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.