Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Ecommerce in the UAE

Facts and Figures:

Internet Service Providers 1
Companies with Internet Access 88 percent
Companies with own Website 60 percent
Companies with E-Commerce Operations 14 percent
Compaines Intending to Begin E-Commerce Operations 42 percent
Companies with no Intentions to Begin E-Commerce Operations 12 percent
E-Commerce Market (1997) $11.5 million*
These numbers have grown significantly since 1997

Click on the title for the link to the article



A popular Egyptian Blog


Wael Abbas, a humanitarian, decided to create a blog to report on all the indecent acts going on in Egypt that the government continuosly tries to cover up. He reported on how corrupt the Egyptian police force is through, Abuse, Rape and Torture. He reports on all the unfairness of horrible and gruesome things, such as acts of violence and political indiscrepancies, going on in the Middle East.


He's won several awards such as:


  • 2007 - The Knight international journalism award

  • 2007 - The CNN Middle East Person of the Year

  • 2006 - The BBC Most Influential Perosn

  • 2006 - Egyptains against corruptian award (Masryeen dud Al Fasad)

He sells Ad space on his blog and has posted videos on Yahoo and YouTube of some of these acts that he's caught or managed to find on Camera. However, YouTube and Yahoo have suspended both of his accounts so that he has lost most of this coverage


You can watch a YouTube video of him being interviewed by CNN



Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Advertising usage to beat the competition

This is an article that shows how advertising can be used to develop brand loyalty, create brand presence, win against your competitors... etc.

UAE advertising industry expands 22%

  1. An Ave. of 22% growth in the past 10 years.


  2. First is Outdoor, Second Is Print, Third is TV.


  3. Sign and Graphics 2008 brought together companies from N.America., Europe, the M.E. and N. Africa and S. E. Asia, and 63 UAE-based companies;Advertising technology can increase tremendously thanks to this.


  4. Ad spending has increased helping private and public agencies expand.


Click on the title to go to the main article

or click here: http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Media/10190816.html

here's another website Quoting the same article http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093186129

Pepsi UAE

Has anyone seen the new packaging that PEPSI has made for their DIET PEPSI in the UAE?
I'll post a picture of it soon (a badly taken one)

It's reallllly pretty and feminine. It's only on the Diet Pepsi cans, main colours are baby Blue and Pink. Mostly Metallic. Obviously it's targeted towards females. I looks similar to the iPOD campaigns though, since PEPSI is using women's shillouettes on the cans. Also, Coca Cola used a similar technique to increase loyalty about a year ago...

Probably because of the pepsi can shock last march 2007... read the article by clicking the title

Advertising & PR in DXB and Abu Dhabi

Clips showing advertisements in Dxb and A.D.


Click on the links to see the clip

PR Ad for the Ad. water co. :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWMbGLhJ-1c

Outdoor adsin DXB and AD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM8ezafQx1k

PR for Dubai Film City: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hiBDLzTNOw&feature=related

An Ad. Agency advertising for themselves on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMNt0NDFINU
I wouldn't go to them if they're that desperate =S
Maybe their creative director leaked it?
Dunno

Guess what i found on youtube!

This is a short video clip that discusses and debates the usage of religion (Islam) in advertising to convince consumers to buy a product, there's also a short discussion of using women as sex objects.
The female presenter is a student at AUS.
Guest Stars Prf. Andrew Lynch! Mohammed Ibrahim (Known as Mo Hyena) , Habiba... and someone who's name i don't know.

Check out http://www.uaestudents.blogspot.com/ for more information.

Advertising ex.s in movies

Hey everyone!
So i was watching "Sweeny Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street", Great movie btw, a bit gruesome. Anyways, i found some examples for one of my classes on old forms of print Advertising, Hawkers, and Bad word of mouth. Took some movie snap shots for you guys

A Hawker, and Outdoor Advertising in the background =D
A better shot

The characters in the movie were spreading bad word of mouth when the Hawker was trying to advertise the "Miracle Elixer"


A shot of an example of an outdoor print ad in the movie

Saturday, February 16, 2008

UAE should stop using "Imported Campaigns" !

This article is basically about how the Ad industry in the UAE is lacking because of the use of "imported" advertising campaigns from other countries and just translating them for use here.
I seriously doubt that the culture in the U.S and the U.A.E are similar!
And we all know about the numerous implied rules in the Ad industry here!
Main Points:
  1. Whole Campaigns are being imported from other countries and translated into Arabic
  2. These campaigns fail because they aren't segmented to the UAE audience
  3. The Audience in the UAE are extremely diverse, that's why the imporated campaigns fail.
  4. Loss of Arab culture and westernization

UAE Ads! Thinking outside the Box!

BTW Etisalats management SUCKS.... But they did focus alot on PR when it came to dealing with their employees during GITEX 2007... Apparently not good enough since im saying this loool
How Come i never see ads like this here?

Hahahaha any woman's last wish!


GREAT idea!


I like!



Creative Outdoor Ads!


Very Cute, Very Creative... but i don't really like their food!


Cute Valentines' day ad.





Hey!


Ok, i know this has NOTHING to do with the Mid. East Ad world, but i came across this Ad and wanted to share it with you guys.





Four things i found interesting:
  1. The products' name was only mentioned once, shows confidence


  2. The product was shown (in full) once, but placed about 2 other times


  3. Both target audiences are defined --> but the problem is that i felt like they focused on targeting the men (Who buy the drinks for the women) more than the women. (Or they were being empathetic towards cupids since this product came out!)

  4. It's a bit too long, but cute to watch for the first time.


    Ok!, So let me know what you think! - click on the link pweeeeeeaseee
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHoiDKi35dg

Monday, February 11, 2008

UAE outdoor Ad Prices

- Major players:
Shoof
Concept Group
Emirates Outdoor

- Outdoor ad prices have increase due to the demand for advertising space from the real estate market

- The cost of outdoor advertising in Dubai has rocketed by more than 500 per cent since 2003

- Billboards on poles on Sheikh Zayed Road formerly cost Dh400,000 a year to rent. But the price today is between Dh1.5 million and Dh2.5m


Retrieved from : http://uaeinteract.com/docs/Outdoor_ad_prices_to_rise_by_20/28017.htm

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Interesting Info about U.A.E advertising


1 - The UAE's Ad sector is the 5th fastest growing in the world with an estimated
growth of growth of 108.9% between 2006 and 2009, according to ZenithOptimedia.

2 - The TV Ad Market is worth $300 million

3 - Internet usage in the M.E has incread by 500% since 2000

4 - Outdoor advertising is the most cluttered in the U.A.E

5 - 55% of residents said advertising in the UAE is not original, while 71% believe only a small percentage (0-29%) of advertising is relevant to them.

6 - 68% said most adverts do not make them feel good about the brand.


Info from: http://www.iaauae.org/en/news-archive/advertising-2008.html