumption and their interplay. These services will help in making consumer targeting more precise, a key objective of marketers during this slowdown".

Global and regional digital leader LG Electronics had launched an interactive online campaign dedicated to Arab youth keen on displaying  creativity and innovation. The campaign took place across the Middle East whereby LGE teamed up with Lebanese singer Nawal Zoghbi to create the future stars of the Arab world.

The online medium has become the fastest growing in the region and an increasing number of Arab youth are flocking to the internet’s various social networking websites. LG Electronics capitalized on this emerging phenomenon with the help of its celebrity endorser, Nawal Zoghbi. The campaign ran from August 23 until November 18 and was open to all individuals from 12 countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

“Be a Star with LG” involved three different competitions, which were conducted online – “Watch Me”, “Sing with Me” and “Born to Shine”. Each of the competitions involved personalized entries, which were voted on by the public. To participate in the competition, contestants were requested to visit the website and register themselves. All participants had to be between the ages 15 and 30.

Seven winners were named from Jordan and were invited to visited LGE regional offices in Jordan to receive their awards. Al Latif Lutfi Dahbour, Mohamed Shabsough, Mohamed Al-Shakeldy and Mohamed Al-Sheikh each received Nawal Zoghbi’s latest Album whereas Yazan Sharkas won an LG Digital MP3 Player. Moreover, Mohammad Ali Aref was awarded an LG MP3 Player and an LG portable DVD Player.

More than 60,000 eager participants visited the website with the highest registration being from Egypt, Morocco, KSA and Jordan in order.