SME Advisor Issue 126

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ISSUE 126 MONTHLY FOCUS: MEDIA SECTOR

28 How Dubai Media City is fostering opportunities within the sector.

54 This founder is cooking up a storm with his 60 second videos.

80 Your starter’s kit to creating a memorable ad and boosting your brand.

MEDIA’S TRUMP CARD The push-pull effect between media attention and a candidate's popularity

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SME Advisor Middle East is aimed at business owners and senior executives across the GCC. Armed with practical advice, it has been highlighting key business issues for the small and medium enterprise segment since its launch in 2005.

The magazine addresses real issues faced by business decision makers, without resorting to jargon.

We understand that often, in small and medium enterprises, specialist business decisions are made by the owners and not by an army of c-level executives. At the same time, our content is equally relevant and useful for specialist, senior executives in mid-level enterprises.

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From The Web

Living in the Post-Brexit world

The uncertainty surrounding Brexit continues to exist as there is lack of clarity on how it will impact the UK economy, and subsequently the global economy. Guy Lougher, a London-based Partner and Head of the Brexit Advisory Team convened at Pinsent Masons, was reported as saying: “The uncertainties in a Brexit scenario are so great that there may be a temptation to do nothing until negotiations start to create a clearer picture.”

To read more about please visit: http://www.pinsentmasons.com/pdf/Brexit-checklist-what-next.pdf

Expo 2020 launches BusinessConnect for SMEs

Continuing its series of engagements with the local and international community, Expo 2020 is looking to share fresh insights and discuss new opportunities for partnership and collaboration through this exciting platform. The topics of discussion include: SME participation throughout Expo’s journey; enhancing processes to encourage SME involvement; and opportunities for SMEs. Join the forum on Wednesday July 27 and Thursday July 28, 2016 to gain critical insights on the way moving forward.

To read more about please visit: http://expo2020dubai.ae/content/events

Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn

Microsoft Corp. and LinkedIn Corporation announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire LinkedIn for US$196 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at US$26.2 billion, inclusive of LinkedIn’s net cash. “It is business as usual and there will be no immediate impact to our ad business. We will continue to provide our customers with the same quality products and services they expect from us,” said Jake Thomas, Head of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions – MENA. To read more about please visit: https://press.linkedin.com/site-resources/news-releases/2016/microsoft-to-acquire-linkedin

Editor’s Note

Don’t shoot the messenger!

This month’s issue is close to my heart – for obvious reasons! Call me biased, but I think that the media sector is arguably one of the most exciting spaces to be in, at the moment. As journalists, we have our finger on the pulse, and are the first to gain insights on consumer behaviour, global events and socio-economic shifts.

RUSHIKA BHATIA EDITOR

In fact, the trends reported by the media sector are very often picked by senior government officials and policymakers, who use them to shape the future of the country. But, with great power comes great responsibility and this is exactly why it’s critical for media professionals to assess the impact of what goes out there.

This year’s Arab Media Forum echoed a similar sentiment, where high-profile experts called for a more responsible, positive and humanitarian messaging – coining the term ‘Media for good’.

Take a look at the ongoing US elections, for example.

A lot has been said about the media favouring certain candidates and fuelling their popularity.

A burning question that crops up time and again is: did intensive media coverage contribute to Trump’s rise? The answer is yes. The media does respond to popularity. And, what better example to prove that than the fact we’ve used Trump on the front cover too? Yet, there’s also another reality: journalists put a lot of thought into creating a perfect balance between what’s popular and what’s important. Not every article is based on a candidate’s popularity. International – as well as regional – media continue to address topics that are most timely, relevant and significant. Moreover, there is a push-pull effect

between media and polls; statistical evidence proves that the media and the polls drive each other loosely. So like I say in the title of my column – don’t shoot the messenger! Of course, it isn’t as simple as it sounds and we’ve explored all the complexities in our cover story on pg. 20.

In the section ‘Top change makers’, we continue our series of case studies featuring disruptive businesses across different industry sectors. Representing diverse verticals of the media sphere, the seven companies we spoke to this month had one common thread: the emergence of technology and its impact on their business.

Grapevine Logic, for instance, is connecting YouTube influencers with leading brands and pioneering a new way of marketing. Chi Tayeb, on the other hand, is revolutionising the way people consume content by providing 60 seconds videos on social media. In what was one of our most interactive interviews till date, we also discover a gem of a business in Bidaya Media.

The edutainment platform has cleverly combined media and technology to transform the traditional learning process. Turn to pg. 46 for the complete low-down on these businesses; their challenges hold lessons for every SME owner.

Finally, we round off this issue by speaking to the man at the forefront of the region’s most prolific media community - Majed Al Suwaidi of Dubai Media City. His answers to some hard-hitting questions provide great learning - which we hope you benefit from as much as we did.

Enjoy reading this issue of SME Advisor!

Contents

The Economist’s view 014/ Media, money and markets 020/ Media and elections – Don’t shoot the messenger

Editor’s Roundtable 028/ Fostering opportunities in the media industry

Talking trends: 034/ Finger on the pulse – insights from a LinkedIn expert

Business Banking 038/ Mobile first

Digitally Disruptive 042/ MCN Holding’s remarkable journey

Infographic 046/ Top trends in the media sector

020/

“JOURNALISM HAS BECOME LESS AND LESS ABOUT EVENTS OVER THE LAST 50 YEARS, AND MORE AND MORE ABOUT CONTEXT AND ANALYSIS.”

092/ IN THE CONTEXT OF THE MEDIA INDUSTRY, VIRTUAL REALITY OFFERS EXCITING OPPORTUNITIES – PARTICULARLY IN TERMS OF ENHANCED CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT Top change makers: 048/ Cooking up a 60 second storm 054/ Saudi’s secret cinema 058/ The power to influence 064/ Top of the class 070/ Lights, camera, action!

Start-up diaries 074/ It’s a match

Organisation and Structure: 080/ How to: create a memorable ad 086/ Social media in the workplace

The future of technology 092/ Virtual Reality: a new medium of communication

The media market in this region continues to remain attractive as it undergoes a drastic transformation

14 48

Kamal Saleh, Founder and Director of Chi Tayeb TV, has created a series of one minute cooking videos offering a satisfying light bite of content

70

20 Does attention get results for candidates, regardless of what is said? And if so, how should journalists cover elections fairly and responsibly?

34

We talk to local casting director Miranda Davidson about the triumphs and challenges of making western movies in the Arab world.

Kasawara Al Khatib, CEO of UTURN, is on a mission to create a signature Saudi online entertainment offering.

54

Insights from LinkedIn’s surveys on how users engage with the platform, what types of content interest them and how their professional lives are evolving.

C O N T E N T C U R ATO R S 012

CONTENT CURATORS Presenting this month’s portfolio of industry specialists and thought leaders, who played a critical role in producing the feature content of our magazine and ensuring that we were more topical than ever.

““ JOHATHAN STRAY INDUSTRY COMMENTATOR

SME ADVISOR

““

JAKE THOMAS HEAD OF MARKETING SOLUTIONS - MENA LINKEDIN

Professionals are gluttons for content, seeking it out throughout the day from coffee to couch, and are far more likely to consume professional content at home than in the office.”

What we have here is a feedback loop. Does media attention increase a candidate’s standing in the polls? Yes. Does a candidate’s standing in the polls increase media attention? Also yes.”

C O N T E N T C U R ATO R S 013

““

Dubai Media City is known for its vibrant and evolving culture. We have continually improved our offer over the last 15 years and always strive to stay aligned to the market trends.”

MAJED AL SUWAIDI MANAGING DIRECTOR DUBAI MEDIA CITY, DUBAI STUDIO CITY AND DUBAI PRODUCTION CITY

““ GHASSAN HARFOUCHE GROUP CEO MCN HOLDING

Today, we are experiencing a different level of complexity the media sector has matured tremendously and brands have so many more avenues to share their messaging.”

““

Video has become a more engaging format - primarily because it requires quality content and translates across mobile devices. It gives consumers a higher degree of choice.”

BRENDAN LATTRELL FOUNDER & CEO GRAPEVINE LOGIC

SME ADVISOR

t h e economist ’ s view 014

MEDIA, MONEY AND MARKETS

SME ADVISOR

t h e economist ’ s view 015

We discuss ​key trends shaping the media market, their impact on the ​region, and the way moving forward​...​

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t h e economist ’ s view 016

Decoding the regional media industry The media market in this region continues to remain attractive as it undergoes a drastic transformation. So, what has changed? What are the key trends shaping the sector? How is the rising adoption of mobile technology creating fresh opportunities for existing media companies?

We present a round-up of the prominent market forces and disruptive trends –

ϭϭ Rise of mobile – A Millward Brown report

sets the scene: “The most advanced brands will use technology in innovative ways in order to reach consumers and build long-term relationships with them.

Many brands are embracing interactivity and initiating a dialogue with consumers via mobile, making it a key instrument for meaningful engagement. Fast moving technologies like augmented reality and the Internet of Things offer new opportunities for brands, and we’ll see more marketers creating campaigns that use these technologies. But it will be a smaller group of brands dipping their toes in the water. It will be essential for brands to build on their core values and, at the same time, represent a real utility for people. Digital and mobile advancements have enabled consumers to attain almost anything they want wherever and whenever they want it. In 2016 the smartest brands will embrace this growing impatience by delivering real-time gratification.”

ϭϭ The shift to digital – An excerpt from

Arab Media Outlook 2016-18 explains: “Despite the current depressed economic conditions, digital continues to propel growth in the media sector as time spent by consumers is at a record high. Many of the challenges that have plagued traditional media are being addressed indirectly as digital platforms gain scale.

From a talent perspective, Arab youth is

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01

actively participating in the production of content. Several start-ups have also received funding from private and government sectors, helping them grow and extend the value chain. Even the issues related to audience measurement are being solved on digital platforms and specialised media research players.

While international broadcasters and studios distributed their international content through Pay TV platforms, digital players such as Netflix and iTunes have plans to create more local content.

Also, the reluctance by consumers to pay for premium content in a region dominated by the free-to-air culture is being resolved by the flexibility of online distribution platforms.”

ϭϭ Demand for rich, relevant content – Local

consumers are hungry for content that is not only tailored to their needs, but addresses topics of interest to them.

Taking the Middle East region as an example, there has been a growing need for content in Arabic. A large proportion of youth actually prefer receiving content in Arabic over English, and the demand for this isn’t fully being met. Media players will increasingly need to bear in mind

““

Local consumers are hungry for content that is not only tailored to their needs, but addresses topics of interest to them.

t h e economist ’ s view 017

such preferences and ensure that they are providing content that is consistent with emerging trends. Another important aspect is the delivery of the content.

Linking back to the first two points, it is critical to deliver the right content through the right channel. For instance, videos work better on mobile devices..

ϭϭ Emerging talent – While the number of

media jobs available are on a rise, it is interesting to note that the nature of these jobs is also rapidly evolving. If you think about it, positions such as digital journalists and social media analysts didn’t exist a decade ago. Industry growth combined with the acceleration of technology has led to new job profiles emerging, giving fresh opportunities to young graduates. This is also making the media industry more attractive in terms of employment – and a rising number of people are looking at it as an exciting space to work in.

ϭϭ Youth comes to the forefront – The

region is seeing the emergence of a younger demographic, which more proactive and social media savvy.

02

01. Brexit dominated coverage across most media channels around the world.

02. Is frontline media reporting the facts?

The impact of Brexit The Brexit vote is definitely one of the most talked about topics in the political history of the UK. In fact, it dominated coverage across most media channels around the world.

Several prominent business leaders and renowned economists voiced their opinion on how Brexit will shape the future of the global economy. Here are some key excerpts – Julian Birkinshaw, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship and Academic Director, Deloitte Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, LBS, explained: “Deep expertise and sophisticated analysis only get you so far: if you want to bring people with you, you also need emotional conviction and you need to learn how to harness intuition more effectively.

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t h e economist ’ s view 018

“Those of us with a background in accounting or engineering default to logical argument, and to a careful analysis of the risks that might be faced. That might do the job with the audit committee, but the Brexit campaign showed bluntly how little influence this approach alone carries with the rank-and-file. Since Aristotle’s time, effective leaders have recognised the power of emotional appeal (pathos) as a complement to rational argument (logos). The Leave campaigners focused their message at voters’ hearts not their heads, and on upbeat, positive themes: patriotism, freedom and hope. The Remain campaigners peddled hard logic and fear.”

Meanwhile, Guy Lougher, a London-based Partner and Head of the Brexit Advisory Team convened at Pinsent Masons, said: “The uncertainties in a Brexit scenario are so great that there may be a temptation to do nothing until negotiations start to create a clearer picture. However, the days when a business can say ‘wait and see’ are gone.

While one cannot protect against all risks, it is important that there is no panic – it is possible to identify the risk areas and get on to the front foot. Adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach may mean doing nothing for years.”

“Already we are advising our clients on the review of business-critical contracts.

Agreements which specifically reference the EU as the territory governed by the contract may lack clarity. There may also be ambiguity around how the impact of tariffs will be shared. The sooner amendments can be agreed or terms negotiated, the more businesses can increase their sense of certainty,” he continued. “Deals which have been on ice or contain Brexit clauses may be renegotiated or even pulled and raising new finance in such an uncertain environment will be more challenging. It was surprising, looking at the research we undertook, how few businesses entered into discussions with investors and funders ahead of time. Again, that now has to become a priority and if we SME ADVISOR

see a period of volatility in the markets as predicted, some of those conversations will be pressing.”

Brexit and the media So, how did it all play out in the media?

Let’s do some number crunching. In an article on www.theguardian.com, Peter Preston assesses some data from Ipsos Mori and BMG Research: “Ipsos Mori found 64 per cent of 18-34-year-olds and 58 per cent of 35-54-year-olds backed ‘Remain’ in the Brexit vote. It also found 57 per cent of ABC1s (graduates, white-collars) against 45 per cent of C2DEs (manual workers, pensioners, unemployed). BMG went one crucial step beyond that: it asked where voters had got their information from. Only 22 per cent in their penultimate survey thought they understood what they were voting on “well or very well”. So where, in last week’s final polling, had they got their information from?

About 34 per cent said the BBC; 20 per cent said newspapers; 18 per cent said talking to family members; 16 per cent said social media. But break those figures down a little.

A mere 24 per cent of 18-24s nominate the BBC as one of their most important information sources.”

Do these statistics reveal that the opinion of voters was largely influenced by the media reports? Absolutely not. Yes, it did play a small role in the way it used the Brexit discussion to further conversations such as immigration issues and so on. But for the most part it reinforced the fact that at the end of the day media platforms are merely mediums designed to disseminate information based on facts. It also reflects the fact that media professionals are now more mature in terms of the information that they are sharing; in most cases at least they maintain the integrity of the channels.

Even social media networks are increasingly looking to improve the way information is consumed on their portals.

The same article on guardian.com explains: “Facebook announced a tweak to its news

““

The region is seeing the emergence of a younger demographic, which more proactive and social media savvy.

feed algorithm. Two years ago this would have been a meaningless piece of news. Now, as a rising number of people find things out first from their “social feed” - and for the majority, this means Facebook - changing those channels has a larger effect. After an active campaign to persuade publishers to use their platform more, Facebook saw engagement numbers drop and became concerned that news was “flooding” its users’ timelines; and therefore it boosted the idea that “friends and family” links and recommendations would now be the central organising principle for the platform.”

What’s next for the media industry?

Technology continues to shape different dimensions of media and we’re headed into an exciting, yet dynamic, phase of growth. To ride this wave, there’s only one mantra: innovate or die.

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t h e economist ’ s view 020

MEDIA AND ELECTIONS Don’t shoot the messenger!

There has been an ongoing debate about the role media plays in influencing a viewer’s perceptions - and ultimately altering their mindset about certain choices. The US election 2016, in particular, has stirred this discussion in recent times, forcing us to ask the questions: does attention get results for candidates, regardless of what is said? And if it does, how should journalists cover elections fairly and responsibly? Noted industry commentator Jonathan Stray presents a detailed overview...

h

ere is what I think: “My sense is that what we have here is a feedback loop.

Does media attention increase a candidate’s standing in the polls? Yes. Does a candidate’s standing in the polls increase media attention? Also yes.”

Whether your favourite candidate is popular or unpopular, it’s always popular to blame the media. We see a lot of this right now in discussions of why Trump is in the lead or why Sanders isn’t.

Usually the complaints have to do with what the media is saying about a candidate.

But another theory says that it’s the attention that matters. Good news or bad – maybe the important thing is just to be talked about.

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Or maybe professional journalists have very little influence at all. Many people now get their news by clicking on articles from social media, where your friends and a filtering algorithm decide what you see.

So does the media still matter? Does attention get results for candidates, regardless of what is said? And if it does, how should journalists cover elections fairly and responsibly? These are the questions I wanted to try to answer, at least as they relate the current US presidential primaries.

Attention vs. popularity These are big questions about how the American political system works, far too big for simple answers. But you have to

t h e economist ’ s view 021

Depending on what corner of the political universe you come from, it may surprise you to learn that both Trump and Sanders were covered in proportion to their poll results — at least online.

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start somewhere, so I decided to compare the number of times each 2016 candidate has been mentioned in the US mainstream media with their standing in national primary polls. To my surprise, the two line up almost exactly.

This chart shows the number of times a candidate’s full name appeared in the top 25 online news sources, as a percentage of all mentions, for October to December of 2015.

(Republican candidates were mentioned about twice as often as Democratic candidates overall, but this chart compares each candidate to the others within their party.) There’s an uncanny agreement between the media attention and each candidate’s standing in national primary polls. It’s a textbook correlation.

Depending on what corner of the political universe you come from, it may surprise you to learn that both Trump and Sanders were covered in proportion to their poll results — at least online. Pretty much everyone was.

The exceptions are Jeb Bush, who seems to have been covered twice as much as his standing would suggest, and Carson, who might have been slightly under-covered.

By simply counting the number of mentions, we’re completely ignoring what journalists are actually saying, including whether the coverage was positive or negative. This data doesn’t say anything at all about tone or frame or even what issues were discussed. All of these things might be very important in the larger context of democracy, but they seem to be less important in terms of primary poll results.

While the story surely matters, it doesn’t seem to matter as much as the attention. In particular, Trump has received much more negative coverage than his GOP competitors, to little apparent effect.

I admit I was a bit shocked to discover how closely the percentage of media mentions and the percentage of voter support align.

But I’m also not the first to notice. Nate Silver found that this pattern holds in US primary elections going back to 1980, though his SME ADVISOR

Polls vs Mentions in 2016 Primary

Polls

Media mentions

Percentage of online media mentions and percentage primary voters supporting each candidate, Q4 2015. Source.

model also incorporated favourability ratings.

This correlation has also been noticed by previous political science researchers, though I haven’t been able to find anywhere it’s been seriously investigated.

So what’s going on here? How do all the numbers on this chart just line up? Does this mean the media exert near-total control over the political process? Fortunately, no.

To begin with, national primary polls don’t predict the eventual nominee very well; state polls matter much more, because the nominating process happens one state at a time. But it seems reasonable to imagine that media attention has some effect on the polls. Yet journalists also respond to the polls, which means it isn’t clear what’s causing what.

Which came first: The media or the polls?

Media Attention

Poll Results

Tere are two other ways that these variables can become highly correlated. First, causality could go the other way. The polls could drive the media.

This isn’t completely insane. Journalists have to follow audience attention or risk getting ignored. And if voters are also readers, a candidate who is twice as popular might get twice the number of views and shares. That matters when you’re deciding what to cover — though it’s hardly the only consideration. More on that later.

There’s one more way to get a close relationship between media and polls: something else could be driving both of them. For example, attention on social media could drive both. A single post can go viral and reach millions without any involvement from professional journalists. Or perhaps endorsements from famous people and organisations are the key to influence, as political scientists have long suspected. And then there are the candidates themselves: anything they do might make them more (or less!) favourable with both the media and the public. In short we need to consider every other thing, and many of these things will drive media attention and voter preference in the same direction, causing a correlation like the one we’ve seen.

These are the basic causal forces, the only possible ways that media attention and polling results can become so closely aligned. We’re going to need

t h e economist ’ s view 023

01. Journalists have to follow audience attention or risk getting ignored.

Here’s a chart of popularity and coverage over time for Trump:

Trump

Polls

Media

Everything Else

Media Attention

Poll Results

more information to figure out what is causing what.

One way to test for causality is to ask whether a change in coverage precedes a change in the polls, or vice versa.

Trump’s polls and mentions rose at about the same rate after he announced his candidacy, so at first glance it looks like

the two are tied together. But media spikes don’t always translate into polling spikes: Both debates produced a spike in coverage, but the polls actually decreased in the short term. John Sides of George Washington University has done a statistical analysis to try to tease out the causality in Trump’s data and, once again, the results don’t clearly favour the chicken or the egg. Instead, it seems that the media and the polls drive each other loosely. Most of the other candidates show the same general pattern.

We typically see a rise after the candidate announcement, then general agreement with the level of media coverage even though the peaks don’t line up. Clinton seems to be the exception: Her popularity seems to have less to do with coverage volume than any other candidate. Maybe that’s because we’ve known for a very long time that she was going to run, and we should really plot this chart back another year or two.

My sense is that what we have here is a feedback loop. Does media attention increase a candidate’s standing in the polls? Yes. Does a candidate’s standing in the polls increase media attention? Also yes. And everything else which sways both journalists and voters in the same direction just increases the correlation. The media and the SME ADVISOR

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““ Trump’s polls and mentions rose at about the same rate after he announced his candidacy

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Journalism has become less and less about events over the last 50 years, and more and more about context and analysis.

And that’s okay: Politicians and brands are their own media channels now

Clinton

Polls

Media

t h e economist ’ s view 025

X2

Cruz

Republican candidates were mentioned about twice as often as Democratic candidates

hin eryt g Else Ev

t

Polls

tio

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At

esu

lts

Media en

n

Po

l

Media

public and the candidates are embedded in a system where every part affects every other.

It’s all of these forces acting in concert that tend to bind media attention and popularity together. It’s not that media attention has no effect — we have good reason to believe it does, both from this data and from other research. It’s just that the media is not all powerful, despite what the close correlation suggests.

What is fair election coverage?

Faced with the awesome ability to influence the outcome of an election just by drawing attention to a candidate, how should the media cover an election?

No editor is sitting there saying: Hey, Cruz gained five points, let’s cover him five per cent more. But journalists do respond to audience attention. Reporters and editors are driven by lots of different demand signals, such as how many people read yesterday’s article about a candidate, or how many people are talking about a candidate on social media or — let’s

The media and the public and the candidates are embedded in a system where every part affects every other.

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be honest here — how popular someone seems to be based on how much coverage they are getting from other journalists! Some newsrooms even plan coverage based on how many people are searching for a given topic.

The media is regularly criticised for chasing popularity, and in this sense it’s true. Bernie Sanders says the “corporate media” trivialise the issues and only care about profits. There is certainly no profit without readers — there’s no funding either, if you’re a non-profit newsroom. The rapper Common says “the integrity of the media is gone” when journalists decide “we’re going to show Donald Trump because we know it’s about numbers.” And these complaints are not wrong. I began writing this piece to explore the media’s relationship to Trump in part because I knew a piece about Trump was likely to be widely read!

Yet for all the newsroom profit pressure and manic metric checking, journalists don’t only chase popularity. The American media cover a great many things that few people pay attention to, especially international stories.

There’s an ongoing, thoughtful conversation among journalists about how to balance what gets clicks with what’s important. That is, what journalists think is important. I’ll say this for writing what the audience wants to read: It’s democratic.

So should a candidate get media attention according to how many people want to read about them? On some level, yes. But if you think Trump shouldn’t be leading or Sanders should be, this probably doesn’t seem fair to you. To the degree that media attention causes a candidate to become more popular, there’s a winner-take-all effect here: The leading candidate will get the most coverage, boosting their lead. Meanwhile, the media has the potential to trap a candidate in last place because they can’t get the coverage they would need in order to rise in the polls.

But what’s the alternative? Should journalists cover every candidate equally?

This might make a certain amount of sense in the general election, where we only have SME ADVISOR

two major parties. The FCC still enforces the equal time rule which says that if a radio or TV network gives one candidate airtime, they have to give the same amount to other candidates. But that rule doesn’t apply to news programmes, and that’s probably for the best. It’s ridiculous to imagine journalists struggling to reach story quotas, so that each candidate gets the same amount of press.

But if not equal time, should journalists strive for some other redistribution of attention? This would necessarily mean less coverage for the leaders and more for everyone else. This might lead to more

competitive elections, in that it would counter the winner-take-all tendency of the current system. But it would also mean intentionally not covering Trump as much.

This might balance things out in an abstract sort of way, but it would also open the media to charges of censorship – and those charges would not be without merit.

It also won’t work to suggest the press should just report “current events” or whatever is “newsworthy,” as if the news makes itself. Journalism has become less and less about events over the last 50 years, and more and more about context and analysis.

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And that’s okay: Politicians and brands are their own media channels now. If all you want to know is what a candidate did today, you can just follow them on social media — no need for professional journalists at all.

Journalists have to add value in other ways now, such as providing context or digging deeper. There’s no obviously “right” number of stories about a candidate.

Somewhere, somehow, professional journalists have to decide who gets covered – and any formula they could choose is going to appear biased to someone. In the end, the candidates who attack the media are right about one thing: The press is a political player in its own right. There’s just no way to avoid that when attention is valuable.

Clinton seems to be the exception: Her popularity seems to have less to do with coverage volume than any other candidate.

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Journalism has become less and less about events over the last 50 years, and more and more about context and analysis.

And that’s okay: Politicians and brands are their own media channels now SME ADVISOR

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FOSTERING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE MEDIA INDUSTRY

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In month’s issue, we got talking to Majed Al Suwaidi, Managing Director of Dubai Media City, Dubai Studio City and Dubai Production City at the TECOM Group - the man at the helm of the region’s most prolific cluster of freezones.

Speaking candidly to SME Advisor, he opens up about how his communities offer a dynamic and attractive environment for media companies.

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Dubai Media City was launched about 15 years ago and has definitely come a long way since then. How would you describe this journey? What role has the freezone played in shaping the regional media industry?

Over the past 15 years, we have seen a lot of changes impact not just Dubai Media City but the UAE in general. These are developments that have shaped our community to become what it is today. In every instance, we’ve tried to embrace these changes and look at them as opportunities to improve our offer. So, looking back at the journey, I think it has been challenging, but an equally rewarding one. When we first launched, our objective was to provide a platform to media professionals and companies to showcase their talent. This hasn’t changed. We are still very much dedicated to fostering their growth and helping them raise the bar in every way possible.

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For a business looking to set up a new base, what makes Dubai Media City an attractive option?

It’s the way we deal with our partners. Every business that works with us isn’t just a client, they are our partners. Right from Day One, we focus on providing them with effective solutions that are based on their individual requirements. Being industry-specific also helps in the sense that we are able to create the right infrastructure for companies to grow and innovate.

Moreover, we strive to create the feeling of a community, where you can meet and interact with like-minded individuals. Idea sharing and knowledge-exchange is a critical aspect of doing business, and we continually support this by hosting events, networking opportunities and seminars.

How has the industry-specific community model contributed to your success?

Is this something that sets you apart?

Dubai Media City is a society in itself.

Similarly, Dubai Internet City, Dubai Studio City and Dubai Production City have been designed as specialised communities of people with common interests and business objectives. Creating a community feel has been part of our core objectives from the very onset, and this is what sets us apart from the rest of the cities around the world.

We have been building cities and then were attempts to create the communities around them, but to us, the idea was reversed. We have built cities on the basis of disciplines and communities.

The idea of creating these cities did not stem from the mere attempt to create new cities, but the need to find support and help for different industry sectors. We have all the support services the industry requires to enjoy sustainable growth. Of course, I should add that the guidance and vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has contributed significantly to the success of Dubai Media City and the Emirate of Dubai, in general.

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In the beginning, we were the only ones in the region to offer these specialised services to the media sector. However, with increased demand and fast-paced growth, there are several other prominent regional institutions supporting the media sector. Based out of Abu Dhabi, twofour54 is a great example in this regard. Therefore, we must maintain our position in the region in order to attract investment and media institutions.

We have no specific research in this context, but the mere presence of 2000 companies and 20,000 employees is a great indication of our community’s contribution. In fact, we are currently working with the relevant authorities to carry out detailed studies to help us gain better insights.

The businesses that operate here directly contribute to activating the wheel of the national economy, and taking into consideration the spending power of 20,000 employees, we are confident that this is a significant contribution. Moreover, a large number of companies have large investments here and major institutions choose to locate their headquarters within Dubai Media City.

This gives us evidence that the investment in 15 years has exceeded millions.

Dubai Media City is known for its vibrant and evolving culture. We have continually improved our offer over the last 15 years and always strive to stay aligned to the market trends. For instance, a decade ago we didn’t have social media or social networking. Today, this is a critical way of communicating with each other and it has changed the way we interact with clients.

Traditional media isn’t as it was before. Such rapid change requires rapid action. The change in our identity reflects our willingness to stay abreast of industry developments and is a message that we are changing the way in which we engage with the sector. We are, in fact, faster than many other countries in keeping pace with these developments – a factor that has been critical to our success.

Even after we announced the change, we are constantly monitoring market signals and dissecting what they mean for Dubai Media City. Some legislation may need more time, but it is our duty to deal with it seriously.

A number of other regional institutions are also working towards developing the media sector. How do you interact with them?

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How does Dubai Media City contribute to the national economy?

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Not so long ago, you unveiled the new identity for Dubai Media City. What inspired this change? What are some fresh additions to your objectives?

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Majed Al Suwaidi, Managing Director of Dubai Media City, Dubai Studio City and Dubai Production City SME ADVISOR

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Where do you expect to see Dubai Media City after 10 years?

We offer sophisticated infrastructure to all stakeholders within the media sector. I see us becoming a thought-leader within the space because we can pass on our experience to other regions. We have gained considerable experience in this area and have access to qualified professionals across different dimensions of the sector. After dealing with media organisations on a daily basis, we know exactly what these institutions need to succeed. In the context of the UAE, we will continue to play a key role in shaping the media industry.

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Do SMEs play an active role in Dubai Media City’s community?

There is a balance between the role of large institutions and the role of SMEs within Dubai Media City. Every business plays a role in the success of our community, regardless of its size. What’s more important is the quality of services your company provides; we encourage business to offer world-class, innovative solutions. Our primary objective, when working with SMEs, is to help them produce good content. We are in coordination with several supporting institutions in the UAE and are working very closely with twofour54 in Abu Dhabi in order to meet this goal.

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What incentives do you offer to SMEs?

Dubai Media City’s cutting-edge, industryspecific facilities give SMEs the opportunity to learn new skills and create innovative content and products. This year we launched a new service called in5 Media – an incubator for entrepreneurs who want to develop their ideas within the media sector. Through in5, we are looking to aid entrepreneurs and help nurture their ideas, bringing them to fruition.

Of course, this initiative required the support of large companies in terms of advice and technical assistance, so we’ve developed a healthy ecosystem of mentorship, knowledge-exchange and networking.

A specialised committee has also been appointed to oversee these ideas and assess their eligibility.

How does Dubai Media City encourage entrepreneurs to launch new ideas?

The key factor defining the success of any sector is innovation and fresh ideas. Look at Amazon.com or Souq.com; companies that started with a simple idea and took their business to new heights by catering to customer demands. We provide entrepreneurs with the right environment to launch and test their new ideas. This brings me back to our incubator in5 Media, which encourages young entrepreneurs to come forward with their ideas and work with world-class experts to transform them into actual businesses.

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How do you coordinate with universities in the UAE to encourage young people to enter into the media world?

Through our in5 Media platform, we are in constant communication with universities, companies and government institutions interested in the development of the sector.

What advice would you like to give to young and aspiring entrepreneurs in the media world?

Try to find new ideas and understand the demands of the market you are operating in. Don’t be afraid to take the advice of specialists – it’s important to identify your weaknesses and seek the support of experts in those areas. This is exactly why we developed in5 Media so that entrepreneurs have easy access to experts and mentors across diverse functions. Given their vast experience within the media sector, the advice that they provide can define a project’s success or failure.

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FINGER ON THE PULSE

TOP INSIGHTS FROM A LINKEDIN EXPERT In this month’s media special issue, we turn to Jake Thomas, Head of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, MENA, for his take on the evolution of content consumption, top industry trends and how LinkedIn is raising the bar…

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inkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful and transforms the way companies hire, market, sell and learn. The company’s vision is to create an economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce through the ongoing development of the world’s first Economic Graph.

With a primary audience of social savvy universities and school students, business owners and entrepreneurs, companies from all sizes, all looking to build their online employer brand and attract the top talent, LinkedIn attracts a wide range of the world’s working population. It also includes professionals who are just starting their career, all the way to well-experienced ones. No matter at which end of the spectrum you are, LinkedIn provides access to valuable content and supports your professional development.

LinkedIn’s position in the current media landscape The MENA region is vibrant and emergent; and is home to a mix of high-growth local businesses and multinational corporations across industries, attracting professionals from all over the world. With over 77 million Internet users in the region, social media adoption has been growing consistently here. The MENA media market is on the brink of the next evolutionary leap forward, with traditional lines being redrawn between brands. LinkedIn continues to see strong growth here and in the UAE as our regional headquarters.

With its unique proposition and audience, combined with the fastest growing area of the Marketing Solutions business i.e. sponsored content, it is the most powerful publishing opportunity for B2B brands and agencies in MENA.

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Speaking of LinkedIn’s impressive evolution, Jake says: “Professionals are not just coming to LinkedIn in large numbers, they’re engaging with a unique purpose.

They’re coming specifically to connect to their networks, brands and opportunities by engaging with high quality content across the LinkedIn platform. This is a very different mind-set and intent from other social media platforms, driven by our members’ professional aspirations. LinkedIn members are consuming content with a purpose, and this mind-set has led to the incredible growth of content on the platform. For example, we have around nine billion content impressions every week. The majority of this engagement is mobile. More than 57 per cent of the time, users are accessing this content over their mobile device.

“When it comes to our marketing solutions business in particular, we believe that the old rules of marketing no longer apply. B2B marketing has fundamentally evolved. Agencies and brands can no longer rely on a whitepaper download to capture imaginations, drive leads or generate sales.

To put that into perspective, there are approximately 9.2 million Company Pages on LinkedIn globally. Content is increasingly important in a B2B space where buyers are further down the sales funnel than ever before when they pick up the phone.

Brands need to harness content and engage with their audiences when they are most receptive, in a format that can be snacked on, is informative and helpful.”

Trends shaping social media – and the role of content LinkedIn has successfully carried out a wide variety of surveys recently that explore how users engage with the platform, what types of content are most interesting to them, and how their professional lives are evolving. For example, it has seen that professional engagement with sponsored content on LinkedIn is a huge growth area – SME ADVISOR

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it grew nearly 80 per cent in the first quarter, now representing 56 per cent of the total revenue for its Marketing Solutions business.

LinkedIn also looks at how professionals are using the power of social media to do more in the workplace. For example, a recent survey in the UAE has shown that the average salesperson spends 4.8 hours per week using social selling tools like LinkedIn to build and nurture relationships with prospects, and more importantly, 89 per cent felt that social selling connects them to the right prospects.

“We also look more broadly at trends across the regional economy. One recent study showed that the number of LinkedIn members in UAE noting entrepreneurship as their core job function nearly doubled in the past year, and that the UAE is gaining the highest percentage of this talent from other countries within the Middle East. Through these kinds of reports, we ultimately strive to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful,” explains Jake.

Based on LinkedIn’s extensive research, the following three trends are emerging with respect to content consumption – 1. Professionals are gluttons for content, seeking it out throughout the day from

coffee to couch, and are far more likely to consume professional content at home than in the office.

2. First and foremost, professional content is about knowledge. It includes news and current affairs but can also stretch to restaurant reviews, sports and style. Anything that can enhance professionals’ identity, support their interactions or give them an insightderived edge.

3. We also see that knowledge is too important to keep to working hours.

Professionals are 60 per cent more likely to access professional content at home than they are in the office.

4. Mind-set dictates trust and response, with professionals giving different roles to content from individual social platforms and using different techniques to judge how trustworthy that content is.

What’s next?

The news of LinkedIn’s acquisition by Microsoft has garnered a lot of attention worldwide. So, what has changed since the acquisition by Microsoft? “It is business as usual and there will be no immediate impact to our ad business. We will continue to

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01. LinkedIn has more than 433 million members worldwide in more than 200 countries and territories.

02. Jake Thomas, Head of marketing solutions - MENA LinkedIn

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provide our customers with the same quality products and services they expect from us,” says Jake.

“We recently celebrated our first anniversary of launching LinkedIn’s Arabic platform. We have noted that it was indeed a year filled with great successes such as the growth from 14 million members in 2015 to more than 18 million members today from the MENA region. That reflects an average of 10,000 new MENA members joining every single day, which is pretty incredible.

“In our Marketing Solutions business in particular, we also have a number of exciting developments such as the recent launch of programmatic display buying to advertisers.

Starting July, advertisers can buy display ads on LinkedIn either via open programmatic auctions or LinkedIn’s Private Auctions. This is geared towards providing advertisers with more flexibility in their programmatic buying, which again is a significant channel for

brands and agencies to connect with the region’s professionals,” he concludes.

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Advertisers can buy display ads on LinkedIn either via open programmatic auctions or LinkedIn’s Private Auctions

97MN The number of unique visitors LinkedIn welcomes on average a month

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Mobile first: how an interactive mobile app can help your company supercharge customer experience

Operating in an ecosystem where change is the only constant, leading your business to the forefront of mobility and connectivity can be a herculean task.

But if done right, it can reap serious rewards. Mobile apps are a fantastic way of improving customer experience, optimising processes and reducing costs.

In the following article, we take a closer look at the possibilities…

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esearch suggests that 60 per cent of global mobile users use mobile devices as their primary or exclusive means of going online. This explains why major players are looking to be a part of the mobile app revolution. Even traditional sectors such as finance and manufacturing are now fully on board with the latest technology, providing state-of-theart solutions to their customers. The region’s prominent bank NBAD, for instance, offers its NBAD Securities App on the iOS platform, allowing its clients to manage investments on the go and closely monitor their portfolio round the clock.

Consumer appetite for mobile technology is growing – essentially because they want quick, easy-to-use channels that address their day-to-day needs. This is also reflected in the escalating smartphone penetration rates – it is estimated that there are seven billion mobile subscriptions globally. With

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consumers becoming increasingly dependent on their mobile devices, the pressure on businesses is now more than ever to exploit the opportunities of mobile technology and to stay ahead of the curve.

Assuming that your business has sufficient resources, you can take customer experience to the next level by creating a mobile application for your company. This process has become increasingly simple and costeffective with the emergence of several online tools that allow you to build a customised app in a few easy steps. On the surface level, this may seem like a simple tweak but there’s definitely more than meets the eye.

Through this change, your firm is undergoing a complete rebuilding of its processes such as, access to real-time information. Let’s take this example: if you are a courier services company, your customers can get an hourly update of where exactly their order is in the delivery process using the mobile application.

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Push notifications are key in connecting with the customer and providing them with timely, relevant information

So, the shift to mobile forces your business to put further emphasis on the immediacy, relevance and location of information. But, that’s not all. Here’s a detailed overview of how a mobile app can supercharge the customer experience within your business – Increasing convenience and access to information As consumers are rapidly choosing smartphones as their preferred screens and consuming large amounts of contents through their mobile devices, it is imperative for a business to make its presence felt through this platform. More importantly, customers are looking for convenience – they want to be able to access information through their phones. Therefore, your business needs to ensure that it is a onestop-shop for all your customer’s needs.

This means going beyond advertising your product or solution. Include know-how about the industry and send out regular market SME ADVISOR

updates. Of course, your app should also provide basic company information such contact numbers and locations.

Sending push notifications According to data released by Aberdeen Group, using techniques such as personalised push notifications can increase conversion rates by 8.5 per cent. Push notifications are key in connecting with the customer and providing them with timely, relevant information. Moreover, it also allows you to share latest offers and updates – based on their preferences. Several global retailers today identify a customer’s location through their mobile app and send them push notifications about offers in stores within close proximity to them!

Integrating video content Let’s look at the data available to put things into perspective. Ericsson’s Mobility Report predicts that video traffic across mobile

networks is expected to grow by 60 per cent annually through 2018. This highlights the significant role that content plays in the mobility process. Simply having a mobile app doesn’t suffice. Integrating rich content like videos and other interactive features to engage customers is of paramount importance.

Introducing customer loyalty programmes A mobile app is an effective way of rewarding loyal and returning customers.

It enables the automatic tracking of transactions and gives incentives after a customer has reached a certain number of purchases. It is easy to create different tiers of customers and reward them based on their relationship with your business. This will also allow for a seamless redemption process – eliminating the need for coupons, loyalty cards, etc. All your customer needs to do is use your mobile app!

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Get ahead with the NBAD Securities App! Now available for NBAD Securities investors on iPhone and iPad, the app offers key functions such as: • • • • • • •

Market summaries, with news updates and indices Market, index and stock charts Most active stocks, top gainers and top losers Market depth Price spectrum The ability to create a watch list and place, modify and cancel orders Get insights on your account – including account summary and portfolio position

Encouraging mobile purchases A mobile payment option gives customers the convenience to make purchases instantly and flexibly – from anywhere and at any time. For customers, the check-out or payment stage is the least favourite part of their shopping experience and mobile payments can decrease this drastically – particularly within retail stores. Another major advantage is that paper receipts are totally eliminated; once a customer makes a mobile payment, an e-receipt is sent to them via e-mail or text. This means that customers have the ability to keep track of their purchases without worrying about saving paper receipts. Moreover, you can also capitalise on “in the moment” purchases.

Most customers today go online to research a product they are planning to buy before actually purchasing it. So, if your customer is viewing your product, likes it and is able to make a payment using his or her phone, there is no need to physically visit your store.

This increases the chances of impulsive purchases being made.

Creating a personalised experience The algorithms within your mobile app can help you track user preferences and key customer data, which can further be used to create a personalised experience for your client. Taking NBAD’s Securities app as an example, clients are able to create a list of their favourite stocks and receive updates on only those selected companies. Moreover, they have the ability to create customised alerts for any price fluctuations. Another great example is that of a food retailer; if the customer always orders lunch at a certain time, you can add a layer of personalisation by sending them a reminder during lunch time!

Challenges of developing a mobile app 1. Identifying a viable business model Although mobile apps don’t require

significant infrastructural changes, they still do take up time, money and resources. For an SME, such small investments can have a large impact on profitability. So, you have to ask yourself – how much value is such a platform adding to your bottom line? If you decide to go ahead with launching a mobile app, ensure that you fully understand the needs of your customers and your solution caters to them.

2. Implementing sound security measures Of course, this is the first and foremost thing that should come to mind when thinking of mobile apps. It is imperative for businesses to create a safe, secure portal for customers to be able to share their personal data and make payments (wherever necessary) comfortably without worrying about potential hacks. It is worth outsourcing this process to a reputable provider that can ensure your mobile app is completely secure and is ready for the market.

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The road less travelled -

MCN Holding’s remarkable journey Like most small businesses, this marketing communication conglomerate had a humble beginning – weathering its fair share of misfires, failures and challenges. But, with every passing milestone, it learned valuable lessons. In an exclusive sit down – courtesy of our valued partner Etisalat, SME Advisor spoke to Group CEO of MCN Holding Ghassan Harfouche, who highlights the major signposts of the company’s journey...

It has only been a few minutes since Ghassan started talking about the inception of MCN Holding and trends in the advertising and media sector, but his extreme passion for and knowledge of the industry is already very evident. And, understandably so. Ghassan has over 20 years of media experience under his belt. What he doesn’t know about the industry simply isn’t worth knowing.

“As a holding, we have presence across 14 disciplines in 14 markets. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the GCC countries are our primary markets as they account for more than 80 per cent of our revenue,” he explains.

Reminiscing about the start of MCN, he says: “At the time of our inception, we were a small advertising agency operating out of Lebanon offering traditional advertising and media solutions. Even so, our founder was extremely ambitious and had a great vision for the company.”

While the structure of MCN was formally announced in the early ’90s, the roots go back to 1968 in Beirut, when Chairman Akram Miknas founded the flagship agency Fortune Promoseven – now known as FP7.

Having created a niche for himself in Beirut, Akram had set his sights on Bahrain and the rest of GCC. And, it worked out well for him. Today, MCN as a group boasts several prominent brands under its management including FP7, MullenLowe, Initiative, UM, Magna, Promoseven 360, MRM// McCann, McCann Health, Momentum, Commonwealth//McCann, Weber Shandwick, Capella, Platform5 and Jack Morton.

So, what propelled a small advertising company to becoming one of the region’s most prominent marcom holding of companies? Ghassan replies: “Between now and then, the industry has seen some dramatic changes and it is important to

This case study is about

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“It was the convergence of these trends that helped relatively small agencies (such as ourselves) to catapult into larger markets and get the opportunity to collaborate with big brands. Looking back, this was a critical stepping stone to our success,” he sums up.

GHASSAN HARFOUCHE MCN HOLDING GROUP CEO

understand them and the role they played in our success. Several macro-level trends coincided together that helped solidify the foundations of our business. Firstly, there was a large number of youth graduating out of universities with degrees such as marketing and communication, eager for opportunities in the advertising media world. Secondly, due to the political unrest in Lebanon at that time a lot of agencies opted to move out. This encouraged them to widen their horizons and explore how to do business outside Lebanon.

Finally, it was around the same time that GCC was going through a transformation and several brands were evolving and looking to build market share not just locally – but internationally as well. This meant that they needed support to venture into fresh, unknown territories such as the GCC.” SME ADVISOR

Mapping out the journey Ghassan and MCN Holding have always been in the limelight for their many successes and prolific achievements. But surely there have been defining moments that shaped the company’s operations and shifted its strategies into a new direction. Ghassan shares the two most notable milestones he’s experienced till date –

Milestone One: The digital revolution caused the industry to transform and necessitated a shift in strategy.

“Ultimately, we are a service company and we need to ensure that we have the agility to recognise and adapt to the new changes in the market. Technology, in particular, has introduced a series of changes affecting the way we work and necessitates that we transform our working culture and operate differently.

Today, we are experiencing a different level of complexity – the media sector has matured tremendously and brands have so many more avenues to share their messaging. Multiplication of media means that you need a new strategy to push your messages across the various, emerging channels. As a brand, you don’t have complete control of how your client consumes content,” he explains.

Ghassan is also aware of this glacing reality: the consumers that brands are trying to reach are much more scattered across various channels today and there is a lot of fragmentation. More importantly, technology has also changed the way people i.e. his clients consume content and choose to receive information. They can

generate content, comment, consumers are themselves publishers. They are much more aware of what’s going on. The nature of the messaging has also changed; they can be personalised.

“We have to deal with this complex world of multichannel multitasking in real time.

Our mission is to connect and create a relationship between the consumer and the brand – and that’s true for any company within our field of work. In order to continue achieving this, we need to bring in new capabilities that will allow us to work with the customers with relevancy. This demands, and will continue to demand, a lot of flexibility and agility,” he adds.

With decades of experience backing him, Ghassan makes it sound easy, but of course his job is no walk in the park. He says: “No, it wasn’t easy. We struggled with technology.

But, the way I look at it is that we no longer live in a linear world; we have to learn to work within a matrix. We have to become rich in the strategic capabilities that are necessary to our clients. We have to create those capabilities and make sure we gain expertise about them and not worry too much about how they fit in, because we are in the process of creating this matrix.”

“I should also add here that the support of our long-term Telecoms partner Etisalat has been instrumental in this regard. We’ve had an extremely fruitful relationship with Etisalat, who has always supported us with our communications and IT needs over the last 12 years. Working with a provider that is at the forefront of the innovation gives us the assurance that we are equipped with state-of-the-art solutions and can deliver exceptional service to our clients. Moreover, they’ve offered a lot of value added benefits to our company and people such as audio-visual conferencing that allows us to seamlessly connect across all our geographical markets.

It is extremely important for any small business to partner with providers such as Etisalat, who can support them at every step

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As the industry has progressed, MCN has continuously adapted new strategies to ensure it is offering top-notch services to its clients

of the way and provide solutions to nurture their growth.”

Key takeaway: If your business isn’t agile or ready to adjust to market conditions, it will most definitely be affected adversely. Ensure that you always have one eye on trends! MCN bucked trends by staying true to its core mission – adding value to its customers.

Milestone Two: The disciplines of media, marketing and PR have become complex.

This means that training and nurturing people to work towards new objectives is vital.

As the industry has progressed, MCN has continuously adapted new strategies to ensure it is offering top-notch services to its clients. At the same time, however, it is equally critical to nurture employees and equip them with everything they need to adjust to the company’s new strategic

direction. “It is important to create a culture that enables those capabilities to work together. It is about change and nurturing people who are willing to collaborate with each other in order to create a better product.

This is how we will develop new processes and evolve a different way in how we offer our services,” Ghassan quips. “It’s not just about building new capabilities and embracing technology, it is also about bringing in people who are open minded and accept change.”

“Ultimately, the key is to be dynamic; we need to embrace what has happened and bring in people who can cope with the future and in this way will come up with the solutions our clients will expect from us in the future.”

Key takeaway: While it is important to be customer-facing and addressing the changing needs of the customer, it is equally significant that the internal team is fully aligned with your company’s goals and mission.

The learning curve When you’re at the helm of one of the fastestgrowing and most reputable media agencies in the region, backed by a team of senior advisors, surely failure and mistakes aren’t an option? Ghassan smiles before he says, “A large part of my job involves taking critical decisions and ensuring that I’m calling the right shots in the interest of the company.

When you are doing this as often as I do, you are bound to make mistakes. So, have I taken decisions that weren’t completely right? Absolutely! There’s no shame in admitting that.

“But, let me share a secret with you”, he adds, “My mantra is that every decision has opportunities and risks embedded within it.

Whenever, I need to take a crucial decision, I simply weigh those risks against the opportunities, and I automatically know what needs to be done.” This practical approach sure seems to be getting Ghassan results – and in the end it’s all that matters.

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In the spotlight:

Top trends in the media sector Content consumption Internet users spend 20-30% of their time online – primarily engaging with media content

89%

77% watch scheduled broadcast TV

77%

75% watch streamed video several times a week or more

75%

20-30%

Multiscreen users spend 52% of their screen time on mobile devices

87%

52%

89% of consumers access long-form video content online 87% of consumers use their smartphone as their second screen while watching TV

The role of content 87% of consumers use their smartphone as their second screen while watching TV

300 hours of video is being uploaded to YouTube every minute

300 million photos are being posted to Facebook everyday

33% of digital consumers are willing to pay for online video services if more premium content is available

Content marketing:

97%

of marketers believe in the power of content marketing

71%

believe they are doing it poorly

71%

say it is difficult to measure

Advertising

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The overall MENA advertising market is predicted to reach a value of US$7.6bn by 2019

200 million users are using ad-blocking software, resulting in a US$22bn loss in global ad revenues in 2015

Overall, the MENA advertising market is expected to enjoy a 6% CAGR compared with 4.4% for the global advertising market

More than 50% believe removing commercials is very important

It is estimated that global online video ad spend totalled US$ 10.9bn in 2014, and this is predicted to reach US$23.3bn in 2017

Newspapers, for example, account for 32% of advertising spend, but just 9% of time spent on media.

More than 30% are willing to pay to remove ads

The global advertising market is predicted to enjoy 4.4% CAGR

Digital media accounts for 27% of time spent by consumers, but only 9% of advertising spend.

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Between 20142018, ad spend is forecasted to be experiencing the following growth rates: 2.5% uSA 1.4% Germany 6.2% egypt 2.7% KSA 2.7% UAE 1.7% Japan

Traditional advertising vs. online advertising

Mapping growth across different media verticals

TV: online TV advertising will more than double to US$10.19bn in 2020

Magazine publishing: digital will make up only 30% of total consumer magazine revenue in 2020, showing a significant preference for print magazines

Radio: is growing at 2.1%

Internet advertising: will reach US$260.4bn by 2020

Mobile advertising: will grow at a CAGR of 19.6% to reach US$84.8bn in 2020

Music: global spending on physical recorded music - mainly CDs and vinyl fell in 2015 by 6.3%

Focus of traditional advertising • Consumer attitudes and behaviour • Product placement

Focus of online advertising • Creative format of ads • Visual design • Attention span of consumers

Sources: Zenith Optimedia, SmartInsights European report, Ericsson ICT and the Future of Media, World Economic Forum Whitepaper – Digital Transformation of Industries – in collaboration with Accenture, Global entertainment and media outlook 2016-2020 by PwC.

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In the Middle East our appetite for cooking videos is big, but our attention span is often much smaller. Kamal Saleh, Founder and Director of Chi Tayeb TV, has created a series of one minute cooking videos that offers a satisfying light bite of content.

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The perfect pairing Fish and lemon, tomato and basil, hummus and pita: classic combinations that always hit the spot. How about cooking videos and Facebook? Arabic food and social media: what two things does the Middle East possibly love more? It’s a killer combination.

“We believe that the secret of success in life is to eat what you enjoy,” smiles Kamal Saleh, Founder and Director of Chi Tayeb TV. “If you crave rich, tasty food then you’ve come to right place with Chi Tayeb TV,” he continues.

Saleh is no chef, but he knows what works.

With some videos racking up more than a million views in 48 hours, his videos are being eaten up like hot cakes.

The ex-MBC Executive Producer set up Chi Tayeb TV, part of Real Vision Media Services, this February in partnership with two international chefs. A self-funded enterprise, the platform is now monetized through advertising and product placement.

Since its creation, the channel has produced hundreds of 60 second videos, delivering the speediest of cooking lessons in a bite-sized chunk. All your Arabic favourites are covered, as well as some more unusual options, including a lotus leaf and pineapple salad.

Launched with the tagline, ‘good for all the family’, Saleh is passionate that Chi Tayeb TV offers something for everyone. “The idea of showing the method behind a whole dish in one minute appeals to all - men, women, old people and young people. It’s encouraging everyone to enjoy the cooking process,” the entrepreneur explains.

But it isn’t just giving inspiration for tonight’s dinner, Saleh wants to educate his audience how to eat too. Chitayeb.tv, the channel’s website, has a dedicated page for health hacks, from tips for staying trim to the bountiful benefits of eating broccoli. With the UAE’s obesity rate doubling that of the rest of the world, many Chi Tayeb devotees could do with skipping dessert and paying the page a visit instead. Moving forwards, Saleh’s plan is to build upon this instructive element of the channel. “I’m looking to make our SME ADVISOR

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programmes more specialised, with episodes targeted at pregnant women, children and sufferers of diabetes,” he reels off. These customised videos will feature on Chi Tayeb’s very own TV channel, scheduled to launch on a - as yet undisclosed - UAE network in mid-2017.

A slice of social media To treat traditional TV as an afterthought is unusual, like eating dessert before your entree. But for Saleh it was entirely intentional. “The digital platform had to come first,” he states. The founder spent five months studying what an Arab audience wants to see and how they want to see it. “My project manager, Rana Mahmoud, collaborated with a team of professional researchers to investigate viewing preferences from country to country,” the entrepreneur explains. The results? Social media is king, particularly in the UAE and KSA where smartphone penetration is amongst the highest in the world. Guided by the findings, Saleh rolled out Chi Tayeb on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

It was a smart move. “Online media has made significant inroads into the daily lives of people,” says Steve HamiltonClark, CEO of TNS Media, a leading market research company. “The amount of time spent on online media is more than double that spent on traditional media,

01. In the months since it launched Chi Tayeb has amassed 600,500 Facebook followers, with more people ‘liking’ the page every day.

02. Combining the essence of a cooking channel with the reach of social media, Saleh has created a tasty little offering that promises to grow in popularity in years to come.

““

The idea of showing the method behind a whole dish in one minute appeals to all - men, women, old people and young people.

It’s encouraging everyone to enjoy the cooking process,” the entrepreneur explains

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such as TV,” he continues. His claims are supported by a 2015 Deloitte study that found that 57 per cent of millennials - the sweet-spot demographic companies are keenest to court - watch TV programmes on smartphones, tablets and computers rather than a traditional television. Like the popular prawn cocktail starter of the 60s, ‘the box’ has become passé. With Chi Tayeb enjoying 11 million views in the 45 days post-launch, one wonders if Saleh needs a TV programme at all?

“We’re launching it because of a large gap in the Arab market for cooking shows.

The next step is to open a full TV channel solely dedicated to food,” Saleh explains.

His commitment to traditional television is touching, but perhaps misplaced. A national TV channel cannot compete with the reach of social media, a fluid, expansive platform facilitating cross-continental sharing. When was the last time something went ‘viral’ on TV? Saleh’s new channel may strengthen his presence in the UAE, but Facebook is already building him a fan-base further afield. “We’ve been surprised by the intense interest in Chi Tayeb from places like Maghreb and Iraq - they’re watching videos and interacting with us via social media,” the founder enthuses.

On the boil Saleh’s decision to weight his service in favour of online has paid off: in the months since it launched Chi Tayeb has amassed 600,500 Facebook followers, with more people ‘liking’ the page every day.

Courting clicks hasn’t been too tricky, but keeping to time has. “The biggest problem is that filming the chefs cooking one dish takes over two hours, but we have to edit it down to about a minute whilst ensuring that people can still understand and follow it,” Saleh explains. Easier said than done, particularly with fancier recipes. The entrepreneur is conscious of keeping his followers waiting for new videos too. “With this type of programme we’ve got to be in SME ADVISOR

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constant contact with viewers, providing them with new dishes on a daily basis.”

When it comes to social media, immediacy is everything.

Something else may soon call on Saleh’s time and resources: what about an investor?

“So far the project has been based on the efforts of partners. We have received different investment offers, but we are looking for someone who not only understands the project, but has a passion for it and enjoys working with us,” explains the CEO. It seems that Saleh will sit tight until he finds the right

investor to act as the perfect seasoning for his already sizzling product.

Even without external support, the entrepreneur has had a strong start as a new SME. He has built a cross-channel and continental platform with a budding online following. Combining the essence of a cooking channel with the reach of social media, Saleh has created a tasty little offering that promises to grow in popularity in years to come. Fish and lemon, tomato and basil, hummus and pita: we’re adding Saleh and Chi Tayeb TV to the list. You heard it here first.

Chitayeb.tv, the channel’s website, has a dedicated page for health hacks, from tips for staying trim to the bountiful benefits of eating broccoli. With the UAE’s obesity rate doubling that of the rest of the world, many Chi Tayeb devotees could do with skipping dessert and paying the page a visit instead.

His claims are supported by a 2015 Deloitte study that found that 57 per cent of millennials - the sweet-spot demographic companies are keenest to court - watch TV programmes on smartphones, tablets and computers rather than a traditional television

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SAUDI’S SECRET CINEMA KSA has the highest YouTube consumption per capita in the world.

The Kingdom craves online content but has always relied on footage from abroad. Until now that is.

Kasawara Al Khatib, CEO of UTURN, is on a mission to create a signature Saudi online entertainment offering.

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Going viral ‘The most important male in a Saudi female’s life is her driver,’ jokes comedian Noon Al Nisaw. The comment was made during an episode of UTURN’s homegrown Saudi female comedy show. The outcry was immediate. In a country where cinema is banned, how was this local woman making such scandalous statements on camera? “We say stuff that you wouldn’t hear on TV. We’re pushing the envelope and talking about political and social issues – threads of ordinary people’s lives that aren’t discussed in the media,” explains 46-year-old Kasawara Al Khatib.

For the CEO, controversy has bred success.

Today UTURN’s 50-odd shows enjoy 150 million views a month from some 35 million subscribers. The business is the biggest supplier of online Arabic videos in the Middle East, offering a mix of original, assistant produced and aggregated content covering everything from political satire to vlogs. Last year it raised US $10 million from Leap Ventures and made the same amount again in revenue from advertising.

Determined to defend his position, in the next year Khatib plans to double the number of shows, open an office in Dubai and create his own video-viewing platform dedicated to UTURN content.

Filling the void So what’s the buzz? “It’s about making purposeful and meaningful entertainment for young Saudi men and women,” Khatib surmises, “we have pan-Arab channels but before UTURN there was never a Saudi programme specifically for Saudis,” he continues. Need being the mother of invention, the entrepreneur quit his job at Proctor & Gamble to fill the gap in the market. Khatib founded Full Stop Advertising - one of KSA’s first domestic agencies - in 2002, but the CEO turned his attention to new media in 2010.

With the assistance of his brother (now a silent partner), Khatib invested US $150,000 in development and collaborated with local creatives – comedians, SME ADVISOR

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presenters, writers, directors – to shape and style the platform. He brought it to the market in the form of five unique pilots. Six years later, two of those original shows (Eysh Elly and Ala Al Tayer) are still going strong.

Crucially, since its creation UTURN has evolved from a YouTube-based multi-channel network into a multiplatform network; the product is present on Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Instagram, GooglePlus and Samsung Smart TV. “If content is king, distribution is queen,” smiles Khatib, aware of his enviable reach (over two billion lifetime views at the last count). The CEO is riding high on the demand for ‘snackable’ Arabic video content. But although he has reached what is perhaps the pinnacle of his career, the entrepreneur suffered substantial setbacks in his start-up days. An advertising expert by trade, Khatib knows how to sell.

But when the policies and parameters surrounding your platform change that becomes difficult.

The evolution of advertising The entrepreneur was smart in using video content as a vehicle for advertising, setting himself ahead of the curve. As a spokesperson at Leap Ventures explains, “the Middle East is an emerging market in everything except digital media. We are a hyper-developed market with 80 per cent smartphone penetration. Yet advertisers in the Arab world are still spending more than 90 per cent of their dollars on TV and old media, compared to the US who spend 50 per cent on digital advertising.” According to BIA/ Kelsey, specialists in new media marketing, revenues for social media advertising are expected to hit US $9.7 billion in 2017, up from US $2.1 billion in 2010.

Khatib knew all of this. By prefacing UTURN’s programmes with banners and sponsored content, within six months he was making money from regional advertisers.

With such an attractive and – for Saudi – innovative proposition, UTURN signed its first US $500,000 sponsorship deal in 2010 with Saudi telecom provider Mobily. But despite

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becoming official YouTube partners in 2011, two years later Khatib was told his advertising had to stop. “They told us we were using the platform wrong, in a way that broke the user policy. They gave us six months to change how we sell,” the Saudi recalls.

Forced to make a U-turn on his plans for UTURN, Khatib regrouped. “We had to get creative in order to find a way to keep selling,” the CEO explains. The solution?

Product placement and brand integration.

Instead of dropping adverts before or after UTURN episodes, Khatib featured clients in them. It went down a storm with the company’s advertisers, a group that includes Unilever, Proctor & Gamble and Nescafe.

The clients were content. But with YouTube now taking 45 per cent of a channel’s revenue, UTURN’s profits effectively halved overnight. Feeling the pinch from the new policy, Khatib looked outside the box.

Literally. YouTube is the world’s largest platform for online TV and video, but many other ‘new media’ channels also support video content. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, suddenly became Khatib’s new frontier. Exploring this new terrain made commercial sense. When UTURN or one of its presenters promotes a client’s product on Facebook UTURN nets between 70-90 per cent of revenue. YouTube’s 55 per cent pales in comparison.

The next episode “Business is an adventure so you need to be adventurous too. It’s like Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America – sometimes you need to be driven off the road for a new path to unfold for you,” Khatib smiles. His pioneering spirit has paid off: he was named Saudi Arabia’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 and last year he snagged the top spot on Forbes’ list of ‘Entrepreneurs Shaping Saudi Arabia’s future’. With an impressive and growing portfolio of advertisers in his arsenal, Khatib is focusing on his next frontier: the UAE.

With the recent injection from Leap Ventures, this September UTURN will launch operations in Dubai. “The content exists and the audience exists: it must be that UTURN exists too. The opportunity is there and we are lucky to enjoy great support from the Dubai government – they’re really helping to accelerate our work,” Khatib enthuses. The CEO will give his business and 75 employees time to acclimatize to the new market, but plans to launch a dedicated UTURN platform soon. YouTube is cluttered with thousands of channels and brands shouting over each other. Khatib envisions an offering that is streamlined and targeted. A destination for considered consumption, the platform will only feature UTURN’s original and aggregated videos and sponsored content.

What Khatib is proposing is an Arabic language challenger to YouTube, the entrepreneur’s one-time incubator. The concept is controversial. But remember Noon Al Nisaw’s comment about Saudi drivers? It seems UTURN wears controversy well.

Established: 2010 Employees: 75 USP: UTURN is the largest operator of Arabic content online in the Middle East. As a network we have the widest reach.

Challenge takeaway: Always make sure that there is cash out there and be flexible with how you monetize – you never know when you’ll have to change.

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01. HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashed Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister, and ruler of Dubai with Kasawara Al Khatib, CEO of UTURN at the Arab Media Forum 02. UTURN became official partners with YouTube in 2011

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THE POWER TO INFLUENCE Influence, not size, is key to defining brand value in today’s customerdriven economy. Brendan Lattrell was quick to realise this and created a unique platform that connects top influencers on YouTube and Instagram with leading brands. The result? A business that is taking the media world by storm and is rapidly becoming a force to reckon with in the industry. With over 10,000 YouTube creators approved for brand sponsorships on its platform, Grapevine is the largest self-serve YouTube influencer marketing platform. Here’s how he did it…

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recent study by TapInfluence and Nielsen Catalina Solutions revealed that influencer marketing delivers 11 times the ROI of digital marketing.

Several other reports have also highlighted that influencer marketing is a more successful method to build your brand value because it creates long term relationships with customers while requiring significantly lesser investment.

But these weren’t the only reasons that led Brendan Lattrell to kick start his media company Grapevine.

Having worked in the television production industry for several years, he began to notice a shift in the way media was being consumed by viewers. For instance, YouTube videos were receiving more views than prime time

This case study is about

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The simplicity and functionality of Grapevine’s platform are key to its success

BRENDAN LATTRELL GRAPEVINE FOUNDER, CEO

television shows on prominent TV channels.

Video had become a more engaging format – primarily because it required quality content and translated across mobile devices. It also gave consumers a degree of choice more than other platforms. For example, other social media channels, like Facebook and Twitter, were driven by likes and algorithms that served up content that consumers might like based on their history. YouTube, on the other hand, gave people the power to find the videos they wanted when they wanted. This put the power in the hands of the audience, allowing them to choose the promotions they want to see – creating a much more personalised experience. This realisation led him to explore how brands and YouTube creators could work together and he ultimately founded Grapevine.

“During the early stages of its existence, our company was known as Beauty Motive. At that time, we had successfully completed a campaign for NYX Cosmetics.

The outcome of the campaign – in terms of the number of YouTube views – was so good that on its completion, the brand was purchased by L’Oréal. This catapulted our company into becoming one of the leading SME ADVISOR

influencer marketing agencies – particularly for beauty-related products and services,” recalls Brendan.

The success of the campaign also meant that Brendan and his team’s business model was working. They now had a tried and tested formula, using which they started to expand the business to other verticals – simultaneously rebranding as Grapevine Logic.

Since its launch in 2015, the Grapevine platform has assisted hundreds of brand partners in finding thousands of social content creators to work with, generating over 200 hours of sponsored content in the past year alone. With its recent expansion into Instagram, Grapevine continues to grow its footprint in the influencer marketing space, allowing brands to expand their social media reach. The team has successfully completed two accelerator programmes (MassChallenge in 2013 and Techstars in 2016), and now has 16 full time employees in Boston.

The ‘X’ factor Although the response Brendan is getting from his customers is overwhelming, he admits that it was tough convincing external

stakeholders of the potential of his model.

“The platform we have built is absolutely unique and makes influencer marketing easy for marketers. We are doing something new and different – capitalising on emerging social media channels. When we first started, it was an area that hadn’t been explored extensively and was still in the nascent stages of development. So, it was quite challenging to get people on board to support us and our vision,” he reveals.

What worked in Brendan’s favour was the simplicity and functionality of his platform. In managing their early influencer marketing campaigns as an agency, the Grapevine team understood the difficulties of manually overseeing influencer marketing campaigns first hand and built the Grapevine platform as a response to the pain points they experienced on a daily basis. The platform gives marketers the ability to find the right creators to work with via a variety of tools, filters and other proprietary data points, book creators and manage relationships easily in one organised place, measure campaign results in real-time with reach, engagement and sales metrics and provide enough actionable data to scale

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10,000 Youtube creators have been approved on the Grapevine platform for brand sponsorships

future campaigns. “Our platform is our USP and we know that. We leave no stone unturned to ensure that it is top-notch and gives our partners everything they need.

The beauty of Grapevine is that it offers 100 per cent transparency into a brand’s influencer marketing campaign and allows any marketer to manage a campaign easily, effectively and safely.”

He adds: “Grapevine also differentiates itself by providing a 100 per cent selfservice platform to its brand partners. A brand can log into Grapevine, create a campaign and manage it start to finish on their own. Grapevine is also the only influencer marketing platform that gives brands the option to implement a conversion pixel on their site, giving further insight to brands in determining the efficacy and ROI of their influencer marketing campaigns. Our Browse Creators Tool also has hundreds of proprietary data points (like Creator reviews) that give brands the ability to search for and filter our network of creators easily, and whittle down 10,000 creators to a more manageable pool to choose from. Currently we’re also working on a few industry-leading tools that will allow brands to form more long lasting relationships with content creators, rather than one-off deals.”

The glitches Armed with a fantastic platform, Brendan has created a powerful business that is growing steadily and challenging the giants of the media & marketing industry. But, there’s

no gain without pain, and over the years Grapevine has jumped its fair share of hoops.

“Looking back at Grapevine’s journey, I think the shift from being a traditional marketing agency to becoming a self-service platform was definitely one of the toughest periods we’ve experienced. It was a hard pivot to make not just internally for the team, but for some of our clients as well.”

“As the founder of a growing business, when you make a critical decision the first thing you will (and should) think about is the wellbeing of your team. How are they going to be affected by the shift? How can you make it easier for them?” Brendan ensured that these questions were answered and his team was always in the loop. “I think half your battle is won when your team is backing you and is fully aligned with your mission. By incorporating the team into the pivot, and having each individual share feedback on what the new platform should entail, the team was able to contribute to the new vision of the company collaboratively, helping to get the buy-in that was needed to move forward.”

He continues: “There was a lot of planning, but there was also a lot of trial and error. The platform was built to function in the way the team had envisioned, but there have been a good amount of updates and additions that have happened in the past year to being the Grapevine platform to where it is today.

We also brought in some additional high level hires who helped to really define the various departments within the Grapevine team and put together new processes and

workflows to assist with the changes that were happening.”

Now that Grapevine’s self-service platform is operating like a well-oiled machine, Brendan has no regrets. “I think the shift was a great learning curve and all the hard work has paid off,” he says. So, would he do it again if the market necessitates it? “Absolutely. We are one of the first companies to make a serious impact within this space. Even so, there is no margin for error and we can’t get complacent. Awareness on influencer marketing is growing rapidly and we have to constantly evolve if we wanted to sustain our growth. Moreover, many brands have started to build their internal influencer marketing teams. The competition is intense! It’s hard to say what new challenges will emerge - probably more competitors, creators looking to migrate to new platforms, and more changes to the social landscape (like algorithms replacing newsfeeds, etc.). Companies in this space need to be agile and quick to respond to these changes and not afraid to take the punches and continue to move forward.

If there is ever a point when an improved business model will benefit the business, we will seriously consider it. Innovation is critical for the success of any business.”

The final cut Speaking about his company’s future and growth, Brendan says: “Grapevine is rooted in

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the social media space, which is constantly changing and evolving. The team tries to stay on top of everything that’s happening internally, but as the company grows that becomes less possible. We are trying to add structure to the organisation while staying true to our mission and remaining agile.

We have improved our documentation of processes and workflows, and try to keep these updated with any changes that may happen.

“Fortunately, the team is comprised of savvy young individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit that tends to learn and develop on their own accord,” Brendan smiles proudly.

What’s next for the company? “Grapevine is on a great trajectory – mainly because of the growth of influencer marketing. There have recently been a number of companies who have made significant shifts in their advertising spends to YouTube and other social media – IPG recently announced they plan to move US$250 million of their TV advertising budget to YouTube.

This is a positive sign for the industry. We continue to keep our eyes on the prize and aren’t phased by the rapid growth of the industry. In fact, the increasing demand keeps the team on their toes and of course warrants for some additional hires, probably across all departments of our company: Sales, Accounts, Community, Marketing and Product.

“We are also focusing a lot more on understanding how to work with influencers and how to forge long-term relationships with them. In fact, we have several new developments in the pipeline that will help us achieve that,” he concludes.

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How does it work?

For brands: 1. Submit a creative brief to the marketplace and start receiving unique pitches from creators.

2. Communicate directly with creators.

Work with interested creators to agree on price, upload date, and expectations.

3. Approve content and watch it go live.

Creators submit their content for review.

Once approved you’ll be able to see detailed analytics, including sales!

Who does it cater to?

As a marketplace business Grapevine has two target audiences – ϭϭ YouTube and Instagram content creators: the ones who produce the content ϭϭ Consumer brands: the ones who sponsor the content

For creators/influencers: 1. Create a Grapevine account. Connect your YouTube channel so we can verify ownership and automate stats on your sponsored videos. You need 1,000 subscribers to be eligible.

2. Browse your opportunities. Once you’re approved, you’ll get access to offers tailored for you. Pick the ones you like and pitch the brand on working together.

3. Complete campaigns, get paid! Create sponsored content by incorporated brand products and hitting some talking points. Submit your video through our platform and get paid same day.

Presenting Partner

HISTORY IN THE MAKING THE ANCIENT HOME OF COMMERCE TODAY’S SETTING FOR A WORLD-CLASS SME SUMMIT

Strategic SME Partner

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TOP OF THE CLASS The Arab world is blighted by poor child literacy and numeracy levels, as well as a lack of locally-produced Arabic content for kids. Dr. Cairo Arafat, Managing Director of Bidaya, is recruiting Seasame Street’s famous faces in her bid to improve Arab education.

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Storytime ‘Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with ABC,’ sings Julie Andrews’ character in the 1965 hit film ‘The Sound of Music’ as she attempts to teach language to her seven charges. And so I ask Dr. Cairo Arafat, the Arab world’s answer to Andrews, to start at the very beginning. “Bidaya is the beginning,” she smiles back at me: the word literally means ‘start’ in Arabic. The media company, itself a charge of twofour54 in Abu Dhabi, creates ‘edutainment’ for Arab children aged 3-8 years old. But the significance of the name extends beyond obvious allusions to childhood learning. “By creating original Arabic educational content we’re starting a new market - that hasn’t been done here before,” Arafat explains. “Through our work we’re also creating a new talent pool for local artists,” the Managing Director continues.

Clearly, it is not just the kids who are learning here.

Bidaya was established in 2013, but it wasn’t until last September that it launched ‘Iftah Ya Simsim’, the Arabic-language

version of Sesame Street. Reintroduced to the region after a 25 year hiatus, the classic children’s show was revived to fill the void in the market for locally-produced programmes rooted in Arabic tradition and heritage. “It’s very important that Arab children watch shows that are culturally relevant. We must create content that they can identify with, showing children who look like them, dress like them and eat the same food as them,” Arafat explains. “Seeing a blonde haired, blue-eyed girl playing on a green mountain is a remote concept to some,” she continues.

Although far-fetched, a Motley crew of Arabic-speaking Muppets can be more relatable. Iftah Ya Simsim has gone down a storm so far. In the eleven months postlaunch the YouTube channel has notched up 200,000 subscribers and gleaned over 100 million views. Perhaps most impressive is how quickly Iftah Ya Simsim surpassed the competition. By December 2015 the YouTube channel had attracted 51 million hits, outstripping the 38 million views Cartoon Network Arabia amassed over three years. But although

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As UAE schoolteacher Noura Farouq explains, “students do not see the importance of learning their mother tongue. Their parents put a lot of emphasis on English as they think it will further their careers, so they tend to develop an indifferent attitude towards Arabic”

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impressive, Arafat isn’t bothered about scoring points in the playground.

“Bidaya and Iftah Ya Simsim is not about numbers,” the doctor stresses, “for so many people everything has become money orientated,” she continues. Her work is about enhancing a child’s early growth, not growing numbers in the bank. “Bidaya designs and delivers simple educational messages that are vital tools essential to the holistic growth of children into well-rounded and productive individuals and citizens. Our mission is to support children in becoming kinder, stronger and smarter.’ the Palestinian-American surmises. The final point on her list is of particular issue. The Arab world has some of the worst student achievement rates globally.

Few regions need a platform like Bidaya as much as the Middle East.

Flunking out There are over 27 Arabic speaking countries in the world, totaling over 350 million citizens and 65 million children under the

age of nine, but very few are making the grade. Why? For a start Many Middle Eastern children are not even in school. According to a UNESCO study released this February, the Arab states have one of the highest out-ofschool rates globally (12 per cent), second only to sub-Saharan Africa. And even the kids that do make it to school are missing out on a key component of their education: Arabic that throughout the Maghreb, Arab literature for children tends to have been translated from a foreign language. Local entrepreneur Bodour Al Qassimi founded Kalimar publishing house in 2007 to try and remedy the problem by producing quality Arabic children’s literature, but she is pushing water uphill. As UAE schoolteacher Noura Farouq explains, “students do not see the importance of learning their mother tongue.

Their parents put a lot of emphasis on English as they think it will further their careers, so they tend to develop an indifferent attitude towards Arabic.’’ But it’s not just Arabic; literacy is being left by the wayside in English too. An alarming 2012 report by the Arab Thought Foundation revealed that the average Arab child reads for just six minutes a year. Comparatively, their western counterparts spends 12,000 minutes reading, the equivalent of 2000 per cent more. The figures make for a pretty harrowing read.

But rather than stewing over statistics, Arafat is keen to focus on the positive, as are the regional authorities. Bidaya, she notes, came about as a byproduct of the government’s commitment to improving early learning.

From 2010 to 2013 the doctor worked closely with semi-governmental bodies, including the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS), to investigate and invigorate the local education sector.

“We worked closely with ABEGS and representatives from GCC Ministries of Education to collect data and information from children, parents, teachers, media and cultural experts on the needs and rights of young children in GCC countries. From this

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work, we were able to develop the overall Statement of Educational Objectives (Iftah Ya Simsim curriculum) which was endorsed

by ABEGS and the seven GCC ministries of education,” Arafat recalls. She helped launch Iftah Ya Simsim in partnership with Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s government investment arm as part of their corporate responsibility programme. Abu Dhabi Health Authority is another key investor.

Nearly a year later Bidaya has produced 28 episodes of Iftah Ya Simsim, including 28 new songs, 28 new alphabet animations and 28 storybooks. The significance of 28? It’s the number of letters in the Arabic alphabet.

Smart, huh?

Talent treasure hunt Something that hasn’t been as easy as learning your ABCs is talent management.

“Children’s television production is not common in this part of the world. We started identifying local Arab talents from 2012 and found a number of writers, storyboarders, illustrators, directors and producers. But very few had any sense of creating work especially for children,” Arafat recalls. The Managing Director had a particular problem with her puppeteers, or – rather – lack of.

“We had no one. I mean, even in the US how many puppeteers do you know?!” she laughs.

Faced with a solid supply of local creatives but not a single performer, Arafat had to pull some strings.

Commandeering the power of smartphones and social media, the doctor took to the web to recruit. “We had people send in a little video recording of them doing some basic puppet work – from that we identified candidates to invite to puppet school,” Arafat explains. Killing two birds with one stone, the entrepreneur offered free training to participants and used the process to pinpoint her prospects. Mindful of maintaining international brand standards, she flew in Marty Robertson from the states, the master puppeteer who plays Murray, the cookie monster character. Also in

Established: 2012 Employees: 3/11 with up to 120 staff when in full production mode (6 months per year) Year on year growth: 15% USP: One of the only high quality, educational content development companies that creates materials in Arabic and in line with ministerial priorities, as supported by Sesame Workshop.

Challenge takeaway: There are amazing talents and capacities in the region.

Harnessing these resources and using effectively will open up a world of opportunities within early learning fields.

01. Bidaya was established in 2013, but it wasn’t until last September that it launched ‘Iftah Ya Simsim.

02. Bidaya has produced 28 episodes of Iftah Ya Simsim, including 28 new songs, 28 new alphabet animations and 28 storybooks.to come.

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out of her way to find them other work. “I give their names to other people who might be doing similar work. Our talents have a right to their own career – we recognise that,” she acknowledges reasonably. Her policy is to ensure that everyone has at least a month’s notice of when they’re needed. It’s a flexible arrangement that can see numbers on site swell quickly from Bidaya’s 11 full time staff to 120 during production season.

Aside from being an advocate for her employees externally, Arafat is eager to develop them internally too. “It’s important to us that we diversify our talents’ skills,” she states. “We have people who start out in production go on to become puppeteers, and vice versa,” she smiles. It sounds like a colourful playground of creativity and collaboration, much an episode of Iftah Ya Simsim. “We really are one big happy family,” the entrepreneur laughs, “there’s an appreciation on both sides: we couldn’t do our job without them and they couldn’t work without us.”

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Iftah Ya Simsim has been available on Lamsa world - the leading app for Arabic educational content

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attendance was Dina Saleh, an experienced Sesame Street puppeteer from the Egyptian version of the show. From this bizarre, puppet version of the X Factor – complete with stuffed animals and silly voices - Arafat whittled her twenty-five candidates down to seven. The original class of Iftah Ya Simsim has completed the first season and is ready for the next one, but Arafat admits it can be a challenge keeping them on the payroll.

“Managing the workforce is a little tricky since you want to hold onto your key talents, but also allow them enough space to use their creative talents elsewhere,” she explains.

In order to keep her staff, Arafat actually goes

Teacher’s report And the workload is stepping up for Bidaya’s Brady bunch too. The company recently expanded into producing e-games, online storybooks and live events (including interactive shows in Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Kuwait). Iftah Ya Simsim has been available on Lamsa world - the leading app for Arabic educational content - for some time, but the new push for online marks Bidaya’s commitment to teaching today’s children using today’s tools. “Our short-term goal is to increase the amount of educational content available online. Long-term, we want to turn that into a dedicated website for preschool learning,” Arafat reveals.

As Iftah Ya Simsim nears its first birthday, Arafat has a chance to reflect on its start-up steps. “Bringing the Sesame Street brand to this region has been a real learning curve.

Identifying new talents is very difficult, but there are amazing people out there. Harnessing these resources and using them effectively opens up a world of opportunities in early learning fields,” she smiles. There is a perception that western content is preferable to locallyproduced programmes. But, with her band of creatives behind her, the Managing Director is challenging that perception. Grade A, Arafat.

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LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! From undulating desert sand dunes to a skyline pierced with record-breaking skyscrapers, the Middle East’s stunning scenery is finding its way onto the silver screen. We talk to local casting director Miranda Davidson about the triumphs and challenges of making western movies in the Arab world.

Setting the scene “It’s like comparing apples to oranges,” says Miranda Davidson, explaining the differences between the US and UAE casting industry.

“The idea of a casting agency in its truest form still doesn’t even exist here because the market is so muddled with a broken system,” she sighs. In the past eighteen months alone she has cast local actors in three Hollywood blockbusters: Fast and Furious 7, War Machine and Star Trek Beyond. The projects have put Davidson, as a professional, and the UAE, as a destination, on the map.

But although she claims the experience has

been a success, it has revealed serious flaws and fractures in the UAE’s film industry. The country has a long way to go before it can compete with Holly - or Bolly - wood.

The American performer-turnedentrepreneur created Miranda Davidson Studios in 2009 to nurture the Emirates’ then nascent entertainment and film industry. She started by offering acting and communication training to children and adults but soon launched the casting division to remedy a disconnect in the market. “We felt it wasn’t fair to encourage people to go into acting without a professional

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platform to help get them work afterwards.

The late Tim Smythe, founding partner of Filmworks, was the one who gave me the real push to start it up,” she recalls. The media mogul believed the Middle East would hit the big time as a location destination. He was on the money.

The last five years has seen a steady trickle of Hollywood blockbusters shooting in the region. Abu Dhabi had Fast and Furious 7, Morocco had Spectre and Dubai had Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. It’s wonderful to be Director’s pick, but why? Davidson thinks there are a number of reasons why the Middle East is trending in Tinseltown.

Location, location, location “First of all, the UAE is one of the safest places in the world to film and the weather is predictable. Most importantly, we have such a diverse community here that you can depict pretty much any nationality. Plus there’s a real contrast between the old and new in terms of landscape and architecture,” Davidson reels off. When you break it down, the Emirates’ popularity with producers makes perfect sense.

But they aren’t the only ones profiting.

Movies put places on the map. The Lord of the Rings trilogy boosted visitors to New Zealand by 40 per cent. Likewise, the filming locations used for Harry Potter have seen visitor numbers jump by 50 per cent or more. Hosting Hollywood films is excellent exposure for the Emirates. The Expo 2020 goal is to welcome 20 million visitors per year. If the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter figures are anything to go by, shots of the UAE in the latest Star Trek film (released next month) could attract more tourists than all of Emirates Airline’s soccer sponsorships put together. It’s something the government is getting wise to.

The Dubai Film and TV Commission includes “special arrangements with key SME ADVISOR

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industry partners, licensing and fee rebates or negotiations with service providers,” in its list of incentives offered to international film productions. Abu Dhabi even offers rebates of up to 30 per cent. As Davidson observes, “the incentive programmes have helped a lot - without them we probably wouldn’t have seen the recent success.” But she has concerns about the industry’s long-term health. “I think the UAE’s future in film will be an uphill battle.

I hate to sounds like the grim reaper, but a lot has to be done to compete with other locations like Morocco,” she warns.

Two worlds collide It’s an ominous warning, but one based on her first-hand experiences. The problem, Davidson says, is two-fold. “First, in the US there are strict laws and regulations surrounding the film industry – we don’t have that here, so you’re really banking on the ethical compass of the companies you work with. Secondly, we have locally-based resident professionals and foreigners working

together; their attitude and experience don’t always match,” she explains.

Zoning in on the second and more pervasive problem, Davidson claims there can be a real disjuncture between the East and Western contingents collaborating on a film. “One of the biggest problems is that some people come over thinking that they know everything. I hear a lot of ‘in LA we do it this way’, which isn’t always helpful. Equally, there is a limited number of local companies and most to them have little or no experience of working outside the UAE,” she explains.

It’s a mixture of cultures, expectations and experience that can breed problems.

With her unique blend of western education and eastern credentials, Davidson is often called in to police things. “I’m sometimes set in place to be an advisor for outside productions that need to understand where the middle ground lies.” But that line is drawn in the sand; it varies from project to project. The expectation is perhaps that an international crew is practiced and polished,

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01. Miranda Davidson on set in Dubai 02. Miranda Davidson, CEO and Founder of Miranda Davidson Studios

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whereas their local counterparts lack experience. But the reality, sometimes, is the complete opposite.

Without divulging the name, Davidson had a particularly bad experience working with the American team on one big movie. “The role of a Crowd Assistant Director (CAD) is to manage the extras – beforehand, on set and afterwards. On shoots where there are literally hundreds of them you had better know what you’re doing. But on this particular film the Crowd AD had never done the job before, plus he had a bad attitude. It was a horrible experience,” she grimaces. We might think of the States as setting the standard in cinema, but in this case the UAE had the upper hand.

The sometime tension between East and Western industry professionals isn’t something that can be fixed immediately. As Davidson notes, “a big part of filmmaking is to be pliable, keep your ego in check and just role with the punches.” What she’s talking about is attitude; that doesn’t change overnight. But there is something we can, and should, look to improve immediately: regulations.

“The lack of laws means that we’re often arguing for basic working conditions: fair pay, reasonable working hours, ethical standards of conduct etc. We try and implement what

we know from developed markets and make it work for the UAE, but we need stronger infrastructure from the government,” Davidson urges. “Also, it shouldn’t take months to get permits to shoot and visas for an entire crew,” she adds earnestly.

The next episode…

The UAE’s cinematic story is left on something of a cliffhanger. Hollywood is clearly interested in the region. And there’s no denying the positive impact film promises to make on the country’s economy and global perception. But here on the ground local and visiting professionals need to build bridges before they can walk off together, hand-in-hand, into the sunset.

In all this Davidson remains in the thick of it, ready to cast the next desert-bound blockbuster at the snap of a clapperboard.

There are growing pains, she knows, but her resounding message to the media community is this: “you cannot discount the magnitude of exposure, influence and education a production like Fast and Furious 7 or Star Trek gives a country. But we need to make the process much easier.” The spotlight is on you, UAE: what will your next line be?

Established: November 2009 Employees: 4 full time and 2 part time Year on year growth: 20% USP: We are arts meets commerce that teaches people how to marry creativity and business in a synergetic relationship Challenge takeaway: Patience is a virtue! On big international productions you have multiple worlds colliding, so you have to navigate and try and make a standard norm that everyone can feel comfortable with

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IT’S A MATCH! Connecting with the right person in the Middle East’s media industry is often a mission. The Media Network think they have the solution with their selective, streamlined platform.

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The little black book business I tell Michelle Kuehn, Managing Partner and Co-founder of The Media Network, that I think we should use a picture of her as an octopus to accompany this feature. She shrieks “oh lord, no please don’t do that!” and laughs in her warm Pennsylvanian tones. I’m kidding (sort of), but the image definitely fits. With over 18 years in the Middle East, Kuehn knows the market; her network extends from one side of the GCC to the other. Add her Cofounder Jill Downie’s almost 13 years in the UAE’s media industry into the mix and the pair rack up over three decades in the UAE and what must be countless tentacles.

In a nutshell, The Media Network is a platform that connects people to enable them to do better business. It’s a matchmaker for media, without the bad chat up lines and awkward small talk. “People come to us for contacts and information,” Kuehn explains, “It could be to find the PR for a brand, the inside scoop on job openings or to check a date for a function against other events happening in Dubai,” she continues.

The Media Network’s work is concentrated around the UAE, but Kuehn has received requests from the other side of the world.

“We had a radio station in New Zealand call and ask for John James Anisobi’s contact, the Editor of Ahlan!. Its proof that we’re getting out there, ” she smiles. The platform has become an integral part of the UAE’s media community, but three years ago it didn’t even exist.

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An industry un-networked The Media Network was born from necessity.

There are 2,000 unique companies registered in Dubai Media City. That’s over 20,000 people. As atomised individuals their power is weak, but as a connected community that strength grows immeasurably. As Kuehn notes, “PR people spend all day promoting their clients but it’s all too easy to forget their own agency communications. The problem is also that, before The Media Network, they didn’t have the tools to connect. One of the first things Jill noticed when she moved here from the UK was how unsupported the industry was - there were no PR brand lists etc. If you were a newbie journalist where would you even start?!”

Dumfounded by the disconnect between the industry and the individual players that form it, Kuehn and Downie pooled their passion and respective experience in PR and journalism to create The Media Network. “We had a vision for the community - one that saw a strong media network in MENA that should be a pleasure to work in, where finding a PR contact for a brand could be as easy as calling us, searching through our directory or Tweeting us. Where journalists didn’t get bombarded with irrelevant mass e-mails, but received information based on the things they found interesting. We wanted to bring together a network of insights and data that made the pool of professionals more engaged,” Kuehn enthuses. No

mean feat for a sprawling and sometimes segregated industry.

The first step? Making a list of everything the industry lacked. “We jotted down everything the PR and editorial world needed - then we swapped notes to make sure we saw the situation from every perspective,” Kuehn explains. List in hand, the Co-founders injected US $136,000 of savings to cover start-up costs: office rental, licences, fit-out, furniture and web development to name a few essential expenses. Recruiting five eager interns via Dubizzle.com, the pair brought the product to the market in September 2013 and worked “18 hour days seven days a week” to get the platform under people’s noses.

Streamlined and selective By her own admission, in their first months Kuehn and Downie were publishing pretty much anything that fell in their inbox; “finding the right news was tough,” Kuehn surmises. But the ‘anything goes’ approach wasn’t working out. In trying to be everything to everyone the founders founds themselves being little to a few. “It was a constant struggle, but we needed to find the right kind of news that would benefit everyone,” she explains.

Like many of the most successful companies before them, The Media Network had to streamline and simplify its offering in order to appeal to the masses. “It’s like Gordon Ramsay always says: buy local, cut the recipe down and specialise,”

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Michelle Kuehn and Jill Downie Co-Founders of The Media Network SME ADVISOR

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smiles Kuehn, who must be a whiz in the kitchen. Drawing up The Media Network’s own three stage recipe for success, the founders screened the news they published, categorised content according to type and made membership selective.

The relaunch - including a complete online overhaul - took twelve months and was rolled out in December 2015. Reaction has been strong. “We’ve seen a 50 per cent increase in the number of registered website users - we’ve got over 6,000 digital subscribers now,” says Kuehn. But don’t let that make you think it’s easy to get into the club. There’s a gatekeeper who vets all applications to ensure that only bonafide media professionals are approved. And even when you’re allowed access it’s filtered.

“We have different registration options for journalists, PRs and events, so you’re only fed information that’s relevant to your field and interests,” Kuehn explains. No chance of a PR spying on another agency’s activities here then. How does such tight policing of a previously public platform go down? “The response we’ve had is 97 per cent positive, but there is still the odd person who gets confrontational about not meeting the membership requirements,” Kuehn acknowledges. The point, she stresses, is always to protect the media.

Commercialising the community The founders’ dedication to ‘quality over quantity’ - something Kuehn says she reminds her team of daily - extends to the website. The platform is monetised via SME ADVISOR

banners and sponsored adverts, but the founders only endorse companies and events relevant to their audience. “We were very clear that we didn’t want a ‘flashing’ website that looked that something off the Las Vegas strip,” Kuehn asserts. “We do sponsored advertising for events, but they’re things our users are already interested in attending,” she continues.

Another revenue stream comes from ‘premium’ level membership, a personalised concierge-style service that includes research services and a bespoke matchmaking option.

The package sells for up to US $14,000 per annum. With sponsored job listings and targeted EDMs, Kuehn claims it’s a popular choice with agencies looking for ‘first class service and heightened access.’

The third arm of the company’s commercial activity revolves around events. Occupying such a pivotal position in the marketplace, The Media Network has become the platform of choice for exclusives and activations.

The network effect Having successfully joined the dots in UAE’s disparate media industry, Kuehn and Downie are determined to spread their net further afield. Their website already includes nuggets of news from the wider GCC, but the founders are looking to firm up engagement from this market in the next year. “We’ve got Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi on our checklist,” Kuehn reels off, adding that each destination will have its own ‘tag’ and section archive on the website. Doha will

01. The Media Network social events 02. Having successfully joined the dots in UAE’s disparate media industry, Kuehn and Downie are determined to spread their net further afield

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We have different registration options for journalists, PRs and events, so you’re only fed information that’s relevant to your field and interests

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In offering workshops the founders are trying to educate, not just engage, their audience

be in motion in the next few months, but the pair will wait a while before they touch Saudi. “It’s a big market,” Kuehn explains.

The founders are also looking to bulk up their ‘offline’ offerings. Their ‘Media Mingle’ networking nights have been a popular hangout for industry bods since 2014, but the pair are introducing a new initiative that goes beyond chit chat and canapes. “We’re going to start doing quarterly workshops on important media topics. They’ll focus on training, by drafting in experts in specific fields and help professionals keep up to date on the latest trends and changes. Our first session after Ramadan is on media law and we’re thinking about social media for the next,” Kuehn enthuses.

This new service casts the platform in fresh light. In offering workshops the founders are trying to educate, not just engage, their audience. It’s an exciting, game-changing prospect; one that should promises to increase the company’s tentacles tenfold.

We’ll have to see how the market reacts, but The Media Network is so much more than a matchmaker now.

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HOW TO: CREATE A MEMORABLE AD Today’s ads represent a quantum leap from their pre-internet predecessors. With significantly lesser investments, companies are using powerful ads to reach exponentially more number of viewers – across a wider range of demographic.

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KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

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“You must aggressively go to the edges and tell a story that only you can tell” – Seth Godin

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Based on the existing customer data you’ve collected, create a demographic profile of your potential customer. This will typically include age, gender, location, marital status and income levels. Adjust it according to the nature of your business. Once you have this ready, undertake extensive research to understand their preferences, needs, price points and how they like to consume content. Identifying your target customer will give you clarity on the medium of ad you need to work with i.e. TV, radio, online, mobile and so on. If you don’t have data to work with, conduct a survey reaching out to your existing customers; people that have made at least one purchase in your store or on your website.

BE STRATEGIC As is the case is with any other marketing decision, it is important to lay out a detailed plan before getting an ad out. By mapping out the how, why, who and what of your advertising campaign before launching, you will not only save money, but also time and effort. Moreover, ensure that your entire team is on board with the message you want to send out to the market. It is worth setting aside some time for internal reflection; assessing the goal of the ad and how it is aligned with the overall purpose of the business. Since advertising is seen as a marketing activity, it is often the case that the process is left entirely on one department, but it is important to make sure that other departments are involved in the process as well. For instance, the sales department needs to be involved because they have to ultimately sell that proposition, the customer service department needs to participate as they will have to deliver the proposition, and so on.

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TEST YOUR CAMPAIGN Many companies test the effectiveness of their campaigns by releasing it to control groups and testing their reactions. This allows you to be confident of your ad’s readiness when it finally hits your target market. Don’t hesitate to make changes and tweaks along the way in order to improve the quality of your campaign.

CREATE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION With hundreds of creative ads floating around the market, it’s not good enough to have an intriguing ad. It has to be something that connects with the audience and taps into how they’re feeling. A great example is the recent campaign launched

by British Airways called “Fuelled by Love”, which portrays their strong bond with the Indian market. This ad works because the audience can instantly relate to it and it has the ‘feel good’ factor. It is important to resonate with the customers and give them a meaningful, powerful message.

INCLUDE A CALL TO ACTION Every ad should have a clear message on what the viewer of the ad needs to do next.

This is what pushes the viewer to avail your product or service. And, keep it simple. For example, “Call +9715… today to avail this free consultation.”

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GO BEYOND THE IDEA Simply having a creative idea isn’t enough to launch an effective campaign. Your ad needs to communicate how your product or service fits into the customer’s day-today life and how does enrich their overall quality of life. More importantly, the ad needs to subtly represent the values and culture of your company. What does your company stand for? And, why is that mission important to your organisation?

Brands are complicated and in most cases they are replaceable by other brands. So people need stories to remember what the company is all about. Storytelling makes people believe that one product is better than another. When people believe that your product is superior they are more likely to buy it.

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REMEMBER, LESS IS MORE Ads have the tendency to maximise value from the space available by providing an overload of information – ultimately overwhelming the viewer. Ensure that you leave enough white space within the creative so that there is enough breathing space and the spotlight isn’t taken away from your intended message. When deciding what information needs to be included, consider what is most critical and forms the crux of your ad. Every piece of text in the ad should be weighted according to its importance. Also, use different font sizes to differentiate what needs to stand out.

EMERGING USE OF AD BLOCKERS With the rise of digital advertising, an increasing number of companies are opting for online ads. However, how do you get around the rampant use of ad blockers? The answer is simple: by creating more meaningful and relevant ads that merge in with the viewer’s existing content. Another great way is by using powerful images. An article on Inc.com explains: “Images communicate and draw attention better than standard text. These are frequently seen with articles and blog posts, and are especially popular on social media.

By incorporating marketing campaigns with in-image solutions that are contextually relevant and offer superior user experience, you can attract more views without disrupting the user experience. With in-image advertising platforms like imonomy, ads do not get filtered out by ad blockers. Since images are already a natural part of the content, audiences are less likely to be “ad blind” with these images. The system uses content recognition technology to ensure the in-image ads are matched to the topic of the content, creating a relevant experience for the user. In addition, using such contextual and relevant images also helps to make your content more attractive and the improved user experience translates into improved click through rates of 1.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent compared to less than 0.1 per cent with traditional display ads.”

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SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE WORKPLACE Media outlets in the UAE and elsewhere have often picked up on a variety of stories regarding the use of social media in the UAE. In this article, senior experts from Clyde & Co. consider the overlap between an individual’s online activities in the UAE, the applicable legal framework and the employment relationship.

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here is no specific regulation in the UAE of the use of social media. However, careless use of social media (whether for a private or business matter) can result in criminal and civil liability arising for both individuals and companies.

The main legislative provisions that give rise to criminal liability are as follows:

ϭϭ Federal law No. 5 of 1985 (the Civil Code) and Federal Law No. 3 of 1987 (the Penal Code) both provide for liability, where industrial and trade secrets of the employer or another third party are disclosed without consent. For example, Article 379 of the Penal Code provides for a minimum prison sentence of one year and/or a minimum fine of 20,000 Dirhams if somebody “who is entrusted with a secret by virtue of his profession, trade, position or art…discloses it in cases other than those lawfully

permitted, or if he uses such a secret for his own private benefit or for the benefit of another person, unless the person concerned permits the disclosure or use of such a secret”;

ϭϭ Articles 372, 373 and 378 of the Penal

Code contain provisions relating to defamation. Defamatory content could include posting information about others without their consent (even if such information is true), or posting photographs or videos without the consent of the subject of the photograph or video, unless the photograph was taken at a public event or occasion;

ϭϭ The Penal Code also includes provisions relating to the insult or abuse of any religion, using any means (which is wide enough to include the posting of religious comments to Twitter and Facebook). The UAE is an Islamic

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country, and statements or acts that are deemed to be anti-Islamic could result in criminal complaints being made. It should be noted however, that a criminal offence arises where someone insults any of the “recognised divine religions” and therefore the criminal offence is not limited only to anti-Islamic offences.

ϭϭ The Cyber Crimes Law, for example where posted content:

REBECCA FORD PARTNER, CLYDE & CO

• offends religious sanctities or encourage sins;

• offends against the interests of the State;

• provides pornography, gambling • • •

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activities, and other materials prejudicial to public morals; promotes prostitution/debauchery; slanders another person; breaches the privacy of another (e.g. by intercepting communications, taking photographs, publishing information, etc.); or intentionally abolishes, destroys, or reveals secrets, or that results in the republication of personal information

In addition to criminal charges, civil liability could arise where somebody, whether an organisation or an individual, suffers loss as a result of comments made about them or the disclosure of confidential information belonging to them.

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In the UAE, as is the case elsewhere, permitted use of social media should be regulated by an employer’s internal policies and practices

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Social media in an employment context GENERAL In the UAE, as is the case elsewhere, permitted use of social media should be regulated by an employer’s internal policies and practices, and an employer is free to impose disciplinary sanctions where an employee acts in breach of internal policies.

Article 109 of the Federal Labour Law expressly provides that disciplinary penalties may not be imposed on an employee who has committed an offence outside the place of business “unless such act is connected with work, the employer or its responsible manager”. Accordingly, the employer must prove that the employee’s online actions have had an impact on its business.

The DIFC Employment Law permits immediate termination “in circumstances where the conduct of [the employee] warrants termination and where a reasonable employer … would have terminated the employment”. This means that employers are able to consider summary dismissal in a wider range of circumstances than under the Federal Labour Law, and the unauthorised use of social media, or the use of social media in a way that harasses or otherwise discriminates against a colleague, may well justify immediate dismissal in the DIFC. Where an employer has documentary evidence to demonstrate that there has been a disclosure of confidential information or trade secrets and is able to quantify the damage sustained by the business as a result, the employer may initiate both criminal and civil proceedings. Similar action could be taken by an employer in the event that the employee’s use of social media defames the employer or its business. The matter could also be reported to the police and if found guilty, individuals can face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to AED 20,000. There is no civil action for defamation; however an employer may file a civil claim for damages for harm caused by reason of the employee’s actions under

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provides that it is a criminal offence to “obstruct a female in such a manner as to violate her honour by work or deed.”

What should employers do?

the Civil Code and may be entitled to financial compensation, provided the elements can be proved.

In addition to the above, criminal and civil action (including under the Cyber Crimes Law) could also be taken against the employee by victims of the employee’s conduct. Where the opinions or actions of the employee are presented or performed on behalf of (or seen to represent those of) the employer a criminal complaint could be made by the victim against the employee’s manager as well as the employee.

DISCRIMINATION Under the DIFC Employment Law, an employer established in the DIFC may also be held legally responsible for any discriminatory acts of their employees, subject to such acts having been committed in the course of employment. This could, for example, include cyber-bullying

or harassment of employees or the posting of discriminatory comments or material on an individual’s Facebook page. In order to avoid liability, an employer must demonstrate that an employee who is allegedly responsible for the bullying, harassment, etc., acted outside “the course of their employment” and that the employer took reasonable measures to prevent such employee from committing the acts in question. There are no stated guidelines on the necessary level of preventive action nor is there any case law that directly addresses this, but a written equal opportunities policy that is very actively implemented should serve as a useful measure in this regard.

Although there is no general prohibition of discrimination under the Federal Labour Law, sexual harassment (which could include any harassment carried out through social media) is a violation of the Penal Code, which

POLICIES In light of the above an employee’s permitted use of social media in the private context can and should be regulated by an employer’s internal policies and codes of conduct.

Employers are well advised to set clear expectations with regard to acceptable behaviour online. Internal policies should also require employees to clearly state in any blogs or postings that their comments and opinions do not reflect those of their employer.

Finally, any such policy should include guidelines for any staff whose roles require them to publish business related news or information on social media; for example marketing teams who use Twitter or LinkedIn for publicity purposes.

As noted above, the Federal Labour Law provides that disciplinary penalties may not be imposed on an employee who has committed an offence outside of work unless the act is connected in some way to the business. A disciplinary policy should therefore make it clear that if private activities detrimentally affect the employer’s reputation, the employer is entitled to take disciplinary action. Without this, an employer will struggle to justify any subsequent disciplinary action.

Given the clear risk that individuals in the UAE could be prosecuted if they fall foul of the relevant local laws, employers should also use their social media or IT policy to educate their staff more generally about the risks of posting online.

TRAINING As well as ensuring a clear policy is in force, employers should consider rolling out training to new recruits and existing employees to ensure that they understand what they can SME ADVISOR

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and can’t do and what the consequences of getting it wrong could be.

SARA KHOJA PARTNER, CLYDE & CO.

““

The UAE has strong cyber laws in place in order to protect individuals’ privacy and reputation

SME ADVISOR

MONITORING An employer’s ability to monitor employees’ activities online must be carefully managed and prior consent obtained. The Constitution of the UAE contains a general right to privacy for individuals and guarantees freedom of communication by post, telegraph or other means of communication. Articles 378, 379 and 380 of the Penal Code also establish criminal offences in relation to the interception or disclosure of correspondence or telephone conversations and Article 15 of the Cyber Crimes Law appears to extend this to IT communications.

Although there is no specific guidance on the point, it is likely that the monitoring of an employee’s online activities outside of the workplace and through their own personal devices would be considered unlawful.

However, it is arguable that where the individual is using the employer’s IT systems and e-mail accounts, reasonable monitoring may not be considered to be in violation of the above provisions. In such circumstances, the extent to which employees’ online activities will be monitored during company time should be clearly set out in an IT policy, which outlines the expected standards in terms of reasonable usage during working time. Employees should also be informed of the purposes for which the monitoring is being carried out, and their consent to such monitoring should be obtained. It may also be sensible to put in place a ‘pop up’ reminding employees who access the internet from their work computer, tablet or smartphone of what restrictions apply to their internet use and that their usage is being monitored.

Conclusion The UAE has strong cyber laws in place in order to protect individuals’ privacy and reputation. Falling to comply with these laws could result in employees and/or employers

being subjected to criminal and/or civil proceedings. It is therefore important that organisations employing staff in the UAE take steps to implement and enforce rules relating to employees’ use of the internet and, in particular, social media.

As noted above, where an employee is in breach of the terms of a well-communicated IT, data protection, or social media policy, the employer may impose disciplinary sanctions. Where the misuse of IT or social media systems has resulted in confidential information or trade secrets being disclosed or the employee being convicted of an offence involving honour, honesty or public morals, an employer may dismiss the employee without notice or end of service gratuity. Employers in the DIFC have greater discretion than employers outside of the DIFC to summarily dismiss employees who disregard the company’s IT, data protection, or social media policies.

However, as well as wanting to ensure employees are aware of what internal rules they are subject to in respect of their use of the internet, employers in the UAE will also want to make their employees aware of the wider risks that their activities online may expose them to given the robust approach taken in the UAE to enforce legislative provisions that criminalise certain online activities.

Clyde & Co accepts no responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from acting as a result of material contained in this summary. www.clydeco.com

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SME ADVISOR

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Navigating a new medium of communication:

Virtual Reality After social media, is virtual reality set to be the next big thing within the media space? We sure think so and here’s why…

V

irtual Reality (VR) has played a critical role in the sphere of gaming – taking interaction to the next level and making things more real. However, over the past couple of years VR has exploded in growth and is getting closer to becoming consumer mainstream. In fact, on an investor call after the release of Facebook’s earning for Q2, 2015, Mark Zuckerberg reportedly said: “I think that immersive 3D content is the obvious next thing after video.” Experts suggest that this is just the beginning for VR and it is likely to improve significantly as technology progresses and content curators get comfortable creating valuable insights to suit the format.

The media industry, virtual reality offers promising opportunities – particularly in terms of enhanced consumer engagement.

Of course, it depends on the companies to see how they can utilise these opportunities and use the convergence of technology and content to capture audiences. But, one thing is for sure: VR is here to stay and can’t be ignored.

SME ADVISOR

The following are key factors contributing to the rise of VR and defining its fast-paced growth: 1. The need for more content and immersive experiences Even though a lot of people already do have access to VR through their smartphones and headsets, they still aren’t completely satisfied with the content. Lack of content is the primary reason that VR hasn’t fully been picked up across other media channels and is still confined to video games. Experts, however, predict that this is changing.

2. Huge investments are being made within the VR space While technology companies were the first to realise the potential of VR, they are now joined by global media companies.

For instance, an article on nytimes.com reported that “in September, Disney led a US$65 million investment in Jaunt, a virtual reality camera maker that also has software for editing and distributing

the video. Comcast and Time Warner participated in a US$30.5 million funding round in November for NextVR, which uses virtual reality to broadcast live events. In January, Legendary Entertainment invested an undisclosed amount in 3BlackDot, a social media platform for virtual reality.”

So, what’s attracting media companies to invest heavily in VR? It’s because they can now deliver content in a new, compelling manner; it allows for storytelling and a more personalised experience. At the same time, it also poses the serious challenge of evaluating existing content and migrating it into a VR platform. Moreover, media companies looking to use VR platforms should also be wary of the costs associated with buying the hardware required.

3. The rise of digital education Apart from entertainment purposes, consumers are increasingly looking for technological solutions that can create a seamless educational experience. The last decade saw the rise of Massive Open

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Some architects are using VR to create interactive visualisations of construction projects in place of 3D models, or fly-through video.

This approach can enable clients to make changes before work starts.

Emergency response workers have used VR to practice how to respond to faults with nuclear reactors.

There are multiple applications for healthcare, with training and education of staff and members of the public being among the most prevalent.

Hotels can provide VR guides to properties. For guests at a property, a VR headset could act as a virtual concierge, showing guests places they could visit.

Source: Deloitte

As well as teaching via a virtual classroom, VR can additionally be used to provide digitised tours to prospective students VR will likely continue to be used in the military where simulators have long been commonplace.

Online Courses or MOOCs through portals such as Coursera, edX and so on. The next era of digital education will be largely impacted VR; several schools and universities have integrated virtual reality technologies within their curriculum. 3D immersion and VR technology have been quite successful in enriching educational programmes and bringing existing content to life. An initiative that has been able to completely revolutionise this realm of education is Google’s Pioneer Expeditions, which provides schools across the globe with a starter kit containing equipment that allows teachers to take their students on a virtual trip. For one day, these teachers get smartphones, a tablet, router, a library of over 100 virtual trips SME ADVISOR

and Google Cardboard viewers that transform smartphones into VR headsets. So by virtue of this, teachers can actually take students on a virtual tour of the Great Wall of China rather than simply explaining what it is. Can you imagine how interactive this can be?

4. Emergence of advertising and new revenue models through VR Even though VR is currently a nascent medium and hasn’t fully been maximised, several media companies have already found ways to monetise the experience. Major media companies are partnering with leading brands; wherein they create content for the brand in exchange for sponsorships. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement because it gives the media company a chance to experiment with storytelling through VR, while the brand gets associated with innovation and futuristic technology. Another way of monetising the platform is through selling good content directly to consumers. As VR devices and platforms continue are on the rise, consumers purchasing these are looking for access to rich content. A report by NYC Media Lab explains further: “In-experience purchases, like shoppable fashion virtual reality content, could be a good option for virtual reality. One comparable business is the virtual economy in the Second Life metaverse, which is worth more than US$22 million dollars according to Re/Code. That money is spent on things like virtual clothing and real estate for the online avatars of Second Life users. The other possibility for selling the content directly is through subscriptions. Just as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and HBO have grown their over-thetop video subscription offerings, there could be similar offerings for virtual reality as well.

Valve offers the Steam game store that will offer content for the Vive when it is released.

Once head-mounted displays are connected to these devices, usage for streaming could increase significantly.” It goes without saying that media companies need to be wise when investing in VR experiments and need to have a structured approach in order to see results.

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While technology companies were the first to realise the potential of VR, they are now joined by global media companies

64%

73%

of baby boomers; are said to be interested in VR.

of millennials and 70% of Gen Xers are interested in VR

GATEWAY TO THE FUTURE - Are you ready?

A world-class dialogue

Block your diary - and supercharge your business August 28th, 2016

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