Sarah Personette, Head of Global Business Marketing at Facebook participates as the keynote speaker at The Festival of Media.

Video viewing grew by 138% in the UAE and 75% globally; revealed during the Ramadan Marketers Event

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 15 April 2015

Facebook empowers marketers to reach the right audiences at the right place and time, thus allowing greater brand engagement.

As a keynote speaker at The Festival of Media, Sarah Personette, Head of Global Business Marketing at Facebook, highlighted the importance of tailoring content to specific audiences, to give a boost to brand engagement. She also emphasized on the need to adopt personalized marketing, in order to add more value to brand campaigns, especially that people pay more attention to what is relevant to them the most.

During the keynote speech, Personette said, "As the world turns mobile, multi-screen viewing is becoming a norm. Recent Facebook figures reveal that 82 per cent of the Monthly Active People and 80 per cent of the Daily Active People in the MENA region are on mobile, which is an extremely personal space, and it is crucial that marketers cater content to fit mobile while also ensuring the relevance to their targeted audiences."

Viewership of digital videos on Facebook has increased by 300 per cent and the global time spent watching television has declined by two per cent, with growth in digital viewing on Facebook in the UAE increasing by 138 per cent, in comparison to 75 per cent globally.

The figures were revealed at the Facebook Ramadan Marketers event, held in Dubai, and aimed at providing leading brands and marketing experts with insight on staying relevant to consumers' interests and to help establish stronger brand relationships during Ramadan. 

Speaking at the event, Sarah Personette, outlined the significance of personalized marketing at scale and said: "Ramadan is unlike any other month of the year, where Muslims throughout the world observe this Holy Month and are blessed with stronger spiritual, cultural and social rituals. During this month, people have maximum engagements online with their friends, families and even their favorite brands.

"Therefore, with 79 million Monthly Active Users (MAP) in the MENA region, Facebook provides marketers with unlimited options to reach desired consumers at an unprecedented scale," she added.

Facebook has become the second screen when watching television during Ramadan, where people stay updated to information that matters to them the most, and engage with campaigns in real time.  

Jonathan Labin, Head of Facebook, MENA and Pakistan also commented during the Ramadan Marketers Event, "The region has seen video viewing grow at an unprecedented rate, partly driven by the shift to mobile. Globally, there is an average of more than three billion video views daily on Facebook and more than two billion interactions every week on Facebook between public figures and their fans. This growth presents marketers and brands with immense opportunities to deliver powerful brand stories by capturing sight, sound, and motion, especially on mobile."

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© Press Release 2015