The Middle East is a region often defined by stereotypes and social taboos, as well as one constrained by conservative laws and mindsets, particularly when it comes to women and their role in society. Consequently beauty is a topic that's defined by one-dimensional stereotyping that is prevalent in both regional media and the advertising industry.

The inability to openly discuss personal topics heavily contributes to the enforcement of these stereotypes, with women perceived as being told what to wear, what to do, what to say.

Even during a time of relative progress, the fact remains that due to a combination of conservative media regulations, cultural taboos and societal sensitivity, many Arab women often feel they don't have an authentic narrative, meaning their true identity and voice is being suppressed.

Miraa is more than a campaign. It's a content-driven, journalistic platform that captures a true reflection of women in the Middle East; a platform in Arabic that's been created by Arab women for Arab Women. We are creating a trusted space that connects like-minded women with shared values and passions. It creates conversations that push boundaries and has quickly established an audience that finally feels it is being given a voice.

For Arab women, beauty is not a fixed concept. Its definition has never been more individual, and goes beyond the superficial and deep into societal issues.

Our idea was to help Unilever build trust, social fluency and create conversations that address the individual impact beauty has in culture. We wanted to make a point of going far beyond the product and take a closer look at the real issues brands almost always avoid.

Miraa was developed to represent a true reflection of women today. To push the boundaries of cultural conversations forward and raise the profile of Arab women by questioning, informing and offering an authentic, worldly perspective on the reality of the society they live in.

Miraa’s mission is to send a bold statement: that the time for stereotypes of this kind is over, and that there is finally a platform in Arabic for, by and about Arab women.

To actively participate in the cultural conversation and to add value to it.

This is not a campaign, it’s a long-lasting purpose-driven platform to champion Arab female voices. We have created a new communication model that has allowed Unilever to move beyond traditional advertising and adopt a publishing mindset with social journalism at its core. This is all perfectly aligned with Unilever’s mission of building brands with genuine purpose at their core.

We knew from our own network's data and insights (both quantitive and qualitative) that there was a large audience of women who felt their voices and views weren't represented in mainstream media and advertising. In addition to that, we continuously used surveys to identify the subjects that these women wanted to hear.

Our audience are women, aged 18-35 years old, from across the Middle East and North Africa.

In less than six months, Miraa has turned Unilever into one of the region’s largest cultural publishers through three key differentiators:

- Continuously listening to social and gathering trends that can be leveraged

- Monitoring Miraa's content's performance and doubling down on the topics resonating with our audience

- A/B testing multiple titles for articles and videos to ensure that all content achieves a minimum of 5% CTR or 45% VTR

The result is that Miraa is already ranked second versus existing publishers when it comes to both the average duration a user spends on the site and the number of articles they read per visit. We have been able to gather more than 10m views with an unprecedented 50%+ view retention rate for our content. Our follower base and the number of website users have exceeded 1.5m with a growing returning users base that is currently at 30%.