Deloitte, a financial series firm and Injaz Al-Arab, an NGO focused on boosting employment opportunities for Arab youth, partnered together to develop a unique social media marketing app.

The app encouraged over 500 students from five Arab countries to create 30-second marketing videos to promote a product or service, which were then uploaded to Facebook to be vetted by the general public.

In total 55 videos from 55 student companies were submitted of which the top ten students whose video generated the most public votes went on to receive further mentorship in the field of social media marketing by Deloitte volunteers.

“Youth today are extremely tech-savvy and the app was an excellent method of furthering their learning experience,” said Akef Aqrabawi, deputy regional director of Injaz Al-Arab.

“Marketing is a specialised field that requires individuals to be creative, and through this initiative we were able to encourage students to think about the multiple ways of connecting and engaging consumers in presenting and selling products. Deloitte has been a fantastic partner and their volunteers really boosted the learning experience.”

Taking students’ knowledge of marketing to the next level, Deloitte volunteers worked with the top ten nominees to re-produce their videos in a bid to make their campaigns more effective and appealing to their target audience. “Sequence”, a student company from Injaz Bahrain, won the top accolade for “Best Student Video”.

The students will now go on to receive further mentorship from Deloitte in addition to being enrolled on a professional online course on social media marketing by Udemy.

“In order for youth to obtain vital work readiness skills it is essential for private sector companies to participate in their development and learning,” added Rana Ghandour Salhab, Talent and Communications partner at Deloitte Middle East.

“This programme has been highly successful and we are thrilled with the feedback from all participants. In addition, the videos submitted were often highly creative, highlighting the boundless potential of Arab youth. As an on-going partner of Injaz Al-Arab we look forward to furthering our investment in building the skills of future young professionals.” – TradeArabia News Service