With speakers from Facebook and YouTube on the books among others, day three at Dubai Lynx was not one to be missed. It is interesting that I can summarize today’s topics in about three words: Content, Attention and Culture. Here are today’s biggest takeaways:

[box]Favorite Quote of the Day: “Humans now have a shorter attention span than gold fish.” – Yousef Tuqan Tuqan, Leo Burnett [/box]

1. The World’s Second Largest Search Engine: YouTube.

Chris McCarthy, creative program manager at Youtube’s ‘The Zoo’, spoke on the role YouTube played in corroborating how brands interact with various cultures. In case you are wondering, The Zoo is YouTube’s in-house creative agency which works with select clients to come up with advertising solutions. Key statistics that McCarthy presented included confirming that over 300 hours of content is uploaded on YouTube every minute. He also noted that 50% of YouTube content is watched on mobiles. If you haven’t already skipped to the key takeaway, you probably like facts and here’s another one: YouTube experiences over 1 billion unique views per month.

Key Takeaway: McCarthy ascertained that content that wins “captures passion while forming conversations along the way.” The formula for success includes reacting to cultural trends on an ‘ASAP’ basis. For example: When the Paris fashion week concluded, YouTube creators who posted videos on how to copy certain popular hairstyles received a mad amount of views. You should know that, YouTube’s best clients reached their audiences using their passions. If you want to know what’s trending, forget research, just check Google most-searched terms.

2. Facebook’s 3-Second-Audition.

Bubbling with ‘blarney’ (the Irish word for charming talk), Fergus O’Hare from Facebook presented the concept, rather challenge, of how brands have a minuscule timeframe to hook their audience. O’Hare, the creative strategist at Facebook’s MENA office, revealed that users spend an average of 20 minutes browsing the Newsfeed. He also noted that the Newsfeed is viewed an average of 14 times per day by an individual. The crux of his presentation was basically that brands have about three seconds to retain a user’s attention as she/he made their way through their Newsfeed.

Key Takeaway:  The right ad will always work if it reaches the right audience. (*Cough* Use Facebook *Cough* *Cough*). Remember: Edgy concept + Spread +Tiny Logo + No Copy = SCAM (or we’ll extend this concept to =SPAM). Personalise the post to truly engage your audience and they will react. Check out what he means: https://www.facebook-studio.com/awards/

3. Leo Burnett’s Cultural Innovation & Social Deviant’s Social Creativity.

From the remaining speakers, we choose to hightlight LB’s chief innovation officer Yousef Tuqan Tuqan’s (pictured above) presentation on innovation in cultures and Marc Landsberg’s concept of the evolution of social creativity.  Tuqan Tuqan emphasized the need for ‘innovation’ over the idea of ‘invention’.

Key Takeaway:  “The longest five seconds in people’s lives today are the five seconds they wait to skip a YouTube ad.” Remember the attention span you’re working with and engage it accordingly. Landsberg suggested that content should be planned with this formula: Content platform + Content Type + Content Occasion. Landsberg’s presentation can be best illustrated from the pictures below:

In case you missed it, here’s our summary of day one and day two.

Note: For anyone looking for a job in the advertising industry, #DubaiLynx is an unmissable opportunity to rub shoulders with the right people and absorb what works in the real ad world.

Featured Image and other images courtesy of Dubai Lynx/ Getty Images.