Written by Afrah Asmar
You can tell at any time when no one lives here is doing activities.
This is a tone. Too much Arabic. Recycled Ramadan script. These women are as stylish as they were shot in 2004 magazines. Everything is technically correct, but not at all. The truth is that many brands are still talking about Arab audiences, not about them.
Especially in the Middle East, disconnection is constant. Women, Gen Z, and even everyday consumers – some of the most distorted groups in global marketing – are not misunderstood because they are complex. They were misunderstood because the process was broken.
It is usually like this: global teams develop this strategy. Regional team localization. Someone tweaked the script. complete.
What is missing in that assembly line is the nuance
You can’t fake your tone. You can’t localize your cultural intuition. If your Arabic reads like a direct translation, people will scroll. If your visual logo looks like a western mood board with a paste Arabic font, you’re losing the plot.
This is the part that most people miss: the Middle East is not a market.
Beirut’s dialect is the world except Jeddah. The reference landing in Amman may fall in Muscat. Humor, rhythm, and even people use the transition from one country to another. However, brands often treat the area like a single audience, recycling the same metaphor and stock images that don’t reflect the appearance, dress or live life of the people here.
There is no such thing as “standard Arab audience”. Assume there is? This is the fastest way to be ignored.
I see campaigns fail not because the idea is bad, but because the audience is wrong.
That’s why I backed off, questioned summary, challenging assumptions, reconstructed content from scratch. I chose creators who really reflect culture, not just the cast list. I even remade mid-shooting production when the default option looks like a stock photo version of the area.
One of the most effective projects I lead is building a digital business of international brands from scratch. No paid media. No borrowed global assets. It’s just organic growth brings to the audience, not adapted from elsewhere. It’s a brand new page, but the traction is fast. The account has grown organically to over 160,000 followers. People recognize themselves at work, and this awareness is what resonates with it.
Today’s audience is not passive. Not only do they skip bad content, they also show up. If your campaign feels like a checkbox exercise, they will know. They won’t be friendly.
The bar is taller now
Good marketing does not start with translation. It starts with listening. Knowing when silence and when is more than just copying. Which references need not be explained. And, most importantly, nothing is said at all.
This fluency doesn’t come from the reading deck. It comes from in the room. From rewrite. Remark. Re-learning. From actual knowledge of who you are talking to and how they are talking back.
Make it right not only localize. They say the audience.
About the Author
Afrah Asmar is a culturally fluent strategist and content manager who leads work at global brands such as Nutella, Coca Cola, Unilever and Kinder. She spent most of her career in Dubai, where she worked at the region’s top institutions, helping brands communicate in a way that is authentic rather than rehearsal. She wrote about the intersection of culture, behavior and communication in the digital age.
