It’s amazing how fast cultural trends shift. Changes that used to take decades now happen in a matter of months, if not weeks. Keeping up with the global, regional, and local changes help us understand where our audience is, where they’re coming from, and where they’re heading. Our goal is to meet people where they are and help them along the way.
I had the opportunity to spend time with our team in the middle east—something we haven’t been able to do for a while due to the pandemic. In spite of tough economic circumstances and social discrimination, the team is in good spirits and excited to be part of our global outreach. Being on the ground with fingers on the pulse makes a big difference in focusing on the relevant issues.
Internet access has dramatically expanded in the middle east and north Africa. Cell phones are now more accessible and affordable more than ever before. Everywhere I went, I saw a familiar scene—people are glued to their cell phones, surfing the net, and searching for the next hot trend.
Regardless of what you think of social media, it remains the largest field out there. Millions of young people are on social media. Some are there just for fun, but many are looking for answers—for guidance through these uncharted times of their lives. This year, our campaigns on Facebook have been seen by 1.5 million people, of whom over 867,000 engaged with our content. On our SoundCloud 2 channels, over 15,000 audio files were listened to by our audience. Our programs are streamed on the website 24/7.
Our research shows that young people—our target audience—prefer content that is visual, informal, brief, experiential and light-hearted. We’re keeping this in mind as we produce our new programs, trying new formats, testing new platforms and—most importantly—praying for God’s anointment of the message to touch people’s hearts and bring them closer to Him.
Categories: ARABIC
