P World’s Marketing Kingdom Cairo 3 was a resounding success as members of the marketing community gathered to hear from international and local speakers. The event, held earlier this week, was filled to the brim with top hats of various companies and organizations. From agencies to companies, many were attracted to Marketing Kingdom’s third visit to Cairo.
With topics ranging from leadership, the use of AI in marketing, audio marketing and content marketing, the conference had knowledge in abundance.
Providing knowledge to the audience were speakers such as Ian Manning (Facebook), Priya Patel (Instagram), Scott Thwaites (Twitter) and Mohamed Abo El Fotouh (PepsiCo MENA).
Here are some of the things we learnt at this year’s Marketing Kingdom
1- Create Snackable Content:
According to Ian Manning, Head of Agencies, Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan for Facebook, 80% of people use secondary devices while watching TV, causing a separation of attention.
So how should we avoid the same thing on social media?
“On average, people scroll through their newsfeed at about 2.5 seconds on their desktop device. Let’s say I am scrolling, it takes about 1.7 seconds on average on mobile.” Says Manning.
So how do we capture their interest?
Create snackable content, content that can be taken, absorbed and understood in almost a blink of an eye. Short form video content such as Cinematographs, as well as fast and exciting vertical videos are great for on-the-go audiences.
Create content specifically for mobile and social media, this makes sure you are really reaching those audiences.
2- Create for Passion:
“Passions thrive on Instagram” says Priya Patel, Business Development Lead, Middle East, Turkey and Africa for Instagram, and just how true it is.
Read more on Passion ➤ Steve Jobs explains the rules for success. It’s all about Passion!
Instagram has grown itself on this particular word, Passion. Passion for food, animals, cars, and self-styling. What is to say that we cannot use the same thinking when it comes to other platforms?
Patel speaks about some creative considerations that we should think about
a: Use all the storytelling capabilities of your platform
Whether it is Instagram/Facebook Stories, Facebook Live and etc, use as much of it to get your story across.
With so many options, it has become both easier and harder to produce passionate content. Live or Stories can help provide an authentic and more down-to-earth tone, while 60 second videos give us more structured and polished works.
b: Use Time as a creative tool
Many of us are still held down by the 30-60 second rule that has been handed down to us from traditional marketers. We still need to get it through our heads, we can do better with less!
During his talk, Manning gave multiple examples on how brands can create amazing content in less than 10 seconds. The thing is, so can we. With some deep creative planning, and testing, we can get our brand messages to audiences in 3 blinks of an eye.
c: Visual Expression inspires visual action
In a world full of selfies, personal and “special branded” Instagram accounts, and imaginative use of video and photography, visual expression has become a popular thing. It is so popular, that multiple social media networks have been introduced to fill that gap.
You can also read more here ➤ Priya Patel from Instagram: Say no to anything that doesn’t have impact!
With visuals, people are more likely to take action. With visual expression and passion, that is authentic (at least to some degree), we can create visual action.
3- Use Arabic More:
It may seem like a contradiction, with many parents now opting to focus on English rather than Arabic for their kids, Marketing Kingdom speakers have come to this conclusion. We need more Arabic content.
Arabic is Twitter’s 3rd most used language, states Scott Thwaites, EMEA Partner Manager from Twitter. 5-6% of international content is in Arabic. There is a barely touched market out there, unfortunately many of us avoid it on social media.
Maybe it’s because Arabic is a hard language to get a message across to younger generations, or maybe it’s all the different types. Either way, there is a wide opportunity for those willing to go completely Arabic in all their social media work.
4- Each Platform has its own theme; use it accordingly
The 3 main social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat) all have a certain theme to its platform. This theme is why users flock to these specific places.
Facebook has always worked on connectivity or connecting people. People go on to Facebook to connect or even disconnect; from the outside world through memes and viral content, or connect with friends and family across long and short distances.
Due to its popularity, large amount of users and easy-to-use newsfeed, messages can easily be sent to the mass public.
Marketers are already (mostly) well focused when it comes to Facebook’s need for connection and brand building. It is with the others that we need to look out for.
Instagram, on the other hand, is all about passion. Just as Patel said, Passions thrive on Instagram, unfortunately the reason why many marketers don’t do well is a lack of understand and implanting this idea.
Many of us continue to simply copy and paste posts from Facebook to Instagram, but unless your posts are already colorful and passionate, this type of strategy won’t get you far.
If your other platforms have simpler tastes, then go WILD on your Insta.
5- Big Budgets Aren’t as Sexy as They Sound
Although we should take into account that many clients still currently will not create a big enough budget to include separate work for each platform, Patel does state that Instagram is platform where big budgets aren’t a need. They’re a want, and you can always work low-budget or even with no budget for your Instagram.
Twitter may not be the biggest talk of the town, but it still has a large enough Egyptian following to think about. With Arabic as its 3rd main language, Twitter has a lot of eyes on it.
“Twitter is an engine of Mass Influence” states Thawaites, and that it is.
Twitter is famous for being used as a tool for breaking news, and 35% of users are simply looking to be entertained and engaged in something.
For years, we have seen products breaking out on the platform. Apple famously uses the platform as a first-reveal platform for new products, as well communicating with their fans. We’ve also seen impactful news being broken out and shared on the platform.
Twitter can make an impact ➤ Barack Obama just broke a Twitter record with 3.6M likes
For the everyday though, posts that link to new releases (products or otherwise) would be a great option for marketers.
Overall, Marketing Kingdom was able to provide a wealth of industry statistics and information, as well as interesting insights both in the minds of top agency heads and marketing tools such as AI and Social Media.
This is the 3rd year in which Marketing Kingdom has been held in Cairo.
