When a flagship Arabic women’s magazine launches an online platform, not only do we know online is stronger than ever, but we know that the women reading the title are shaping trends.
“Content is always king, but the consumer is emperor,” says Ricky Ghai, executive director of digital at Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC). “Women in the Middle East have been underserved, yet they have this incredible untapped power.”
At Gulf Marketing Review’s recent Marketing to Women conference, figures showed that women in the Middle East control $246 billion of the region’s wealth, a sum that is expected to climb to $383 billion by next year. And with 71 percent of the more 1,200 women polled as part of a study commissioned by www.anaZahra.com – ADMC’s recently launched Arabic platform dedicated to the modern Arab women – belonging to a social networking site, much of that power may be found with women online.
According to the study – conducted by YouGov Siraj across the GCC (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain), the Levant (Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon), and North Africa (Egypt) – 66 percent of women connect with friends online on a daily basis, 83 percent access Internet from home, 34 percent spend at least 10 hours a week online, and 45 percent read articles and magazines on the Web.
But according to Zoya Sakr, editor-in-chief of anaZahra.com, women in the Middle East are not happy with the content they find online, calling it poor quality content. “Sixty three percent [of the women] that we interviewed believed there’s a lack of relevance in Arabic content, so they look at international websites. [They] can’t find what they need in Arabic,” says Sakr.
Monica Mogab, regional PR manager at Procter & Gamble in Dubai says, “Online forums are one of the most dynamic forms of communication we have today. For one, they allow for more creativity than any other medium through the combined use of written words, images, and video footage. Today, women spend a lot of time online researching, exploring and making decisions on what to buy offline; the web has become an integral part of a woman’s life that cannot be ignored and that, if used correctly, can produce tremendous marketing results.”
Ghai says that building a platform for women to explore their interests also gives brand owners an outlet to develop relationships with powerful women behind the screens. “There hasn’t been a space where brands can target women with a degree of certainty and long-term engagement,” says Ghai. “Tactical is easy to find, but to build an affinity for brands and loyalty over the long term, that is not as easy. But once you engage 100 people to talk on your behalf, they will become the champions of your cause. AnaZahra.com is an exciting place for brand owners because it gives an ability to engage brands at a content production level; it’s about associating your brand, communicating objectively, and placing your content where women come to look for information and entertainment, so it’s an opportunity to innovate.”
With 900,000 mothers online across the Arabian Peninsula, Mogab says that women as social media users can mean the success or downfall of brands. “Investing in engaging female users online can be extremely fruitful since women often discuss their purchases,” she says. “They discuss, compare, analyze and recommend their purchases, making them ideal spokespeople for any product.”
