People have just not made the commitment to realizing brand is actually built in social social by Nature allows you to create more creative. When you're able to create more creative, you're able to focus on relevance, not just awareness. I Believe every Fortune 500 brand does not have an awareness issue. That's why they're a Fortune 500 brand.

They have a relevance issue. How do you make Nike matter to every single person? How do you make Apple BMW product. How do you make it actually matter? The way you make it matter is by it's your third trip to Dubai Why are you here and why do you care about Dubai Um, I'm here because I want to build businesses and brand in every part of the world. obviously.

Um, some places are closer to Manhattan and others so it's harder to get to Asia or the Middle East than let's say Europe Yet I've been in Dubai more than I've been to my own London office in the last several years because I'm incredibly bullish on the UAE I'm bullish on the Middle East Overall, to be frank and you know I I anticipate for the next 50 years of my career as I wrap up that those are all going to be 50 years of a lot of growth in the region and I think a lot of that growth when the history books write it in Saudi in Egypt In in other parts of the region, a lot of it will link back to the incredible foresight and aggressive entrepreneurial and cultural energy that Dubai brought to the Middle East And so this is the Epicenter. I Think of what has started this modern Middle East and um, it's clearly in a lot of ways the most viable place for me to set up our office. Uh, for the vaynerch Vayner world and um yeah I just want to Network and and create opportunity. So when I met you in 2017, I was like one of the things I One of the reasons I wanted to meet you I'm like I wanted vaynermedia to come to the Middle East because I knew what you did back then no one was doing and now obviously Marketing Social has evolved so much.

You talk a lot about brand being built in Social What are some things that brands of the Middle East should learn how to do that You believe that they haven't gotten it yet or even some in the U.S yeah I mean I think like to your point about what we've been talking about. what I've been talking about is people have just not made the commitment to realizing brand is actually built in. Social Social by Nature allows you to create more creative. When you're able to create more creative, you're able to focus on relevance, not just awareness.

I Believe every Fortune 500 brand does not have an awareness issue. That's why they're a Fortune 500 brand. They have a relevance issue. How do you make Nike matter to every single person.

How do you make Apple BMW product? How do you make it actually matter? The way you make it matter is by storytelling. The way you make it matter is that story has to hit you Me you Dustin Meadow We have different things that are going to make us interesting. social is conducive to that kind of output. Plus, we now live in a world where the algorithms are rewarding content that is interesting to people, that by Nature creates consumer insights.

Consumer insights are the starting point to do great work right? If you know something about what people are already interested in, you have a better chance of making something that they're interested in, thus rendering them to do the thing you want them to do. And in the context of this, it means to buy something so you know. I Think the brands in the Middle East and the world need to make a bigger commitment to Output More volume, more platform strategy, more creative strategy, more cultural strategy. We call it packed platforms and culture and I and I think the faster they do that, the more likely they'll gain market share.

Um, and I think every brand has to go through that. Journey If it's that easy to do, insights are available in every single platform that gives them data about what's happening. It's free, doesn't cost anything to be on any of these platforms. Why don't people do it? They don't know it's true.

Their advisors say, hey, their agencies are not pushing it on them Brands don't know how to keep them accountable. the conversation is not being had at scale and so private. Equity backed Brands Venture Capital back Brands And influencers and creators continue to do this kind of work and they continue to get leverage a market share. Uh, and you know I think at some point it will break and you know Hulu and Netflix were doing their thing for years yelling about it, but nobody did anything about it and then there was a Tipping Point and so I think there'll be a Tipping Point in advertising and I think we'll be the beneficiary of it.

Do you think the influencer game is over? Game hasn't started? Really? I Do I think that influencer marketing Works incredibly well when it works and that there's more work to be done. and I think it's a game that will forever play out because now humans want to be famous. All of them Every 13 year old in the world wants to be a YouTuber wants to be a tick-tocker and that means a lot of them will try and many of them will be successful. Not everyone's going to be Logan Paul and Charlie Demilio.

Many of them are going to end up being micro influencers, but if you're a micro influencer and you can make seventy thousand dollars a year talking about pancakes or running shoes or skiing or handbags, well, that might be a lot more interesting than making seventy thousand dollars a year being a lawyer or an admin or being a copywriter. And so I think you're going to see the rise of that. and then as Brands figure that out, spending fifty thousand dollars to make a video that nobody watches is a lot less interesting than spending five thousand dollars to get an influencer to do something that you guaranteed people are going to watch. And so I think I think we're just in the beginning of influencer marketing I Want to talk about sports? We didn't talk about it at all this week in Dubai Um, just athletes Brands Entrepreneurship A lot of people in the Middle East now are paying attention to sports.

We see F1 in the region NBA is coming to the region UFC's in the region wrestlers and read why Is sports going to be a really good play for some brands, for diplomacy and for marketing. And how has that changed in the U.S Sports is one of the True Religions of our society. You know there's the religions we all know. and then there's music in sports and fashion.

These are religions. These are passion points that are much deeper than other passion points. It's also real life drama. You know, we love.

We love drama. It's why we watch movies. It's why we watch content. Uh, Sports is the highest form of drama.

It is the Ultimate Reality TV It's actually real. Uh, You also have the greatest perf when you have the greatest singers in the world. Chris Rock Talked about this: I Think in his stand-up right, Beyonce is not competing with a better another great singer. Rihanna and Beyonce aren't trying to knock each other off, but in sports you have the greatest athletes trying to beat the greatest athletes.

It's incompelling. It is one of the great engines for both diplomacy and propaganda. and uh, it will forever be that way. And I think people will continue to use Sports as a catalyst to advance their initiatives at a government level and then on a human consumer level.

We will continue to watch. uh. and it might go from a man fighting a lion to mix martial arts in a cage, but it will be always the same okay. Do's and don'ts Do's and don'ts and culture.

Dues talk about things that you care about and you're passionate about and you know, don't try to jump on trends that you don't care about, but you're doing it because it seemingly is a trend. Do's and don'ts in the workplace. Do deploy kind Candor but also deploy A system that eliminates cancerous individuals. Don't don't look the underway when somebody's contributing to your bottom line, but they're destroying your culture.

Okay, Do's and don'ts when it comes to social media dues, really learn it and do it yourself until you really understand it. Don't don't Outsource it to your 17 year old niece because she's 17. Do's and Don'ts when it comes to AI Metaverse Nfts new tech dudes stay curious and answer maybe every time you hear something new and crazy, don't use fear to say no and put your head in the sand like you're an ostrich. Gary Vaynerchuk Thank you so much for being on the show! Thanks Maha Appreciate it.

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