Wednesday 28 April 2010

The Last Advertising Agency on Earth by Saatchi and Saatchi

Media in the UAE

Ahhhh yes......... THIS should be the basis of all media related UAE STUFF.

For those of you looking to work in the UAE media industry, I suggest you check this site out first

http://www.uae.gov.ae/Government/media.htm

1- We believe in free media... with certain limits

2- six satellite TV stations in addition to a number of other non-satellite TV stations

3- There are also more than seven radio stations throughout the seven emirates

4- (theres more check it out)

Oh please keep in mind that this most probably ISNT up-to-date

Tuesday 20 April 2010

Advertisers take Metro to beat crowded market - Emirates Business 24|7

<span style="font-style:italic;">Advertisers take Metro to beat crowded market - Emirates Business 24|7



Metro's growing reach is increasing its advertising horizon and it is evident from a massive launch campaign of Dubai-based Iconic brand – a retail outlet just being launched in Deira City Centre.



The Dubai Metro has been offering various advertising options in and around the stations and metro bogeys through Kasab advertising, but Iconic retail store has utilised this relatively new medium with substantial part of its advertising and marketing budget.



"Metro in the region may have been a new concept, but all over the world they are very popular and work wonderfully for communicating with commuters. Keeping that in view we stretched our imagination and included this platform in our launch campaign for the launch of Iconic concept store," said Raza Beg, CEO of Iconic.



"We wanted to touch all points of communication and in an overcrowded market such as Dubai, the Metro offers a creative relief to communicate with our probable clients.



"Our customers are everywhere, inside and outside the Metro and with repetitive reinstatements of our message, the Metro offers a very good return on investment."



Since its launch on September 9, 2009, the Dubai Metro has transported 13.68 million commuters from 10 stations. Seven more stations are scheduled to open on April 30 and three more by May 15, according to the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai.



"Metro was always to be a strong means to communicate and that was evident from the response to our tender for the purpose that was won by Kasab advertising," said Peyman Younes Parham, Director of Marketing and Corporate Communication at RTA.



Elaborating on the effective reach of Metro, Parham said: "With more than 80,000 commuters a day, Metro is a very effective canvas for advertising. Most of our commuters are regular and include aspiring professionals of all nationalities, including nationals.



"Considering the wide variety of nationalities and professional background, Metro works out to be a very cost- effective means to advertise and communicate with a specified target audience," said Parham.



Many other brands such as Sony Ericson have been utilising Metro as a platform to advertise, but Iconic launch campaign has taken the brand communication on Metro to another level.



"Some of the most important stations that are waiting to be opened are bound to add to the marketing potential of Metro," said Parham.



The opening of Burj Khalifa station added another 10,000 commuters to Metro on daily basis and with the opening of other important stations such as the Dubai World Trade Centre and Karama station, the number will increase," said Parham emphasising on the growing reach of Metro and its effectiveness as an communication brand. With the launch of 10 additional stations, RTA expects the total number of commuters of Dubai Metro to increase up to 35 million people by the end of 2010. This increase in the number of commuters will add to the marketing potential of the Metro.



Extending his faith on the Metro as an advertising platform, Beg said: "Every brand has to be in touch with the common man and our brand also intends to achieve the same. We devised a very elaborate media mix with radio, print and outdoors. But for outdoors, we decided to use Metro that has been growing with increased number of commuters since its launch."

Stranded! Social media to the rescue!

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2010/04/19/nr.social.net.helps.stranded.cnn.html

Watch this video!

Travellers in Europe who are stranded due to the recent volcanic eruption have been turning to Twitter and other social media for help! and are also giving help through those mediums!

WATCH THE VIDEEEOOOO i promise its not boring, its quite cool


Monday 19 April 2010

5 reasons Spot On PR use twitter

Spot On is a PR agency in the U.A.E , who have a very interesting blog. I don't think I should rewrite their stuff so if your interested in the title then here's the link!
http://www.spotonpr.com/5-reasons-we-use-twitter/

Twitter and Barasti

Twitter: I've just started my very first twitter account! So i'm very excited and TRYING to learn more about it (apparently its more popular than I thought it was) but no worries! In due time i'll be an expert tweeter. hehe



Barasti:Is an outdoor beach pub/dance venue in DXB UAE. Very popular among expats and in the past few months, Barasti has been trying very hard to repromote themselves as a fun outdoorsie beach place that bring in entertainers like HedKandi.





The Link: A link to Arabian Business that talks about a huge online social media mishap on behalf of Barasti (or their reps)

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/584992-barasti-bar-scraps-concert-after-twitter-outrage





What was happening in the UAE
: Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had passed away recently from a very tragic accident, the UAE was in mourning from the Tuesday all the way to Saturday. That's about 4 days.



What Barasti had been planning: They had planned to bring Vanilla Ice to do a little show for everyone (you can't exactly call it a concert in my opinion)



The Issue: Barasti Bar sent an early-afternoon text message saying: “NORMAL OPERATION. WE ARE NOT DRY! NICE, NICE BABY! 5PM-3AM C U ON THE SAND”.



Why this is an Issue:



1: UAE was mourning the Sheikh's Passing (Allah Yerhamoh)

This means that alcohol shouldn't be served as a sign of respect



2: The message shows a certain lack of respect. It also implies that expats also don't seem to care.



3: Prominent Emirati social commentator Mishaal Gergawi said on his twitter account that he was "disgusted by Barasti's SMS that they r not dry tonight!! RT [retweet] & don't stop until someone shuts it down tonight!!”



Dubai-born musician DJ Bliss said: “the question is: what do we want Barasti to do now? Apologise or cancel the show?”



Another user described the text message as “tasteless and disgusting”.






Also look at: http://fakeplasticsouks.blogspot.com/2010/04/inevitable-blog-post.html

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/585079-barasti-apologises-for-insensitive-concert-texts

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/expat/annabelkantaria/10138457/how-twitter-blocked-vanilla-ice/



Tuesday 6 April 2010

I love the Auto Microsites in the uae

If there's one thing the UAE Media industry is good at.... it's auto micro sites!

For all you supposed readers out there....

JUST in case you didn't know, i thought I'd inform you that for most of my posts you should be able to find the original article by clicking on the title of the post =)

Online shopping increases in the UAE


So, two years ago i published this post -->
http://emirateads.blogspot.com/2008/03/online-shopping-in-uae.html

Which basically talks about how 75% of online users are un-trusting of online shopping.

Well the UAE has come a VERY long way in a very short time --->

Respondents in the UAE are becoming more comfortable with shopping on the internet, with 52% of the respondents having stated that it is convenient to shop online in 2009 versus 47% in 2008. Furthermore, 54% of the respondents stated that it is easier to shop online in 2009 versus 52% in 2008.

How cool is that?

On the other hand, my brother (yes i have a brother and he's awesome) has been purchasing games online (PS3 games i think) for about a year now.
Poor guy, the first time he tries purchasing men's wear online from an international reputable website he looses a good amount of money from the bank and has never seen his new clothes since....

My mum on the other hand has been purchasing items online (like airline tickets) from sites such as Amazon and ebay for the past three years at least and has never had a problem (besides late delivery)

Personally. I have never purchased online and I'm still hesitant!

CHECK ME OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!



HOW über COOL am i! hahaha

In bad taste...

Israel TV is airing a supermarket-chain commercial that parodies security-camera tapes of the Hamas Commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh assassination.

They're tagline is : "We offer killer prices."

Look, im not saying that i believe in media censorship...but i do believe in self censorship.

Media officials should stick to certain "unofficial" media ethics... like not using the death of a person (murder i should say) to promote their services or products. It is completely unethical and I feel completely disgusted no matter how funny or entertaining it may be.

Indian Premier League showing in cinemas!



So the UAE media is evolving! How about this for an idea that's "out of the box" !

Entertainment and Sports Direct (ESD), which has acquired global theatrical rights to the matches, has collaborated with Al Nisr Cinema and Gulf Films to bring the matches to cinemas.

Arun Rangachari, the chairman of DAR Capital Group, which is promoting ESD, said they had been telecasting IPL matches at 650 cinemas in India. There, theatres have seen an average occupancy rate of just over 45 per cent, which is considered high.


Could this be a new footie-ist stadium for our dedicated football fans here in the UAE? We all know about FIFA 2010 what better way is there to watch football on a big screen with no smokers and all the popcorn and nachos you can afford!