Until a few years ago, marketers and advertisers in the MENA region were unsure about how to approach digital media. TV was a ubiquitous and familiar medium, offered high reach and could be used to target both local as well as pan Arab audiences.

However, since the early part of this decade, the inexorable rise of smartphones and tablets, increasing usage of social media and viewership of online content have forced marketers to take notice of the opportunities in digital advertising.

GCC markets have some of the highest smartphone penetrations in the world (90 per cent plus) and even in not-so-affluent North African countries like Egypt and Morocco, more than 50 per cent of urban consumers do own smartphones.

Anywhere connectivity, seamless experience across devices and fast and uninterrupted streaming are basic consumer expectations, across markets. With MENA consumers spending more and more time online, there has been a gradual shift in advertising budgets from traditional to digital media — it is estimated that online advertising spend across MENA was $300 million in 2014, but is growing at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 37 per cent and would reach $1 billion by 2017.

Digital advertising does offer some unique advantages over advertising in traditional media, such as:

Higher engagement with medium

Consumers typically access online media to search, connect, share or buy — in that sense, online experiences are “lean forward” (i.e., consumer is more actively engaged) in contrast to TV, which is more of a “lean back” medium (consumer is less engaged with the medium). Targeting consumers with relevant messages on online media is therefore likely to generate much higher engagement and stickiness of the message.

Creating brand buzz

With most online consumer connected to social media like Facebook, Snapchat and WhatsApp, creative online content that resonates can very quickly create brand buzz. One of the first successful online campaigns in the region was for Beat FM, a radio station in Jordan, which used a celebrity lookalike competition on Facebook to create buzz about the brand.

Focused messaging

If used well, online advertising can be highly effective in delivering a focused message to the target audience, at a much lower cost as compared to traditional media. In a recent campaign, HSBC used a six second YouTube pre-roll to communicate “itsquick” money transfer service across accounts in different countries.

The use of the track bar to illustrate the speed at which money is transferred across countries was an inspired choice that delivered the intended message very succinctly.

Micro targeting

While traditional media like TV is a great way of broadcasting messages to a wide target audience, digital media offers the ability to design specific messages to target ‘moments in real time’. Effective targeting of moments offers brands the ability to connect with consumers at the time that they are most relevant to the consumer’s need — e.g. an ad for hotels in Prague when someone books a Dubai-Prague air ticket.

Going a step further by incorporating context — where, what time of day, what device, and what need — can allow triggering of different types of messages, targeting specific consumer moments better. For instance, a search for “Chinese food” from a PC at 5pm on a weekday could trigger recipes for Chinese dishes, whereas the same query at 9pm from a mobile device could trigger directions to nearby Chinese restaurants.

Consumer-brand connect

And finally, perhaps the biggest advantage that digital offers is the ability to create a consumer-brand connect, like no other medium. Consumers taking part in Facebook contests, sharing online videos or tweeting about online ads, all create a level of connect that is just not possible with traditional media like TV or print. With marketers increasingly looking at opportunities to co-create with consumers, digital platforms offer the means to create deep and meaningful consumer-brand connect.

There is no doubt that digital advertising has come of age in the MENA region. It is estimated that digital spends constituted 10 per cent of all advertising spends across MENA in 2015 and this is expected to increase to 16-17 per cent by 2017.

While there is still a place for TV and print in the short to medium term, marketers need to start thinking of digital strategies to remain connected with consumers who not only go online, but increasingly live online.

The writer is CEO of AMRB, a Kantar Group research agency.