1 Style, Creatives & Copy Guidelines (ME Arabic websites)

2 Arabic Website Guidelines People in the ME are influenced by Western movies and media, thus they always associate themselves with latest trends in the West. –Most companies think that they need to display Arabic/Middle Eastern faces in their campaigns in order for it to convert. This is not the case in real life, as they would be more attracted to visuals with Western people on them –The Arabic consumer and the whole new culture trend in KSA and UAE is quite visual and influenced by the western movies and life style, so they want to live and express themselves the same way as a western person except they want to keep hold of their culture, religion and language. In certain countries in the ME such KSA the government have control and an eye on all websites if it contains the following: –Nudity e.g. beach scenes –Alcohol e.g. promoting a bar etc –Mixing males and females e.g. promoting romantic holidays. Instead it should be Honeymoon holidays as it’s associated with legal marriage.

3 Arabic Website Guidelines More Visuals and less copy –Arabic people are not keen –The get attracted to greenery visuals, pretty landscape and colourful images –80% visuals 20% copy Within the copy it should be more engaging content i.e. Transcreation and not Translation –The Arabic language is much preferred in the Middle East especially in KSA. Local people consider it as their pride, thus spelling mistakes or miss-translated sentences can cause distrust. –If you present a best in class website to an Arabic consumer where it only offer Arabic language it will be perceived as a local website and they can loose interest. But if a best in class website was presented to the same Arabic consumer with language option of Arabic, English and more they will see it as a global/international company and would engage them more. Some countries in the ME are strict in terms of Religious and Political subject. As this can cause problems for websites/campaigns it’s best to keep away from these subjects when promoting a product.

4 ME Guideline Model (PARSNIP) P A R S N I P POLITICS ALCOHOL RELIGION SEX NUDITY ISRAEL PIG Should avoid all these words and/or subjects