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DUBAI: Publicis Groupe Middle East, in partnership with Snapchat, on Tuesday launched Youth Studio, a hub designed to provide marketers with exclusive insights about young audiences, specifically Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

Jennifer Fischer, chief growth and innovation officer, Publicis Groupe Middle East and Turkiye, told Arab News: “������Ƶ has the youngest population in the GCC and one of the fastest-moving economies in the region. That combination means brands and government entities can’t afford to rely on outdated assumptions or global reports that don’t account for the cultural nuances here.

“Youth Studio is our answer to that, built for the depth and pace this region requires.”

Fischer described the studio as a “living ecosystem” combining data, research and creativity rather than a “physical space or a static platform.”

Youth Studio consists of four key dimensions: A specific methodology; insights based on real-time data; a community of more than 400 Gen Z professionals from Publicis Groupe, with a smaller group identified as “heroes” who help validate the work; and a modular toolkit.

The modular approach means that Youth Studio is not a “one-size-fits-all program,” but rather a “set of strategic modules, so brands can plug in where they need the most value,” whether that is “understanding culture, fine-tuning an idea or identifying the right partners and moments to activate,” Fischer explained.

Each module is designed to help brands address specific challenges, she added.

For example, the “Code Compass” module helps brands understand how certain themes resonate with youth, such as what “home” means for a furniture brand or “success” for a bank.

“Idea Turner” helps brands refine existing ideas or campaigns to make them more relevant to youth culture by identifying the right tone, language, partnerships and cultural entry points.

And “What’s Hot/What’s Not” is a dedicated module built with Snapchat, focusing on how brands can translate cultural cues into Snapchat-specific campaign ideas.

Youth Studio is supported by Publicis Groupe’s “Youth Uncliched Series,” which is “not a single report but rather a living synthesis of all our ongoing data, research and cultural analysis,” Fischer said.

It combines intelligence from various sources such as BEAT, the group’s proprietary research tool that gathers live weekly data; qualitative research and interviews, conducted with youth aged 9 to 27; digital and social intelligence tools that “track cultural trends, memes and behavioral shifts across the broader online ecosystem”; and Snapchat’s insights that provide a “behavioral and creative layer,” she added.

Snapchat reaches in excess of 75 million daily active users in the GCC, including more than 90 percent of 13-34-year-olds in ������Ƶ and one in three in the UAE, according to a statement.

The platform “has become the pulse of Saudi creativity, where global trends are remixed with local identity,” and “by pairing that cultural heartbeat with Publicis Groupe’s regional scale, we’re turning these insights into strategies that brands can build on,” Rasha El-Ghoussaini, head of Agency at Snap Inc. MENA, told Arab News.

Youth Studio will be accessible to all Publicis Groupe Middle East clients across agencies. Fischer said that the network is open “to engaging with brands who are keen on connecting with the youth, but our priority is to bring added value to Publicis Groupe clients first.”

SAN FRANCISCO: A US judge on Friday granted an injunction barring Israeli spyware maker NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users but slashed a $168 million damages award at trial to just $4 million.
District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that NSO Group’s behavior fell short of a “particularly egregious” standard needed to support the jury’s calculations on a financial penalty.
But in the ruling, seen by AFP, she said the court “concluded that defendants’ conduct causes irreparable harm, and there being no dispute that the conduct is ongoing” the judge granted WhatsApp owner Meta an injunction to stop NSO Group’s snooping tactics at the messaging service.
Evidence at trial showed that NSO Group reverse-engineered WhatsApp code to stealthily install spyware targeting users, according to the ruling, which called such access to user data “unlawful.”
The spyware was repeatedly redesigned to escape detection and bypass security fixes at WhatsApp, the court concluded.
The lawsuit, filed in late 2019, accused NSO Group of cyberespionage targeting journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and others using the encrypted messaging service.
Hamilton ruled however that the $168 million damages verdict awarded to Meta earlier this year was excessive.
“There have simply not yet been enough cases involving unlawful electronic surveillance in the smartphone era for the court to be able to conclude that defendants’ conduct was ‘particularly egregious’,” Hamilton wrote in the ruling which was seen by AFP.
“As time goes on, more of a shared societal consensus may emerge about the acceptability of defendants’ conduct.”
Founded in 2010 by Israelis Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, NSO Group is based in the seaside high-tech hub of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.
Media website TechCrunch reported Friday that a US investment group has acquired controlling interest in NSO Group.
The Israeli firm produces Pegasus, a highly invasive tool that can reportedly switch on a target’s cell phone camera and microphone and access data on it, effectively turning the phone into a pocket spy.
The suit filed in a California federal court contended that NSO tried to infect approximately 1,400 “target devices” with malicious software to steal valuable information.
Infecting smartphones or other gadgets being used for WhatsApp messages meant the content of messages encrypted during transmission could be accessed after they were unscrambled.
The complaint said the attackers “developed a program to enable them to emulate legitimate WhatsApp network traffic in order to transmit malicious code” to take over the devices.
The software has been pinpointed by independent experts as being used by nation states, some of them with poor human rights records.
NSO Group has maintained it only licenses its software to governments for fighting crime and terrorism.