There is just something about that word ‘influencer’ that has just stuck and has such negative connotations attached to it that makes me squirm into a hole when I hear it. I prefer digital creator, or content creator – anything BUT influencer.
At the end of the day – isn’t everyone an influencer in some sort of way? The influencer industry is still perceived as a useless profession, as a waste of time and to be honest, the industry is so saturated and for the most part – inauthentic – I don’t blame people for sneering. But even though influencers are ten to a penny these days – the industry is strong, and, in the UK, advertisers are expected to spend a whopping GBP930 million ($US1.17 billion) on influencer marketing in 2024.
But what is it like to be an influencer in Dubai in the most Instagram friendly place in the world? I’ve been involved in the industry for quite a few years now, so these are five things I’ve learned:
It’s not regulated. When it comes to #ad, #collab, #gifted, #PRinvite – it’s the Wild West! Influencers are not transparent here because they don’t have to be, and they get away with it. Look at anyone’s feed in the UK, US, Europe or Australia in terms of paid work and you will see ad/collab/gifted displayed in their content. The consequences for not disclosing, violate advertising guidelines leading to both the influencer and brand breaking the law. Those laws are not enforced here hence why nobody adheres to transparency. In 2018, the UAE government imposed regulations on the influencer industry by introducing a new influencer license in Dubai called an E-Media License from the National Media Council (NMC) which amounted to AED15,000 a year – I do not know many influencers that obtained it.
The UAE is about five years behind the rest of the world in terms of influencer marketing. Affiliate marketing (clickable links), UGC creation, email databases and websites have taken off and are some of the ways influencers can make a steady income in other parts of the world whilst also working alongside brands and PR agencies for paid work, whereas the UAE is lagging in these opportunities.
Nobody wants to pay here, there’s a lot of barter collaborations. At the end of the day, a free shampoo and a lipstick doesn’t pay the bills. Like many self-employed people, you rely on paid work and when brands and PR agencies are not interested in paying or seeing your rate card, they’ll just find another influencer who is willing to create content for free – that’s the way it goes. The same goes for events. Sometimes it costs more in petrol and standstill traffic in going to an actual event only to receive a goody bag with a candle, for your time. After all, and as the saying goes – time is money!
It’s still all about the numbers. Followers still matter it seems, albeit for many – a lot of them are fake followers. Brands and PR agencies still look at the follower count as a way of gauging who they would like to work with and don’t seem to focus that much on good engagement. An influencer could have half a million followers on Instagram, some could be bought, and some could be elsewhere in the world with engagement (views, likes and comments) all bought - and brands here still think they would be a good fit to work with. Equally, Dubai is small, everyone knows each other especially in the influencer and PR world and if you’re not in with ‘the crowd’ (the PR set) – you’re not on the list for events and gifting, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. In saying this, I’ve personally worked alongside many PR agencies here and I have a great relationship with them, but they also receive a lot of unwanted and unnecessary grief from extremely rude and unprofessional influencers and their demands! PR is one of the toughest jobs in the UAE.
Even if you think you’re a fantastic content creator, your engagement is good and you know you would be perfect for a particular brand here – it doesn’t matter as brands pick who they want to work with, be associated with and invite to events. For example, many influencers invited to the big brand events – in particular beauty and fashion – are Arabic Gen Z TikTokers. And that perfectly makes sense in this region (no shade at all to anyone) but there are also Millennials, Gen X and even Baby Boomers that spend money too so by alienating all other generations, brands are not utilizing the power of influencer marketing to the fullest.
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