CHALLENGES OF LOCALISATION We have extensive experience dealing with localisation challenges in almost every project it undertakes and has the capability to deliver Arabic content that is the right fit for the target audience.
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When communicating your marketing collaterals in Arabic, challenges present themselves with linguistic and cultural nuances, in addition to constraints of a technical nature. Those challenges include: Linguistic diversity: A variety of Arabic dialects used in different countries; the same expression may have a different vocabulary set that is particular to a specific country. Cultural diversity: A variety of social standards, symbols and customs unique to each country. Technological diversity: Character encoding that differs from that of other languages.
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IMPORTANCE OF ARABIC DIGITAL CONTENT IN BRANDING AND MARKETING We understand that there are no one-size-fits-all branding principles. The Middle East has an exceptionally wide array of cultures and of Arabic dialects. If one thinks of the Middle East in the same way as we think of Europe, marketing to the UK and Hungary cannot be conceived in the same way, similarly one would not market to Oman and Lebanon in the same way.
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A branding approach should never exclude Arabic-speaking audiences that prefer to browse the internet in Arabic, including social media websites such as Facebook. It is true that the trend has been for the majority of Facebook users in the Middle East to use the English language by default, but the availability of tools for multilingual usage is increasingly pulling more and more people back to their own root language of Arabic. The percentage of users who prefer an Arabic interface has risen in several countries over the past year – particularly in Egypt, Libya and Iraq, indicating a wider use of Facebook among the masses, and not just among the well-educated English-speaking segment of society. According to the Arabic Social Media Report, English and Arabic are the dominant languages for Twitter users in the Middle East, with the number of Arabic tweets almost doubling those in English in March 2012 (62.1% and 32.6% respectively).
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BRANDS ON LOOKOUT FOR QUALITY STORIES IN ARABIC SOCIAL MEDIA We believe that the consumption of Arabic digital content is on the rise and shall continue to grow with the proliferation of social media in the Middle East. It is therefore imperative for brands, as well as any organisation doing business in the Middle East to adapt or create new content in Arabic that is culturally relevant and engaging using both traditional and new media platforms.
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The mission of brands in social media is not to increase their own exposure or to use it as a means of one-way message communication to audiences, but to create a story with a target to build a social connection with them. As in real life, the interaction should be authentic, sincere and engaging. Yet there is a serious lack of quality Arabic digital content in the Middle East. Content that attracts attention, creates conversation in Arabic and that is relevant enough to compel viewers to forward and share the message with other members within their own social networks. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are believed to make up 80% of Facebook users in the Gulf region. Youth (between the ages of 15 and 29) still make up around 70% of Facebook users in the Arab region. The total number of Facebook users in the Arab world stood at around 45 million by June 2012, up from 37 million at the beginning of the year. Brands can effectively penetrate this growing and already substantial social media audience with well-targeted relevant stories written in the Arabic language.
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OUTSTANDING SOCIAL MEDIA PROLIFERATION IN THE ARAB WORLD Since 2008, we have provided Arabic content designed for multiple platforms including traditional print and digital media, and supported major corporate and government-led events in the GCC, as well as worldwide. We have adopted our content creation and quality processes to cater for emerging social media platforms, which are part of most projects we undertake.
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Statistically, 62.8% of Facebook users are male and over half of all MENA Facebook users are between 18 and 24 years of age. Therefore, whether you are located in the Middle East or outside the region, you are marketing your brand to young people who are constantly exposed to digital content. According to the Arabic Social Media Report, the estimated number of active Twitter users in the Arab region by the end of June 2012 was around 2 million. The number of tweets generated in March 2012 by active users was around 172 million, with 88% generated by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain. Due to the Arabic language being the fastest-growing language ever on Twitter (out of 25 other different languages used on the site), Twitter was compelled to introduce a dedicated Arabic interface. Another major social media player, LinkedIn, has quickly become very popular with young and established professionals in the region. The total number of LinkedIn users in the Arab world stood at around 4 million by the end of June 2012. Young people (between the ages of 18 and 34) make up around 70% of LinkedIn users and, as with Facebook, they seem to be the driving force behind this exponential growth. As for YouTube, there were 167 million video views per day in the Arab region in 2012, thus taking the number two spot in the world (behind the U.S. and ahead of Brazil). Ninety million of those daily video views were generated in Saudi Arabia (creating the highest number of YouTube views in the world per Internet user). Saudi Arabia leads the region with the most playbacks, followed by Egypt, Morocco and the UAE.
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