The MENA CMO Podcast: Recent Episodes
Farah Souhail
Marketing stories from the Middle East & North Africa!
MENA (Middle East & North Africa) is one of the most vibrant and rapidlly changing regions. Spead across 20 countries and more than 200 million consumers, this vast region presents many challenges and plenty of opportunities.
With more than a decade of marketing experience and a special interest in the MENA region, I am super excited to be launching this podcast, the 1st of its kind to help navigate MENA's marketing and communcations landscape.
In this podcast I will sit down with the most dynamic CMOs and MarCom professionals to paint a picture of what works in the world of marketing and communications from a MENA perspective.
Brand strategy, paid social, marketing automation,influencer marketing and many more topics I will be discussing with my guests to reveal the vision for marketing in the post-digital ara in the MENA region.
Bi-weekly episodes will be packed with marketing insights that inspire action and top tips that you can implement to improve your MarCom results.
Join me to learn and be inspired by the experts that are shaping the MarCom industry in MENA.
Covid 19 changed our lives unexpectedly; from the way we work, the way we socialise to the way we shop and spend money. Things we used to take for granted, like going shopping with a friend and enjoying a lovely meal at a restaurant with family were all of a suddent out of reach.
During roughly 90 days of lockdown, brands around the world had to adjust their strategies to adapt to these unprecedent changes in consumers behaviour.
Now that lockdowns and restrictions are being slowly lifted around the world, how can brands prepare for their future success?
In this special episode, Akanksha Goel, Founder & Managing Director at Socialize Agency will share with us how she is guiding brands in the MENA region to prepare for life after lockdown. You'll learn:
- Key changes in consumer behaviour in MENA
- How MENA brands adapted their #marketing strategies during lockdown
- How brands can keep up the momentum and be prepared for the 'new' normal
Happy listening :)
You find a product you like, you promote it to others through an affiliate link or a promo code and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make. This is affiliate marketing; which is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people's products and or services.
Sound appealing right? Many brands in the work have an affiliate marketing program though which they work with affiliates who promote their brands and/or service for an agreed commision. Amazon runs, arguably one of the biggest affiliate marketing programs in the world.
In this episode we explore affiliate marketing in the MENA region. Rahman Hussain, Founder and CEO of DCMnetwork will share with you his knowledge and expertise helping the regions biggest brands establish and run their affiliate marketing program. You'll learn:
- What's affiliate marketing and how it can help your brand grow
- What you need as a brand to launch your affiliate marketing program
- The state of affiliate marketing in MENA and the growth its currently experiencing
Happy listening :)
Does advertising reflect the societal changes happening in the GCC and wider MENA region?
In this special episode I sit down with Dr Ganga Dhanesh from Zayed University, who is part of a leading research team which examines gender portayal in advertising in the Middle East.
Research on this topic is scarce in MENA. With the aim to help bridge the gap between academia and the practical world of marketing, Ganga shares key findings and takeaways related to the depiction of men and women in advertising in the region.
Jean Killbourne says "ads sell a great deal more than products. They sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy. They tell us who we are and who we should be."
Tune in now to find out more about this unique research. You'll lean:
- Key findings and takeaways related to the depiction of men and women in advertising in the region
- Perceptions and attitudes towards femvertising and menvertising in the region
- Recommendations for brands and advertisers on how to improve the way #women are depicted in ads
Happy listening :)
Influencer marketing in the GCC and the wider MENA region is hugely popular. Whether they are macro, micro or nano influencers, brands in the region love them! Some report that local brands in the GCC spend 80% of their marketing budget on influencer marketing.
Despite its popularity, this young industry is riddled with challenges; from fraud and lack of regulations and transparency to spreading misinformation.
In this episode Mahmoud Boksmati walks us through the good, the bad and the ugly about brand-influencer relations. Mahmoud is the Co-founder and Product Lead at The Influencer; one of the 1st regionally grown marketplaces and agencies connecting brands with influencers across MENA.
Tune in to learn about:
- The evolution of influencer marketplaces in MENA and beyond
- How you can effectively measure ROI for your influencer marketing campaigns
- Top tops for brands to improve their influencer marketing strategy
- Top tips for influencers to build trust and increase influence
This is a passion project!
Throughout my career I was fortunate to work on B2B and B2C marketing projects in different countries across the region, including UAE, Saudi, Qatar, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt. As a result, I have always taken a special interest in MENA's marketing and digital communications landscape.
The challenge I and many marketers face is that there is little knowledge available about what works in marketing and communications from a MENA perspective.
While there has been an increase the number of industry publications and other initiatives to facilitate knowledge sharing, most content availale is about strategies and tactics that work in Western countries where consumer behavior is different compared to the MENA region.
My ambition for this podcast is to give MENA MarCom professionals a platform to share their knowledge and expertise with other MarCom professionals in the region. Through them I aim to help navigate the challenges of engaging and connecting with consumers and reveal the secrets of effective marketing strategies that work for MENA consumers.
Throughout my career I have build great relationships with many MarCom professionals who are shaping the Marketing industry in the region. I look forward to connecting with them through this podcast to learn and get inspired by them.
Stay tuned :)
Discover how brands in the Middle East and North Africa are adapting their marketing strategies in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
In this episode, Amer shares his insights on the changing consumer behaviour in MENA, the role of influencer marketinh in the region and why it is important to stay on top of consumers' mind.