Saudi Arabia Prime Market for Digital Marketing

DUBAI, UAE, March 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- In a recent survey conducted by the International Quality & Productivity Centre, 73% of 1,048 respondents have chosen Saudi Arabia as the country they are most likely to position their digital marketing focus for 2010-2011.

In a country of almost 30 million where 40% of the population are Arabic speaking digital natives - there has been a rapid increase in global media and consultancies competing to do business with local companies and brands in their native language.

The acquisition of Maktoob by Yahoo! in 2009 along with Google's recent announcement to launch its Buzz feature in Arabic predicts a robust and sustained future for the digital marketing industry in the region.

At the recent partnership launch between Facebook and Connect Ads it was revealed that 9.7 million people in the region are part of the social networking platform, providing a great opportunity for brands to actively engage directly with this as-yet untapped consumer base.

Click 4.0, a digital marketing conference being held in Dubai from June 20 to 24 2010 commissioned this survey to gauge what marketers across all industries in the region felt about critical subjects like social media, integration of digital marketing into the traditional campaign mix and tackling transparency issues. The survey aims to provide an accurate reflection of the most pressing issues marketers face in order to help the developers of Click 4.0 feature the strategies and solutions needed to tackle them.

51% of respondents also mentioned that their biggest dilemma in the region was marketing in Arabic, with one marketer wondering how to 'create remarkable, relevant content... which sticks or resonates' with the target market.

Abdulla Al-Dabbagh, Marketing Manager of Yahoo! Middle East, Lead Sponsor for Click 4.0 says "The Internet is a great tool for advertisers as it provides them with the tools to effectively engage with the region's online consumers through various sophisticated targeting capabilities and innovative engagement opportunities. There is a great potential in this market where the spending on online advertising is expected to grow by 35 - 40% this year in the region, according to Madar Research. Online is definitely the way forward and our region is on the right track!"

Joining Yahoo! Middle East as speakers are the region's digital leaders including Yousef Tuqan of Flip Media, Abdullatif Al Sayegh, former CEO of Arab Media Group, Alex McNabb of Spot On PR, Kapil Bhatia of HSBC Middle East Limited, Islam Zween of Logta.com and Reem Bishara of Burger King. International support for the event has come from all aspects of the digital marketing industry, including Digital Buzz - the world's number one digital marketing blog, Communicate Magazine, Mashable, eConsultancy, Zawya and Visibility Magazine.

    Contact:
    Anthony J Permal
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SOURCE IQPC Middle East