Spotlight on Digital Media Transformation at Arabnet Summit

In its 4th consecutive year, the ArabNet Digital Summit will highlight the trends and technologies that are transforming how agencies, brands and publishers work together to reach consumers and influence decision-making.

“The advertising industry is not alien to new technologies, and has always brought forward creative thinking to survive changes and reach audiences. Today they’re facing tremendous transformations that are altering the way they and their clients work together in reaching audiences better,” says Omar Habib, Marketing Director at ArabNet

PWC expects the UAE’s digital advertising sector alone is set to rise to $735m by 2018, for a compound annual growth rate of 34.6 per cent. They highlight that this would be the highest growth rate globally. Digital media budgets have been multiplied by 10-fold in just the 5 past years, indicating steeper growth yet to come.

In line with this growth, the ArabNet Digital Summit will feature dedicated tracks for discussions on new trends in digital media and marketing, including global keynotes from companies like MEC, Ipsos, GoDaddy, R/GA and Starcom. For the second year in a row, the Summit will include the “Next Track,” sponsored by Starcom, which will bring industry leaders from brands, publishers, agencies and technology platforms to discuss the latest challenges and opportunities in the fields of media and advertising. 

"What started as a stage for technology platforms, industry leaders and publishers is now a premier opportunity for tomorrow’s disruptors-in-waiting to emerge” said Maha el Gazzar, Director of Communication and Brand Marketing, Starcom MENA, on the ArabNet Digital Summit’s long track record as a digital leader in the region.

With the surge of platforms, the race is on to capture consumer share of mind and share of wallet. ArabNet will tackle how to leverage native and programmatic advertising, also championed by DMS (Choueiry Group). 

It will also discuss snapchat and new social media platforms, video content and much more. “It’s with a backdrop of change and success that Starcom is proud again this year to be hosting the Next Track at ArabNet and continue highlighting the rapidly evolving dynamics across the media and tech industries." said El Gazzar.

A slew of international and regional speakers will be joining the Digital Summit to shed light on the transformations happening across the globe. On the media and marketing side, attending leaders include Publicis MENA Chairman, Alex Saber; MEC’s Chief Digital Officer, Rogier Croes; R/GA’s SVP / Executive Creative Director, MD EMEA James Temple; Affinio’s VP Head EMEA, Philip Macartney; Snaplytics’s CEO and co-founder, Thomas Cilius, and PepsiCo’s Head of Consumer Engagement and Media MENA, Dani Afiouni, to name a few.

The Digital Summit also features the Smart Economy Track, discussing how digital is transforming enterprises in the public and private sectors, from smart cities, to connected lives, machine-to-machine learning, big data, corporate investments, and much more. The UAE is the largest e-commerce market in the Middle East, a region currently leading global e-commerce growth. According to research firm Frost & Sullivan, the country’s e-commerce market is worth nearly $2.5bn a year and is expected to quadruple by 2018. 

The ArabNet Digital Summit 2016 will be held on May 30-31 at the Madinat Jumeirah Conference and Events Centre in Dubai, and is expected to be one of the most exclusive ArabNet events yet.  Past ArabNet events have notably attracted top speakers, participants, and partners from corporations such as Smart Dubai, Souq.com, Du, Touch, Alfa, TBWA, Facebook, DMS, Majid Al Futtaim, JWT, STC, Twitter, Starcom, Criteo, SkyNews, VISA, Leo Burnett, Deloitte, LBC, Microsoft, Uber, Vivaki, GE, MakerStudios (Disney), FP7, 500Startups, OMD, International New York Times, and many more.