The report, titled “Stay, Spend, Scale: From Summer Slump to Growth Surge,” draws on recent data from YouGov, TikTok and Platformance’s own performance marketing arm, Calibrate Commerce. It outlines how shifts in resident behaviour and media dynamics now position summer as an underused window for brands ready to act.

What the Data Shows

Around 70 percent of residents in the UAE and Saudi Arabia plan to remain in country this summer

High earners and families are more likely to stay than leave

Cost PerLeads fall by up to 20 percent in early summer, with improved conversion rates and lower media noise

Spending is shifting indoors and online, particularly around wellness, entertainment and digital first retail

From Perception to Possibility

The report encourages marketers to approach the season with fresh eyes, supported by a clear action plan.

Platformance recommends brands:

Build campaigns that move from brand to performance across the funnel

Experiment with new formats such as CTV, gaming and shoppable video while costs are lower

Lean into Arabic first creative and culturally aware storytelling

Track business outcomes, not just media activity

Why Platformance Built This

Platformance is designed to help brands grow in ways that are measurable, regionally tuned and commercially accountable. This report reflects that thinking.  Grounded in data, shaped by ongoing performance insight, and meant to support brands looking to move early and grow steadily.

Download the full report here

After five extraordinarily demanding years, costs are still increasing for retailers, driven by rising wages, further input-cost increases, supply-chain imbalances, and other complications. As costs climb, heightened pressure on consumer spending leaves little room to increase prices to preserve margins. Many executive teams feel they have already done what they can with productivity initiatives, leaving no additional savings available in the current cost structure.

AI is starting to unlock big savings. In Bain & Company’s cross-sector survey of generative-AI adoption, companies reported average productivity gains of 15% across eight key functions, leading to a 9% bottom-line impact from decreased cost or increased revenue. As AI accelerates tasks further, the prize will only get bigger, especially if retailers convert more of their time savings into either cost savings (through leaner structures) or top-line gains (through redeploying freed-up staff to higher-value activities).

Contact centers and administrative work are among the highest-potential areas for generative AI in retail. One retailer that created an AI copilot to advise on procedural queries found that store associates no longer had to scour user manuals, freeing time for customer interaction and reducing calls to HR and maintenance teams. Elsewhere, AI has cut the time it takes buyers to value a supplier’s offer from forty-five to fifteen minutes.

Yet to exploit these digital advances fully, retailers must also succeed in the very human task of overhauling the way they work, fixing the underlying inefficiencies, ingrown processes, and data-management failings that have been holding them back for years, or even decades. The brief outlines five principles for tech-enabled cost transformation:

1. Plan with a bold ambition.
2. Embrace zero-based redesign.
3. Get more from data.
4. Collaborate across functions.
5. Master change management.

With its keen operational focus, retail has a strong record of productivity gains, but most cost programs have still left money on the table. Now, retailers have a chance to be more efficient than ever, by embracing new technology and honing their overall approach to cost control. That opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time.

Omnichannel advertising is a game-changer. It allows marketers to tap into the unique strengths of individual media channels while also unlocking the power of combining them together. Since audiences are spread across so many different platforms, this approach helps media buyers understand what channels—or combination of channels— reaches their audiences most efficiently.

Simply put, omnichannel campaigns combine three or more channels in dynamic ways to meet people where they spend their time.

The media landscape has never been more fragmented, with audiences engaging across a constantly growing array of channels and devices. Today’s digital journey is no longer a simple, linear path—it’s a multi-faceted experience that evolves throughout the day. To keep pace with this ever-changing reality, media plans cannot rely on a single-channel approach. This is where an omnichannel advertising strategy comes into play.

As a mobile-first region, home to one of the world’s most useful populations, there is rocket-growth potential for the industry to lean into omnichannel. With the shift from traditional advertising channels to digital, consumers spend a lot of time on connected devices, including smartphones, CTVs and computers, and are exposed to digital out-of-home screens. Looking at the UAE, 65% watch streaming content daily which account fror an average 11% weekly time. Brands need to establish and build consumer loyalty through coordinated, relevant advertising across digital channels to win hearts and minds. The industry is ripe for a change in strategy and the opportunity is right in front of us.

Can you walk us more as to the results of the survey you have conducted? And how does this affect advertising people?

Before I get into the results, let me first shed a bit more light on the research methodology we used. For this study, we developed a research programme that combined several methodologies to dive into how omnichannel advertising works, and importantly, why. We did a naturalistic neuro-insights experience to understand the subconscious effect of different advertising strategies with three-hour media sessions with 78 participants, a large-scale survey to understand audience needs across media, and 30 participants kept detailed media diaries documenting their media consumption patterns and encounters with advertising.

Combining these research methods uncovered the extent and depth of the advantage omnichannel campaigns have over disconnected ones, both for brand performance and the audience experience. For instance, omnichannel campaigns were found to be 1.5x more persuasive and 2.2x less fatiguing than disconnected campaigns. In fact, omnichannel campaigns outperformed disconnected campaigns across all metrics measured. They gleaned 1.4x attention, 1.9x emotional connection and 1.2x the long-term memory encoding.

What this means is that omnichannel campaigns delivered better recall (immersion), brand salience (attention), brand association (long-term memory) and intent (connection), whilst also delivering a better consumer experience.

The results are clear: channels are more effective when they connect together. This research proves that integrating multiple channels in an omnichannel strategy not only improves performance for marketers but also creates a more seamless and engaging experience for audiences.

Truth be told your sample seemed to be non-GCC, do you feel the same applies to the region and the “average” consumer here?

This research is designed as a macro exploration of omnichannel strategies, though the application will ultimately vary by brand, audience and specific campaign KPIs. By using a combination of methodologies, we sought to understand the impact of omnichannel in a broadly universal way, elevating beyond a specific campaign or moment in time. By sharing the findings of this research, we aim to inspire marketers to adopt a more connected approach to advertising and experiment with the alchemy of omnichannel.

Consumers move through eight distinct media engagement spaces daily, yet the question is – do we still pay attention to them as we ought to? If not, how do we push consumers to do so?

Critically, this research showed that media consumption isn’t random – there are predictable patterns tied to people’s daily routines and psychological states.

By applying a framework called ‘dynamic engagement spaces’ to the quantitative data, we gained a deep understanding of audience media engagement using three dimensions:

Mindsets: The emotional and rational motivations behind how people engage with media.

Moments: The contexts in which people use media, whether at home or outside, and what they are doing at that specific time.

Media: The specific media that people choose based on their mindset and the moment they’re in.

Based on this framework, we identified eight media engagement spaces that audiences navigated throughout their day. We also uncovered the factors that drive audiences to engage with different types of media within those spaces, helping us determine which channels are most effective for reaching consumers.

By understanding audiences' media engagement spaces through the day, we gather a deeper understanding not only of the right channel to reach them on, but also the best way to craft an advertising message for each space.

From a regional perspective, what could be interesting for further development of this, is to use this framework to see how people move through the different engagement spaces through their day with the rhythms of Ramadan for brands to see how they can connect most effectively with audiences across multiple channels and devices during the holy month.

Apparently, omnichannels are “more than the sum of their parts” meaning they feed on each other, can you explain this further?

That’s true, channels are stronger together and in an omnichannel strategy channels are united for greater impact.

Even in a disconnected strategy, each channel serves a specific purpose. It acts as a touchpoint for the audience and is particularly skilled at delivering on a specific KPI. However, the alchemy that occurs when channels are connected in an omnichannel way supercharges them far beyond how they perform in a silo. We can understand this better by taking some key channels in turn:

Connected TV (CTV) is most effective for building emotional connection. In an omnichannel strategy, it captures higher attention and is less fatiguing than when exposed in a disconnected way. We see a rise in CTV viewing habits in the UAE, which is a result of the growth of streaming platforms and the availability of diverse content

Audio reaches audiences when no other channel can, whether they’re preparing for their day or seeking background companionship. On its own it provides high recall, but in an omnichannel context it delivers even higher recall and stronger emotional connection, therefore reducing audience fatigue. With the growth of audio in the MENA region, there is a vast, cost-effective opportunity for audio in this market. In Saudi Arabia and the UAE 67% and 62% listen to one hour a week above the US level of 38% and 26% in the UK. 

Digital-out-of-home (DOOH) excels at building brand associations by encoding messages into long-term memory. In an omnichannel strategy, it serves as a strong primer for other channels. There have been many advancements in Programmatic Digital Out of Home (PDOOH) in the UAE and Qatar in particular, making these markets globally competitive, but there are no programmatic opportunities for DOOH in Saudi Arabia yet, another big market that lies in front of us.

Display and online video, these channels (tested together due to how they are consumed) saw the greatest performance boost when connected in an omnichannel strategy. Display and online video saw 4.7x the attention, 5.8x the emotional connection and 3.3x greater memory encoding in an omnichannel strategy, compared to the same ads in a disconnected approach. This highlights the importance of identity and retail strategy in this space here in the region. In this market it’s all ahead of us to reap the full potential.

Some of the key findings are as follows:

1. Lack of Confidence in Government: Over 60% of Arab youth outside the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries express a lack of confidence in their government's ability to address pressing concerns like unemployment, corruption, and rising living costs. This feeling of estrangement is most pronounced in five years.

2. Decline in Youth Voice Perception: More than half (54%) of the respondents feel that their voices do not matter to their country's leadership. This marks a significant drop of 19 percentage points compared to 2022.

3. GCC Governments' Positive Perception: In contrast, Arab youth in the GCC states exhibit more confidence in their governments. Approximately 78% of GCC youth believe their voice matters to their leadership, and 87% feel that their government has the right policies to address their concerns.

4. Issues Facing Arab Youth: Across the entire sample, unemployment, government corruption, rising living costs, economic instability, and climate change are identified as the top concerns facing young Arabs in the region.

5. Youth Unemployment and Job Creation: Youth unemployment in the region exceeds 26% with approximately 32% of young individuals aged 15 to 24 not involved in employment, education, or training. The United Nations urges the region to generate 33.3 million jobs by 2030 to accommodate the influx of young people entering the workforce.

6. Arab Youth Entrepreneurship: Evidently, the entrepreneurial spirit is present with GCC states showing the strongest desire for entrepreneurship at 53%, followed by the Levant at 39%, and North Africa at 37%. 42% of young Arab men and women aim to establish their own businesses within the next five years. 

7. Changing Job Preferences: Arab youth increasingly prefer private sector jobs over government employment (30% prefer government jobs, a decline from nearly half in 2019). 33% of Arab youth now prefer working in business, reflecting a 13% increase from 2022. 25% of young Arabs desire to work for themselves or their family, slightly declining from 2022 but showing a six-percentage point jump since 2019. 11% of respondents express a preference for working in non-profit organizations.

Commenting on the survey, Sunil John, President, MENA, BCW and Founder of ASDA’A BCW, said, "What stands out in this year’s survey is the fact that, once again, young GCC citizens are poles apart from their fellow Arabs in North Africa and the Levant. Over the past 15 years, our research has been a barometer of the hopes and fears of Arab youth in countries outside the Arabian Gulf, particularly on kitchen table issues such as jobs and rising living costs. A path to a better future for these young men and women must be found if we are to ensure the Arab world’s precious youth dividend is not lost."

The survey's comprehensive insights will be released under six themes, with the first two, 'My Global Citizenship' and 'My Politics', already announced. Subsequent themes will cover 'My Livelihood', 'My Identity', 'My Aspirations', and 'My Lifestyle'. Additionally, findings on climate change, mental health, and gender rights will make this year's study the most extensive in the survey's history. 

To know more about the findings, log on to arabyouthsurvey.com

“According to a study we did last year, 9 in 10 UAE businesses now offer dedicated mobile apps for their customers. In this crowded space, marketers are under pressure to drive up app installs via mobile ads. But given budgets are tight, several are experimenting with new media sources and channels that are often more susceptible to fraud. Ad networks, in addition, are also trying to increase profitability and they are taking riskier placements,” said Andreas Naumann, anti-fraud evangelist at AppsFlyer.

“For fraudsters, it is much cheaper and more scalable to concoct a fake user with a counterfeit device to perpetuate their fraud efforts, than using a method like running a device farm. The pandemic only fueled the fire, offering a fertile environment for fraudsters to scale up their mobile fraud schemes to take advantage of the remarkable surge in mobile device usage,” Naumann added.

The AppsFlyer research also revealed which sectors in the UAE are most susceptible to mobile app fraud. Travel companies saw the highest fraud rates of 71% and 58% on Android and iOS respectively. Given that finance apps are some of the most widely used in the region, unsurprisingly, finance followed with fraud rates of 61% and 64% on Android and iOS respectively. Shopping placed third with the fraud rate on iOS far outstripping that on Android at 40% compared to 23%.

Interestingly fraud rates were notably low (under 3%) for all categories of gaming apps, which despite being one of the most popular categories of mobile apps in the UAE, have managed to clamp down on losses due to fraud. “The gaming industry’s data-savviness and emphasis on post-install value optimization weeds out fraudulent activity. Mobile marketers across industries can draw valuable lessons from gaming pros,” Naumann said.

Digging a level deeper into the tactics that fraudsters in the MENA region are using, bots were the most commonly used, accounting for approximately 68% of fraud on both iOS and Android. Click flooding ranked second, accounting for 17% of iOS fraud and 13% of Android fraud. Fake publishing came in third with approximately 14% on both platforms. What is interesting is that Android also saw some cases of instal hijacking — that method accounted for approximately 4% of all fraud on Android. 

Offering advice on how mobile marketers can navigate the challenge of optimizing their app marketing budgets while mitigating the threat of fraud, Naumann said, “I would advise marketers to keep their eyes focused on the quality KPIs of their campaigns and to make use of anti-fraud technology — every app should have an anti-fraud solution that fits its specific needs; if they don’t, they risk wasting significant portions of their budgets. When it comes to fraud, take nothing for granted. Staying aware and protected are key to not falling for the many fraud schemes established in the market.”

The 2023 edition of the AppsFlyer State of Mobile App Fraud report is available here.

The' Earned Effect' study, which analyzed data from culturally salient (campaigns that earned coverage, conversation, and longevity, contributing value to people and communities) and non-culturally salient (that neither earned coverage nor conversation) campaigns, reinforces the need for brands to make a cultural and emotional connection with their audience in order to create sustainable value and short-term impact.

Here are some of the key findings:

• 53% of campaigns that earn coverage and conversation are more likely to drive very large business effects and 2.6 times more likely to achieve very large profit growth.  
• Culturally salient campaigns outperform other campaigns, with 57% driving very large sales gains and 40% driving very large market share gains.
• Brands worthy of earning attention and activating – not simply reaching – communities see a 42% uplift in ROI and outperform peers in every brand health metric.
• Campaigns that earn coverage and conversation are also 75% more likely to create halo effects across other products in the franchise.

Gen Kobayashi, Chief Strategy Officer EMEA, said, “The Weber Shandwick Collective believes brands that will thrive in the future understand that to earn value, they must contribute meaningful value. We call this the “earned-first mindset” and it’s how we approach work with all our clients. We don’t just believe in the power of earned-first thinking, we can see its tangible impact in this breakthrough study. The 'Earned Effect' underlines our belief that it pays to be earned first.”

The study, which was conducted globally, analyzed over 340 case studies in both B2B and B2C sectors, across 60 different product categories from the IPA’s Databank.
“As opportunities for brand communications expand in social and experiential, understanding the impact of earned and owned channel strategies is becoming ever more interesting. This report marks an important next step in IPA Databank learning beyond paid media and we hope it will encourage IPA Effectiveness award entries which are more holistic in looking at brand-building potential,” said Janet Hull OBE, Director of Marketing Strategy at IPA.

The Weber Shandwick Collective combines Weber Shandwick’s earned, creative, and data analytics capabilities with specialist expertise in digital and social solutions through its agencies Flipside and That Lot.

A summary of the Earned Effect Study is available to download here.

Building on the success of 'The State of Youth,' the global report published by Vice Media Group in 2022, 'The State of Arab Youth' provides deep insights into the current mindsets, aspirations, and behaviors of youth in MENA, bringing new learnings and insights into the cultural shifts taking place in this rapidly growing region.

The themes presented in the survey are informed by in-depth interviews with Vice Media Group creatives, editors, and strategists in MENA and around the globe, and driven by a global online survey conducted among 2,134 young people of age 16 to 41 in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The key insights from 'The State of Arab Youth' can be categorized into four main pillars: the concept of Arab youth identity is evolving; the community is broadcasting new cultures through expression; advancements in culture are being fueled by digital connectivity; and unmatched ambition is opening up new worlds.

According to the survey, 52% of youth in the MENA region pointed to personality as the main driver of their identity, while 49% attributed it to family and 47% cited education. These three empowering foundations of identity were found to be stronger in the region than traditional markers of identity, such as age and gender.

Success for Arab youth was found to be determined by a mix of internal fulfillment and career gains.  Nearly half of young people in MENA defined success as “when I feel happy/content,” while 45% said success was all about “achieving a good work-life balance.” They also seemed to nurture more positive perceptions compared to their global peers, especially among Gen Z. Half of Arab Gen Zers are optimistic about their country, which is 25 percentage points higher than the global average.

The survey found that as the concept of identity becomes more important to the region, young people are remaking culture through avenues of expression, such as creating a new fashion heritage and deploying beauty as an avenue for showcasing creativity. More than 52% of young people in the Middle East use fashion to celebrate their cultural heritage, which is 19 percentage points higher than the global average.

Moreover, as social restrictions across the region give way to more relaxed norms, the survey found that 55% of young people in MENA use beauty/grooming products to showcase their creativity. Online gaming also doubles up as a safe space for experimentation, with one in three young MENA gamers approaching it as a form of self-expression.

According to the survey, this new social matrix is being supported by a high penetration of smartphones and Internet usage, leading to an unparalleled sense of connectivity. Two of three young people in MENA feel connected to people their own age online, which is 16 percentage points higher than the global average. This connectivity is fueling major change in how Arab youth interact with passion points such as fashion, beauty, and tech/gaming. Around 54% of Arab youth in MENA say their style is heavily influenced by what they see on social media, while 61% of them are willing to pay more for better quality beauty/grooming products.

Financial health in the Middle East is also outpacing the rest of the world – one in two young people in the region described their financial health as “Excellent” or “Good,” which is 14 percentage points higher than the global average. As Arab youth increasingly focus on achieving success and self-sufficiency, one out of three are investing in crypto or NFTs, and one in four said they are “completely comfortable” with managing their finances, which is 10 percentage points above the global average.

The full version of The State of Arab Youth, a report by VICE Media Group’s Insights division, is available for download on Vice Insights, the predictive engine of culture from Vice Media Group.

The study focuses on the evolution of the Saudi digital shopper and the growing desire for brands to integrate immersive technologies that elevate the shopping experience. To build and maintain a competitive advantage in the new era, retailers need to look at digital not as an add-on to their traditional business model, but as the backbone to new, hyper-responsive ways of working to attract and win the loyalty of customers that, today, have more choice than ever before.

This is largely defined by evolving preferences as shopper behavior becomes more complex, further adding nuances to the digital footprint within KSA. Today, Saudi shoppers are demanding more convenience in digital and physical shopping, without the demand of spending too much of their free time. There is an increasing need for new modes of personalization and privacy, especially with Saudi shoppers who prefer having a transparent data security policy. Another aspect found to play an instrumental role in shaping the future of commerce is the more linear shopping journey, increasingly driven by sophistication. Artificial intelligence (AI) enables hyper-personalization, which includes leveraging real-time behavioral data and advanced analytics to offer the right promotions and tailored messages in real time.

Abdulla Alhammadi, Regional Business Lead for KSA Market at Snap Inc. said, “Over the years, we have seen AR evolve from being just a mode of entertainment and self-expression to delivering true value for both consumers and businesses. AR is already transforming the industry and is slated to metamorphosize every shopper’s journey in the near future. Today, as we ponder the future of retail, it's time to be agile and adapt wholeheartedly to the latest in commerce. We at Snap Inc. believe in unlocking previously unimaginable creative possibilities, helping to make the consumer journey even more personal, accessible, and convenient. Together with our partners, we have seen great results among our communities and we look forward to widening the circle for AR as a tool that leads brand engagement, with a larger scope for personalization within a safe space for consumers.”

Roy Hintze, Partner, Deals Strategy & Operations at PwC Middle East said, “Our latest paper shows that consumers’ shopping journeys are becoming more drawn out as they look for promotions and reduced prices. However, they are willing, to a great extent, to pay more for local products to support their local economies and to get convenient and more bespoke services.”

Norma Taki, PwC Middle East’s Consumer Markets Leader, added, “While retailers are dealing with higher costs and supply chain issues, their challenge is to retain the loyalty of digitally savvy shoppers who are seeking the convenience of buying online with the confidence of buying in-store. They need to meet the evolving needs of this new generation of hybrid consumers who easily switch channels and blur the lines between online and offline into phygital.”

Panos Linardos, Chairman of the Retail Leaders Circle, said, “At the Retail Leaders Circle, we examine regionally-significant emerging trends to drive positive industry change. We see retailers exploring new ways to bridge the physical and digital divide to meet changing customer preferences. We hope this whitepaper will inspire more businesses to design customer journeys around digital integration, including AR, as part of the retail planning process.”

According to the whitepaper, there is a major gap between how AR is perceived by consumers and how it is perceived by brands. Based on the Snap Inc. and IPSOS Augmentality Shift report, while 94% of brands consider AR to be primarily for fun, only 53% of consumers in KSA see it this way. Seven out of ten consumers now identify shopping as their main reason for using AR, while 84% of consumers are interested in using AR to interact with a product before buying.

Emphasizing a world where online shopping is focused more on the people, not the product, Snap Inc.’s findings administer a future of retail driven by self-expression that is open to different sizes and cultures. Secure AR shopping has also been found to be a fun, inclusive, and convenient way to discover, try, and buy fashion and beauty. AR can showcase products, push creative boundaries, drive real sales, and help reduce returns. AR try-on technology is the next evolution to transform the industry, giving anyone the opportunity to access fashion, no matter who they are or where they are. 250 million people already engage with AR on Snapchat every day and Snapchatters now play with AR more than six billion times a day on average.

Read the whitepaper here.

As the post-Covid era unfolds, a digital slowdown, or return to pre-Covid conditions, is taking place. While the effects are becoming increasingly apparent in metrics like overall app installs by consumers, the gaming app economy still showed resilience with nearly $27 billion invested in ad spend by gaming marketers and developers worldwide in 2022 in order to acquire new users. Overall, Android game app installs rose slightly, by 8% compared to 2021, whereas iOS game app installs showed a small decline, with a 5% drop. Based on advertising investment, the United States remains the largest target market for gaming app marketers by a significant margin, followed by Japan, South Korea, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

“If 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 were the golden age of gaming, the second half of 2022 and especially 2023 will be a time that marketers, developers, and studios will need to overcome challenges to adopt highly-focused, efficient strategies for attracting and inspiring loyal, valuable players,” said Shani Rosenfelder, Director of Market Insights at AppsFlyer. “Evolving marketing budgets coupled with drops in consumer spending across some genres mean game businesses are compelled to prioritize profits over growing the sheer size of their numbers of players. Despite the hurdles, however, mobile gaming remains a lucrative powerhouse nearing three billion players globally. Marketers will continue to succeed by putting more focus on modern measurement capabilities, utilizing techniques that deliver an engaging experience while respecting user privacy, and leveraging remarketing and owned media channels further in order to offset increases in their cost-per-installs (CPI). Additionally, they will need to dive deep into the complex yet promising SKAN 4.0 from Apple, and invest more in campaigns outside of the United States, as gaming is truly a global phenomenon.”

As for gaming app revenues, the State of Gaming report reveals that consumers spent the most on in-app purchases (IAP) in role-playing and social casino (not real money) games. Purchases in these game categories declined mostly in the second half of 2022, leading to an overall drop in IAP revenues by 7% compared to the first half of the year. The economic downturn appears to have impacted consumer behavior in high IAP genres of role-playing and social casino more than other categories like match or puzzle games, which rely more on micropayments. In-app advertising (IAA) remained the strongest driver of revenues for hypercasual, match and simulation games, though IAA revenues also declined across most genres towards the second half of 2022.

Key Insights

• $26.7 billion total gaming app install ad spend worldwide in 2022. The US commands nearly half at $12.2 billion thanks to its high-volume and high-cost media landscape; Japan is a distant second with nearly $2 billion in spend.
• Worldwide, Android game app installs rose slightly in 2022, iOS game app installs showed a small decline. There was an 8% YoY growth in total app installs of Android games. A -5% YoY install drop on iOS reflects the continued challenges iOS app marketers are facing following Apple’s privacy changes (despite the improvement vs the previous 2022-2021 YoY figure of -13%). In the US, still considered the most important market for gaming app marketers, 2022 saw a 19% growth in Android app installs and -1% decline in installs of iOS gaming apps when compared to 2021.
• The second half of 2022 in particular was a struggle for in-game purchases with the economic uncertainty in the market. There was a -7% overall drop in in-app purchase (IAP) revenue in H2 2022 compared to H1 2022, with iOS down 9% and Android down 4%. Overall, in-app purchases on Android gaming apps were down -14% YoY, while iOS was down -1% YoY. This was driven largely by a decline in role-playing and casino game genres that typically have high rates of in-app purchases, and where the economic downturn appears to have impacted consumer spend.
• Categories that saw the largest growth in 2022 vs. 2021: 48% growth rate for Android casino games, 3x more than second-place hypercasual and 5x higher compared to the growth rate in puzzle and role-playing games (RPG). Casino games led growth on the flagging iOS side, clocking an impressive 17%.
• Cost-per-installs on iOS continue to climb. 88% is the increase in CPI on iOS from Q1 2021 to Q4 2022, shooting up $3.75 per install as iOS marketers continue to accept high prices to acquire valuable Apple users. YoY rates show a 35% jump.
• Marketers increasingly leveraging owned media channels. As marketers look to get more value out of their budgets, the use of owned media strategies such as push notifications, in-app messages, and cross-promotion is seeing a sustained rise. This has led to a significant YoY increase in the number of owned media conversions, with a 16% growth on iOS and a 34% surge on Android.

“As gaming marketers continue to navigate their way through a shifting economic landscape along with privacy changes, particularly on iOS, they face fresh challenges and opportunities in regards to their app marketing efforts,” said Adam Smart, Director of Product, Gaming. “Privacy restrictions on iOS limit the ability of marketers to leverage user-level data, which was previously the cornerstone of their ability to connect campaign performance to attracting new users. Yet, despite a significant rise in media costs and measurement challenges, gaming apps are still investing heavily in capturing high-quality players on iOS and are not shifting those resources to Android, even if the approach results in attracting fewer users overall. This gives greater importance to the use of privacy-enhancing tech and data clean rooms in 2023 and beyond, and will also provide advantages to those able to leverage accurate and comprehensive data for making the timeliest decisions on where, when, and how to optimally invest budgets in ways that attract and retain the most valuable players.”

Read the full report here.

CMOs around the world are under pressure to produce short-term ROI from their marketing campaigns, with those in the MENA region experiencing higher pressure than the global average. The top challenges they face during this period include burnout amongst employees, lack of creative freedom, and adapting reactive marketing strategies.

The priorities and perspectives of MENA CMOs differ from global standards, with a higher emphasis on understanding customer intent and ROI. The research also highlights the importance of soft skills, such as communication and problem-solving, in navigating the current economic climate.

Another area the research sheds light on is how marketing leaders around the world are managing their teams during the economic downturn, including cutback on flexibility and changes in leadership approaches.

Diana Daou, Head of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions at LinkedIn MENA, explains, "As CMOs face increasing pressure to produce short-term ROI in the current economic climate, our latest research signals higher levels of stress and feelings of imposter syndrome among marketing leaders globally, including in the MENA region. A staggering 88% of MENA CMOs feel pressured to prove a greater short-term return on investment from their marketing campaigns, which can compromise creativity and result in burnout within their teams. It's essential therefore to balance short-term results and long-term brand-building efforts in order to optimize the potential of marketing teams. On the brighter side, it is encouraging to see that most marketing executives in the MENA region recognize the value of both performance and brand marketing and are wisely investing in strategies that will help them adapt to the changing business landscape while staying on top of the game."

CMOs feel the pressure to produce short-term ROI from their marketing campaigns

• CMOs around the world say that the current economic climate has led them to have higher levels of stress (36%), imposter syndrome (34%), and difficulty in enjoying their personal time due to work distractions (32%).
• 88% of CMOs in MENA feel under pressure to prove greater short-term return on investment from their marketing campaigns against a global average of 77%.
• CMOs in the region say that ttheir top three marketing challenges during times of economic uncertainty are:
  • Fear of burnout and exhaustion (emotional and physical) amongst employees from adapting to constant change (31%)
  • Fear of operating on a reactive marketing strategy and winding back on the progress of the last year (31%)
  • Fear of lack of creative freedom in ideating memorable campaigns due to over-emphasis on ROI (25%)

Priorities and perspectives of MENA CMOs slightly differ from global metrics

• CMOs around the globe consider the below as their top 3 metrics to prove marketing effectiveness in order to increase budgets:
  • Brand awareness (17%)
  • Buyer intent/understanding relating to 'when' and 'why' a customer is interested in a product or service (17%)
  • New customer acquisition (15%)
• Middle Eastern CMOs' priorities come up as:           
  • Buyer intent/understanding relating to 'when' and 'why' a customer is interested in a product or service (25%)
  • ROI (19%)
  • Brand awareness (12%)

Balancing flexibility and stability: How CMOs are managing their teams during economic uncertainty

• Globally, all CMOs identify the below as the top 3 soft skills leaders need to navigate the current economic climate:
  • Communication (32%)
  • Problem-solving (31%)
  • Creative thinking (27%)
• 76% of CMOs across the globe are concerned that they’ll have to cut back on Learning & Development initiatives in order to save costs due to economic uncertainty, with 30% having already reduced investment in L&D opportunities. 74% of them also believe that this economic downturn will cause skill gaps to widen.
• To tackle the economic uncertainty, CMOs are cutting back on flexibility and remote work and are asking their team to:
  • Reduce flexible working and hybrid working roles (35%)
  • Reduce flexible working and hybrid working options (34%)
  • Ask employees who are working from home to return to the office (31%)
• Given the current economic climate, more than half (56%) of the CMOs prefer that their team members work from the office, compared to the 43% who say they prefer otherwise, with only 1% taking neutral ground.
• 85% of CMOs agree that the HR function has been more critical now than it’s ever been, with 77% in agreement it has been challenging to attract top talent due to the current economic situation, and 58% agreeing that they are experiencing difficulties in taking a long-term approach to workforce planning.
• 60% of CMOs are adopting a democratic style of leadership and motivating their team to be part of the decision-making process, with 41% increasing the frequency of gathering feedback and sentiment.