WARC, the global authority on advertising and media effectiveness, has released the 2019 MENA Strategy Report that outlines successful key marketing trends in the region.

“This year’s entries demonstrated a more robust style of strategic thinking across the region that generated some impressive returns,” said Lucy Aitken, Managing Editor, Case Studies, WARC in a statement.  The four themes highlighted in the report include are: strong strategies rely on real stories, new strategies to target parents, content strategies are diversified along the region and finally that businesses are driving footfall both in-store and online.

The report is a sum up of the results of this year’s WARC Prize for MENA Strategy, which is “a search for the best strategic marketing ideas that have delivered results,” the statement said.

According to WARC, marketing strategies within the region has been inspired by genuine events. “People care about people. Not brands. But if your brand puts people’s stories front and centre, they might just care about your brand a little more,” said Ali Cheikhali, Creative Strategist, Google ZOO in the statement. For example, Byblos Bank in Lebanon showed how older Lebanese generation  had achieved their dreams in the country, reframing the country as a place to prosper.

Moreover, as millennials are entering a new life phase, becoming parents, strategies has focused on packaging to their needs. Hence, the strategies has focused on appealing to these new parents that are different than their older generation of parents.

Nonetheless, with this shift in the market’s demographics, brands have realized the need to create content strategies that are more varied across the region and that can directly speak to the audience.”Today, the conversation is not about intrusion anymore, but whether your content takes them away from what they are currently consuming,” said Asma Shabab, Digital Business Strategy and Experience Consultant, IBM iX in the statement. An example is how Nescafé Dolce Gusto’s Coffee Corners encouraged people to create their coffee style in their own homes.

The report also touched on the retail sector that uses ways to drive footfall both in-store and online. The retail sector faces significant challenges across the MENA region with many businesses successfully identifying and implementing original ways.

According to PwC, just 2-3 percent of all MENA retail is online, compared with 10-15 percent in developed Western markets.