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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

If there is one thing we know for sure, it is that 2020 is the year that is defined by change and uncertainty. And change doesn’t come slowly - it arrives swiftly, with very little warning, and demands immediate action. From a business perspective, it’s a reminder that we need to be constantly looking ahead; ready for innovation, ready for change. As Marketers, now is a good time to start looking at trends that will impact where the industry is going in 2021 and how these trends could be used for your future strategies. What does 2021 hold for Marketing?

In a recent LinkedIn Live hosted by Meltwater’s Enterprise Director, Julia Nill, the Chief Marketing Officer at Standard Bank Group, Thulani Sibeko shared his key insights on the top 3 things to know about when it comes to the Future of Marketing.

“None of us planned for COVID but what we can’t avoid is that COVID is with us,” Thulani shared on the impact that the current global pandemic has had on numerous industries, including marketing. Due to COVID, priorities have changed, causing a shift in the strategies we had in mind for 2020. What started out as a health pandemic soon turned into an economic one, as travel was banned, borders were closed and businesses were in jeopardy. This then ultimately led to COVID having social implications, such as living under lockdown regulations and working from home. 

So how will marketers navigate a post-covid world? Thulani shared how for marketers, they need to consider the implications of COVID on the economy and society, and how the core of marketing is meeting people’s needs in a profitable way. 

“Suddenly, the needs of people, driven by these social and economic drivers have changed in many ways. For example, if you are in the luxury goods space, people have deprioritised a lot of luxury products and don’t require those as much. But if you find yourself in the health-related products, the demand for those has shot up.” With the priority of consumers now different to what they may have been at the start of 2020, what can marketers do to meet their current and future needs? 

For one, marketers need to realise how the community has now taken on an important role beyond your target audience and core customer base. Think about Nike and how, at the start of lockdown regulations across the globe, they asked their customers to “play inside, play for the world” for a campaign that still encouraged people to keep active but to do so indoors instead. This, together with how premium fees for their Nike Training App were waived encouraged a sense of community in a world where social distancing was the sudden norm.

Marketers need to understand who their audience is and ensure that they personalise their customer journey. Creating buyer personas is still relevant, and will continue to be relevant, because of how it allows marketers to personalise at mass scale. Once marketers have refined their method of doing things that matter to their customers, the more likely they will succeed. 

However, while change in a post-covid world is inevitable for marketers, Thulani highlights that there is a difference between forced change and choiceful change. “There are certain things that have been forced on us because of current circumstances, and I believe that it will be a mistake if we assume that all of the change that we see will automatically translate into the new normal because as soon as people have choices, the things that were forced but weren’t meaningful to them will be dropped. So it is important that we stay on top of understanding our customers and their motivations.”

For many consumers, brand purpose has become increasingly important as the functionality of a product begins to fade away and brand experience takes its place. Brand experience not only encompasses how customers are made to feel about a particular brand but also what that brand stands for and their guiding principles. Where does marketing fit into this and will it play a bigger role in driving sales?

“In many ways, the elevation of brand purpose has brought marketing to the table, even in organisations that have not been marketing-centric, there has been a growing appreciation,” says Thulani, who seems brand purpose and brand promise as inseparable. Over time, we have seen customers make the change towards choosing brands who choose things that actually matter to them. This goes beyond catchy slogans and logo designs; consumers now want to put their money behind the brands that are doing the right thing and standing for something other than making a profit. 

This will tie into your brand purpose and refining why your organisation exists beyond this profit motive. Are you looking to source from local manufacturers? How have you protected employees during the current pandemic? These are just a few examples of what consumers could be asking themselves as they begin to support the brands that choose to support what matters. For marketers, this will be the competitive advantage that they need to tap into when it comes to distinguishing themselves in the marketing landscape from here on. Brand purpose affords differentiation and for marketers, this is the compliment you want to receive. Couple this tapping into creating an emotional connection with your customers and soon enough, marketers will find the sweet spot that will make them stick in the minds of their audience. 

“The importance of commercial value and connecting with customers, for me, is inseparable,” Thulani shared and sees that investing in marketing means doing so at the appropriate levels that depend on the objects that need to be achieved. According to a study from Marketing Week, 65% of marketers foresee a decrease in their annual marketing budget as a result of COVID-19 and the cost pressures that came with it. However, Thulani, much like many other CMO’s, remain optimistic about retaining the marketing budget spend because the rewards are still reaped but merely deferred for now. 

Marketers will face the challenge of securing marketing investments to achieve their objectives but how can they overcome this? By accurately showing the return and impact that marketing has on the commercial aspect of an organisation. Creativity may shine in this regard but what marketers need to do is make the link between customer aspirations and translating that into commercial value. How? By looking into using the right marketing tools and software to accurately depict this. The global use of technology has increased this year and it has also become increasingly important that marketers have the right technology to help them meet their objectives. 

In Garnter’s 2019 CMO Spend Survey, marketing tools, on average, make up a quarter of the marketing budget because of the advantages that these tools bring. While fighting for investment in marketing may seem like one impossible task, the rewards reaped are priceless and echo Thulani’s sentiments on investing in marketing to help the organisation achieve commercial success. 

Where does this leave the future of marketing? 

"I've seen extremely encouraging examples of companies and brands all over the world giving their customers breathing space and being there for them even in times of trouble," Julia said in closing the conversation with Thulani on what brands have done during this crisis period, and what they need to do in the future. 

Marketers will need to get comfortable with being flexible and knowing how to think fast and act quickly to not just the current situation but to any situation that may come in the future. As we adjust to the new normal and a post-covid world, marketers will not only need to familiarise themselves with how COVID has impacted marketing now but ensure that they have an understanding of its impact for the future. Adjustment and innovation will be key for marketers but one thing that should remain constant is the brand purpose and making sure that taking the time to create valuable and meaningful connections with customers that will extend well beyond 2020. 

Watch the full LinkedIn Live to learn more from Standard Bank’s Chief Marketing Officer, Thulani Sibeko.  To stay up to date with more LinkedIn Live videos, follow Meltwater's LinkedIn page.  

The Top 3 Things to Know About the Future of Marketing

Every minute of every day, millions of pieces of content are uploaded online. In fact, YouTube reports that a staggering 500 hours of video is uploaded onto their platform every 60 seconds, which is only the tip of the social and editorial iceberg. This information overload can make it time-consuming and challenging to sift through content and find what is relevant to your brand. 

Of course, this bombardment of news, entertainment and information means brands are competing heavily for attention, and it can feel nearly impossible to stand out among the crowd. Over and above this, brands don’t typically have the time or resources to actively engage on social, and tend to use these platforms for shouting rather than listening. This is where an important opportunity exists to start gaining the competitive edge.  

Of course, each region varies in terms of activity and behaviour. And, consumer engagement with brands is heavily influenced by culture, capacity, access, legislation and relevance. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Dubai is a particularly exciting environment to explore when it comes to understanding social listening in the context of brand promotion, given the widespread adoption of social technology, in a landscape of censorship and regulation. 

“Given the high internet penetration in the market, it doesn't come as a surprise that social media plays a stellar role in reaching the end-user, be it through targeted social media ads or through geo and demographically targeted programmatic ads. Over the years, social media channels in the UAE have become niche to specific audiences, like Snapchat for teens, Facebook and IG towards earning population for entertainment-focused audience”, says Saleem Sharma, Head of Social Media for Zoom Property in Dubai.

And, when it comes to our current UAE media landscape and the kinds of challenges marketers face every day, Sharma summarises it well: “Targeted brand-specific content aimed at different sections of the population according to various niches (nationality, gender, age, area of living, etc.) remains the biggest challenge”. 

So, with this in mind, how do we expand our consumer research, break through the noise and ultimately identify new opportunities for brand growth and lead conversion? The short answer: Through social listening.

Did you know? Meltwater's interface is now available in Arabic!

Social Listening: The smart marketer’s way to break the mould

Social media listening tools allow companies to track, manage and analyse billions of ever-changing data points, to learn from and, ultimately, form better strategic decision-making processes. Let’s tuck into the basics of social media listening and how you can use it to benefit your business and brand.

What is Social Media Listening and how does it benefit you?

Social media listening generally refers to a deep analysis of your brand on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. With Meltwater's social listening tool, there are over 15 primary social platforms to track, over and above podcasts, broadcasts, and even print media (but that is a post for another day). 

The point of “listening” is to make sure you never miss a mention, you’re able to see where people are speaking about your brand online and you can join the conversation. But there is a range of ways to creatively and logically use this practice to entirely elevate your marketing efforts.

With AI-driven social media listening tools, businesses can:

Track, manage, and analyse evolving data that impact strategic decision making

Collate the summarised data needed to draw relevant insights

Analyse trends and take part in relevant hashtags and movements

Benchmark performance in relation to their competitors

Identify opportunities to start conversations

Gain a high-level and detailed understanding of how people perceive your brand online

With the incorporation of AI and machine learning into social media monitoring tools, data is automated and analysis is presented in a user-friendly way in real-time; making it simpler to draw insights from massive amounts of data.

Why social listening is particularly relevant in the United Arab Emirates

With social media platforms constantly increasing in usage, there is an ever-growing trail of digital breadcrumbs, which companies can use to best analyse their audience and understand their needs. With their own, specific audience, content and purpose, companies can tweak and hone marketing strategies that fulfil consumer needs and showcase their brand.

But beyond that, we know that our market is heavily influenced by, well, influencers and this is one of the key functions of a social media listening tool. You can identify and partner with loyal brand followers or influential figures.

“Influencer marketing is a critical weapon in a marketer's arsenal, especially in the UAE. You have a limited audience to target, and you want to do it in the best manner possible. Influencers bring with themselves content which has a watermark of their own personality and which has a loyal dedicated following. With the advent of tools which can help you engage with influencers, it has become quintessential for social media marketers to explore these avenues even more” says Sharma.

Through social listening, you can search for top posts about specific topics, which will lead you to the influential figures taking part.

Above: Influencer Zahra Abdallah (@cookingwithZahra) has over 187,000 followers on Instagram. 

Although the word “Insight” has an ambiguous meaning, marketing and communications professionals understand it to mean consumer-focused interpretations of data. The range of benefits that can be extracted from interpreting data to gain meaningful insights is almost immeasurable, but seeing as we’re in the business of measurement: 

Extract the most relevant data from millions of touchpoints, from any location

Avoid response bias as online conversations welcome a multitude of opinions that are not necessarily brand or product specific, so you’re minimising the subjectivity from your research

Data is automated so monitoring and analysis is quickly processed, in real-time 

You’re spending resources wisely with a social listening tool that far outperforms the process of manually collating data

Social media monitoring tools combined with market studies workwell in unison, with marketing studies providing quantitative data on emerging trends from social insights, and social media listening tools providing more qualitative analyses of target audience sentiment. Essentially, this means a well-rounded research and implementation strategy that factors in everything your numbers’ people and high-level strategists need. 

What Types of Data Can Be Measured on Social Media Networks?

Quantitative data offers numbers to prove general research, while qualitative data provides the details and depth to understand their implications. To fully comprehend the data and offer the most useful road maps, both of these complementary components play a role.

1. Quantitative Data tells us what is going on

Mentions: the amount of times specific products, brands, hashtags or expressions are used on social media

The scope of the mentions: this is calculated according to the audience of people and others they have shared content with and the number of Internet users potentially exposed to a message

The number of engagements: the number of interactions between users and content

Quantitative data can be divided into two categories:

Descriptive data, which gives you key figures, such as the number of new subscribers, engagements, trends, impressions or clicks.


Actionable data deepens the analysis by contextualising this information and by deepening the analysis. It answers questions such as when is the best time to post? What content is popular? and where are new subscribers coming from?

2. Qualitative Data helps us understand why this is happening

Qualitative data is gathered by listening to online consumer exchanges and conversations, which helps companies better understand the numbers. 

In a marketing context, the most useful types of qualitative data are arguably sentiment and trend analysis.

Sentiment analysis: Here, we’re referring to the development of semantic analysis and perception. How do consumers feel about your brand? What do they think about it? It might seem strange to think we can measure these abstract things but the data has shown us that you can draw a neutral positive or negative sentiment from the types of words and phrases that people use in conjunction with each other, blurring the lines between the abstract and the facts.  Technology allows us to open a door to this world of understanding when it comes to analysing our place in the market. 

Trend analysis: Is ideal for companies that want to tap into relevance. Automated analysis has the ability to extract conversation tendencies and exchanges to find correlations between the two but beyond that, you can view trending topics in relation to your mentions, top posts associated with important social or cultural movements and even predict upcoming trends by analysing the data and finding inclinations.

Recovering data on social media: Become an expert in consumer behaviour

On networks: Most social media networks have their own statistics and analysis tool, which users can access through their business profile. This data is a good way to gauge the performance of your profile and posts for a high-level overview but of course, more in-depth analysis will give you the competitive edge and new use cases you didn’t even know existed, with basic listening. 

With engagement management tools: These tools provide an automated, more advanced analysis for a deeper understanding of the data, which can be implemented - usually from one platform - and posts can be scheduled for targeted audiences. The data can also be used to measure the impact of media strategies and as a benchmark against competitors.

With listening tools: These give insight into your current community but also competitors and wider industry audiences. They allow you comprehensive functionality to actively seek out content that’s relevant to your brand and to understand how, why, when and where it is consumed and the effects of this consumption.

Tip: Take a look at UAE social media statistics.

“The brands which are breaking new grounds on social media aren't doing it just by promoting their products or services in a unique manner, but by listening to what's happening in the online space as well in the real world and creating content which resonates sentiments around these occurrences. When customers realize this, they want to engage, they want to discuss among themselves a lasting impact that such a content has. THIS is what brands should aim for” says Sharma.

So, with this in mind - how do we effectively put social media into practice and what are the various ways in which brands can get ahead in the UAE through listening?

e-Reputation: Keep track of all mentions of your brand and products so that you know how your company is being perceived and the topics it’s commonly associated with.

Crisis Watch and prevention: When sentiment and any potentially negative keywords are monitored, crises can be anticipated and limited from going full scale, allowing companies to react as quickly as possible if something comes up.

Crisis damage: The scale of crisis damage and the impact of recovery by a business can be ascertained by monitoring brand sentiment in the months before and after a crisis.

Competitive intelligence: Communication, news and competitor reputation can be easily analysed, enabling you to stay current, predict trends and industry innovations and ahead of your competitors.

Trend reporting: Key topics that drive conversations in your market can be identified when you understand the relevant topics your target audience is deeply engaged with. In the UAE these are often social topics but consumers can also feel a level of fatigue around repetitive conversations. 

Lead Generation: By monitoring different aspects of your product or business, chances are you will discover alternate opportunities with previously untapped consumers and their communities. By engaging with potential, you’re opening up that sales funnel. 

“There's no other way [social media tools] to ensure return on ad investment, quality of users for our apps, customer health and journey and content effectiveness. I shudder to think of a marketing world that simply functioned on big billboards and estimated eyeballs” says Brett Magill, Global Social Media Manager. 

How to Start Your UAE-specific Social Listening Project

Ready to get your social listening campaign off the ground? Follow our step-by-step process.

Define your goals: What do you want to achieve – do you want to understand your consumer better? Tap into new areas of your industry? Stay ahead of the competition? How vast is your understanding of the different consumers in various UAE regions?

Determine which channels to monitor: Are your goals achievable on the social media channels where your audiences are active? A good media monitoring tool will let you know which channels are most popular with specific audiences. If, for example, your goal is to drive people to your website, a good question to ask is “Which social media platform will help us best achieve this?

Choose the right tools: Manually researching and trying to stay on top of current alerts and trends is not an efficient way to hear your consumers. Meltwater’s social listening tool gives you the capability to automate these processes and create highly specific searches in real-time. Also, we know that influence is key here, so you can opt-in to use complimentary software, such as an influencer database, to support your efforts. 

Consider the search mode: It is imperative that you filter searches and keep them very specific. For example, Boolean searches will help you narrow down what is relevant and get to the results faster. 

Set up alerts: Never miss a brand or phrase or mention by setting up alerts on your phone. You also have the option of choosing when you want to be alerted by selecting specific brand, competitor or industry terms or as soon as a crisis or major trend emerges in relation to your searches.

Analyse and compare your data: In a few simple steps, you can create and view a dashboard with your chosen metrics. Dashboards are custom-made to suit you specifically and include the statistics and insights you select in order to make sense of the conversation. The dashboard can analyse a range of metrics, making it invaluable to various departments within your company - not just marketing, PR and comms.

Share your results: It makes sense to share the information, insights and results with colleagues, inter-organisational departments or clients and to use the data to your advantage. Plus, this allows you to get buy-in from higher ups for more investment in your department. 

Create an action plan: When all is said and done, you need to be able to use the information you have gained from social media listening exercises. The most effective way to do this is by creating an action plan, which is easily achieved with the right tools. In this fast-paced digital world, where accurate decision-making is crucial, these tools will enable you to put a plan in place, by deadline.

Elevate your campaigns and enjoy competitive reach and engagement: “Social engagement is paramount, and building our infrastructure and customer service support before the campaign or brand activation is essential to maintain a strong and positive brand identity” [Magill].

At the end of the day, you can’t put a price on going above and beyond to support your social strategy in Dubai or the broader United Arab Emirates. The resources are here, the demand for quality content is here. The opportunity to observe and learn not only exists but is created by the pressing need to analyse our intricate market. A world of exciting opportunities undeniably exists for brands willing to go the extra mile. 

Social Listening in Dubai and the UAE: A Wealth of Opportunity for Marketing, PR & Comms

Social distancing, face masks, lockdowns, working from home, airborne diseases, sanitising yourselves - the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about changes to how we lead our lives these days. The pandemic has affected every industry and how businesses run their operations. The digitalisation of services in the banking industry has been around for some time. And now it has become a critical part of our daily lives. Meltwater dives into the social media data to uncover the latest trends in the virtual banking industry in Hong Kong.

So which bank came out on top in social media and has got everyone talking about it? Our data showed that ZA Bank, in the period between February 2020 and June 2020, was the most mentioned virtual bank in Hong Kong’s mainstream media. The bank’s media coverage exponentially increased from 52% to 65% between the periods of February-April and May-June in 2020. During these periods, Mox Bank and WeLab were the two next talked about virtual banks across Hong Kong news channels.

Since February, ZA Bank was already the most mentioned virtual bank across Hong Kong news channels, with a relative share of voice of 52.07%, followed by Mox Bank with 22.3% and WeLab with 14.82%.

Since early-May, the share of voice of ZA Bank has grown even more significantly to 64.67%. 

So what caused this focus on ZA Bank’s virtual banking experience? Mainstream media’s focus on the HKSAR government’s newly-introduced cash payout scheme boosted ZA Bank’s presence because netizens started to discuss referral bonus schemes for account openings. As ZA Bank had attractive offers for the cash payout scheme, this translated to more people talking about the bank. This was also reflected in the Social Keyword Cloud for virtual banking in the same period. Most keywords were in relation to ZA Bank’s referral scheme and invitation codes were also shared to increase the awareness of the bank’s promotions. 

Factors contributing to the Virtual Banking Buzz

News mentions of virtual banks at both peaks on June 2nd-3rd (96 mentions) and 8th (93 mentions) revolved around the cash pay-out scheme that was rolled out by the HKSAR Government. Interestingly, the articles by New Holiday Magazine and New Monday, which were shared/liked/commented on most during the respective dates, listed out the monetary incentives traditional banks and ZA Bank offered to attract account-opening under the cash pay-out scheme. New Holiday Magazine has generated 24412 social echoes on Facebook, whereas New Monday was shared/liked/commented on social media for 980 times.

Most of the trending keywords are associated with ZA Bank’s referral scheme, such as “定期存款” (Translation: Time Deposit) (87 mentions) and 活期存利率 (Translation: Demand deposit interest rate) (81 mentions). Clicking onto the themes, we can immediately see the invitation codes of ZA Bank linked with these keywords. “眾安銀行” (Translation: ZA Bank) (20 mentions), “ZA Bank 眾安銀” (13 mentions) and “ZA 銀行開左戶” (Translation: Opened account at ZA Bank) (82 mentions) also appeared frequently in the social discussions. It is likely that the referral scheme paired with several discounts has heightened the awareness and attracted an increasing number of customers for ZA Bank.

Discussions continued through early-June, given some obvious spikes on the chart. There were 184 discussions starting from June 1st, and more than 90% of discussions (134 in total) revolved around ZA Bank.

Riding on HKD10000 Government’s cash payout, ZA Bank’s decision to offer $1000 on top of the cash payout has accumulated 64 mentions, accounting for 35% of total mentions.

On the other hand, 36% (67 in total) are referring to the referral scheme of ZA Bank. Those who registered for ZA Bank were sending out invitation codes on the Internet, in order to get a 2% p.a. rate-up coupon, in different threads, particularly discuss.com.hk. 

Reluctance Towards the Virtual Banking Industry

A sentiment analysis on virtual banking showed there were almost 13 times more negative mentions than positive ones. There were a total of 57 mentions with negative sentiments within the period of 1st June to 9th June. Neutral sentiments were generally made up of invitation codes for the referral scheme. A few factors which drove away potential customers from virtual banking were notably found in discussion boards.

We noticed some negative keywords such as 小便宜 (13 mentions) in the keyword cloud. They were linked with LIHKG posts where netizens highlighted their security concerns of facial recognition required by ZA Bank. This unsettled potential customers who were worried that the biometrics requirements would be used to cross-check their identity when captured on CCTV. Also, these measures were only required by virtual banks, but not traditional banks. This led to some discouraging others from registering.

Top social post with negative sentiment around virtual banking


The tweet by @samhon852 that potentially reached 6.94K readers showed that some netizens deemed the referral scheme as a highly contentious move. The netizens complained about ZA Bank’s biometric measures when opening an account, suggesting that ZA Bank would “collect your personal data for China”.

Notably, the LIHKG thread titled as “ZA 虛擬銀行騙局” (Translation: ZA Bank Scam) was reposted on Twitter by @Hkers51 and several netizens. The discussion thread accumulated over 4 pages, 81 replies and 158 reactions. As expected, it addressed the concerns regarding the facial recognition and data security of ZA Bank. It is likely that these concerns contributed to potential customers hesitating to sign up for virtual banking.

2. Perception of E-Banking and Virtual Banking

There was a discussion thread on 21st May that generated a high volume of attention - “虛擬銀行既成立，係咪利多於弊？？“ (Translation: Do the advantages of virtual banks outweigh the disadvantages?). A worrying trend of the discussions in the threads revealed that netizens did not realise the difference between e-banking and virtual banking. Many highlighted that the two services were the same and this contributed to them not signing up for virtual banking services as they felt it was redundant.

Undoubtedly, discussions about offshore accounts saw a boost since the first mention of the recent turbulence in Hong Kong on May 21st. There was a 4928% surge in discussions regarding offshore accounts (including both News and Social) during the period of 21/5 - 9/6 in Hong Kong, compared to the last period. The trending themes regarding offshore accounts within the period are mostly associated with the recent legislation.

There were 191 news articles on offshore accounts in total during the monitored period. In early June, there were some spikes on the topic of offshore accounts, peaking on June 1st. Interestingly, the SCMP publication, with the highest potential reach of 21M, and the article by Headline with top social echo (4575 Reposts; 1 Retweet) both mentioned how netizens’ worries regarding the recent turbulence in Hong Kong  and the United States’ decision to revoke preferential treatment led to offshore account openings and panic-buying of US dollars.

There is an apparent increase in discussions about offshore banking as well as overseas banking. It suggests that netizens are currently looking for new banking options with offshore banking. As no offshore banking services were available in Hong Kong virtual banks, it may be seen as a competitive disadvantage against overseas virtual banks. 

Naturally, netizens began discussing alternative options on virtual banks and conversations on overseas-based institutions gathered steam during the recent turbulence in Hong kong. Netizens gravitated to this option as traditional banking presented an economic stumbling block. This however posed stiff competition to Hong Kong’s virtual banks.

There were 199 mentions since May 21st. The peak on May 22nd, highlighted an article that potentially reached 327K readers and garnered 927 reactions on a how-to guide on opening offshore accounts through traditional banks, securities and overseas virtual banks, published by U Blog. Benefits of overseas virtual banking such as low deposit requirements were mentioned in the article. Similar news articles can be found in late-May and early June, as the discussions continued to rise in June.

The largest volume of forum discussions (50 in total) occurred on June 9th. Many posts discussed offshore account openings in overseas virtual banks. Specifically, LIHKG’s forum discussion threads relating to opening offshore accounts with a lower to no deposit requirements have garnered 5807 comments and 850 reactions. Additionally, the discussion thread was retweeted and accumulated 1.25K reach.

This brief overview on what netizens have discussed on virtual banking and its related topics in the past five months revealed that more awareness is needed to inform people about the service. The misinterpretation of e-banking and virtual banking services needs to be clarified so that people can make better informed opinions which would inevitably lead to better take-up rates. ZA Bank’s competitive rates and promotions may be a driving force in its coverage but a better awareness campaign of the benefits of virtual banking and dispelling misunderstandings on security should benefit virtual banking providers, especially local ones. 

Despite the recent turbulence in Hong Kong being a leading motivator of potential customers opting for overseas banks, local virtual banking providers such as ZA Bank, Mox Bank and WeLab can refocus on developing better outreach programmes to give assurances to its current customers and engaging with netizens as they are a potential pool of future leads. Finally, virtual banking is a highly beneficial service which customers can fully optimise to fit into their everyday lives, especially during a pandemic. And this is where banks can step in to fulfill the fiscal needs of Hong Kong residents.

Trends shaping the virtual banking industry in Hong Kong

As you develop your digital marketing plan, you'll need to address how to incorporate an omnichannel marketing strategy, especially if you want to deliver exceptional customer experiences across different channels. As you do, you'll realize that omnichannel is not just another marketing buzzword. 

This article discusses the definition, purpose, and best practices for incorporating omnichannel marketing in your business. 

Each channel has individual objectives and metrics, and they function independently. The major distinguishing factor between omnichannel and multichannel marketing is that omnichannel marketing prioritizes the customer over the brand.

What Is an Omnichannel Customer Experience?

How to Develop Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy (6 Steps)

What is the Difference Between Omnichannel Marketing and Multichannel Marketing?

Omnichannel Marketing and Personalization

Omnichannel marketing aims to deliver brand messaging and a customer experience that is unified across multiple channels to existing customers or potential buyers.

While some marketing tactics are focused on single-channel engagement, omnichannel marketing is a cross-channel tactic orchestrated to reinforce your brand message in a context-sensitive way. 

No single channel carries the burden of acquiring a new customer. Instead, all channels are synchronized to make the right impression—at the right place and right time—and carefully build on each other. In an omnichannel strategy, all of your marketing channels, messages, customer service, and brand touchpoints are working together in harmony to deliver a customer experience that feels consistent with the potential buyer throughout the customer journey.

This can be a challenge for marketing teams given that the modern customer is shopping or researching services and products across multiple channels. From in-store displays to in-app promotions, marketing, PR, social media, sales, and even customer service teams must not be burdened down by silos if they want to deliver a seamless shopping experience across multiple channels.

Imagine reviewing your Instagram feed only to see an ad for a product that piques your interest. After clicking on the ad, you end up on the product's landing page. After reading about it, you might search the web for reviews or check in with your social circle to ask if anyone has used that product. 

Upon verifying that it's a good product, you return to the e-commerce site and buy it. Alternatively, if it's convenient and available, you might go to a brick-and-mortar store and make your purchase offline. 

Once the purchase is complete and you are using the product, you may then see personalized display ads on your mobile phone for the same brand. At that point, you may revisit multiple platforms to check out those products but not necessarily in the same order as before. That’s because you are now familiar with the brand and don't need to ask your social circle for recommendations or read reviews.  

This example demonstrates the main purpose of this type of strategy: create a relevant, consistent customer experience that emphasizes personalization and engagement that is channel-agnostic. A retail shopper engaging with your brand in-store should an experience that mimics the one they would experience when browsing through your products on social media. In this sense, omnichannel marketing is changing the retail landscape. 

So, how to create an omnichannel marketing strategy? To do this successfully, you need to focus on acknowledging the buyer's unique preferences, interests, and tastes.


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