Tag Archives: Unilever

We need (much) more inspiration in our marketing this year

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Marketing has to be more interesting, more engaging and more memorable in 2021, especially across MENA, if it’s going to stick with target audiences.

Last year, everything changed. And that’s just as true for marketing. Everyone immediately put almost everything they had into digital. We were bombarded by webinars, emailers, and online advertising. It’s understandable why; businesses needed find new opportunities. Marketing was very much functional. But it wasn’t emotional. There was no inspiration.

This approach has to change in 2021, and I’m hoping we’ll see marketing that’ll be memorable. The best marketers realize that a shift needs to take place, because we have changed. Given the lockdowns and move to remote working, most of us are craving person-to-person interaction. The reactions I’ve seen from people attending events such as Gitex underline how much we need to and want to be around people again.

This realization will be acted upon by forward-thinking B2B and B2C brands, and we’re going to see more in-person activations to engage directly with customers and consumers. The best events are going to promote participation, to involve customers and make them part of a bigger story.

The second shift we’re going to see is around brand building itself, with a focus on purpose. The most memorable activities from this year have been brand campaigns about helping others. Take the example of Burger King, which has used its social media channels to promote the restaurant industry, in particular independent outlets.

These ideas have won praise globally, even from people who have probably never even stepped into a quick service restaurant. And it’s easy to see why. We want to feel hopeful, and we want to extend a hand to help one another. And we feel elated when we see brands reacting to sentiment and doing the same, especially when a global name is acting to help smaller companies.

The most purposeful brands have done more than advertise; they’ve acted based on their values. They’ve provided services for free, donated products, and helped local communities get through 2020. Take the example of Unilever, which has donated over one hundred million Euros worth of health and hygiene products. And their seminal campaign to make us see beauty differently through Dove’s tribute to healthcare professionals throughout the world.

Purpose can and should also lead to partnership. The world’s biggest issues aren’t going to be solved by individual brands alone. Just look at how the most inclusive firms have rallied to support UN Women’s global campaign about the pandemic’s impact on gender equality. Or how brands have come together to take aim at the negative effect that social media is having on societies.

Looking ahead, we’re going to see more marketing innovation around these new four Ps – participation, purpose, partnerships and people. What I sincerely hope to see is brands from the Middle East applying global learnings to come up with ideas and campaigns that make us cry, laugh and become emotional. After the year we’ve had, we all need to be inspired, and the Middle East’s bravest marketers will lead the way. Those that do take a chance will be rewarded with better brand awareness, perception and purchase intent. Let’s hope for marketing that’ll inspire people in 2021.

The 3 issues today’s crisis comms professional needs to tackle

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Make sure that you’re prepared for these three big issues which are shifting the crisis comms goalposts (image source: http://www.bairdscmc.com)

It doesn’t take a genius to tell you that the world is changing, and with it the way that crises develop. I was listening to a very engaging podcast by the Gulf News business team, with communications professional Omar Qirem (check out the post here).

While the conversation touched on a host of crisis issues and triggers, there were three big issues that are relatively new, and which are shifting the crisis communications landscape.

Hacking and Emails

Long gone are the days when whistleblowers would walk out of offices with a suitcase full of papers. Today, information is conveyed electronically, and all it took for Chelsea Manning to leak hundreds of thousands of US military documents to Wikileaks was a single USB drive. Hacking is becoming a real problem for both governments the world over, as well as corporates (just ask Sony).

Hacking is developing from the well-understood concept of the ethically-troubled whistleblower to groups-for-hire who are ready and willing to hack email servers, or public domain accounts in the search of damaging information. Hackers can also attack websites and social media accounts to fake news, or even create fake sites which are mirrored on the real thing.

We’re going to have to become more aware of these threats, and develop mitigation strategies, including better security (at the very least, please use two-factor authentication as much as you can and don’t use the same password for every single account), and also educate executives on the need to communicate differently. What you write can be leaked; are you willing to see that email on the front page of a newspaper, or a website?

The Rise of Values-Based Communication

Consumers aren’t just interested in what brands make and sell. They want to know what we stand for. This public interest has partly been driven by the political climate in the US and Western Europe and by the behavior of millennials and their increasing skepticism of established institutions. For brands, value-based communications is a key point of differentiation, particularly for industries which have been impacted by technology-driven commoditization. Think of Paul Unilever’s Polman and his passionate belief in sustainability.

Conversely, executive behavior which is looked down upon by the public can have serious business implications. Whilst the official reasons for Uber being stripped of its London license were due to questions around passenger safety and drivers’ rights, the behavior and words of former CEO Travis Kalanick haven’t done Uber any good. The apology proffered by the new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, seems to have gone a long way to defusing some of the tension between Uber and Transport for London which oversees the company’s license to operate.

Data and Online Regulation

We’ve been living in the internet age for over two decades now, and business has benefited from a relative lack of legislation and regulation about what can and can’t be done online, particularly with data. That has slowly changed as governments have sought to understand how the internet has changed our lives. Upcoming legislation in Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is going to change how corporations monitor and store data (it’s been covered in some detail by Rachel Miller for the CIPR). There’s no doubt in my mind that the online and social media networks will also have to deal with more governmental oversight. There’s been a string of scandals around issues such as extremist content on YouTube,  Facebook and the Trump election, and Twitter’s lack of action on far-right hate speech.

Whilst I’m certain that more regulation is coming, and soon, it’s far too early to say how this will change how we as communicators operate online. There will be more data-related crises, either due to how data is collected and used, or due to an inability to adhere to these new rules.

As always, I’d love to know your thoughts. What issues do we need to better understand when it comes to modern-day crises? Please do share with me your thoughts.

The Middle East’s love for Instagram (including its adverts)

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Here in the Gulf we just love our pictures and photos. We love it so much that you’ll be hard pressed to find many in the Gulf who aren’t on the social media app. Only yesterday and in a period of less than five years Instagram announced that it had crossed the 400 million user mark (the app added 100 million users in the last 10 months alone). Seventy five percent of those 400 million users live outside the US, and the Gulf in particular has taken to the photo and video-sharing application.

In terms of the Gulf, it’s no surprise that Saudi leads the way – there are 10.7 million monthly active users in the Kingdom (just over a third of the population). The UAE follows with 2.2 million monthly users. And, to the West, Egypt has 3.2 million monthly active users. What’s even more impressive is daily active users – a whopping 6.1 million for Saudi, 1.2 million for the UAE, and 1.1 million for Egypt.

This all makes good news for Facebook, Instagram’s owner, which introduced advertising to the platform this month in the MENA region. Facebook rolled out advertising for select partners this month. The launch earlier this month included both regional brands such as telcos Saudi Telecom and Zain and retailers Souq and AlShaya, as well as global advertisers such as Unilever, P&G, Nestle, Mondelez, Visa, L’oreal and Pepsi. The first ad to go live was Souq’s, which you can see below.

Souq's Instagram advert was the first to be seen by Middle East users of the app

Souq’s Instagram advert was the first to be seen by Middle East users of the app

So far, from what I’ve been told, engagement with the adverts has been far higher than expected and much more than these advertisers are used to on Facebook. While there’ll be some negative sentiment from consumers who aren’t used to seeing advertising on their Instagram feeds, it seems that both Facebook and advertisers are onto a winner when it comes to Instagram advertising.

And for those of you curious people out there, the country with the highest penetration, is Bahrain which is closely followed by Kuwait. Both enjoy over 50 percent usage for Instagram; Bahrain’s penetration rate is over seventy five percent. The below visual was shared by social media expert Khaled El-Ahmed, and while the numbers may be slightly off from the above in terms of users, they’re still valid in terms of percentages.

PS For disclosure, I’m a P&G employee.