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Most of your career had been spent in the UK before you headed to the United Arab Emirates to work at MBC – what made you go overseas?

Laura Chaibi: I had set up research programmes worldwide and the Middle East was proving – and is still proving – the most challenging region in which to practise research. I was also speculating that digital video and mobile were the two areas of growth, and Middle East consumers are the most advanced with their use. The biggest work challenges, coupled with the Dubai lifestyle and weather, brought me here. 

How does working in market research in the Middle East differ from the UK?

LC: Where to start! There is very little infrastructure in place to do digital research and measurement at an industry level. At the very least in other markets you have reliable syndicate sources to create viable weighting frameworks for effective sampling. The diaspora of the Arabic populations means data is potentially not up to date – certainly not to census level. 

The second main challenge is website and email use. E-commerce is underdeveloped and most markets use a mobile number as your sign up and account ID; almost all services are tied to your number, not your email. Open rates of email are abysmal, so forget survey invites via website/email. 

Equally challenging is technically getting into the digital environments to survey – this needs to be via an app. I’ve had some epic fails and things that would have been straightforward in the UK have hit walls here. 

Finally, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are high GDP [gross domestic product] markets; how do you incentivise consumers – via mobile – who are not seeking monetary rewards, and often draw politically correct lines when giving feedback? Not to mention that many women in the region pose as men online or prefer to remain anonymous. 

What do you miss most about working in the UK?

LC: Comradery at a peer level. Working in an international role in the UK, I had an extensive network, and access to best-in-class solutions and infrastructure. There is no industry-level trade body or forum governing or supporting MENA [Middle East and North Africa]. 

What’s the best thing about working in the UAE?

LC: My biggest challenges are the best thing. How do I work out the size of the addressable digital Arabic population in the MENA region – in particular GCC countries full of non-Arab expats? What is the size of the digital ad market when there are no officially published sources? How can we run brand effectiveness research in the region when panels are not sustainable and everything needs to be relatable to app use? There’s never a dull moment, and I find having more questions than answers a great motivator. 

What has surprised you most about life in the Middle East?

LC: It is amazing how just half a day at the beach means you feel like you’ve been on holiday and all is well in the world again. The other thing is administrative protocol. This might sound strange, but the things you take for granted as being straightforward never are, and the things you think will be hard can be effortless. 

Much of Dubai is digitised, so – if you are a digital native – the city caters for you: from excellent internet connectivity and 24-hour delivery of almost anything, through to getting near play-by-play text messages every step of the way, tracking your spending, your mobile minutes, your bills. 

But when you want to have movement and access to things, or if there is any form filling, you will probably need a very long trail of paperwork. Expect to walk around with at least a dozen photocopies of your documents and backup passport photos – anything official needs a relentless number of stamps. 

Most of the Middle East doesn’t have a centralised infrastructure for things such as creditworthiness. If you get a loan or mortgage, as I have, your creditworthiness is often assigned to your employer’s creditworthiness. So make sure, if you come to the region, that you work for a reputable, established company – otherwise you might find it difficult to have your character-reference background checks in place. 

Are there many similarities, or more differences, between the broadcasting industries in the UAE and the UK?

LC: From a delivery point of view, they are similar – be available to consumers anytime/anywhere. From a digital point of view, the challenges are similar, but the solutions are based on what can work in the region. 

As in most emerging markets, you’ll end up doing a broad range of highly operational work across a variety of areas. You need to be prepared to muck in, simply because things will not get done otherwise. 

Everyone needs a visa to be in the UAE, so you get both extremely skilled and seasoned staff and a lot of first-job entrants – the middle layer might be thin on the ground, so there is more to be done to balance this in the workforce. Succession planning, career movement up the ranks, and job mobility become less coordinated; this can be why many might not survive life in Dubai. 

What is the culture around market research like in the Middle East?

LC: Hard. Once you get over the shock of it, you just need to crack on, and stop once in a while to commiserate with vendors who have an equally challenging role pleasing customers. 

Because of the under-development of the discipline, it’s easy for others to dismiss the outcomes of studies, on the grounds of poor research infrastructure. So I often take up to three sources with very different methodologies to show my sample framework matches the profiling needed, and is corroborated with other independent studies. Bad data is still making money in the Middle East and it makes it difficult for good work to get full cut through. People are scared to give up the bad data (it’s all we have and everyone is using it). Why does this happen? Lack of trade bodies and industry management of quality measurement, and the unwillingness to invest in better data without market cohesion. 

How has it been for you as a woman living and working in the Middle East?

LC: It is amazing. Dubai is one of the safest cities in the world, and chivalry is very much alive and kicking – door opening, ladies first, and courteous business and formal greetings. On a deeper level, Dubai is no different from anywhere else for women in tech and media – it is a challenge. I’m still plugged into international networks, which keeps me sane. It’s a balancing act professionally, not because I am a woman – but because I am a woman with a digital mentality in a broadcast culture. 

Where does digital research sit with other types in the UAE?

LC: It is pretty much non-existent; digital media research has been drowned out as companies move straight into data science or data analytics. The whole media industry driven by digital is moving from aggregated anonymous data to known, personally identifiable information (PII), and digital companies with mandatory login are creating models and analytics around this. So any company with anonymous audience data cannot compete on a like-for-like basis. 

It goes against the very nature of the MRS Code of Conduct and all the media policies of not holding PII, while businesses are uploading their entire databases into Facebook to database match and target their customers with messaging. 

The social media industry find our practices in digital research ‘antiquated’ because it is not speedy, yet they know nothing about effective sampling and trying to speak to the people who do not want anything to do with your brands or products – as well as the ones who are over-zealous. 

What advice would you give to someone thinking of making a similar move?

LC: It really comes down to personal outlook and how open you are to change – if you are comfortable with being uncomfortable and willing to adapt. One of my favourite quotes is I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than closed by belief. 

What social/digital media trends should we look out for in MENA?

LC: E-commerce is about to heat up and a lot of investment is pouring in. A new e-commerce company will be launching before the end of 2016, and Amazon is potentially making a move in. Equally, video on demand is rising as more players enter the market, including Netflix.