Communicate Levant | July 2011

Levant Edition • The marketing and advertising resource • July/Aug 2011 • Issue N°15 • communicatelevant.com.lb

Play time: JWT’s global planning director on the agency’s Brand Page 34 Toys tool

DIGITAL Power Listing Communicate Levant’s UAE sibling Communicate releases its first Middle East communication Power List. The 49 men (and one woman) who make it happen are listed and profiled. Be (Page 12) there, or be square.

MARKETING Wooing women Communicate attends Gulf Marketing Review’s Marketing to Women conference and revels in research.

In particular, Yahoo’s study of 1,500 Arab women finds which websites they are on, what they are looking for and what their needs are. (Page 32)

Natural election: Consultants Butruille and Stephan on politics and marketing Page 36

Unfair game? Duke Nukem developer fires its PR agency over Page 16 a Tweet

OUTDOOR OUTLAWS

BRANDING Teen spirit We pick over a recent AMRB survey into teenagers’ favorite brands. We see what tops the list in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. We also pick over a few categories, including shoes, fast food and soft drinks. (Page 26)

CAMPAIGN Barcode bypass

(Page 39)

No slowdown to the showdown over Lebanon’s billboards

Cover Image: Getty Images

MediaquestCorp Egypt................... E£ 10 Jordan ................... JD 4 Kuwait ................ KD 1.2

Lebanon ........L£ 5 000 Morocco ............DH 22 Oman ............... OR 1.5

Qatar ................... QR 15 Saudi Arabia ........ SR 15 Switzerland .......... SFR 8

Syria .................. S£ 100 Tunisia ................ TD 2.5 U.A.E ...................DH 15

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR | JULY/AUG 2011

Swept under the rug I

f you have kids, you’ll know about this one impossible challenge: getting them to tidy their room.

A kid’s bedroom can become a surreal place when left to children’s own devices (if you don’t have a maid, that is). Some sort of Wonderland where grown-up Alices tumble (sometimes for real if they don’t watch their step) down the rabbit hole of parenting every evening. Mountainous heaps of clothing surround valleys of building blocks, lakes of paper sheets and forests of pencils; villages of dolls besieged by armies of marbles are half hidden by an invasion of dirty socks (and, in the worst-case scenario, dirty underwear); scratched music CDs lie on the floor like abandoned spaceships, while piles of coloring books threaten to tumble.

Adults tiptoe around, trying to find a clear path toward a closet or bed, while kids easily stroll about, in the rubble of what was once a lovingly, perfectly decorated room just waiting for the fruit of your loins to come into this world. Yes, my friends, dreams age faster than dreamers; so I learnt the hard way.

But the best part is when you actually get your kids to try and sort out the mess. I love being around when this happens because the tidying operation usually turns into another magic trip, only to

Treasure Island this time.

Cries of joy and surprise often erupt: “I didn’t remember I had this toy.” “Wow, I had been looking for this T-shirt for months.” “Why is there chewing gum stuck here?”

(That one I don’t really care for.) Or “Look Ma! I told you I hadn’t lost your necklace, here it is.” (That one I like best, even though said necklace is usually discovered under a bed, covered with dust and barely recognizable.)

The amazement and enthusiasm kids display when they realize they can actually play in this room is priceless; the fact they also realize they can enjoy their toys more when they can find them easily, another good lesson in life. A lesson that unfortunately needs to be repeated countless times, but one that most people have learnt by the time they reach adulthood.

So I wonder: Do you think players involved in Lebanon’s outdoor advertising industry ever got around to learning that basic fact of life? Could gaps in their education explain the ineffable mess that the Lebanese outdoor landscape is in today? I mean, if my eight-year-old daughter can understand that it is in her own interest to organize her room once in a while, that she can find her stuff with less hassle, you’d think that the advertising industry would

understand that consumers can see and appreciate campaigns – and, more importantly, the products they promote on billboards – better if the message is clear, which, supposedly, is the whole point of the operation.

They should understand, as well, that it is in their own interests to have a bit of order, as it could save them from having higher powers intervene (like parents sometimes have to), which is what occurred recently, as you’ll read on page 20.

While this latest happening will not have kept you awake at night to write home about, it signals an absolute need for change.

Yes, we all love the twisted Wonderland part of this country, but wouldn’t you also love to hear “Look Ma, I didn’t remember we had this in Lebanon!”?

Nathalie Bontems, editor editor@communicatelevant.com

Communicate Levant I 3

Contents

JULY/AUG 2011 | CONTENTS

COVER: Jungle book 20

THE COMMUNICONTEST

You thought the Lebanese outdoor industry couldn’t get any messier? Well, it can – and it does. Despite private and public attempts to regulate the business, chaos not only prevails, it gets more sophisticated

17

THE COMMUNIQUESTION 18

SPECIAL REPORT: YOUTH BRANDS 26

Communicate picks over a recent AMRB survey of top brands among teenagers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt

NEWS 6 8 10 12 14 15 16

Come up with a great mobile app idea and win a Nokia Smartphone

Advertising. Ad agency Interesting Times and energy drink Red Bull get viewers drifting Advertising. Impact BBDO tells the story of a Lebanese expat who falls back in love with Lebanon because of ice cream Advertising. Memac Ogilvy takes a stand against human trafficking and gets appliances brand on TV Media. Communicate unveils its Power List Print. New magazine for Dubai Metro launches Branding. PC company Lenovo’s Jack Lee says localization is not an absolute must Digital. Duke Nukem developer fires PR agency over Tweet

We ask the industry: What phrase would you ban from meetings?

FEATURES 32

Marketing. The women formula: Communicate picks up some lessons at the GMR Marketing to Women conference

DEPARTMENTS 34 36

38 39 42

Q&A. Playing along. JWT’s worldwide planning director Guy Murphy on the agency’s new online tool, Brand Toys Guest Opinion. Business consultants Raphaël Butruille and Marcel Stephan say now is the time for a marketing approach to politics in the region Blogosphere. What the Web is saying Work. Selections from the regional and international creative scenes Drive-by: One blogger’s take on Beirut’s billboards

JULY/AUG 2011 Medialeader SAL, Azar bldg, 5th floor, Dimitri Al Hayek st, Sin el Fil-Horsh Tabet, Beirut, Lebanon, Tel: (961) 1 492 801/2/3

CO-CEO Alexandre Hawari CO-CEO Julien Hawari MANAGING DIRECTOR Ayman Haydar CFO Abdul Rahman Siddiqui CREATIVE DIRECTOR Aziz Kamel ONLINE DIRECTOR Rony Nassour HEAD OF CIRCULATION Harish Raghavan, h.raghavan@mediaquestcorp.com MARKETING MANAGER Maya Kerbage, m.kerbage@mediaquestcorp.com COUNTRY MANAGERS Lebanon: Nathalie Bontems, nathalie@mediaquestcorp.com, (961) 1

492801/2/3 KSA: Walid Ramadan, walid@mediaquestcorp.com, Tel: (966) 1 4194061 North Africa: Adil Abdel Wahab, adel@medialeader.biz, Tel: (213) 661 562 660

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FOUNDER Yasser Hawari MANAGING DIRECTOR Julien Hawari EDITOR Nathalie Bontems MANAGING EDITOR Austyn Allison GROUP MANAGING EDITOR Siobhan Adams SENIOR SUB EDITOR Elizabeth McGlynn CONTRIBUTORS Ibrahim Nehme CREATIVE DIRECTOR Aziz Kamel ART DIRECTOR Sheela Jeevan ART CONTRIBUTORS Aya Farhat, Jean Christophe Nys EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Manuel Dias, Maguy Panagga, Catherine Dobarro, Randa Khoury, Lila Schoepf, Laurent Bernard RESPONSIBLE DIRECTOR Denise Mechantaf PRINTERS Raidy Printing Group ADVERTISING The Gulf MEDIALEADER, PO Box 72184, Dubai Media City, Al Thuraya Tower 2, Office 2402, Dubai, Tel: (971) 4 391 0760, Fax: (971) 4 390 8737, sales@mediaquestcorp.com Lebanon Peggy El Zyr, peggy@mediaquestcorp. com, Tel: (961) 70 40 45 44 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Tarek Abu Hamzy, tarekah@mediaquestcorp.com, Tel: (966) 1 419 40 61, Ghassan A. Rbeiz, ghassan@ mediaquestcorp.com, Fax: (966) 1 419 41 32, P.O.Box: 14303, Riyadh 11424, Europe S.C.C Arabies, 18, rue de Varize, 75016 Paris, France, Tel: (33) 01 47 664600, Fax: (33) 01 43 807362, Lebanon MEDIALEADER Beirut, Lebanon, Tel: (961) 1 202 369, Fax: (961) 1 202 369 WEBSITE www.communicatelevant.com.lb

JULY/AUG 2011 | REGIONAL NEWS

Red Bull campaign gets fans screaming

Beirut. In collaboration with production house The Talkies, independent ad agency Interesting Times is the engine behind energy drink brand Red Bull’s current online campaign.

Formed in September 2010, Interesting Times is Red Bull’s advertising and digital agency for the MENA region. The agency got six people (from the UAE national to the granny)

 I ADVERTISING TBWA\RIZK comes up with new TVCs for G. Tamer Holding Beirut. TBWA\Rizk teamed up with Cherry Films production house to release a series of TVCs for longtime client G. Tamer Holding, for its make-up brands Akira and Dali.

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to sit by Lebanese champion driver Abdo Feghali while he drifted for a few minutes, and filmed their – often terrified but funny – reactions.

This “Red Bull Car Park Drift” campaign is geared toward Arab youth, and has gone viral with more than 2 million views on YouTube alone, over 150,000 unique visitors to its website, and numerous followers on

Under French director Raphael Levy, the three commercials were shot in two days in Beirut, and include one corporate TVC for Dali and two tactical TVCs for the Akira line.

Separately, Rizk Group is behind the public awareness campaign “National Poverty Targeting Program” (NPTP), launched in line with the

Facebook and blogs. Online users can subscribe to compete and attend the finale of the actual Red Bull Car Park Drift event that will be held in Beirut this summer.

The project was devised in less than four weeks. Concentrating on the casting, The Talkies ensured that its six main characters differed in many ways.

Ministry of Social Affairs and aiming to establish a database system of poor population, to be used by the government in the delivery of social transfers and services.

TBWA\Rizk and RPR will be handling the concept and implementation of the full campaign in the Lebanese market.

 I ADVERTISING FP7 Beirut brings home Byblos Bank

Beirut. FP7 has bagged the creative and media duties for Byblos Bank in Lebanon following a multi-agency pitch. Byblos Bank is actively seeking to inject more dynamism into its growing brand and revamp its positioning with different stakeholders in Lebanon and international markets.

Tarek Miknas, Group CEO of FP7, says in statement, “This is a very personal win for us, as FP7 started its life in Beirut and we’re exceptionally proud of this achievement.”

Speaking on the bank’s brand building plans, Nada Tawil, head of group communication at Byblos Bank, says, “We believe this new partnership between our bank and FP7 has the potential to take the Byblos Bank brand to new heights.”

FP7 adds Byblos Bank to its roster of long-term clients such as L’Oréal, McDonald’s and Nana, and follows the wins of IDAL, Liban Lait, and EAM, among others.

Drive bags BUMC account

Beirut. In March 2011, Drive was appointed automobile distributor BUMC’s creative agency for advertising services in Lebanon, with media planning and buying remaining in the hands of MCAA. Drive was initially created to handle Toyota in the Gulf countries and Lebanon, but it now handles the Toyota account across the whole MENA region, and Dentsu the entire Toyota network globally.

Focusing on strengthening the Toyota and Lexus umbrella brand in Lebanon, consumer behavior and brand support are Drive’s main focus points. In order to better communicate to the Lebanese consumer's needs, market research conducted with Toyota and Lexus owners is already under way.

With access to Dentsu's worldwide library of creative work, learning and cases, and putting to use its experience in the automobile industry, Drive's creative work will aim to portray BUMC’s confidence in catering to Lebanese customers.

JULY/AUG 2011 | REGIONAL NEWS

Impact BBDO liiiikes Cornelli

Beirut. Among the various new projects from Impact BBDO last month, the new campaign for ice cream brand Cornelli, starring Lebanese humorist Fadi Raidy, probably got the most ink flowing.

The starting ad plays on a Lebanese insight, telling the story of Jay-Jay, a.k.a.

Germanos Germanos, the new Cornelli spokesman, who comes to Lebanon and discovers the ice cream brand. Deciding to leave the US where he used to live and settle in Lebanon, because a country with no Cornelli ice cream is not a country worth living in, Jay-Jay introduces Abou Zouz, the taxi driver, the mayor, and Samira, his cousin’s wife.

Each changes their habits because of Cornelli. The campaign aims to depict Lebanese clichés by putting forth different types of individuals and focusing on a humoristic approach, with the catchphrase “And I liiiike it."

The films, produced by FilmWorks, generated heavy online discussion, with

more than 13,000 views on YouTube for one of the TVCs and some viewers coming up with their own scripts and sharing them with friends online.

Director Mazen Fayad, best known for his beauty and romantic films, was responsible for the shoot. Also behind the “Bridge” and “Taxi Driver” parts of the Ministry of Interior’s “Cheyef 7alak” campaign – a pro bono project of several films also initiated by Impact BBDO and produced by The Fantastic Film Factory – Fayad explains that this “genre” tackles the Lebanese vernacular and pop culture “with a twist.”

“The art direction, colors, and content all play a role in making them part of the Beiruti everyday life and surely put a smile on everyone’s face.

It was very interesting to contribute to creating a new character [Jay Jay] out of the famous Fady Raidy, who has played already established personas,” he says. “We sat together and reworked the original script in order to establish

 I MEDIA LBC America back on North and South America TV sets this summer TV station LBC America has joined forces with myTV, a US company that distributes premier Arabic TV channels in North and South America, starting this summer with a premier line up of channels that includes Rotana Music and Rotana Cinema. MyTV is also offering viewers the opportunity to watch LBC America in high definition on the Internet. The station mainly targets Lebanese living in the US, Canada and South America.

Jay Jay and his secondary characters into a structure that fits.”

Impact BBDO is also behind whisky brand Dewar’s new commercial that invites Lebanese consumers to commemorate Father’s Day, an occasion rarely celebrated in Lebanon, and one the brand claims to be the first to advocate.

Last, Impact BBDO was heavily involved in newspaper The Daily Star’s re-launch, positioning on the “Your language, your news” new identity, addressing the youth more.

The logo was revamped and an ATL campaign (press, radio and TV) was launched to reach as large an audience as possible, with the message: “Whatever your language is, be it politics, sports, or entertainment, The Daily Star speaks it.” Visually, this concept was translated by superposing photos of different sections of the paper that gave fun combinations, such as Barack Obama in football gear.

Banned Lebanese movies shown in France Nice. In June, French NGOs Héliotrope and Cinéma Sans Frontières organized an evening showing of Lebanese productions banned in their home country: three short movies produced between 2006 and 2010 and one documentary, Chou Sar (What happened?) by director De Gaulle Eid – that received the Jury Special Award at the Beirut International Film Festival in October 2010, without having been shown to the public.

The event was organized by Charbel Kamel, cinema festival coordinator at Heliotrope, and the poster was designed by Lebanese graphic designer Farah El Samman.  I PR

 I MARKETING Grey Goose sets up VIP Lounge at Beirut Boat Show Beirut. For the 2011 Beirut Boat Show, vodka brand Grey Goose set up its Grey Goose VIP Lounge, a mobile lounge where walk-in visitors were able to taste the product. The initiative also aimed to spread awareness regarding the mobile VIP Lounge itself, as people discovered the concept of a rentable lounge for private parties, refined events and VIP weddings, not only as a bar serving Grey Goose, but as a comprehensive and complete service (from bartender services to the drinks and bar).

8 I Communicate Levant

Mindshare MENA holds annual management meeting Amman. Mindshare MENA held its annual management meeting in Amman on June 1 and 2. The meeting was attended by the CEO, CFO, managing directors, and regional directors across the MENA region; it was an opportunity to review the performance of the company and lay down the strategic plan for the coming years.

A number of external speakers were Continued on page 10

JULY/AUG 2011 | REGIONAL NEWS

Memac Ogilvy against human trafficking

Continued from page 8 invited to share their views on hot topics related to the advertising and media industry. Samir Ayoub, CEO of Mindshare for the MENA region, said during the event, “One of the main reasons to hold the meeting in Amman is part of our commitment and support of the Jordanian market.

The timing of the gathering was crucial given the tough time the Arab world is experiencing. We wanted to review our work, scrutinize it, highlight opportunities ahead of us and then set the right strategy across all aspects of our business for continuous success.” I AWARDS

Beirut. Memac Ogilvy Beirut developed a new awareness campaign on behalf of the International Organization for Migrants (IOM), launched on Al Jazeera in April and aiming to open a dialogue among residents across the Middle East on the issue of human trafficking.

The TVC shows a group of vulnerable people from all walks of life, ushered into a dark warehouse

 I MARKETING IFC and BLF partner to promote sustainable energy finance Beirut. Financial company IFC and Banque Libano-Française (BLF) launched a sustainable energy finance initiative aimed at developing financial products to help Lebanese companies use resources more efficiently, enhance the competitive

10 I Communicate Levant

where they are sold off to a buyer, and highlights the various forms of human trafficking: child trafficking, sexual exploitation, forced labor, organ removal and domestic servitude. It was aired until end-May. On a separate note, Memac Ogilvy Beirut is also behind Concord Home Appliances’ first TVC; the brand traditionally uses print and billboard advertising. Based around the tradi-

tional concept of the zyara (informal, friendly visit), the film follows a proud housewife around her home while she shows off her Concord home appliances to a friend. The character, cold and rushed when introducing her family, immediately lights up with excitement when introducing her new Concord appliances. The TVC will be supported by a social media campaign.

ness of their products and services, improve profitability, and help protect the environment.

According to IFC’s research, high energy costs and unsustainable practices are estimated to cost Lebanese businesses more than $400 million annually in lost profits and have a negative impact on the local environment. Over the coming year, the project will support strategic

product development and provide sustainable energy finance training and tools, allowing BLF to offer clients energy and resource efficiency opportunities.

This will enable BLF to rapidly scale up sustainability-related lending to meet the energy needs of the Lebanese market, particularly small and medium businesses looking to increase their resource efficiency.

This project is being launched at the same time by the Lebanon Green Building Council, with the IFC’s support. The new ARZ Green Building Rating System was also unveiled. This tool encourages commercial building owners in the country to do renovations that will save money and limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Three Lebanese selected as worldwide high-impact entrepreneurs Beirut. Global network of outperforming entrepreneurs Endeavor unanimously selected three entrepreneurs from Lebanon at its 39th International Selection Panel in London in May. Luxury furniture designer Nada Debs, and Nemr Badine and Marc Dfouni of online advertising agency Eastline Marketing, are now part of the 603 high-impact entrepreneurs from 385 companies in 11 emerging market countries that Endeavor supports. The entrepreneurs are the first to be selected from Lebanon since Endeavor Lebanon began operations in January.

M&C Saatchi MENA Jordanian princess

honors

Amman. Advertising agency M&C Saatchi has awarded H.R.H Princess Rym Ali, founder of the Jordan Media Institute, an honorary plaque in recognition of her contribution to journalism education, during an event held in June that was attended by the editors-in-chief of Jordan’s dailies and news agencies, and M&C Saatchi’s staff and clients.

“In a changing world, communications is one impressive catalyst for debate. The debate that helps individuals decide collectively, blurring the marginal differences among them in favor of a collective goal. And in developing societies, especially, Continued on page 12

JULY/AUG 2011 | REGIONAL NEWS

Communicate releases regional Power List

Beirut. Communicate’s first Power List is out. It presents the 50 most powerful people in Middle East communication, using a formula based on public facts and market intelligence about the top players in the industry and the companies they work with.

The top 10 are: 1. Sheikh Waleed Al Ibrahim, chairman, MBC 2. Elie Khouri, CEO, OMG MENA 3. Akram Miknas, chairman, MCN 4. Joseph Ghossoub, chairman and CEO, Menacom Group 5. Pierre Choueiri, CEO, Choueiri Group 6. Raja Trad, CEO, Leo Burnett MENA 7. Roy Haddad, CEO, JWT Middle East and Africa 8. Ramzi Raad, chairman and CEO, TBWA/Raad 9. Edmond Moutran, CEO, Memac Ogilvy and Mather

 I MARKETING Real estate waterfront project ­Zaitunay Bay launched to the public Beirut. Massive Beirut waterfront development project Zaitunay Bay (owned by Beirut Waterfront Development sal, a joint venture between Solidere and Stow) was unveiled to the public in June.

Located on the Beirut Marina and named after this once famous

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10. Dani Richa, chairman and CEO, Impact BBDO The top spot goes to the head of MBC, Sheikh Waleed, who controls the best-selling television stations in the region. MBC also plays a part in putting Pierre Choueiri on the list, as his Choueiri Group runs the media representation of MBC Group.

The others in the top 10 are heads of agencies, or of holding groups of agencies.

Most people in the list are either from media owners, agencies, or client companies. The highest ranked client-side power player is Sanjiv Mehta, chairman of Unilever North Africa and Middle East, who comes in at number 15. There are at least 24 client-side leaders on the list – more than there are agency heads, or media owners. “At least” because some people such as Yahoo regional vicepresident Ahmed Nassef, at number 20, are on both the client side and the media-owner side, a sign that – as elsewhere in the media, marketing and advertising industry – once-clear lines are becoming increasingly blurred.

There is only one woman on the list: Dr. Amina Al Rustamani, CEO of Tecom Business Parks, at number 27.

With the help of information partners Zawya and Ipsos (Ipsos MENA CEO Edouard Monin made the list at number 24 – as with all others featured, he has never seen the formula, nor been consulted on it), Communicate gathered data on companies and on advertising spend,

Zaitunay area, the project will host 17 restaurants and five retail outlets in a vehicle-free environment accessible through seven pedestrian access points with adjacent underground public parking facilities. Farouk Kamal, chairman of BWD, says, “Through this ambitious project, Lebanon will have a new tourist destination, creating new jobs and bolstering the economy into one reminiscent of Beirut's glorious past.”

and awarded points to candidates according to the information they provided and that the team was able to gather on them.

The criteria examined included, for companies: • Number of employees in the region • Size of monitored advertising spend for clients • Billings for creative agencies and media agencies • Revenues for media companies • Number of years the company has existed in the region For individuals it included: • Years in business • Years in the region • Shareholding • Google effect (how often the person is quoted online) • Membership of professional bodies • Presence on social media The Power List also includes profiles of each of the people on the list. In the course of the profile writing, plenty of fascinating facts about the people shaping the industry were unveiled. Readers of the Power List will discover who…

• Can play the guitar • Says there are business lessons to be learned from Genghis Khan • Paints Lebanese craftsmen in his spare time • Was determined not to be a lawyer • Worked in a bank for only three days Because much of the raw data gathered is sensitive, Communicate elected to make neither the data nor the exact formula public.

The first restaurants are due to open by September 2011. BWD is particularly eager to promote the Lebanese expertise behind the making of Zaitunay Bay, starting with the executive architect Nabil Gholam down to the supervision and maintenance, and all the way through to the restaurant and retail tenants, with the exception of the overall master plan signed by American architect Steven Holl.

Continued from page 10 communication can play a far more decisive role in triggering a rebound or shaping a newly established civic conduct,” said Eli Khoury, CEO of M&C Saatchi. I ON THE MOVE Beirut. Hani Najjar joined Adline Network on June 1 as operation manager of Adline Beirut. During his 13-year career, Najjar has been with several top online and software firms, such as Waseet.net and IBS Multimedia, as director. I MARKETING

Rymco launches new offer Beirut. Automotive dealer Rymco launched a campaign promoting Nissan cars – and particularly the Nissan Tiida that sold more than 12,500 cars in Lebanon – at very low monthly payments. The “Split & Drive” scheme, applicable to all Nissan models, allows customers to split their downpayment in two.

Real estate company Zardman launches Art and Culture Village

Beirut. Family-owned real estate development, investment, and management company Zardman announced in May the launch of Bkheir, the Art and Culture Village in the Metn mountains, with an art exhibit featuring the most recent work of Lebanese artist Chaouki Chamoun.

“Bkheir stands in a category of its own in terms of town development,” says Guy Manoukian, CEO of Zardman. “We have created a space where lost values are brought back to the forefront, where nature is respected, and where people can live a rewarding village life, within proximity of the city and with the comfort of the 21st century.” Construction has begun and is expected to be complete by 2014.

JULY/AUG 2011 | REGIONAL NEWS

Magazine for Dubai Metro hits stands Circulation of Read to be increased to 100,000 after successful launch

Dubai. Continental Multimedia, the publishing arm of Kassab Media, launched a weekly magazine for the Dubai Metro on June 19. The 48-page publication, called Read, is available on stands across all functional Red Line metro stations, says Arnold Pinto, managing editor of the magazine. “[Read] is part of a contractual agreement we have with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to have a publication to serve the Dubai Metro commuters. …With this publication, we were aiming to engage the commuters and enhance their weekly commute,” he adds.

The “infotainment” magazine, which includes news, features, lifestyle and entertainment stories, as well as information about the Dubai Metro and RTA’s services and projects, is targeted towards the 18- to 35-year age group, Pinto adds.

“The [readers] are all professionals, active, career-minded, obviously modern consumers, early adopters of technology and tech-savvy, and very importantly, they are from all over the world.”

Read had an initial print run of 80,000, but because of a high pickup rate, Kassab plans to increase the circulation to 100,000, says Pinto.

On the first day of the launch, “We

put the [magazines on the stands] at 6am when the stations opened, and in the key high-traffic stations copies had got off the stands by 7am or 7:15am or so,” he says. Promoters also handed out copies. Once the stations on the Metro’s Green Line become functional, the magazine’s circulation may be increased, says Pinto. He expects it to go up to approximately 150,000.

When asked what he would consider Read’s competition to be, Pinto says none, primarily because of the magazine’s distribution. “The distribution is entirely within the Dubai Metro network. So this, in a way, sets us apart 100 percent.

 I DIGITAL

one of the most exciting markets for us at Yahoo, with a combination of rapid user growth and a very attractive advertising market with incredible potential,” she said at a recent press conference held at Yahoo’s Dubai premises.

“We envision the online ad market in the MENA region to reach at least 5 to 7 percent of the total ad market by 2015.”

With mobile penetration growing at a fast rate, the search giant launched a mobile version of its Yahoo Maktoob homepage in June, and is keen on facilitating more video content.

Moreover, it has designed a Ramadan app that will feature lifestyle and religious content from Yahoo’s news, women, and video properties, and popular forums.

Yahoo launches mobile platform and Ramadan app, predicts growth from Middle East Dubai. Yahoo sees huge opportunity for the Web to grow in the Middle East, says the company’s CEO Carol Bartz.

“When we look around the world, the Middle East and North Africa is

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 I ADVERTISING JCDecaux appoints two managing directors Dubai. Michiel Hofstee, managing director of ad agency JWT Dubai, has announced the appointment of Christian Loos as regional business director and Adham Obeid as regional creative director. “Loos and Obeid will focus primarily on our regional FMCG brands, driving them forward by delivering communication-based business solutions and creative executions that truly have an impact on those brands and the industry,” says Hofstee.

Loos has worked at Red Advertising as a general manager for more than six years, as founding partner of independent agency The Tribe, and most recently as managing director and vice-president MEA of Cheil Worldwide.

Obeid has moved from TBWA in Oman and has worked with agencies such as Team Abu Dhabi, M&C Saatchi, LOWE, and DDB in Dubai, where he was running the creative department as the executive creative director.

New ABG board announces initiatives Dubai. The newly elected board of the Advertising Business Group (ABG), a trade body representing many of the biggest advertisers in the GCC, has announced its key focuses for the coming year.

ABG chairman Fadi Ghosn (who is GM Middle East’s chief marketing officer) says each initiative will be led by one of the board members.

Ghosn is in charge of setting up an advertisers’ code of conduct; Unilever’s media director David Porter will head up the UAE people meter project; Ramin Damanhouri, P&G’s brand operations and media head, is in charge of Saudi’s people meters; senior director of marcoms and media at du, Ghayath Sioufi is in charge of interim TV research in Saudi, and also out-of-home measurement; and Philips Middle East and Africa director of marketing Vincenzo Ventricelli is in charge of ABG events. Other board mem-

REGIONAL NEWS | JULY/AUG 2011

Lenovo boss says tech is global

bers include vice-president Raef Labaky (commercial and marketing services director at Nestlé) and Chris Saldanha, MENA director of marketing services at Kraft Foods.

Porter says the team behind people meters in the UAE have finished their establishment survey. Beta results should be coming out shortly after Ramadan, and usable data before the end of the year.

The project’s success in the UAE should lead to a faster establishment of the Saudi project. Porter is hopeful for people meters to be in place in the kingdom before the end of 2012.  I DIGITAL

Dubai. Localization of campaign themes is not necessary when it comes to technology products, says Jack Lee, PC company Lenovo’s vicepresident and general manager for the Middle East & Africa.

Lee spoke to Communicate at a regional launch event of Lenovo’s thinnest business laptop, the ThinkPad X1, and a branding campaign with the global theme: “For those who do.”

“I like localization in the form of the venue of communicating,” he says. For instance, having an Arabic keyboard for the region or having advertisements in Arabic. However, in terms of themes he believes otherwise, whether it is a case of a student in Egypt or a businessman in Riyadh who wants a computer, or a farmer in China who wants to know about the weather. “They all want a machine that can help them communicate with the world and get knowledge,” he says. “I don’t see any change. I believe technology is borderless.”

Lee says the localization of content and appeal could make sense in some

other types of products, for example toothpastes. “In Western Europe [the toothpaste flavor] could be mint, fresh mint or peppermint, but in China a lot of companies do tea flavor. That is because in Chinese culture, they believe tea is a cleanser for bad breath and makes you fresh.” So advertising in China could focus more on the tea flavor instead of mint.

Lee sees great opportunities for Lenovo in the Middle East. The company has expanded its Dubai office and opened new ones in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Saudi is a key market, he says: “It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, Saudi Arabia is such a large captive market. You look at a market like the Gulf and the UAE, and a lot of the consumptions are within the UAE. But let’s be very honest, a lot of the consumption does flow into export business into other Gulf countries.

But in Saudi what is interesting is it is a captive market, for PCs, for IT – that is a 3 million PC per year market. And then there is wealth, there is consumption, there is demand, so you cannot not be there.”

Dotmena to represent Glam Media in the MENA region Dubai. As a part of its expansion, Mediaquest Corp.’s dotmena network is representing online female vertical network Glam Media in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Glam Media is built on a growing portfolio of 2,500 influential publishers, assisting brands to leverage leading voices with a social following in key women’s verticals: style, beauty, family, entertainment, and living.

“This agreement is our first step into the Middle East and represents a tremendous opportunity to help brands engage with targeted consumer audiences in this vibrant market,” says Ernie Cicogna, Glam Media’s executive vice-president and general manager of Glam Media International.

“We’ve partnered with dotmena for its strong online media expertise and ability to reach women in this significant market.”

“We are very pleased with our partnership with Glam Media and believe it will generate great growth for each party and add value to our existing and prospective clients,” says Alexandre Hawari, co-CEO of Mediaquest Corp. (Communicate’s parent company).

VERY BRIEFS Ketchum’s Nissan account director James Thomas moves to Arabian Automobiles Venture Communications ties up with Dimension N Dubizzle launches mobile platform Martha Stewart promotes her regional titles Sport360, liveworkexplore and Fatafeat apply for BPA audit Malcom Wall ADM’s new CEO / ADM appoints Malcolm Wall as CEO Burda Style Arabia launches in Middle East Active PR launches pitch competition for start-ups Total Communications marks 20 years of PR service Sky News Arabia launches online careers portal Zed Communications opens full service office in Kuwait ExpatWoman.com to launch in Oman and Kuwait soon Rufus Leonard wins Piper carbonated drinks account

Go to our Web site for the full stories: www.communicate.ae www.communicatelevant.com.lb or follow us on Twitter @communicatelvt

Our bad Dubai. In the recently published Communicate Power List, we sourced and published a picture of Fahad Alsukait, CEO of Rotana Holding, who ranks 36 on the list. Unfortunately, we published a picture of the wrong man. The correct picture is shown, right. We regret the error.

Communicate Levant I 15

JULY/AUG 2011 | INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Duke Nukem developer dumps PR agency over Tweet PR agency Redner Group lost its largest client on June 15, following one of those familiar Tweet blunders that begs the question: How does this keep happening?

In this case, the blunder was a public declaration denouncing negative reviews of client 2K’s Duke Nukem Forever game. The now-deleted Tweet from @TheRednerGroup was captured

by Wired in a screenshot. It read: “Too many went too far with their reviews. We r reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom.”

James Redner, who had worked with the company since 2009 on various projects, and who had most recently handled media relations for the launch of Duke Nukem Forever, has apologized for his actions numerous times on Twitter. He says, “I used a public forum to voice my complaints and I know better. I poured my soul  I DIGITAL WPP’s Group M aims to turn off ad dollars for pirate sites Group M, WPP’s global ad-buying unit, is adding a new policy that no advertising dollars can flow to a list of banned sites that contain pirated movies, TV or music.

“Great content fuels the Web, and if that is being illicitly distributed, we feel it’s a problem for the long term,” says Group M Interaction chief operating officer John Montgomery.

As part of the new policy, Group M is banning 2,221 sites where pirated content has been spotted recently, such as watch-tv-showsonline.net, torrentbaby.com and downloadmegasite.com.

How will Group M determine who’s on the no-buy list? It is using a host of technology vendors to seek them out, but it is also cross-checking its list with lists compiled by some of its major advertisers that happen to be media companies, such as Time Warner, Paramount, Universal Music and Summit Entertainment, producer of the Twilight series.

“We have a number of clients in the content-producing area,” Montgomery says. “We felt it was time to address it and we have the technology in place to do it now.”

16 I Communicate Levant

into the project and when I read the review I felt like a father trying to protect his son. In hindsight, I should have approached the writer directly.”

His Tweet generated additional Tweets, the first of which, he says, were mostly positive and Redner

says he immediately e-mailed 2K, which told him: “This needs to be squashed immediately.” He adds that he proactively contacted media to discuss the incident and apologize.

In some cases, that alerted them to his error. Wired then spread the story.

Group M handles an estimated $76 billion in ad spending from blue-chip marketers like AT&T and Unilever through subsidiary agencies MediaCom, MEC, Mindshare and Maxus, including $6 billion in digital spending. The new terms are being added to all of Group M’s standard ad agreements, meaning they apply to all buys, whether directly through a publisher or through middlemen such as networks and exchanges.

thousands of multicolored balls bouncing through the hilly streets of San Francisco.

The spot, which will be distributed online with the hope it will go viral, was created by London integrated agency Crayon and promises “Wimbledon as you’ve never seen it before. Wimbledon finals weekend brought to you in glorious 3D.”

Sony’s “Balls” commercial comes back with a twist

Pakistan’s image hits positive note thanks to Coke Studio Pakistan has been in the news a lot lately, but the coverage hasn’t exactly been flattering. And that helps explain why Coke Studio, now in its fourth season, is a runaway success.

The TV series, which features live musical performances, shines a positive spotlight on a country that is all too used to being synonymous with terrorism, Islamic militants and, of course, Osama bin Laden’s hideout.

Coke Studio is attracting viewers in droves and has become a key element of Coca-Cola’s strategy to not only net the youth population in Pakistan, but to grab a share from PepsiCo, the market leader in the country.

“Living in Pakistan and being Pakistani, there’s very little positive news coming out about us, especially

Sony has revived its famous “Balls” commercial with a new-look version – and a different ad agency – to celebrate the start of the Wimbledon tennis fortnight and promote Sony’s 3D TV coverage of the final weekend of the tournament.

The spot shows thousands of green tennis balls bouncing through Wimbledon’s peaceful, leafy suburban streets, in scenes reminiscent of Fallon, London’s 2005 spot for the Sony Bravia TV, which showed

 I TELEVISION

Quickly following the media storm, 2K issued a statement: “2K Games does not endorse or condone the comments made by @TheRednerGroup and confirm they no longer represent our products. We maintain a mutually respectful relationship with the press and will continue to do so. We don’t condone @TheRednerGroup’s actions at all.”

When asked whether his oneman, Santa Monica, California-based agency can survive without its largest piece of business, Redner says, “We plan to sit down and re-evaluate where we are, what our goals are and where we think we can thrive.

In one form or another, [the firm] will survive.”

Despite the “emotional” loss, he says, “If I was in 2K’s shoes I would have done the same thing.

That is not how 2K handles their reviews process.” in the Western media,” says Rohail Hyatt, the producer of Coke Studio.

“I’m very intrigued by the response we’re getting outside of Pakistan, the massive amount of feedback coming from all parts of the world.

[Coke Studio represents] a great, softer image of Pakistan that’s going out there and people are happy about it. ... We’re hungry for it.”

Coke Studio fuses traditional artists and regionally inspired music with more modern artists and influences. Performances have featured more than half a dozen languages, says Aaminah Saeed, Coca-Cola’s marketing manager in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Thanks to creative media buys, the program is reaching huge swaths of the country. Other countries are now expressing interest in the program as well.

Executives say Coke Studio has already helped Coca-Cola make inroads in Pakistan. According to Coca-Cola, it controls 30 percent of the market, less than half of PepsiCo’s share.

© Getty Images

JULY/AUG 2011 | OPINION

The Communiquestion

Don’t say the words

We ask the industry: What phrase would you ban from meetings?

TOUFIC H. TRABOULSI Founder, Independent Productions “Budget won’t allow.”

ADIB BASBOUS Co-founder, Nineteen84 “Consider it done.”

MOUNA AJAM Regional PR manager, Mindshare MENA It is not really a phrase, but I would love to ban Power Point presentations from meetings. Everybody now has some PowerPoint slides with fancy 3D effects and great color combinations, but nothing behind it.

People get bored after the third slide and start playing with their BlackBerry phones. Some presenters even get obsessed with the design and forget about the idea.

RACHAD AZAR, TV producer, Promoseven “No budget.”

MARC DFOUNI CEO/managing partner, Eastline Marketing “Ya, I know.” Everybody knows everything in this part of the world, yet no one really knows why.

OMAR SADEK Head of content, Impact BBDO “Inshallah.”

DIANA MAATOUK Head of communications, VIP Films As long as it doesn’t beat around the bush, any phrase passes this test.

18 I Communicate Levant

CAROL ISABELLA HANNA, Director, People & Culture – Levant, Leo Burnett “But” or “We cannot” or “That’s impossible” or “The process…” Any line that is said without thinking twice to find a solution… And also “Best regards” (so impersonal and corporate).

REVA BERBARI Client servicing director, Cleartag I would ban meetings in general, because the word “meeting,” that should be about communication, has become almost meaningless these days, where you find yourself attending a gathering just to listen, without being listened to. However, the sentence that I hate hearing during a meeting is mainly: “I will check and get back to you.”

ANTOUN ABOUZEID Co-founder and general manager, Makhsoom.com It would be “ASAP”; I’d rather get fixed dates.

ADVERTORIAL | JULY/AUG 2011

Communicontest

Find a great mobile app idea and win a Nokia Smartphone

I

n partnership with Communicate Levant, Nokia Levant is launching a competition across the summer.

In line with its work on a “developers’ ecosystem” which aims at bringing together whoever might be involved in creating, developing and promoting mobile applications in the Levant region (see “Getting app-ier”, Communicate Levant, June 2011, page 24), Nokia is inviting our readers to pitch in.

What to do?

The idea is simple: participants to the contest submit ideas for a mobile app to: nokia.levant@nokia.com The idea must be creative, original and practical.

Just explain what it is and what would make it special in a few words, design or graphic.

Deadline for submission is July 28, 2011.

Winners will be announced, with explained details on how and why they were selected, in the September issue of Communicate Levant.

Who can participate?

Everybody: • Students with a fresh idea they would like to use themselves.

• Developers who wish to go into this field and see a need for their idea.

• Marketers who aim to promote their brand in a fun, innovative and modern way.

Advertisers who want to introduce new ways • to communicate to their customers.

• Users who are simply interested in seeing good apps developed in Lebanon.

What to win?

Three prizes – all new Smartphones from Nokia – are up for grabs: • • •

The Nokia E7 The New Nokia X7 The New Nokia E6

See you in September and in the meantime, put on your thinking caps and join the competition.

Communicate Levant I 17

JULY/AUG 2011 | COVER STORY

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COVER STORY | JULY/AUG 2011

Signs of chaos?

Lebanon's outdoor advertising industry is going from bad to worse by Ibrahim Nehme

I

n a year’s time, the Lebanese outdoor advertising industry has gone even more haywire than usual.

“Chaotic,” “Unbearable,” “Messy,” “An eyesore,” “Out of control;” these are some of the terms with which the industry has become synonymous.

The Syndicate of Outdoor Advertising Companies in Lebanon (SOACL) launched in June 2010 with the hope of cleaning up the mess and organizing the industry. A year later, chaos is prevailing. In fact, the syndicate’s creation unwillingly widened the gap between the industry’s various players, and a heated debate has been ignited about how the future of Lebanon’s outdoor should look, and who should be responsible for taking it there.

Worse, the issuance of a memorandum by the Minister of Interior in May 2011, ordering that law 8861 be applied (this law was issued in 1996 in an attempt to govern and regulate the outdoor advertising industry, but apart from that year when all signs were dismantled without any distinction, its implementation was

discontinued), led to even more panic, instead of instilling some sense of order.

CRISIS IN THE MAKING. For a market estimated at $45 million annually by the International Advertising Association’s Lebanon chapter, there’s a lot at stake. At least five new companies entered the market between 2010 and 2011, and the number of billboards has kept on increasing, with most, if not all of the legal locations (i.e. the ones answering the 1996 law’s requirements in terms of size, location and distance, such as a mandatory distance of 1km between two unipoles, or a mandatory distance of five meters from the street for any sign) taken, especially in the Beirut and Greater Beirut areas. Outdoor companies, therefore, have been installing their signs left, right and center: on bridges, in the middle of the streets, between billboards, on top of existing signs, on street lamps – on whatever empty outdoor space they can.

For years, public authorities had, up until May, allowed for the law to be bypassed, particularly by municipalities who have found the outdoor advertising business to be a major cash cow (especially at a time when the Interior Ministry would not pay them their municipal dues), issuing licenses even for locations deemed illegal by the law itself.

That’s without mentioning the companies that enjoy a political cover in specific areas, which allows them to install their billboards wherever they want, and however they want.

But today, “The situation is bound to explode,” says Ghassan Omeira, president and CEO of outdoor network OMG, referring to last year’s developments, which have culminated in the issuance of the Ministry’s memorandum. The decision, which threatens a vast majority of the existing signs, has sparked a wave of hysteria across the industry. The situation may not have exploded yet, but all the indicators suggest it will.

The memorandum calls for the dismantling of all illegal billboards across Lebanon; the Minister’s

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JULY/AUG 2011 | COVER STORY

plan was divided into three phases: first, remove the billboards from bridges and the middle of the street; second, remove billboards that flout the law regarding size and distance; third, implement the rest of the law.

Industry players, however, are disputing the law’s definition of “legality” and are asking for its amendment, considering the majority of signs deemed illegal according to the law still have an official license from the respective municipalities where installed. In short, how does one know which sign is legal and which is not?

In addition, the 15-year-old law doesn’t account for the developments in technology, such as LED screens.

MAZEN MOUSALLEM. CEO of TreeAd

NAJI BOULOS. President of the International Advertising Association’s Lebanon chapter

22 I Communicate Levant

WHAT’S IN A SCREEN? While some of the outdoor companies – such as RLP and Elephant – don’t seem to hang high hopes on LED technology, many others – such as Pikasso, TreeAd and Primedia – are seeing it as the factor that will lead the industry’s evolution.

Roy Mteini, CEO of Elephant, one of the five major 4x3 companies in the country, says that it takes a lot of courage to venture into the world of expensive LED technology – installing an LED billboard costs anywhere between $100,000 and $2 million – in Lebanon, where an outdoor advertisement is almost free of charge and where the market imposes a very high risk.

“Today, you might have your billboard, tomorrow you might not. The contract is finished, or the municipality wants you out, or the Ministry suddenly decides to implement the law and remove your location,” he says.

But according to Mazen Mousallem, CEO of outdoor supplier TreeAd, it’s only normal for the

OOH market to be following this trend, “considering how everything around us is turning digital.”

Further, for Naji Boulos, the new president of the International Advertising Association’s Lebanon chapter, there’s simply too much business regarding LEDs in Lebanon for the screens to be just a passing trend. With prices of land increasing, along with the cost of renting outdoor space, it has become more commercially viable for outdoor companies to sell the same space to several clients, instead of just one, as is the case with a traditional 4x3 or a unipole.

The nascent phase of this trend, Boulos says, started with the Prisma model, which allowed for selling the space three times or recto/verso to different clients.

The LED allows the opportunity of selling one location to as many as 10 clients on any single day.

According to Patrick Haber, general manager of outdoor supplier Promomedia, the increased demand for outdoor advertising is being met by short supply, so these types of digital screens are a perfect solution for outdoor operators.

“To meet this increase in demand, we are forced to provide solutions that will help us accept more clients on our panels,” he says.

Promomedia has recently installed five scrolling billboards, in addition to replacing five of its premium locations with new digital screens.

The fact these screens are animated lends them higher value, which means an ad on a digital screen costs more than an ad placed on a traditional billboard (an average of $200 versus $60).

SAFETY ISSUES. Indeed, LED screens have witnessed a significant rise in Lebanon; but just as with other types of billboards, many are being operated without any regard for international

COVER STORY | JULY/AUG 2011

standards or public safety, a fact Antonio Vincenti, CEO of outdoor supplier network Pikasso, and president of the SOACL, highly resents, as it will most likely further damage the future of the industry.

“I don’t want what has happened with the classical billboards to happen to the digital billboards,” he says. Vincenti explains that as head of the SOACL, he has sent letters to the Minister of Interior to call for the issuance of a circular that would oblige operators of digital billboards to abide by strict regulations, such as those in the UK and America, ones Pikasso has decided to apply in full.

Mousallem also says that LED screens have explicit rules of application to ensure road safety (screen dimensions, height from the ground, location and angle of installment, animation vs. still, and so on) and that “Failure to abide by these restrictions can result in LED billboards becoming hazardous and a real public danger.”

“Why let people think they’re opening TV channels on the streets?” Vincenti asks, in reference to the companies running TV ads on their LED signs, an act that not only breaches the international LED standards, but also endangers public safety. He says that any LED operator must have a scrolling digital sign, which means ads should be static for at least eight minutes, with no animation whatsoever. “Even illumination should be regulated,” he adds. If it’s too white or too bright, it can blur a driver’s vision at night.

The installation should include sensors that would adjust the screen’s brightness between day and night; in the sun, the billboard should be at its brightest to provide the necessary contrast to allow the billboard to be legible; at night it should be much dimmer to adjust

to surrounding light conditions. Many bad quality LEDs usually have inaccurate sensors, if any.

HARD GATHERING. Vincenti’s lobbying efforts to regulate the LED signs are part of many the syndicate he’s heading is doing to organize the outdoor advertising industry in general. Some of the SOACL’s main objectives are to establish a dialogue among the various players in the market; work on amending the current law 8861 in a way that suits today’s geographic needs, market realities and technological changes; and then submit a draft of the amended law to the Ministry of Interior.

According to Mounir Zaatari, executive director at outdoor supplier Primedia, and SOACL’s treasurer, the syndicate was started because the industry was lacking a body that’s able to speak with the government. “Our mission is to maintain the state of outdoor advertising in Lebanon, while at the same time helping to maintain the environment,” he says, adding that the study is in its final stages and the draft of the amended decree should be presented to the Ministry imminently.

In addition, the syndicate is also working on surveying the market to map out all the outdoor signs across Lebanon (so far, the billboards on the highway from Karantina to Jounieh and inside Beirut have been mapped out); the data will be used internally to help the syndicate in its lobbying effort.

The launch of the SOACL, however, did not seem to resonate well among the outdoor companies that are not part of it. Out of the 52 registered outdoor suppliers operating in Lebanon (and not counting the unofficial ones), 26 are members of the Syndicate, including the 10

ANTONIO VINCENTI. CEO of Pikasso

NASSIF KHOURY GHANEM. Owner of MediaTrade

Communicate Levant I 23

JULY/AUG2011 2011| |COVER COVERSTORY STORY JULY/AUG

UNRULINESS. Billboards are being erected in spite of the law’s requirements, and even after a new memorandum was issued who constitute its Executive Committee. Which doesn’t sit well with the ones who didn’t join the syndicate and claim they weren’t invited to be part of it. “It’s a private club that gathers certain members of the outdoor industry in order to protect their own interests,” says Najah Abi Assi, owner of RLP media, another major 4x3 company. He adds that he wasn’t approached by anyone from the SOACL to invite him to join, and that the syndicate has done a bad job at communicating its motivations and objectives to the rest of the industry.

“Maybe, contrary to appearances, they have good intentions, but no one knows what they’re doing,” he says, citing clause number four in SOACL’s rules and regulations handbook that says that any outdoor company can submit an application to join the syndicate, but it’s up to the Executive Committee’s discretion to decide on whether or not to accept it. This, to him, contradicts the “open to everyone” promise the syndicate’s board is promoting.

Vincenti refutes this notion and says that when the SOACL was formed, announcements were placed in local newspapers to inform the rest of the outdoor companies about it. These announcements were also calls for applications; “The door was open for all of the market players to join,” he says.

However, even OMG’s Omeira, who’s part of the SOACL and is part of its Executive Committee, admits that it did not try to absorb all of the outdoor companies under its roof. “They didn’t make an effort to approach those who didn’t join, to explain to them the direction they’re headed and their objectives, and invite them to become members,” he says.

As a result, Elephant’s Mteini is leading an effort to gather the companies that are not part of the syndicate to form a pressure group.

24 I Communicate Levant

“Some billboard owners felt that they were excluded from the syndicate and that it has not protected their interests in light of the Minister’s last memorandum,” he says. The group is currently holding meetings to exchange ideas and discuss possible directions. The idea, according to Mteini, is to form a group that will negotiate with the syndicate in order to become part of it.

“Now, if the syndicate doesn’t understand our needs, we will have to resort to other options,” he says. These “other options” were still unclear at the time of going to print.

LAW AND ORDER. This dilemma only reflects the state of the industry: It is a flurry of companies of various sizes (some operate big networks across Lebanon, others own a few billboards in certain areas), each with a different point of view on how to fix the industry and move forward. The frenzy that erupted following the Minister’s decision and the debate it sparked regarding whether or not law 8861 should be modified, how it should be modified and who should be responsible for modifying it, shows an industry at sixes and sevens.

Talks about such a governmental decision to control the industry date more than a year back, but no one would have expected this move now.

The SOACL, which, according to its president, was surprised by its timing, immediately issued a statement saying that the syndicate fully backs the Minister’s efforts to organize the industry, expressing its commitment to protecting the industry while maintaining Lebanon’s environment and culture, and reiterating of its main objective to modify the law so that “the clauses in it which have led to its wrong implementation will be removed.”

However, dissent has already emerged, even within the syndicate itself: Nassif Khoury Ghanem, owner of media company MediaTrade and a member of the SOACL, does not approve of the minister’s decision that the very syndicate he belongs to supports.

If the law were really to be implemented in full, he says, more than 70 percent of his signs would be dismantled.

“The memorandum will not help in organizing the industry because the power is in the hands of the municipalities, not the Ministry, and the latter doesn’t have the means to quell the former’s unruliness,” he says.

The IAA’s Boulos adds that the memorandum is a short-term fix. “It may help in cleaning up the jungle, but without extracting the roots, the weeds are only going to grow back again,” he says, adding that what the industry needs is a long-term, holistic plan, one that starts by having a body capable of controlling the municipalities.

“If you don’t have a system in place, you’re heading nowhere; the billboards that you remove today will be replaced by new ones in the future,” he says.

Indeed, implementation of the May decision is falling short; only the first stage was implemented, and not fairly across the whole country.

Even where it was indeed enforced, new billboards are already being installed in supposedly illegal locations, such as in the middle of Hamra street (see picture above).

Amid this hodgepodge of opposing views, lack of accurate data and volumes of inaccurate information, the role of the ministry, the intentions of the SOACL and the mafia-like behavior of the municipalities, the future for the outdoor advertising industry in Lebanon seems impossible to predict, hanging mostly on whether or not, how and when the government decides to address the issues, if it ever does.

© Getty Images

JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

The things kids love

Communicate picks over AMRB’s survey to find out which brands are totally with it, man by Sidra Tariq

W

AHMED EL AZIZI. PepsiCo’s marketing vice-president and chief marketing officer

DEEPALI BAMANE. Project director at AMRB

26 I Communicate Levant

hat do women want? This question has been on the minds of men (and women) around the world for decades. But that is so last season. The question on everyone’s lips today, and not only marketers’, is: What do youth want?

To state the obvious (and somewhat cliched), they are the future. So marketers would love to know what is “rad,” “sick” or “swell” these days. The Middle East youth in particular are becoming increasingly attractive to marketers, both in the region and around the world. And brands know how beneficial it is to be on their list of favorites.

International brands, such as KFC, McDonald’s and Pepsi are the most popular among MENA teens, a study conducted in the UAE, Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Egypt reveals. The study, conducted by research company AMRB, is part of a global study by US-based TRU across 40 countries. Both companies are part of Kantar Group, the market research, information and consultancy division of London-based holding company WPP.

For the MENA region, AMRB conducted face-to-face interviews with around 2,000 citizens (as opposed to expats) aged 12 to 19 years in the three countries – about 400 in the UAE, 800 in Saudi Arabia and 800 in Egypt, says Gagan Bhalla, CEO of AMRB. “The idea really was to understand teens, their values, their behavior, brands that they like, teens as consumers, their media habits and so on,” he says.

Part of the research reveals the most popular brands among youth in each country. (See the tables at the end of this article) The brand rating or level of popularity depends on the percentage of respondents who named a particular brand when they were asked to list their five favorites.

“The higher the percentage [a brand has]… means that overall it is more popular,” says Deepali Bamane, project director at AMRB. ON THE TOP. While fast-food outlets KFC and McDonald’s emerge on top among UAE teens, Pepsi reigns in the KSA and Egypt, the research suggests.

DEPARTMENTS | JULY/AUG 2011

In the UAE, 24 percent of respondents ranked KFC and McDonald’s among their five favorite brands. Twenty-seven percent of these were male and 20 percent female. Meanwhile, teens in KSA (36 percent) and Egypt (42 percent) listed Pepsi among their five favorite brands.

“Marketers need to be careful about how they are marketing these products to these teens,” says Bamane. “Yes, they are in love with international brands, but all the brands that are their favorites have kind of tweaked themselves to the local culture, and that is something that teens really love.”

Bhalla agrees: “What has worked for the fast food kind of brands, like Deepali mentioned, is that they have localized their offerings; so their menus, the kind of variety that they offer, is suitable for the local palate as well. This is helping [the brands] gain this level of popularity.”

He elaborates on why he thinks fast-food outlets are on the top of the list, “In terms of [the youth’s] leisure activities, a lot of the time is spent in malls. Obviously if we go to shopping malls there will be these kinds of [food] outlets, and if you are eating [at the mall], you will pretty much end up eating at one of these kind of places.”

Adidas, Nokia and Galaxy also made the cut with a large number of teens in each market rating them among their five favorite brands.

But, surprisingly, Nokia was the only mobile phone brand to make the overall top brands list.

In a region where you see people typing away on BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) and browsing the web on their iPhones, neither made the list. However, the two brands made the top five mobile phone brands owned, in a separate section of the survey, says Bamane.

From the automotive industry, MercedesBenz and Toyota were listed among favorite brands overall.

Some local brands also made the top 10 list, particularly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Dairy food brand Almarai was rated among five favorites by 15 percent of Saudi youth.

And in Egypt, local brand Chipsy followed internationally recognized brands Pepsi and Adidas, with 26 percent of Egyptian youth listing it among their top five. Egyptian beverage and yoghurt company Juhayna also made the list. Nevertheless, most of the brands in the top 10 were international.

Respondents were also asked to list their two favorite brands in terms of categories, which include fast-food outlets, athletic shoes, soft drinks, apparel, chocolates, etcetera. Since the lists will be sold to companies, Communicate only got access to a few.

FRIES WITH THAT. KFC and McDonald’s are the most popular fast-food brands in the three countries, and score the most in UAE and Egypt.

In the UAE, 50 percent of respondents ranked KFC among their two favorite fast-food brands, while 48 percent ranked McDonald’s. How-

CULPABLE DENIMABILITY. Lee is the top jeans brand for UAE teens ever, in KSA, McDonald’s tops the list with 47 percent listing it among their two favorites (KFC follows with 32 percent).

While the highest scoring fast-food outlets in UAE are all international, KSA and Egypt teens have listed local brands as their favorites too. Brands such as Herfy, Al Baik and Al Tazaj are also very popular in Saudi Arabia with 18 percent, 17 percent and 16 percent of the respondents respectively listing them among their two favorite fast-food brands. Meanwhile, Egypt’s Moemen emerges as one of the top two brands for 29 percent of Egyptian teens.

BEST FOOT FORWARD. Adidas appears to be the frontrunner in the athletic shoes category in all three markets. Twenty-four percent in the UAE, 58 percent in KSA and 50 percent in Egypt have rated it among top two athletic shoe brands.

Nike and Puma have come in next for KSA and Egypt teens, but UAE teens have surprisingly put Aldo into the mix. Twenty percent of UAE teens (15 percent males, 26 percent females) ranked Aldo among their top two athletic shoe brands. “That is probably the strength of the brand,” says Bamane. “Although I’m asking [about] athletic shoes, the moment they think of shoes they are thinking of Aldo.”

EVERY DROP COUNTS. Pepsi seems to dominate the soft drinks market in the three countries.

The majority of the respondents (59 percent in the UAE, 62 percent in KSA, and 71 percent in Egypt) say it is among their two favorite

soft drinks brands. Coca-Cola, although still a popular brand in the region, comes second in the list and ranks in the top two for only 33 percent of Emirati teens, 26 percent of Saudi teens and 28 percent of Egyptian teens. Mirinda and 7Up are also high on the list, particularly in the UAE and Saudi. And, once again, international brands get the highest ranking, but local brands Rabea and Bison make it on the Saudi list, while Juhayna makes it on the Egyptian list right after Coca-Cola and with only a 1 percent difference.

“Pepsi is a youthful brand,” says Ahmed El Azizi, PepsiCo’s marketing vice-president and chief marketing officer. “If you look at how Pepsi is, from a spirit perspective, from a communication perspective, it’s always been the voice of the youth. If you look at all the campaigns in the past – Generation Next, the Voice of the New Generation – you will always see that Pepsi is aimed towards late-teens, early college students, you know. So you are talking about 18-, 19-, 20-, 21-year-olds, those people entering the college years. Finished their highschools, not started to work yet, that is really what Pepsi is about. People who are about to really want to be heard, to give their side, their look on life, and Pepsi has always had that youthful spirit and will always continue to have that youthful spirit. Of course it’s drunk by much older people as well, but when we talk it’s all about that youth.”

ALL IN THE JEANS. Lee is the most popular brand in the UAE when it comes to jeans, as the highest proportion (18 percent) of respondents listed

Communicate Levant I 27

© Getty/Gallo Images

JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

SOLE SEARCHING. Adidas is the top sports shoe brand in all three countries it among their two favorite jeans brands. While Zara and Levi’s come next in the UAE market, with 11 percent and 9 percent, respectively, Zara is the most popular jeans brand among youth in KSA, and Levi’s in Egypt.

The study also looked at teens’ attitudes toward brands and products by measuring their level of agreement with certain statements. Twenty-five percent of UAE respondents strongly agreed that they preferred designer labels over store-branded merchandise, while only 16 percent in KSA and 11 percent in Egypt agreed. And when it comes to actions, 29 percent in the UAE strongly agreed that “I will always buy at least one outfit of the latest fashion in clothing,” 21 percent in Saudi and 17 percent in Egypt. Meanwhile, 29 percent of UAE youth denied any interest in fashion magazines or attention to trends, as did 21 percent of Saudis and 30 percent of Egyptian teens.

Bamane says females were more passionate about fashion, beauty products and accessories such as handbags, while males were more driven toward technology/electronics and sports. “Probably [that’s because of] the way they have been brought up as children. Given the cultural disparities, or the gender disparities in the region, it is bound to happen.”

When marketers think of the MENA region, they often think of the region as a whole. And often, marketing and advertising in one country spills over to another.

Bhalla says that while the countries in the region have many similarities, it is important to look at them as separate blocks. “Within the three countries, the UAE seems to be the most developed market, if you look at it from a marketing point of view…

28 I Communicate Levant

in terms of their access to global brands, in terms of the retail facilities available here, and also in terms of their spending power. Especially Emirati teens. They have so much money that they really don’t know what to do with it,” he adds. “The Saudi teens don’t have as much as the Emiratis, but they are still fairly well off, and they also like to spend; whereas the Egyptian teen is really struggling, and doesn’t have all that much money – but even then, they are quite open to spending.”

However, it is not enough to know the market or the youth. You also need to know what the youth look for in a brand to be able to connect with them.“Quality and dependability are must-haves.

That is something which everyone says I would want in a brand,” says Bamane. “Moreover, they are looking for fun and innovation – specifically the UAE teen; the KSA teen is more driven by technology as well.” She adds that brands also need to engage the youth – be it through traditional means or social media.

According to a report by AMRB, “MENA teens love brands that enhance their style statement, give them a perfect identity and differentiate them from the rest… UAE teens’ favorite brand choices depict their lifestyle – young, iconic, global/western, premium, fashionable, sporty, cutting-edge technology, gizmos, racy, fast-food. An international curriculum-driven education and western media could also be influencing their choices. They look for brands which are innovative, exciting and well designed.”

“For KSA and Egyptian teens, the sense of involvement with their favorite brands is a lot higher because these brands depict their internal aspirations – bolder, fun, enjoy with lesser restrictions than

at present and live a better lifestyle than current.

They look for good quality and innovativeness in the brands,” the report adds.

Bamane reiterates that teens in Egypt don’t have much spending power, but says their “optimism” to spend it is the highest among the youth in all three countries. “They probably do not have the money as of now, or the opportunities, but sooner or later they are sure when they get it, they are going to grab it as it comes.”

Bhalla adds that it is important to remember that teens in this region aren’t very different from teens in the rest of the world. “They aspire to have the same kinds of gadgets or own the same kinds of brands, or do the same things that teens anywhere in the world might want to do.”

“But there is also the reality that they are living in a culture which is much more traditional, more conservative and so on,” he says. “Somewhere they are looking for this balance between their global aspirations and their local identity; and brands that can help them find that balance, are what they are really looking out for.

“There is a term that we have used, called “brand bridge,” which basically means global brands cannot come into developing markets as conquering heroes,” says Bhalla.

“They need to come in, they need to understand the local culture and local sensitivities and adapt themselves to those markets, and only then will they find acceptance with the local population. And that is what some of these [popular] brands have been able to do. They have been able to bridge their Western backgrounds, their Western origins, and build bridges with the local culture and the local sensitivities. That is really important.”

JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

What five brands are your favorites right now?

(Write in five brands in order of preference)

Favourite Brands: Overall UAE TEENS

What are your two favorite brands of athletic shoes?

(Write in two brands)

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

KFC MCDONALD’S ADIDAS PEPSI NOKIA GALAXY MERCEDES-BENZ COCA-COLA ALDO CALVIN KLEIN

401 24% 24% 21% 18% 17% 13% 11% 9% 8% 8%

204 27% 27% 31% 19% 17% 12% 13% 10% 6% 9%

197 20% 20% 10% 17% 18% 13% 9% 8% 11% 7%

KSA TEENS

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

800 36% 30% 23% 17% 15% 15% 14% 12% 12% 12%

403 38% 39% 20% 25% 13% 15% 23% 20% 12% 15%

397 34% 20% 25% 9% 16% 16% 5% 4% 12% 9%

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

814 42% 38% 26% 26% 23% 16% 16% 13% 12% 10%

404 41% 52% 21% 36% 18% 10% 23% 13% 11% 12%

410 44% 24% 32% 16% 28% 21% 9% 12% 13% 8%

PEPSI NOKIA GALAXY SONY ALMARAI MCDONALD’S TOYOTA ADIDAS COCA-COLA KFC

EGYPT TEENS PEPSI ADIDAS CHIPSY NIKE COCA-COLA CADBURY PUMA JUHAYNA KFC NOKIA

BASE: All respondents UAE (401), KSA (800), Egypt (814) All figures are in % of respondents who included the brand

Brands: Athletic shoes UAE TEENS ADIDAS ALDO SHOE MART NIKE BATA

KSA TEENS ADIDAS NIKE PUMA LOTTO REEBOK

EGYPT TEENS ADIDAS NIKE PUMA BATA

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

401 24% 20% 12% 11% 6%

204 37% 15% 10% 14% 7%

197 11% 26% 15% 8% 4%

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

800 58% 30% 30% 4% 4%

402 64% 30% 35% 6% 6%

468 57% 30% 27% 4% 4%

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

814 50% 34% 15% 2%

404 63% 46% 17% 3%

410 38% 23% 12% 2%

BASE: All respondents UAE (401), KSA (800), Egypt (814) All figures are in % of respondents who included the brand

What are your two favorite brands of jeans?

(Write in two brands)

Brands: Jeans UAE TEENS

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

LEE ZARA JEANS LEVI'S DIESEL CALVIN KLEIN / CK

401 18% 11% 9% 8% 7%

204 22% 3% 12% 9% 8%

197 14% 19% 6% 7% 6%

KSA TEENS

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

800 12% 9% 9% 8% 7% 7%

402 5% 10% 12% 8% 2% 9%

468 12% 9% 10% 8% 7% 6%

EGYPT TEENS

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

LEVI'S DIESEL CONCRETE DOLCE & GABBANA

814 10% 7% 6% 4%

404 15% 9% 8% 6%

410 5% 5% 4% 2%

ZARA GIORDANO LEVI'S DES ILES BERSHKA LEE

BASE: All respondents UAE (401), KSA (800), Egypt (814) All figures are in % of respondents who included the brand

30 I Communicate Levant

DEPARTMENTS | JULY/AUG 2011

w

What are your two favorite brands of soft drinks?

(Write in two brands)

Brands: Soft Drinks UAE TEENS

Which two fast-food restaurants do you visit most often?

(Write in two fast-food restaurants)

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

PEPSI COCA-COLA 7UP MIRINDA MOUNTAIN DEW FANTA RED BULL

401 59% 33% 27% 16% 14% 9% 6%

204 60% 36% 26% 12% 16% 5% 11%

197 58% 30% 27% 20% 12% 13% 2%

KSA TEENS

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

800 62% 26% 14% 10% 9% 8%

402 64% 27% 15% 10% 5% 12%

468 64% 24% 14% 10% 10% 10%

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

814 71% 28% 27% 10% 9% 8%

404 73% 23% 27% 11% 9% 10%

410 70% 33% 27% 8% 10% 6%

PEPSI COCA-COLA MIRINDA 7 UP RABEA BISON

EGYPT TEENS PEPSI COCA-COLA JUHAYNA MIRINDA FANTA UP

Base: All respondents UAE (401), KSA (800), Egypt (814) All figures are in % of respondents who included the brand

Brands: Fast food UAE TEENS

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

KFC MCDONALD'S PIZZA HUT HARDEE'S BURGER KING

401 50% 48% 33% 22% 16%

204 49% 51% 34% 24% 17%

197 52% 45% 31% 20% 16%

KSA TEENS

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

MCDONALD'S KFC HARDEE'S HERFY AL BAIK AL TAZAJ BURGER KING

800 47% 32% 18% 18% 17% 12% 12%

402 41% 35% 22% 17% 23% 18% 12%

468 47% 33% 19% 18% 16% 12% 10%

TOTAL

MALES

FEMALES

814 36% 29% 15% 10%

404 34% 30% 15% 10%

410 37% 28% 14% 10%

EGYPT TEENS KFC MOEMEN MCDONALD'S PIZZA HUT

Base: All respondents UAE (401), KSA (800), Egypt (814) All figures are in % of respondents who included the brand

ATTITUDES TO BRANDS AND PRODUCTS: % OF TEENS WHO STRONGLY AGREE

Now I will read out a list of statements that people like you have said about brands and products, that they buy or want to buy. Can you please take a look at this card and for each statement indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each statement. There is no right or wrong answer. We only want to know your opinion on these statements.

I prefer to buy designer labels rather than store branded merchandise

Egypt KSA UAE

11% 16% 25%

I never read fashion magazines or pay attention to fashion trends

Egypt KSA UAE

30% 21% 22%

Egypt KSA UAE

17% 21% 29%

Egypt KSA UAE

10% 18% 24%

I am the first to try new fashion, therefore many people regard me as a fashion paceseller

Base: All respondents UAE (401), KSA (800), Egypt (814) All Figures are in %

Communicate Levant I 31

JULY/AUG 2011 | MARKETING

Ladies first Communicate learns about marketing to women at GMR’s conference by Sidra Tariq

M

en have become pros at communicating with women – at least as far as stereotypes go.

“No honey. You don’t look fat in that dress.”

“Of course you’re prettier than her.”

“My mother shouldn’t have said that to you.”

But when it comes to communicating with women as consumers, we all know they’ve got some work to do. Marketing to women is not as easy as gifting a box of chocolates or a red rose. You have to give women solid reasons why they should buy your brand, use your service or check out your website – and the way you convince them matters too.

Communicate recently attended our sister publication Gulf Marketing Review’s (GMR) Fifth Annual Marketing to Women (M2W) conference, and we learned a thing or two about women in the Middle East. For example, 61 percent of Arab women buy impulsively (according to a study presented by Richard Woodward, business director, Ogilvy Action). And freedom is a key reason they are online (as Hussein

32 I Communicate Levant

Freijeh, commercial director, Yahoo Middle East, suggests).

One of the talks was by Ahmed Nassef, vice-president and managing director of Yahoo Middle East.

He discussed results of a study of 1,500 Arab women, as part of global research.

To achieve marketing effectiveness, it is important to “figure out the fundamental needs of female consumers online, how they meet [these needs], and which channels they use to meet those specific needs,” says Nassef.

He says that some needs are more prevalent among Middle Eastern women than others: self awareness, care of self, professional advancement, balanced lifestyle, financial success, for example. Others come further down in the list, such as pushing the limits, love and attraction, and empathy and compassion.

The study also looked at the most important needs according to life stages.

Some findings were no-brainers. For instance, professional advancement is more important for younger and working women than older and stay-

at-home women. And older women lean toward a more balanced lifestyle than younger ones.

Some findings seemed intuitive, and some were surprising. The need for healing and repairing is higher among working women than those that stay at home. However, the need for financial success is more or less the same for both categories. Care of self is a more prevalent need among stay-at-home women than working women.

And while women without children had a greater desire for professional advancement, their need for care of self was less than those who had children.

More surprisingly, the need of care for others was slightly higher among women without children than those with.

Country-wise, women in the UAE are more on the lookout for financial success than women in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Meanwhile, those in Egypt have a larger need for mutual sharing and improvement and validation.

According to Nassef, women look to different channels to cater to different needs. E-mail and social networking sites fulfill all the 15 needs

the survey looked at, he says, while women’s lifestyle websites cater to all but love and attraction, and pushing the limits. Review sites, on the other hand, only satisfy needs such as care for others, being in the know and pushing limits. “People get into these review sites because they are looking for very specific things and want very specific information, so it is about knowledge and being in the know,” he says. Meanwhile, blogging is sought for mutual sharing, healing and repairing and broadening horizons.

He adds that women are more open to advertising in content platforms such as special interest and women’s lifestyle websites, than on social networking sites or e-mail, because in the latter they are more focused on what they are doing.

“Women are not complicated,” Nassef adds. “But from a marketer’s standpoint you need to understand needs, channels and then create a matrix that changes the type of engagement, the type of messaging depending on which property and which consumer you are going to get.”

JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

Q&A

Power play

Guy Murphy, worldwide planning director at JWT, explains the inner workings of its new Brand Toys tool

by Nathalie Bontems What is Brand Toys?

Brand Toys is the world’s first brand visualization tool. It represents the personality of brands and the online buzz about brands, in the form of a toy [available online at www.brandtoys.com]. The software takes information from Millward Brown’s BrandZ consumer research about brands, and data from Social Mention’s online buzz measurement, and represents that data as toys of different shapes and styles. Users can look at and compare more than 3,000 brands from all over the world. It is a new service for the marketing and advertising industry that allows for a more creative, natural and visual understanding of brands. The site reveals at a glance how consumers understand and feel about brands. Users can make quick comparisons between different brands or see how one performs in different countries. What would Google’s Brand Toy look like? How would Nokia’s or Facebook’s toy characters differ? How would HSBC fare in China versus the US? Brand Toys provides these answers lightning-fast, in a creative and uniquely playful way.

How did this tool come about?

The creation of Brand Toys is based on the premise that brands are in danger of becoming less interesting to consumers as their experience with those brands grows. Brand builders must therefore remember to keep their discipline creative and playful, and that brands should be treated as objects of entertainment and engagement, rather than scrutiny and conservatism.

The world of marketing and advertising needs to see brands as creative and imaginative things that people

34 I Communicate Levant

enjoy having in their lives. The problem is brands are becoming over-analysed, over-researched, and deconstructed into boring models and unhelpful systems… Brand visions and missions and essences…

And pyramids and onions. They are squeezing the life out of how brands need to be seen, and are out of touch with how people perceive them; as being full of personality and character, not as a series of numbers or complex mechanisms. The world’s growing experience with brands is leading to a global indifference to them. When brands are new to a country they are exciting, interesting, even symbols of economic prosperity. However, as brands mature in a market, they can lose their shine and consumers wish to invest their time elsewhere.

Who is Brand Toys targeting?

The audience for this service is all of those people responsible for brand management: clients, agencies, consultants even. It will bring a more creative and imaginative perspective to their conversation about brands.

People can even create their own Brand Toy. The toys can be shared across social media as links, printed out for presentations, and can even be printed out in 3D so people can have the model toys sent to their office.

What information does the background of the toy provide?

JWT has a vast number of clients, the majority of which have the sun above them on Brand Toys. This would represent a positive social media response

to the brand that day. The joy of social media is that brands can experience negative chatter one day and positive the next.

How does the site update data on brands?

The data used is taken from BrandZ, a global brand equity study based on the BrandDynamics framework.

The study has been conducted every year since 1998, and has interviewed over a million consumers globally about thousands of global “consumer facing” and business-to-business brands. The site includes the latest data supplied by BrandZ as of the beginning of the year (BrandZ collates data throughout the year to process and release in key stages later in the year).

The website states that Brand Toys covers more than 3,000 brands around the world. Will this be increased?

The number of toys is dictated by the number of brands covered by BrandZ. As more brands are added, the number will increase. If you would like to add a brand to the database, contact Peter Walsh at Millward Brown.

What is the reaction to this new tool so far?

Brandtoys.com only launched in May, so it is too early to assess results. That said, it is encouraging that at present the average dwell time on the site is 10 minutes, and 10,000 independent users registered within the first week. It is worth noting that Brand Toys – before it was publicly launched – won the APG Battle of Big Thinking Awards for two years running. This suggests it can have a significant effect on some very opinion-forming people in the advertising industry.

JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

Guest Opinion

A guide for the new Middle East

Marcel Stephan, independent business consultant, and Raphaël Butruille, partner at consulting firm Vertone MENA, say their marketing-inspired transformation program for citizen-centricity could contribute to guiding fledgling democracies in the region

T

hey make the headlines every day. Regimes are being perceived unfavorably, and citizen raw emotion craves anything new or different, even if it involves uncertainty. Traditional regime advisories have been unsuccessful in anticipating the recent Arab citizen uprising – it is not just about breadand-butter/jobs; it is about citizen self-actualization, dignity and freedom. The response so far has been tactical and largely unsuccessful. Most regimes are addressing this Arab unrest in a suboptimal manner: security crack-down, dish-out of money, or no reaction at all. However, this will eventually lead regimes to the dead zone characterized by lack of citizen satisfaction, low physical and emotional fulfilment, economic throttling, and possibly further unrest.

Guidance is required as the new face of the Middle East emerges. We should welcome strategic thinking and different perspectives. Therefore, we believe that governments should prioritize their main stakeholders (citizens) and cater their efforts accordingly. We recommend a marketinginspired citizen-centricity transformation program to guide infant democracies, and serve as a role model for others.

Our key assumption is that governments should demonstrate citizen-centricity by striving for enhancements in interactions/delivery between the public institutions and citizens – serving as input towards a broader national strategy. In return, just as customers develop commitment, loyalty and affiliation to brands, citizens are able to become advocates of their elected governments. In its basic form, this methodology has certain limitations, but it is useful for stirring an exciting debate among marketing and public-sector professionals. Hence, we have created a framework based on marketing-driven tools to address citizen requirements.

CITIZEN INSIGHT. Citizens, like customers, need to be better understood by their government. There are two main citizen insight levers: Needs assessment: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a basis for understanding citizens’ motives for action. The most basic level of needs must be met before the person desires a higher degree of needs. As people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly emotional and social. Inherently, citizens yearn to reach self-actualization; therefore mindful governments should help their citizens on this journey.

Segmentation: Citizens are not homogeneous, so segmentation into clusters is crucial for understanding citizens’ needs and motivations. This is realized by population research, identifying similar groups of

36 I Communicate Levant

citizens and determining dimensions, identifying target groups, and formulating specific action plans.

Governments, in the same way as businesses, can benefit from citizen insights to understand different citizens needs; leverage relevant, quantifiable and qualitative data; recognize evolution of needs and trends; identify priorities and diverse needs; optimize resources and realize the most impact for investment; better understand differing tribes, ethnicities, sects, ages, genders; and develop programs and services to meet citizens’ needs and desires.

BRAND EXPERIENCE. Citizens, like customers, have emotional and physical expectations to be fulfilled by their governments. When these are realized, then acceptance, relationship and positive perception flourish. There are three main brand experience levers: Branding: Governments should convey regime identity and values, to build citizens’ adhesion, commitment and loyalty. Product and service delivery: Governments should ensure citizen satisfaction through government services and citizen relationship management to improve services (e.g. health care system, education, tax return, public subsidies, etcetera). Touch points: Each citizen is supposed to have a consistently pleasing experience with daily interaction with entities/channels representing the government (e.g. security services, civil servants, websites, etcetera).

Governments, like businesses, can also benefit from brand experience to credibly instill pride, patriotism and devotion among citizens and deliver distinctive citizen experience; make citizens feel that

the government is dedicated to their wellbeing and demonstrate that taxes are fairly used; mold citizen perception, and possibly alleviate concerns about corruption and lack of transparency.

MARKETING-DRIVEN ORGANIZATION. Citizens, like customers, want to realize a cultural fabric that suggests they are at the heart of government thinking and behavior. They want to realize interaction with citizen-centric fundamentals (processes, organization, tools and systems, knowledge and skills, culture).

Moreover, citizens would be happy to recognize internal and external performance indicator measurement and corrective measures.

Governments, like businesses, can also benefit from a marketing-driven organization to respond quickly to changes in citizens’ demand; leverage benchmarks and indicators to measure efficiency and performance; ensure flexibility for efficient citizencentric decision-making; and create accountability by communicating the results.

In conclusion, governments can pinpoint their most important stakeholders (citizens) and gain insights by leveraging a marketing-inspired citizen-centricity transformation program within a holistic framework.

This will be reinforced by a cultural program to ensure each person within the regime has the “citizen-centric” mindset and behavior. This is a medium to long-term approach, but it may also help identify immediate quick-win initiatives. This may potentially serve as input toward governmental roadmaps, and ultimately contribute to political stability, economic performance, citizen wellbeing and satisfaction.

JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

Blogosphere L

ebanon’s blogosphere is probably one of the most vibrant digital scenes in the region. Lebanese bloggers are many, dedicated, and very, very outspoken.

Agencies are now turning to social media and online communities, listening intently to this direct feedback on how they are perceived. Here is what increasingly influential Lebanese bloggers – inside and outside our borders – have to say about local work and news.

THEY’RE LISTENING, AND WATCHING. Apart from the ban on Lady Gaga’s latest album (which Lebanese authorities finally lifted) that stirred a frenzy in the Lebanese blogosphere, and the difficult birth of the new government that spurred the usual political discussions, it seems our blogger friends are back to business as usual in terms of marketing talks. No major campaign or action engaged them, but routine is apparently taking shape, with brands finally reaching out on a low-key but regular basis.

38 I Communicate Levant

The second Arab Social Media Report, published by the Dubai School of Government’s Governance and Innovation Program, says Lebanon ranks fifth among the leading Middle East countries on social media use. Karine Jazra details it for those too lazy to run through it all. http://livinleb.wordpress. com/2011/06/15/lebanon-oneof-the-five-leading-countrieson-social-media-in-the-me/

Tarek makes it easy for recruiters to find new talent in Lebanon: the teacher/blogger presents the work of this year’s USEK graduates, also providing all necessary comment. Fresh creativity at its best. http://beirutntsc.blogspot. com/2011/06/rim-el-assalusek-graduate-and-top-of.html

Chantal got “tally-weijlized.” In other words, she shows once again how, when brands are really committed to bloggers, it can turn into a win-win situation. h t t p : / / c h a n t y. o v e r- b l o g. org/article-getting-tallyweijlized-76572602.html

In complete contrast with what happened to Chantal (see left), here is how a brand can hurt itself for free: Mark stands by fellow blogger Ivy, who had blogged on her bad experience with Aishti. Considering the number of people who read Blog Baladi, this is the perfect snowball effect. PS: Don’t miss Mark’s other post on Tanmia Chicken’s last TVC. http://blogbaladi.com/admin/ critiques/aishti-need-to-gettheir-act-together/

Gino started polling his readers some time ago, asking them which mall they preferred. He’s now surveying their tastes in terms of Lebanese TV stations.

Free, unbiased stats are too rare in Lebanon to miss. http://ginosblog.com/2011/06/14/ poll-of-the-week-whats-yourfavorite-lebanese-tv-stationlast-weeks-results/ w

Just in case Lebanese brands might forget (and they usually need reminders in that matter), Mohammad again goes through the basic rules of how to smartly use social media. “Whenever the Lebanese get their hands on a new toy, they become very ‘creative’ and try to abuse that tool until it cannot breathe any more,” he says. Too true. http://moudz.blogspot. com/2011/06/what-lebanesebrands-need-to-know-about.html

DEPARTMENTS | JULY/AUG 2011

Regional Work

Relationships Matter.

Agency: Team Y&R Creative Director: Husen Khan Copywriter: Wilbur D’Costa

Star Cafe.

Client: Ets. Michel Najjar & Fils Product: Star Café Agency: Lowe Pimo Beirut Associate Creative Director: Madona Zeidan Communication Director: Joumana Micaelian Art Director: Maria Hakim Senior Art Director: Rania Barakat Production House: 360 FX Director and DOP: Steve Downer Post Prod: Band. Milano Music: Velocity studios/Philip Khayyat These ads (and more) can be found at adsoftheworld.com

Communicate Levant I 39

JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

Regional Work

(Work produced to mark the visit of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to Jeddah.)

Client: Saudi Oger Ltd / Corporate Communication Agency: Impact BBDO – Riyadh Creative Director: Elei Massarah / Sri Sirnvas

Bridgestone. Making Roads Safer Since 1931.

Advertising Agency: Impact BBDO Dubai, UAE Executive Creative Director: Fouad Abdel Malak Creative Director / Copywriter: Amit Kapoor Associate Creative Director / Art Director: Dinesh Tharippa Post Production: Procolor Singapore Photographers: Corbis Images, Photolibrary These ads (and more) can be found at adsoftheworld.com

40 I Communicate Levant

DEPARTMENTS | JULY/AUG 2011

International Work

Millward Brown Advertising Agency: Young & Rubicam, Brazil CCO: Rui Branquinho Creative Directors: Flávio Casarotti, Sérgio Fonseca Copywriter: Laura Esteves Art Director: Daniel Salles

From Italy to Antalya with love.

Advertising Agency: Publicis Bold, Istanbul, Turkey Creative Director: Sami Basut Art Director: Fatih Gül Copywriter: Ozgür Cayan Photographer: Murat Süyür

Furniture Bazaar: Victorian Week Advertising Agency: Mudra West, Mumbai, India Chief Creative Officer: Bobby Pawar Executive Creative Director: K.B.Vinod Creative Director: Deepak Singh Copywriter: K.B.Vinod Art Director: Kiran Parihar Illustrator: Dilip Mestry

Where Mother Love Meets Speed Limits.

Advertising Agency: Jandl, Bratislava, Slovakia Creative Director: Pavel Fuksa Art Director / Illustrator: Pavel Gajdos Copywriter: Jan Fajnor

These ads (and more) can be found at adsoftheworld.com

Communicate Levant I 41

JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

Drive By One anonymous blogger critiques Beirut’s billboards. All of these examples, and more, can be found at beirutdriveby.com

42 I Communicate Levant

BEIRUT HOT SUMMER NIGHT “I’ll have what she’s having.”

DU LIBAN Beirutspring.com says the French language in Lebanon is fading…

Well, actually he says it’s dying.

According to Beirut NTSC, Al Balad is doing their part to kill it with this ad. N’est-ce pas?

WAIT FOR IT • Fast, affordable Internet.

• Reliable 24/7 electricity without generators.

• Proper waste and water management including an end to illegal dumping by land and sea, illegal quarries and Sidon’s seaside trash dump.

• A government...

THIS IS A TEASING CAMPAIGN? Were you teased? Mildly curious?

Bored? Disappointed? “Teasing” and “Leasing” are almost the same word and that is fascinating, but it didn’t ring the bell on the tease-o-meter. Nice try :)

‘TIL DEATH DO US PART Which could end up being a very long time… Especially if he’s a vampire… Muhahaha [thunder].

BRIDAL PARTY It seems the bride on the left already has the party started.