AGENCY BIO

Founded  2003
Parent company  Microsoft
Regional offices opened  2012
Head of LinkedIn marketing solutions MENA  Ziad Rahhal
Global HQ  Sunnyvale, California
Regional HQ  Dubai
Number of users worldwide  More than 675 millions across 200 countries
Regional users  More than 33 million
in the MENA region; more than 4 million in the UAE

LinkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful, and transforms the ways companies hire, market and sell. Our vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce through the ongoing development of the world’s first Economic Graph.

Primary media on the platform 
Sponsored content delivered natively in the feed and featuring video or multiple images.

User demographic
Our members are professionals looking to connect, develop and find opportunities. We are seeing that they are spending more and more time on the platform (sessions increased 25 per cent year-on-year as engagement reached record levels).

What do people best know you as?
The world’s largest professional network and the safest and most trusted social platform, where members consume and share professional content.

What is the Biggest misconception about the platform?
That it’s purely a job and B2B platform. In reality it is a platform where members consume professional and relevant content from their industry and interests, to learn and upgrade their skills.

Regional influencers on LinkedIn
HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, HH Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Justin Trudeau, Ray Dalio, Jamie Dimon

Regional brands on LinkedIn
IBM, Mercedes, Ford, Expo2020, Emirates NBD

What can you do best for brands?
We allow both B2B and high-end-consideration B2C brands to implement a full-funnel marketing strategy in a brand-safe environment. From awareness to consideration and conversion, from brand-building to sales, it offers a complete ad experience within the safest and most trusted environment.

What event do people in the region best know LinkedIn for?
The LinkedIn Marketing Awards, recognising the best B2B campaigns; and The LinkedIn Talent Awards, recognising the best employer brands and recruitment strategy in the region

What are the KPIs brands look for on your platform?
Beyond the usual metrics (CPM, CPC, etc.) and engagement rates, brands are looking for full-funnel marketing approach, consolidating awareness and consideration (reach, SOV, brand uplift, websites analytics) with pure performance through high relevance and quality of leads. Our customers also love our unique reporting capabilities in terms of industry, job position, education level, etc.

What new features for marketers have you launched in the last year?
New LinkedIn Pages, featuring a better mobile experience, advanced analytics, associated hashtags and tech-partner integration. LinkedIn Live Streaming allows brands and members to stream live events, interviews, demos, launches, etc. Objectives-Based Advertising allows brands to input main marketing funnel objectives to achieve better ROI.

What new features can we look forward to in the next year?
Conversion Ads will allow brands to use the built-in messaging functionality of LinkedIn with guided replies and multiple calls to action. And engagement re-targeting will allow brands to build a tailored ad experience based on actions members take with your content.

Viewpoint

Ziad Rahhal

Head of LinkedIn marketing solutions, MENA

What’s your favourite brand campaign on your platform?

I will have to be slightly biased to the region for this one. My favorite ones are home-grown, and a testament to the incredible talent we have in the industry, across the eco-system:

Ford MEA is one of the best brands on LinkedIn. They’ve built a comprehensive communication strategy for their fleet business expressed in organic content and brand campaigns as well as acquisition and lead generation activity. They’re not afraid to inject humour into their content and believe in the value of brand-building to sustain a healthy sales strategy. They have rightly identified a good mix between emotional and rational content, and because of that, they
stand out.

What have become the campaign clichés on your platform?

I still see transactional content as advertisers prioritise shorter-term lead-
generation objectives at the expense of brand building. Brands should have an always-on presence on their platforms of choice, and offer something to their audiences (white papers, case studies, insights). Brands that are winning give as much as they take.

What would you like to see brands doing more of on your platform?

LinkedIn works best when content is balanced between acquisition and brand, and between emotional and rational content. I would love to see more courage when communicating on LinkedIn, striking that balance allows you to build your brand and create an emotional connection with the buyers of tomorrow. We are business-to-human before being B2C or B2B.