Social media has become a main pillar in any marketing campaign. Marketing agencies are expected to create captivating social media content tailored for the local audience in their target region. While social media experts and content creators  are available in abundance, the workflow adopted by international agencies working in the GCC region is still English-first, leaving little room for creativity and proper cultural awareness when creating the Arabic version of an English-first calendar.

The underlying cause of poor Arabic social media content

The English-first approach adopted by global agencies when creating social media calendars for the GCC region remains the main reason behind poor social media content in Arabic. English speaking social media content writers brainstorm, write captions, create content, and get client approvals on the English version, before dedicating significantly less time and resources to creating the Arabic version, in a region speaking the latter language predominantly. In addition to the obvious imbalance in time and resources towards the draft at the expense of the main content, this approach alienates copywriters and content specialists who have the actual experience in the cultural and language aspects of the region. I cannot emphasize this enough: After the calendar gets approved by the client, and because of this backwards approach, agencies insist on Arabic copywriters that they stick to the English context and structure, to the extent that the Arabic copy feels unnatural and, for the lack of a better term, machine translated. The reason is obvious: The client already approved the English version, but I don’t think I need to explain any further why this is counter-creative and counterintuitive.

Budget and time spent wrong

While the Arabic calendar is the main content that will reach the widest audience in the region, the main budget and the time dedicated to the project is spent on the English version of the calendar. In our experience at HOC Creative, agencies want us to “just translate” the content at very cheap translation rates, because, according to them, the content is ready and it only needs translation. Not only that, there is always a few hours to do this supposedly simple translation job, as opposed to the days spent on creating the original English copy.

Engaging video content, not

While we have to give it to our English-speaking colleagues for creating captivating video content in English, the way video content works in English is quite different from Arabic. This applies to all the components of an engaging video: Structure, order of ideas, storytelling, elements used in the video, and above all, the video script itself. Whenever we receive a video for “Arabization”, it always requires more effort to adapt to Arabic than if we actually created it in Arabic from scratch.

Culturally-aware visuals

The visual elements of the video need to align with the preferences of GCC viewers. What works in Western markets may not necessarily appeal to the tastes of GCC audiences. Understanding local aesthetics, preferences, and cultural norms is paramount in creating visually appealing content. Further, and because non-Arabic speaking designers and visual content artists realize these peculiarities in visuals addressing the Arab audience in the GCC region, they are conservative in their choices, which, more often than not, results in reused and repetitive visuals that are quite frankly getting boring.

Solutions to creating engaging social media content in Arabic

An Arabic saying goes like this: Let a baker bake your bread, even if he eats half of it. It cannot really be any simpler than this: Creating Arabic social media should be assigned to talented Arab copywriters, visual artists, and videographers. Agencies need to realize this simple fact, and have the courage to break free from the English-first approach that has been hindering the Arabic social media scene for as long as it has.

Disclosure: HOC Creative specializes in creating marketing content, including social media content, both in Arabic and English, with an Arabic-first approach. Our team of creative copywriters, visual artists, and video creators are ready to fill this gap in this essential domain.