For many businesses in the Gulf region, 2016 was a slow year with winning new business difficult as budgets were slashed. When cash is tight within a company, the easiest budget to reduce is marketing, and as counter-productive as it seems (as the marketing budget is what drives sales), it is usually the first to go.
The social media agencies, however, paint a very different story; “business is great” they tell me. Sure, we all know that social media marketing has been on the rise over the past five years, but how are they defying gravity when marketing budgets have been cut? Well, more and more companies are now allocating more money to influencer marketing and by aligning with personalities that have a large social media audience, they are finding higher Return on Investment (ROI) than traditional advertising.
A study by TapInfluence found that influencer marketing content delivers 11 times higher ROI than traditional forms of digital marketing. Due to the higher levels of trust consumers have with personalities over brands, the effectiveness of these campaigns has been good in many cases.
As a business owner, I understand how exposure translated into dirhams and ROI. On the other side, as someone with a large social media audience who has received numerous influencer marketing proposals, I see what large brands are paying for this kind of exposure and it worries me.
The online world has finally convinced the slow adopters of internet advertising that a more data-driven form of advertising will be more measurable than traditional media. Now we are looking to go backwards because by investing into influencers it becomes much harder to track the conversion and directly related sales from these campaigns.
Having seen some shockingly absurd rates for social influencer campaigns I foresee brands getting stung. But as with any form of marketing that has proven success cases, whether it works for you or not depends on your strategy. So here are some tips to ensure you get the most from influencer marketing campaigns
Firstly, take time to choose influencers that suit your brand ethos and are aligned with your values. The most damaging thing to your brand could be the association to something your customers don’t respect. Once you have found an influencer that matches this, look at forming ongoing brand ambassadorship rather than one-off endorsements. I have found that posted media depletes very rapidly and the attention span of the people viewing it is often nothing more than flicking down their newsfeed on their phone with one eye open before they wake up and start the day. Having a more continuous collaboration will allow for the message to be more firmly registered. You may also be able to work out discounted packages like this.
One of the most important things to determine whether an influencer is right for your brand is to understand more of who their audience is, so ask influencers before the campaign for their audience insights. Those that have business accounts on Instagram will have access to these stats, although most other platforms give some breakdown of the audience demographics. The next thing is to make sure you are selecting influencers with audiences that match your target market in terms of geographic location and demographic. Also be aware that a lot of people with large followings may have used certain paid programmes or apps that assign followers to their account to inflate their follower number. However, these followers are inactive accounts and won’t interact with the media and certainly won’t buy your product, so learn how to identify accounts with an artificially enhanced audience. Use a tool such as www.followercheck.co, which will give you a calculation of someone’s fake audience.
Lastly, when choosing influencers don’t think that bigger is better. Research has found that engagement and ROI is higher for smaller influencers, so it will work better for you to work with many small influencers than one large one. Look beyond Instagram influencers and see who has audiences on other platforms. Depending on the product or service you are promoting, each platform will have its merits and each has its different influencers.
Don’t be fooled by statistics that show how many impressions or likes were achieved. Look at your sales to see if it’s working for you.
Paris Norriss is an entrepreneur and partner in Coba Education, which provides educators to schools and institutes
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
KYLIAN MBAPPE 2016/17 STATS
Ligue 1: Appearances - 29, Goals - 15, Assists - 8
UCL: Appearances - 9, Goals - 6
French Cup: Appearances - 3, Goals - 3
France U19: Appearances - 5, Goals - 5, Assists - 1
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
Kibsons%20Cares
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The bio
Date of Birth: April 25, 1993
Place of Birth: Dubai, UAE
Marital Status: Single
School: Al Sufouh in Jumeirah, Dubai
University: Emirates Airline National Cadet Programme and Hamdan University
Job Title: Pilot, First Officer
Number of hours flying in a Boeing 777: 1,200
Number of flights: Approximately 300
Hobbies: Exercising
Nicest destination: Milan, New Zealand, Seattle for shopping
Least nice destination: Kabul, but someone has to do it. It’s not scary but at least you can tick the box that you’ve been
Favourite place to visit: Dubai, there’s no place like home
THE DETAILS
Kaala
Dir: Pa. Ranjith
Starring: Rajinikanth, Huma Qureshi, Easwari Rao, Nana Patekar
Rating: 1.5/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Duterte Harry: Fire and Fury in the Philippines
Jonathan Miller, Scribe Publications
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
The%20Roundup%20%3A%20No%20Way%20Out
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5