Ramadan Highlights Middle East’s Demand for Influencer Marketing on Social Media

Dubai, May 5 2023 – Emplifi, a leading unified customer engagement platform, today announced findings from its Ramadan Live Listening Dashboard which tracked the social media buzz around the occasion. Middle Eastern brands and marketers have increasingly been exploring trends with influencer marketing and content creators – this is particularly the case with shifting budgets and optimizing return on investment.

“Ramadan is observed by numerous people in many different countries, and it presents a great opportunity for brands and businesses to be inclusive of their audiences,” said Heba Al Nabulsi, Director of Solution Consultants and Ambassadors for MEA, Turkey & South Asia at Emplifi. “Social media is ingrained in today’s world, it’s how brands interact with the modern consumer and this year we’ve seen how content creators have made a difference to campaigns.”

Emplifi data covering the period 14 March till 17 April 2023 – the final week of Ramadan, found the potential impressions for all content captured is equivalent to USD 418.51 billion. The theme of Ramadan was mentioned in 3.73 million posts, with 2.34 million mentions from those in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and 185,755 mentions from those in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Instagram has long been the leading platform for influencer marketing efforts – it is highly visual and has made its mark as the go-to place for authentic content. Given this, and the popularity of short-form video with its effectiveness in grabbing audience attention and going viral, it’s not surprising that the top brand posts on Instagram were all Reels content. During Ramadan, Burj Khalifa (@burjkhalifa) reposted The Crown Prince of Dubai’s (@faz3) Ramadan greeting on 23 March. The post showcased the iconic Burj Khalifa, an Emaar destination, and was consistently in the number one spot throughout the occasion with 95,100 total interactions.

This Ramadan, several brands have worked with influencers to help promote campaigns. Influencers focus on creating meaningful and valuable content that will resonate with their followers and partner with brands their fans will be interested in. This can be seen with Nour Arida, Arab woman of the year and an influencer who highlights Ramadan fashion and various brand collaborations with LOEWE, Fendi, and Dior, among others.

Most importantly, across all social media posts, content that recognized Ramadan to be a religious occasion and a time of giving was most successful. On Instagram, the top influencer post with the highest interactions in UAE was by Money Kicks (@rsbelhasa) on 24 March, with 544,100 total interactions. It highlighted the influencer’s visit to KSA to perform Umrah. The top brand post on the platform was QalbyEtmaan (@qalbyetmaan) snippets from the reality TV show showcasing Ghaith (an Emirati man hiding his face), traveling to different countries to help others in need regardless of their background. Posted on 3 April with 87,100 total interactions, the program is popular as it only airs during Ramadan and focuses on giving back to the community.

“While this year’s Ramadan period is coming to an end, it will be interesting to see what social media trends take off in the Middle East. Brands have realized the power of influencer marketing and we do expect the use of user-generated content to follow in a similar vein. Both methods create authentic and relatable experiences for customers, which is a must for brands in today’s world,” concludes Al Nabulsi.

Methodology

Emplifi’s Ramadan Live Listening Dashboard captured data from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube from 14 March up to and including 21 April 2023. Users could:

• View top interactions and the best-performing posts across various time frames – today, yesterday, the last 7 days, or the last 30 days.
• Identify topical conversations and what people are saying with hashtags, topics, and keywords.
• Look at mentions by country: UAE, KSA, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, and Iraq.

About Emplifi

Emplifi is a leading unified customer engagement platform that empowers businesses to reach and grow communities through digital- and social-first strategies. More than 20,000 brands like McDonald’s, Ford Motor Company, and Delta Air Lines rely on Emplifi to enable connected, empathetic experiences for the modern consumer across marketing, commerce, and care. Headquartered in New York, Emplifi partners with major social media networks and digital platforms, including Google, Meta, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and Snapchat. For more information, visit www.emplifi.io.