Radio Ads in the UAE

Back in 2008, I wrote this "Region has bad radio ads" blogpost.

Looking back at that post, I still think that the U.A.E at least is lacking in the radio advertisement department. Though I must admit, it is incredibly difficult to come up with a good jingle, or a memorable advertisement in the U.A.E without insulting anyone or using any sexual innuendos.

Well, in the past few weeks, I have been unconsciously listening to this one particular ad and came to the conclusion that it was funny. YES funny! very entertaining and very memorable. (If any of you know which agency created this advert please let me know so I can contact them to get a sound clip up on the blog)

It goes something like this :

Dead pan 50's sounding male voice over

"We now bring you this announcement from Dr. Gustav schuhemburger"

Dr. Gustav (Heavy Albert Einstein type crazy doctor accent)

"In my experiments on the human brains reaction to the Splash Part sale I have found an AMAZING discovery"

"When you expose the cerebellum of the brain to the Splash part sale you get..."

Female voice

"OOoooHH"

Dr. Gustav

"You see! but wait there's more! When you expose it to the Hypothalamus you get..."

Female Voice

"Whooo ohhhhh!"

Dr Gustav

"But the most AMAZING reaction is from the Medulla Oblongata..."

Female Voice(s) and Arabic drum beats

Arab female Za'3rata

(A "zaghrouta" is the "lololo" moving tongue sound traditionally made by Arab women at celebrations)

ITS SOMETHING like that. It's the concept that is HILARIOUS. You must hear it. YOU MUST!

Blackberry Etiquette

The professional world of the U.A.E , and especially Dubai, is a very fast paced one indeed. I mean come on, we have the tallest building in the world Burj Khalifa, the largest mall The Dubai Mall , the fastest roller coaster at Ferrari World. You name it, we've got it (even obesity).

Everyone's used to larger, bigger, faster, shinier and more technologically advanced communications tools. (Including the iPhone4 and the Blackberry). In all parts of the world people want to look good. Now "good" can be used very broadly and by "good" i mean Fancy, Shiny, New, Up-to-Date, Busy, Important, Rich... I think you get my drift.

Don't get me wrong  I LOVE the UAE, and I am one of the many people that also cares about the way people perceive me. I am very aware of how people are judged (or think they are judged) by the types of phone that I/we own.

Technology, commerce, trade... all this things have been picked up so quickly by a country as young as the UAE, that places alot of importance on instant gratification, that people have missed out on something very vital... Etiquette.

Some rules of thumb for all us blackberry users:


1. If you are in a meeting, put your phone away.
Not on the desk in front of you, and not just on silent. AWAAAY! Turn OFF the vibration, better yet... turn off the phone! Out of site, out of mind. If you are expecting an important phone call and the call comes through during the meeting, excuse yourself and leave the meeting, and come back when your done.


2.If you are in the office, or out socialising, turn off your notifications.
I'm sure you find it extremely annoying when your phone is constantly beeping away, as do others. It is extremely distracting. Change the profile to vibrate and keep it in your pocket.


3. When typing a BBM, SMS or an Email...
Avoid doing so within close proximity to strangers. They will feel uncomfortable for being tempted to snoop and you will feel hateful towards them for reading your emails. You could buy a screen protector.

4. Avoid eyeing your blackberry when chatting to a friend.
We are all guilty of this... how many times have I seen (or have been in ) a situation where people are glued to their communications devices when out with their friends... effectively outcasting themselves and their friends by NOT communicating to them.


5. Please please please please NO BROADCASTS.
I know that some of the jokes we receive are incredibly hilarious and possibly even a relief. But it is really annoying when you receive the same broadcast ten times from ten different people.
(Though I must admit broadcasts about new speed cameras are gladly received!)


Blackberries are great communications devices, and are excellent when you need to send an emergency email or if your out of the office heading to/from a meeting (not at a meeting!) they can be excellent help when looking for directions. However, you should try not to use it in excess. Especially when you stop physically communicating with people in favour of digital communication.

Dubai Metro Advertising

In my post, " Hot enough to fry an egg? " , I talked about the witty ambient advertising that Saatchi and Saatchi Dubai used to try to get people onto the metro. I've managed to find more images online thanks to Ads of the World ! enjoy!

Update: I'd like to thank @msliedrecht for pointing out that Saatchi and Saatchi won the Dubai Lynx award for best small scale ambient advertising (for this campaign).

Click on the title of the blog for the link to the original. =)

 
Advertising Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Dubai, UAE Executive Creative Director: Marc Lineveldt Creative Director: Danny Higgins Copywriter: Neil Harrison Advertiser’s Supervisor: Sara Mohammed Al Mudharreb Account Manager: Hema Patel Account Supervisor: Chandresh Rughani Art Director: Darren Jardine Photographer: Tara Atkinson

Vintage cigarette ads

    SBT Co. Ltd has come up with a fantastic invention called the E-Cigarette.

It's an electronic cigarette that actually tricks the brain into thinking you are smoking ...
The "end"of the cigarette is filled with nicotine, dosages of which you can increase or decrease, it even gives you a heating option, that increases the temperature of the end of the cigarette. 

Interesting huh?

It was only a few decades ago (1920's onwards I believe) that advertisers were influencing women to smoke more. Telling them that it's cool, sexy and independent women that smoke (insert desired brand). (and telling men that they'll be manlier and more appealing to women if they smoke). They use lack of coughing, slimming down, celebrity endorsements, and flavors as incentives to attract potential and current smokers.

There are also ALOT of inappropriate sexual innuendos (entertaining too) ... just pointing them out! 

I've collected the following images from Google images:

Online shopping! My first time

Today, I had my very first online shopping experience. It is amazing the fear you get from pressing one little button!

Click here to see my previous online shopping articles

I had been planning on buy the Canon 550D DSLR camera for ages now, and have finally saved up enough to buy it. So I went round to all the stores and played around with the camera, (and checked out cheaper options), looked around for the best deals, including second hand cameras on www.dubizzle.com , and finally made up my mind to buy it - but not where to buy it from...

Therefore, I freaked out yet again and started asking around and my colleague tells me that www.souq.com now has  a "Deal of the Day" section.

So I logged on to Souq.com and Lo-and-behold! Souq is selling the exact camera I want with a carry case and 8GB memory (including the default 18mm lens) for 2,999 thats 8,50 Dhs cheaper than I was going to get for it anywhere else.


So seeing that there were only FOUR more of those left, Yasmin did the unthinkable... she took a chance. She made a hasty decision without asking for anyone's thoughts on the matter.


*Cue scary music*

.... She clicked onto BUY NOW

I don't own a credit card so I can't buy item online... BUT they had the option to pay CASH-ON-DELIVERY which is like the coolest more awesomest thing for a person freaked out by online shopping!

It was relatively simple, all I had to do was to put in my PO BOX address and phone number.... click on confirm... and that was it! I went back to the main page and it said there were only THREE cameras left (im guessing I got the fourth) ...I then breathed a sigh of relief when I got a confirmation mail from the website with my order on it.

So, we'll find out in 3-7days!

I Got IT! -----------------------------> it took 5days tuesday -->sun

Will have LOADS of fun with this!

iPhone 4 VS Blackberry. The result.

After all my talk about wanting to be an Apple fan girl , I went out and bought a Blackberry.

 

Mission:  Buy the iPhone 4

Technique: Cash in Hand

Special instructions: Keep old prepaid number, or cheapest postpaid contract.

Result: Mission Failed

Don't get me wrong! I desperately wanted the iPhone 4, it was going to be one of those purchases that was going to change my life forever and make everything seem perfectly fine, like a new pair of shoes.

I had been tormenting myself for months thinking about which phone would be the best purchasing decision to make.

To me:

Apple = Creative ,Cool, geeky (which we now know means cool to me) , tech savvy, original,  reliable, MONEY.

Blackberry = Professional, dull, smart (British meaning) , connectivity, BBM, Dull, dull ,dull, reliable, does the job.

What happened was this, I went in there with one goal in hand, to buy the iPhone 4.

I went to the Du stand first, all happy and perky with 3000AED  that I had saved tucked carefully away in my hand bag. (I had  a friend working there and was hoping she could give me a really good deal) turns out I needed my passport photocopy AND a salary certificate to prove that I earn more than AED 3000 a month. Obviously I don't go running around with spare copies of my passport lying around, let alone salary certificates, so, disappointed, i trudged along to the next stand.

Then I went to Jackey's (They had a deal with Etisalat so I could save around 300AED) , at Jackey's I needed my Passport photocopy PPC (again) AND i needed to pay by credit card (which I dont have and don't plan on having), I could've cried I was so excited to get it and start playing around with it.

Eventually, feeling really downtrodden, I glanced at the Blackberries. The sales lady instantly pounced and told me that the bold 9700 only cost 1599 AED. Grudgingly, I asked what documents I needed to buy it, the lady said that If  I had my PPC then i could get a another phone with it as a freebie. I said no, I JUST want the phone. No contract, I want my prepaid number and I want etisalat to credit my account with 185 AED a month.

Sure! The lady says... well I can be really indecisive and I wasn't going to go back to GITEX and I couldn't make a purchasing decision like that on the spot, especially after all my months of decision making.

So I went home.

And I thought, you know what, I need a smartphone now and it's so much easier to buy a Blackberry. (I am An Advertising Sales Executive and I am constantly on the road and often need to check my emails or a location map).

I headed down to Virgin Megastores, and buying it was so easy, I could afford to buy a car charger and a bb case, as well as go get my hair done. At the end of the day, because the buying process was so easy, I bought the Blackberry.

I'll be buying the iPhone 4 once they sell it without an obligatory contact !!! (and no I dont want to buy an unlocked phone)

GITEX Microsites

So GITEX 2010 is coming up! And companies are going wild creating microsites to keep us all up to date!

Here are a few:

1. Tbreak Special 
2. Spot On Pr's Gitex Live
3. AME Info Gitex
4. Gitex on Facebook

Enjoy! See you all there!

Is the media evil?

I was listening to some music (or whatever you want to call it, I like it so It's music to me) VIA YouTube.

I had been listening to a song by System of a Down (or SOAD) called Hypnotize (above). Now I LOVE  SOAD because they always seem to have some sort of message in their music. The song in question, Hypnotize,  is partly about the way people are controlled by the media. (There's a lot of Communism, mass suicide stuff going on too but lets ignore that for now - You can click on the title of the post for a link to the interpretation of the song)

The point is, it got me thinking that the concept of the Media is that it is akin to a controlling unseen being, Like George Orwell's Big brother character in "1984". (Now you know where the Big Brother reality TV show got their title from.)

There have always been debates on whether "Media" (Yes, it deserves a capital 'M' it is now an unseen entity) should be controlled or not (and many other arguments) and we all know that the U.A.E has a Semi-free media... with a couple of restrictions, like no nudity, or sexual acts, ....stuff like that. (I feel like I'm walking on eggshells in this post)

At university, i was thought two different things:

1. In your adverts, assume everyone is an idiot and simplify everything.
2. In your adverts, don't insult your audience by treating everyone like an idiot.

Obviously it gets a lot more complicated than that depending on what vehicle media you actually use (Print, broadcast, Internet....etc), and how much time you have (EX: More time in magazines , less on billboards) , and who your actually trying to talk to (EX: General consumers, or tech freaks) and several other factors. The message, the clients, the audience, the expected results, blah blah, blah.

 As a result, I have tried to become "immune" to advertising ... however I've failed. I want Apple's , I want to wear the latest fashion, I want to have the coolest car, the latest phone, the latest diddybeats headphones, I want to been seen with the right colour of nail polish .......you get the drift.

So, as student of advertising I still get affected by all those messages bombarded at me. (Though I do try to resist). But sometimes I buy things because I appreciate the time and effort put into the whole campaign.

My question to all of you is this. Do you recognise when the Media is sending a message to you? Do you ever feel insulted by bad advertising? Do you feel like you have an uncontrollable urge to buy everything that is being advertised at the moment? (I'm not asking if you a shopaholic just asking how easily you feel you are affected by all the messages)

In short: Do you feel controlled by the Media? and who's doing the controlling? is the Media evil?



 

Social Media for Beginners (2008)

Social Media for Beginners

View more presentations from Billy Fischer.

http://http://www.slideshare.net/babrain/social-media-for-beginners-presentation

Twitter fun facts!

Here are some twitter facts thanks to marketingelf.com , or http://marketingelf.com/events/effective-social-media-techniques/

1.      Focus on retweets

2.      Don’t practice tweet poaching

3.      70% of retweets contain a link

http://www.p2pnet.net/images/twwl.jpg

4.      retweets with a hashtag are more likely to be retweeted

5.      Retweet the classics – classic stories that hold up

6.      Their highest tweet day is Wednesday

7.      Retweet days are Monday & Wednesday

8.      highest # of retweets are from 2:15pm to 3:30pm EST

9.      #1 Twitter city is London

10.  ABO – always be optimizing

11.  troll friends of competitors – if they are following them then they may be interested in your content too

12.  scout hashtag & trends

13.  contest & giveaways are heavily retweeted

14.  put tweet it buttons everywhere

15.  Retweet buddies & ask them to do the same

16.  RT’ers track them & thank them

17.  Keep score and remember to retweet friends

18.  one offs “payback” retweets at odd hours

19.  Dell did $6.5 million on Twitter last year, so it is viable for sales

20.  do some automated tweets, but click throughs are less

21.  quick tricks = traffic

22.  a little extra effort = quality traffic

23.  Drive engagement:
bland- what did you think of Avatar?
Better – was Avatar overhyped?

Interesting stuff! I know it's difficult to remember all of this , and there's may more! You can check out the original blog posting by clicking on the title of the post , or the link at the top of this post.

I want to be an Apple Fan Girl

I work at one of the coolest companies ever. A media company that focuses on tech and gaming, as well as movies. So I get to tinker with/play on/watch stuff before (or as soon as) it's publicly released. Which is totally AWESOME.

One of the coolest things about this place is that all my co-workers are what I called "The new cool", or computer and gaming enthusiasts.  Yes , I know. Geeks and now the new cool. That's just how the world works now,  and I want to be one of them.

Without them, we'd literally be living in the dark, washing with cold water...outdoors, living in the cold (or heat as is the case here), still writing letters and riding horses (which isn't too bad) , waiting days to hear from someone.. you get my drift.

Anyways, we were running around Dubai going to several meetings, and when we were done I automatically assumed we were going back to the office, when my boss starts driving us to Sahara Mall, Sharjah. Why? Because he heard that they were still selling the iPhone4 there. Alas, the iPhone4 was no more and all sold out and he would have to wait till stocks were replenished.

We had lunch, and he went off to hunt for the iPhone4... i think he went to all the malls in Dubai. Poor guy... it was sold out everywhere. (Two guys at work already have the iPhone4)

Now, looking at my pathetic un-smartphone, with its VGA camera and lack of multitasking abilities, I hate Steve Jobs for creating these awesome pieces of technology that have created a sort of class-tech distinction... Apple users VS OTHERs. There's a whole following, a cult if you will, of Apple owners, running around flaunting their gadgets.

Now, I want not ONLY the Macbook pro, but the iPad AND the iPhone4. I want EVERYTHING to do with apple.

There's a thin line between love and hate.

Market your skills through hacking! (Don't try this at home)

Hello readers!

So I just read a link through twitter today (thanks to @socialmediamind about this 17 year old who hacked twitter using what he called the "mattster worm"

"He was the brains behind the computer code that caused chaos on Twitter last Tuesday night, devising a script to Tweet that replicated to every follower on the receiver's account."


This script was incredibly annoying, even I got it, and i was wondering what was up with twitter.  It went something like this:

sigsdohnsdjbnsd;obnabngo;dg sonnfoggna0ry49[0c04y50htrhm5yvjwvdgb 3b045jbtnf...

or at least that's what it looked like to me.

And now we all know about him, Oh what a jerk...oh what a young genius... do you see where I'm going with this?

Other recent hacking incidents are when:

• Twitter was overrun with posts one morning that used a programming flaw to play pranks, distribute porn and spread worms to unsuspecting users. 
• Twitter was overrun with weight-loss product spam @mashable
• BP has admitted that its official Twitter account was compromised temporarily yesterday by hackers who posted a joke about its attempts to stem the devastating oil leak that has polluted the Gulf of Mexico.
• A Twitter security glitch left celebrities and members of the public mourning the temporary loss of their legions of online fans yesterday. 

So why don't people think about using their hacking skills to market themselves (Im sure someone must have done it by now,,, and im sure other haven't because it's illegal)... but there must be other ways! like installing a widget on peoples desktops that has a count down to a product launch (that they can remove) or something like that..

WHAT? it's just a thought!

Social Media Facts and Stats

3D Viewing: not special anymore

Why is 3D viewing becoming so popularly infamous?

Everyone around me has been complaining that almost all the movies now are coming out in 3D, everywhere we go we're bombarded by 3D Ready TVs or 3D TVs and get 3D glasses shoved in our faces to enjoy this vomit inducing form of entertainment.

Yes, people actually get 3D Sickness (Motion Sickness) watching these things. 5% of the US population to be exact. Not to mention that all visually impaired eye-glass wearing humans are forced to put the 3D glasses on TOP on their own eye-glasses. (I must admit they're trying to fix the Motion sickness with some special 3D glasses)

Even Nintendo is coming up with a new portable video gaming console that allows you to play everything in 3D (though i don't think you have to wear glass).

Personally, I remember being terribly excited on the way to a 3D movie and having gloated to my friends about how cool i was. (i was probably 13 then so leave me alone haha).

I want 3D to be special again!

What do you guys think? Am i being a bit purist? or does everyone just LOVE 3D?

Long live the printed word!

Lets stick to books for now.

I read books constantly, i practically devour them and can never get enough. Now you all know my secrect.... I am a bookworm. AND IM PROUD!

Personally, one of the joys of reading is the tactile sentation of the printed word in your hand. Being able to curl up with a book at night before you go to bed, hearing nothing but the rustle of the pages as you turn to the next page. The scent of a freshly opened book, the collection of colours and shapes and sizes of the books on your shelf.

You can NEVER get that with e-books! I don't CARE that there are tablets everywhere to hold on to, or the the library will be replaced with an e-library. It's just not the same. I don't like the blaring of the backround light. It is NOT enjoyable.

Print will not die, as long as the are people in the world like me who enjoy sitting down with a good book, staring aimlessly at monthly magazines or playing suduko on the newspaper.

Print will live.

Hot enough to fry an egg?

Have you ever wanted to try out how hot the hood of your car really is with that cartoon tried test of frying an egg of the hood of your car?

Well, The national has reported that a campaign was launched yesterday, that is part of the RTAs initiative to get people out of their cars and into the metro.

They had planted realistic looking eggs (Sunny side up) on to the hood of around 3500 cars around Dubai Media City. With temperatures going above 50 degress celcius it wouldnt be too hard to believe!

“Basically, we want to get people who drive cars thinking of public transport – and the Metro specifically. The idea we’re placing is that it is so hot right now you can fry an egg on your car.”


Ambient advertising for the win!


Image and story compliments of www.thenational.ae (Click on the title for the original article)

Add me on twitter!

Hello everyone!

I know I haven't been keeping the blog as up-to-date, It's because I have been trying to run a twitter account as well. You can check out my twitter feed on the right hand side of the blog, or follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/squashedruby ... or just click on the title of this post =)

BK using Nando's Technique - I like it!

Mariam Ghazi, an AUS Alumni, and facebook user posted this image on her blog. There's nothing like Online Media to spread new creative work through the UAE.

Here we see an open mouthed woman, facing a huge Burger King burger with huge copy saying " IT'LL BLOW YOUR MIND AWAY"

Now I don't know how "enlightened" you need to be to understand this. It could just be that the woman is in awe of how big and juicy the burger is... haha

Grand Cinemas to screen live World Cup matches

Grand Cinemas has struck a deal with Al Jazeera, the exclusive broadcasters for World Cup games in the GCC, to show the tournament’s matches live on its cinema screens, Arabian Business has learnt.

Andy Fordham, project manager at Grand Cinemas, told Arabian Business that the UAE-based cinema operator plans to sell around 4,800 tickets per match throughout the tournament.

Prices will start at AED35 ($9.52) and will increase as the tournament progresses, with tickets for the final priced at AED100 ($27.22).

Packages for bulk and group bookings will also be available. Tickets are due to go on sale on June 2 and can be booked through the Grand Cinemas website.

The National Blog

The National Blog


PR firm finds 15 million people that haven't deleted their Facebook account
Posted in: Beep Beep
Posted by: Tom Gara on May 24, 2010 1:04 PM
Tags: arab, facebook, social, SpotOn, Twitter


Spot On PR, who have done a good job positioning themselves as the go-to people for smart thoughts about Middle Eastern social media, have released a new study on Facebook in the region. (We have blogged about their useful twitter surveys in the past.)

Sure, the internet is going through a bit of a two minutes hate toward Facebook and its sketchy approach to privacy, and the site has already been banned in Pakistan due to the hosting of offensive cartoons. But it is important to remember that in the big picture, Facebook makes every other "big" thing - Twitter, the iPhone, Scandinavia, the airline industry - look positively tiny.

In the Middle East, the site is growing fast, but has not yet reached the email-like universal adoption found in Western markets - although it's only a matter of time. For now, 15 million people in the region are using the site, and the Dubai-based spin-doctors took a look of who they are and how you, oh Reputable Marketer, can bleed some money out of them.

http://mashable.com/2010/05/21/surprising-social-media-business-success/

Thanks to SocialNetDaily on twitter.

City of Life

The UAE'S Film industry is growing tremendously... but not as fast as it should when looking at other dubai-matic growth spurts. Finally, the world gets to see an excellent example of the genius of Emiratis....

City of Life is a (controversial?) movie about the lives of 3 different people in Dubai. A privileged Emirati, an air hostess and and cab driver. They all end up influencing each others lives in many ways however small they seem.

Directed by Ali F Mostafa. This movie has a brilliant (many brilliant) story lines, amazing scripts (3 languages are spoken in this movie English, Arabic and Hindi) , beautiful cinematiography, great soundtracks and brilliant editing. I really CANNOT describe how wonderful this movie is YOU MUST WATCH IT.

I CRIED SO MUCH THIS MOVIE THAT I CAME OUT LOOKING LIKE RUDOLF THE RED NOSE REINDEER.
Its a brilliant brilliant movie, I have not seen such an inspirational, refreshing and relevent movie such as this one.

Its a must see. (and the Emirati actors are hooooooooooot)


Official site: http://www.cityoflifefilm.com/

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

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

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/

Twitter ,IPO ,and Du

The 140-character message frenzy beamed by Twitter is moving closer to financial viability with the unveiling of plans for a new advertising programme. This, industry observers expect, will translate into a self-sustaining business and could be a prelude to its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Corporates and potential advertisers in the region have reacted very positively to the move and are looking forward to enhancing their presence through Twitter's advertising platform.

Known as "Promoted Tweets", the ad programme represents a much-anticipated move to address concerns about the revenue-generating potential of Twitter and marks a key milestone on the road to an IPO, analysts said.

"Over the years, we've resisted introducing a traditional web advertising model because we wanted to optimise value before profit," wrote Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone in a post on the company's blog.

Du, the Dubai-based telecommunications service provider, has been successfully using this platform to interact with its users and has received positive response to the move.

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!