Muslim Ad Network: The digital gateway to Muslim consumers

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Muslim Ad Network (MAN) is a vertical advertising network of websites that primarily addresses Muslims and offers an aggregate advertising platform via web, mobile, email, and social media advertising. 

The network is the first service of its kind to target the Muslim consumer market. It has been playing an important role in connecting businesses and organizations of all sizes with a Muslim audience as well as helping digital Islamic services optimize advertising revenues.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

1. MAN has developed  substantial scale since its inception, having posted over 210 million advertisements primarily in the U.S. The network also has sales representation in Canada, UK, and the Middle East.
2. MAN works with several of the leading Muslim-focused websites, including Zabihah.com and Ummah.com.
3. MAN has conducted campaigns targeting Muslim consumers for several top brands, such as Godiva and leading charity Helping Hand.

OPPORTUNITIES BEING ADDRESSED

Growing digital penetration

Global digital ad expenditure was estimated at $135 billion in 2014. Driven by increasing Internet usage and mobile phone penetration, among millennials in particular, total digital ad spend is set to grow by a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12 percent to become a $267 billion market by 2020.

Addressing the high-growth Muslim opportunity

As a recognizable group, Global Urban Muslims are creating their identities online and providing important cues for companies advertising products and services that address Islamic values. In 2014, an estimated $6 billion was spent advertising to Muslims globally, and this spend is expected to increase to $24 billion by 2020 according to the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2015/16.

When MAN was founded, it was the first network to provide an aggregated platform to help companies effectively target the Muslim consumer.

COMPANY STRATEGIES

Providing access to the highly-coveted Muslim consumer

In an industry where Muslim-focused websites are still building scale and are still in the earlier stages of growth compared to established mainstream digital services, the ability to aggregate is critical. MAN is the first company to develop an aggregate advertising platform addressing Muslims on a global scale. This enables the use of focused advertising campaigns targeting Muslims.

“There is a void that we’re filling [at MAN] in an under-served market that would be otherwise un-scalable to target directly,” said the network’s co-founder Saad Ahmad. This critical link to Muslims has enabled MAN to work with leading brands and companies.

Ahmad further commented, “We work with leading financial institutions in the Muslim market like [U.S.-based] Guidance Residential and leading charities like Helping Hand. Essentially we're working with top brands/companies in several different verticals and continue to gain strong traction.”

Working exclusively with the top websites

On its website, MAN claims to be able to advertise to over 10 million Muslims in over 195 countries. It has exclusive relationships with over 100 top Muslim websites, including Zabihah.com. “We were the first ones to target this opportunity—we were able to create an important partnership with Zabihah.com which both parties benefitted from,” said Ahmad.

Helping Islamic websites earn a steady revenue stream

The company also helps digital Islamic services that jointly associate with it. As Ahmad observes, MAN’s ad-placement capabilities “empower publishers that are struggling to earn a halal income and help provide a steady cash flow to the website owners.” By working with smaller websites, MAN is also able to identify future winners in the digital Islamic Economy.

OPPORTUNITIES

There is substantial opportunity for growth, including working with more major brands and expanding the global reach of MAN. “We want to continue to work with the major brands and help them access the Muslim consumer wherever they are,” said Ahmad. “This can make us one of the most powerful online networks.”

CHALLENGES

Managing financial expectations for new websites is challenging. For Ahmad, patience is key, “[We] need to spend time empowering and educating website owners, and they need to realize that they will not get lots of cash overnight.”

Furthermore, working with mainstream brands can be challenging: there is a long sales cycle, and sudden decisions can be informed by anti-Muslim sentiment. In 2011, for example, U.S.-based home-improvement chain Lowes withdrew advertising support for the reality TV show All-American Muslim after backlash from the Florida Family Association, which works to “educate people on what they can do to defend, protect and promote traditional, biblical values”, according to its website.

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