communciate July/August 2011

The marketing and advertising resource • July/August 2011 • Issue N° 79 • www.communicate.ae The personal touch: Yahoo’s James Tipple on offering something a bit different Page 52

BRANDING Apple on the up We examine Millward Brown’s BrandZ study of the world’s most valuable brands, and find that Apple has pushed Google off the top spot. Amazon beats Walmart, and BRICs are big too. (Page 32)

The next big thing: PHD’s Mike Cooper on predicting the future of media Page 48

Back for more: AMRB’s Aarefa Kukshiwala on customer satisfaction Page 56 and loyalty

TEENAGE KICKS

CREATIVITY Commons sense

We pick through regional teens’ top brands

Non-profit organization Creative Commons says it’s good to share, if everyone knows what they can do with other people’s content.

Could a series of universal licensing ­agreements mean an end to ­complex copyright wrangles?

(Page 26)

ADVERTISING Budding romance Ogilvy Action’s creative director Robin Smith tells Communicate how his agency launched skincare brand Pond’s in the region. It involved flowers, facial analysis, and a whole lot of education on the theme of romance (Page 40)

CAMPAIGN A mug’s game

(Page 58) Registered in Dubai Media City. Cover image: © Corbis

A MediaquestCorp publication 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

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Letter from the editor | JULY/AUG 2011

What we know T his month’s cover story (see page 18) is about the brands kids love. It’s based on findings from research company AMRB, which looked at teenagers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

It finds that fast food, shoes, phones and cars were among the youngsters’ favorites. UAE kids have more money to spend than Saudi children, who have more to spend than Egyptian youngsters. But all are ambitious; all are looking forward to great things.

Also in this month’s magazine we speak to James Tipple, Yahoo’s EMEA vicepresident of marketing, who tells us how Yahoo is building on its research offering, tailoring its content to the region, and different countries within the region (page 52).

Yahoo is taking a hard look at what people want, and giving it to them.

Mike Cooper, the global CEO of Omnicom Group’s media agency PHD, tells us he too is focused on research (page 48).

Social media is becoming more and more of a big deal, but the findings out there can be sketchy, to say the least.

For example, he cites two studies into the value of a Facebook fan to a brand: One found it to be $3.60; the other found it to be $136.38. That’s quite a big difference, and shows that even with research, we may not be able to get the whole picture.

But we still need to keep looking, keep undertaking research and crunching the numbers. It’s then up to us how we interpret them.

For example, in our X-pert Files on page 56, AMRB’s Aarefa Kukshiwala tells us that in many cases that good old measure of customer satisfaction might be the wrong thing to consider.

What we should be looking at instead is customer loyalty, as it’s not how happy a customer is that affects a brand’s bottom line, but how likely they are to become a brand advocate and keep coming back for more.

The right research and the right insights can teach us more about consumers – and can teach us how to better serve their needs.

And they can even tell us what kids these days like to eat and wear on their feet.

Austyn Allison, managing editor editor@communicate.vg

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Contents | July/Aug 2011

Contents

COVER: Youth brands 18

We pick over the findings of AMRB’s study of Arab teens’ favorite brands

SHORTS 6

NEWS 8 10 12

26

Branding. What’s in a name: Apple overtakes Google to become world’s most valuable brand Marketing. Redefining luxury: How the recession has pushed high-end brands toward digital Agencies. Private affairs: Is it time for agencies to appoint chief privacy officers?

DEPARTMENTS 40

Print. New Dubai Metro weekly launches Advertising. Lenovo boss says localization isn’t always necessary for tech brands Public Relations. Duke Nukem manufacturer fires PR company over Tweet We ask the industry: What’s the worst lie you’ve told?

FEATURES

34 36

Just like a woman: Communicate learns a thing or two about female consumers at the GMR Marketing to Women conference

THE COMMUNIQUESTION 14

32

Marketing. Commons denominator: How non-profit Creative Commons hopes to change the way we think about copyright

48 52 56 58 64 66

Portfolio. More than skin deep: Ogilvy Action’s Robin Smith on launching Pond’s in a romantic way Q&A. Sealing fans: PHD’s Mike Cooper on how to measure social media, and what it means Q&A. Adjustable sites: Yahoo’s James Tipple on his brand’s “your Web your way” proposition X-pert Files. Loyal flush: Often, customer satisfaction just isn’t the right marketing measure, says AMRB’s Aarefa Kukshiwala Work. Selections from the regional and international creative scenes Communicruitment. Turn to our jobs section to see who’s hiring The Dish. A goddess of love, a quest for beauty, and a man taking his clothes off

July/Aug 2011 Published by: Medialeader FZ/MediaquestCorp Medialeader, P O Box 72184, Dubai Media City, Al Thuraya Tower 2, Office 2402, Dubai, Tel: (971) 4 391 0760

CO-CEO Alexandre Hawari CO-CEO Julien Hawari Managing Director Ayman Haydar CFO Abdul Rahman Siddiqui creative DIRECTOR Aziz Kamel Head of circulation Haries Raghavan, h.raghavan@mediaquestcorp.com Marketing Manager Maya Kerbage, m.kerbage@mediaquestcorp.com KSA GM Walid Ramadan, walid@ mediaquestcorp.com, Tel: +966 1 4194061 Lebanon GM Nathalie Bontems, nathalie@ mediaquestcorp.com, Tel: +961 1 492801 North Africa GM Adil Abdel Wahab, adel@medialeader.biz, Tel: +213 661 562 660 France Sales Director Manuel Dias,

dias@arabies.com, Tel: +33 1 4766 46 00

Founder Yasser Hawari Managing Director Julien Hawari Group managing editor Siobhan Adams Managing editor Austyn Allison journalist Sidra Tariq Contributor Rania Habib senior sub editor Elizabeth McGlynn ART DIRECTOR Sheela Jeevan ART CONTRIBUTORS Alvin Cha, Aya Farhat External Affairs Manuel Dias, Maguy Panagga, Catherine Dobarro, Randa Khoury, Lila Schoepf, Laurent Bernard 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) 149 2801 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Walid Ramadan, walid@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.communicate.ae

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Paris Gallery outlets across the UAE.

JULY/AUG 2011 | shorts

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

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.”

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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

 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 peoplemeter 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 members 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 Continued on page 10

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JULY/AUG 2011 | Regional news

Lenovo boss says tech is global

Continued from page 8 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 MEDIA

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 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.

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.”

Mindshare meeting explores media scene Amman. Mindshare MENA held its annual management meeting at the Four Seasons hotel in Amman on June 1 and 2. The event aimed to review the performance of the company and lay down the strategic plan for the coming years to ensure clients’ satisfaction and business growth, a press statement reads. A number of external speakers were invited to share their views on topics related to the advertising and media industry.

In May, the agency hosted its Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Media Summit 2011. The event was held to explore, analyze, question, challenge and understand some of the latest global media trends, the fast-changing media landscape and its impact on regional and local media realities, a statement reads.  I Digital 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 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

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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 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.

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.”

 I digital

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.”

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.

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

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Sony’s “Balls” commercial comes back with a twist Sony has revived its famous “Balls” commercial with a new-look version – and a different ad agency – to

7/3/11 2:01 PM

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 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.”  I Television 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 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

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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.

American Medical Association pushes end to Photoshopped body images in ads The American Medical Association voted at its annual meeting last month to support ad-industry policies discouraging altered, unrealistic body images in advertising.

“Advertisers commonly alter photographs to enhance the appearance of models’ bodies, and such alterations can contribute to unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image – especially among impressionable children and adolescents,” the association says.

“A large body of literature links exposure to media-propagated images of unrealistic body image to eating disorders and other child and adolescent health problems.”

The AMA’s policy encourages ad associations to work with public and private health groups to develop guidelines deterring ads Photoshopped beyond reality, especially in publications oriented toward teenagers.

“The appearance of advertisements with extremely altered models can create unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image. In one image, a model’s waist was slimmed so severely, her head appeared to be wider than her waist,” says Barbara McAneny, a member of the AMA board, in a statement. “We must stop exposing impressionable children and teenagers to advertisements portraying models with body types only attainable with the help of photo editing software.”

Two years ago Ralph Lauren acknowledged that one of its ads included an image manipulated to show a woman whose head appeared wider than her pelvis, saying it would take precautions to avoid a repeat.

Jezebel, Gawker Media’s site focusing on women’s issues, flagged the new AMA policy today, calling the notion “great” but saying magazines should apply that policy to their editorial departments too, not just ads.

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© Getty/Gallo Images

JULY/AUG 2011 | OPINION

The Communiquestion

Liar liar

We ask the industry: What is the worst lie you’ve told?

HUBERT BOULOS Head of strategic planning, JWT “This is delicious.” Guess why.

FADI CHAMAT General manager, PHD Abu Dhabi The worst lie I told was to my university professor when I got a really bad grade on my final (because I didn’t really study). I said that my grandmother had died. The sympathy got me a passing grade, but bad remorse.

ZOYA SAKR Editor-in-chief, anaZahra.com I can’t recall any lie. I am too straightforward.

HOMAM ABUSHABAN Senior exchange executive – digital, Mindshare UAE “I’ll make sure to update you once the client gets back to us.” You know it’s not going to happen, but you only need to postpone until he/she realizes the case is hopeless.

YOUSEF TUQAN TUQAN CEO, Flip Media I’m an adman; you should also ask me what the “best” lie I ever told was.

TONY ORSTEN CEO, twofour54 I don’t lie – ever. Although in 1976 I did say I had a key job at the BBC, when in fact I reclaimed audio tapes from rubbish bins at BBC Manchester for AED1.0 per hour.

CHOUCRALLAH ABOU SAMRA Managing director, OMG KSA Hmm, this is a difficult one. The worst lie I have ever told is just about to happen: I have never lied in my entire life.

ROY BARGHOUT Senior manager – exchange, Mindshare UAE “It wasn’t me.” Because it was.

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JULY/AUG 2011 | OPINION

YVETTE MADI Exchange manager – digital, Mindshare UAE When I was young (1998) I used to tell my friends that I’m Italian, referring to the football team I truly cherish.

One black day, they met my elder sister. Apparently the lie was not aligned with the rest of the family. Years after, those people started to refer to me as “the girl who lied she was Italian.” (Embarrassing.)

LIZA MEDD Regional manager, Rufus Leonard Middle East Embellishing a particular sporting talent to a client, only to find out that the prospective client wasn’t short of semi pro.

SUNIL JOHN CEO, Asda’a Burson-Marsteller There’s a big difference between lying and being diplomatic. In this business, we all have to be diplomatic.

MICHEL BORT Client relationship director, Kassab Media When I was in middle school, I convinced a girl that Matt Biondi (American swimmer, Olympian 84-88-92) was my mom’s cousin (my mother is American) and I could get her an autographed picture – all for a kiss.

It actually worked.

Sorry Nathalie, but I don’t regret it. It was a great kiss that set my kissing standards very high.

Thank you.

HERMANN BEHRENS CEO, The Brand Union Middle East “Yes, love, I will be home by 18:30.” Because I just keep doing it.

YVES-MICHEL GABAY General manager, MEC MENA “I don’t remember.” Even if I do.

DAVID PORTER Media director, Unilever MENA “I love you.” To a journalist.

MOUNIR HARFOUCHE CEO, Lowe MENA “That’s a great question.” Do I really need to say why?

MARWAN QUTUB CEO and co-founder, 3Points Advertising None.

GAVIN DICKINSON Executive director of publishing, Abu Dhabi Media I never lie. It hurts people and it always comes back to bite you.

RONALD HOWES Regional managing director, GCC, Memac Ogilvy Lies are for those who are either uninformed, lacking in confidence or just don’t care about what others think.

Those are not qualities we value or tolerate.

DAN CHAPMAN Regional digital director, UM “I’m sure it was attached. No problem, I’ll send it through now with the attachment.” I’m guessing I don’t need to explain this one; it’s not been used in a while, but back when I was on the supplier side it always bought a bit more time.

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The things kids love

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

© Getty/Gallo Images

W

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 faceto-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.

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 cul-

ture, 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, Mercedes- Benz and Toyota were listed among favorite brands overall. Some local brands also made the top 10 list,

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JULY/AUG 2011 | COVER STORY

Sole searching. Adidas is the top sports shoe brand in all three countries 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.

Ahmed El Azizi. PepsiCo’s marketing vice-president and chief marketing officer

Deepali Bamane.

Project director at AMRB

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. However, 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

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JULY/AUG 2011 | COVER STORY

culpable denimability. Lee is the top jeans brand for UAE teens – 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 high-schools, 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 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… 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.”

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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

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COVER STORY | JULY/AUG 2011

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

11% 16% 25%

I never read fashion magazines or pay attention to fashion trends

30% 21% 22%

I always buy at least one outfit of the latest fashion in clothing

17% 21% 29%

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

10% 18% 24%

Egypt

KSA

UAE

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

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© creativecommons.org

JULY/AUG 2011 | MARKETING

Commons people

How one non-profit is trying to boost creativity through a rethink of copyright licenses by Rania Habib

T

Moeed Ahmad. New media department manager at Al Jazeera

Donatella Della Ratta.

Creative Commons’ regional manager

he little copyright symbol, ©, which comes attached to so many books, films, articles, photos, ads, songs, and poems, has become so prevalent it feels omnipresent – almost every piece of work ever created seemst to be guarded by this mark, keeping the creator’s rights under lock and key.

And when things get out of control, copyright lawsuits and disputes make things ugly. With so many rules and regulations protecting content creation and intellectual property, creativity may sometimes be compromised. And while the © era has lasted many lifetimes, a team of people based out of San Francisco (and spreading throughout the world) is working to end it.

Founded in 2001, Creative Commons is a US-based non-profit organization that generates copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works, in a bid to build a richer public domain by providing an alternative to the “all rights reserved” model.

Currently headed by Joi Ito, chairman of the board and CEO of Creative Commons, the organization is devoted to expanding the range of creative works available to others to build upon legally and share. While the model has expanded worldwide, it’s only beginning to make waves

in the Arab world – driven in part by Ito’s move to Dubai in 2008.

Mahmoud Abu-Wardeh, a volunteer with the Creative Commons UAE chapter (he and Stephanie Terroir make up the UAE team), says Ito’s move signals the importance of the region for the Creative Commons team.

“Having Joi based in Dubai is giving him a lot of access to the region and an understanding of some of the specific issues that the region may have,” says Abu-Wardeh. “The culture that the whole Creative Commons is a part of is an open culture of content sharing, and revolves around the Internet and digital content. This part of the world is one of the key areas for digital content, and the Web generally.”

COMMUNITY WORK. Donatella Della Ratta, Creative Commons’ regional manager, says the organization’s structure is based on volunteer work, with chapters in more than 60 countries set up by volunteers.

“In the Arab world, there are chapters in Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, but there is no official chapter in the UAE,” says Della Ratta, who is employed by Creative Commons HQ.

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“There’s a community starting in the UAE, but there is no official institution that is affiliated to us. The way we work in different countries is by signing memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with institutions such as universities and research centers. It’s like peer co-operation; there is no money involved.”

Della Ratta says the most significant step Creative Commons has taken in the region is an MoU signed with Al Jazeera in 2009, under which the network channel created a footage repository licensed under Creative Commons’ most lenient license, whereby anything can be done with the content on the condition that the source is credited. Moeed Ahmad, new media department manager at Al Jazeera, says the new media department had been lobbying the idea of Creative Commons licensing to management, because it fits “very well with the vision of Al Jazeera, which is about empowering the voiceless.”

“In the summer of 2008, we announced a formal agreement that Al Jazeera would be licensing at least 10 hours of footage every year,” says Ahmad. “So when the Gaza war happened (in December 2009), it made sense to release our footage because the world didn’t have access to the footage due to the restrictions on journalists from being able to report from Gaza.”

BEST FOOTAGE FORWARD. Ahmad says Al Jazeera has witnessed interesting uses of its footage from

the repository, most notably by the Wikipedia community, which cannot use licensed images.

Filmmakers, game producers, music video producers, non-profit organizations, and political activists have all used Al Jazeera footage.

“We do not require people to tell us what they’re doing with the footage, but we request an e-mail to tell us why they’re using it; it’s quite an interesting mix. Essentially, we’d assumed it would be news companies, but mostly it turned out to be political activist groups: Amnesty, Wikipedia, etcetera.”

Della Ratta says Al Jazeera’s move with Creative Commons pushed others in the region to explore the model. In October, Creative Commons co-organized Digitally Open in Qatar, a conference, in conjunction with the Supreme Council for Information and Communication Technology (ICT Qatar), during which ICT Qatar’s secretary general, Dr. Hessa Al-Jaber, announced that “all future ICT Qatar projects will be open-source, and we aim to use these solutions throughout the government. Open source should be the solution for every government initiative. Being open can even be considered a moral obligation.”

After Qatar, Creative Commons co-founder Lawrence Lessig and Joi Ito officially launched the Creative Commons Lebanon project.

In the UAE, the Creative Commons team set up an iftar last Ramadan, which was hosted

by Ito. Abu-Wardeh says that while the event attracted content creators from all kinds of

industries in the region, there hadn’t been many takers.

“I think for a lot of commercial content producers, the biggest barrier has been understanding how they can benefit from Creative Commons licenses commercially,” he says.

As for other challenges, Della Ratta says that the lack of value attributed to intellectual property in the region affects content creation.

“If you don’t have any way to protect the work you have created, you probably won’t create anything,” she says.

“We want to foster a culture of creating content,” she adds. “I see challenges because it is very difficult to explain to people what Creative Commons stands for; copying and sharing is illegal in the Western world, but there’s a more casual attitude toward sharing in the Arab world. We wish to bypass – not to pass through – a strong copyright system, and go directly to the next phase toward a flexible copyright system and a some-rights-reserved culture. I see opportunities, because there isn’t a harsh copyright system.”

As for the future of Creative Commons in the region, Della Ratta says it’s all up to the people.

“With Mahmoud Abu-Wardeh and Stephanie Terroir tending to the UAE, it looks like they are going to develop more activities in the country.

Of course, we wish to open an official chapter, but Creative Commons is mostly a grassroots movement. We don’t decide where to open. It’s more a bottom-up approach.”

Attribution (cc by) This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered, in terms of what others can do with your works licensed under Attribution.

based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also be non-commercial in nature.

Creative Commons licenses

Attribution Share Alike (cc by-sa) This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under identical terms. This license is often compared to open-source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use.

Source: creativecommons.org

Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike (cc by-nc-sa) This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. Others can download and redistribute your work just like the by-nc-nd license, but they can also translate, make remixes, and produce new stories based on your work. All new work

Attribution No Derivatives (cc by-nd) This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.

Attribution Non-Commercial (cc by-nc) This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (cc by-nc-nd) This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, allowing redistribution. This license is often called the “free advertising” license because it allows others to download your works and share them with others as long as they mention you and link back to you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

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CC and the law

© creativecommons.org

Will Creative Commons put the legal profession out of work? We ask a lawyer

“In some ways, Creative Commons licensing takes away lawyers’ jobs,” says Mahmoud Abu Wardeh.

“The idea with Creative Commons is that they are ready-made licenses that help you publish your content. There is no formal process.”

Fiona robertson. Lawyer at The Rights Lawyers

Fiona Robertson from The Rights Lawyers shares her thoughts: The Creative Commons are phenomenal licensing arrangements that can permit parties to use content without having to go through time-consuming research and negotiations with rights owners.

First, let’s look at the misconceptions. A Creative Commons license does not mean that copyright does not apply to a work. Nothing could be further from the truth; the rights owner is simply listing the terms under which you can license the copyright in the work without having to obtain specific consent.

Creative Commons also does not mean a work is in the public domain. Public domain works are no longer subject to any copyright laws at all. This is usually because the copyright term has expired, so you can use the work in any way you wish.

Under a Creative Commons license, you don’t need to contact the rights owner in order to use their work; you simply comply with the terms that have been set by the rights owner. A very compelling reason for using this material is that it is free.

Many people are going to like this arrangement, and so they should.

For organizations that do not have the financial means to negotiate licenses (or hire a lawyer to check the rights positions), Creative Commons is a windfall. If you work at a charity (charities are large users of Creative Commons work), you can use the work and know that you will not face a legal problem. No more license fees, no more negotiations with owners who do not understand your cause.

From a legal perspective, the greatest change is with the fair dealing provisions (those exceptions to copyright that permit use of work without a license from the rights owner). These are complex and sometimes subjective areas of copyright law. If you use work under fair dealing you often have to argue with the rights owner as to whether it really was fair dealing or not.

Take the footage of Martin Luther King Jr. speaking about his dream. This is owned by the King estate, but if you are using the material for the purposes of news, you do not have to clear it. However, his estate can still claim that the use was not valid – for example, if you used it in a news story about nightmares, the estate could legitimately claim that the use should have been licensed. If this footage is available under a Creative Commons license, that uncertainty is removed and you simply comply with the terms that have been set. It is also brilliant for websites, where your work may cross into different countries with different fair dealing rules.

The education sector is another that will benefit from knowing that works can be used without licensing and without an argument further down the line.

Of course, rights holders do not always want work to be used in all ways, so selecting your Creative Commons license is very important. Do you want a commercial organization using your image in an ad for a carbonated beverage? If you put the material out under a simple “Attribution” license, then a third party can do that as long as they give you credit. If the work is under an “Attribution Non-Commercial” license and someone wants to use it in a carbonated beverage ad, they will have to contact the rights holder to obtain a license, in the same way as under normal copyright laws.

It is imperative that you read and understand the terms of the Creative Commons license for the work in question. If the licence is “Attribution Share-Alike,” that means any derivation you make of that work must be supplied to the public on the same terms. If you don’t do this, you are breaching the terms of the Creative Commons license.

And that’s where we see the collapse of the theory that Creative Commons licenses will mean the end of copyright lawyers. If you do anything that involves a contract (even where it is a standard license), you can be sure that at some point there will be claims of a breach, and the first thing everyone will do is fly to the phone and dial their lawyers.

Lawyers simply never go away.

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JULY/AUG 2011 | Branding

Apple is most valuable brand

Computer firm ends Google’s four-year run at top of Millward Brown BrandZ study as BRIC entrants pick up steam

by Jack Neff

T

he strength of the iPad has pushed Apple ahead of Google for the first time as the most valuable brand in the world, according to Millward Brown’s 2011 BrandZ study of the most-valuable global brands.

Apple ended Google’s four-year reign at the top of the brand ranking table. But the study by the WPP research unit also showed a changing of the guard among top brands in other sectors and an influx of new entrants from the so-called BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – which collectively accounted for seven of the 11 newcomers among the top 100 brands. While the eight top global brands are still US-based, China now has 12 brands in the top 100, up from seven a year ago.

Remarkably, Amazon edged out Walmart as the most-valuable retail brand by Millward Brown’s accounting, with its brand value rising by 37 percent to $37.6 billion, as Walmart’s fell by 5 percent to $37.3 billion. Walmart parent Wal-Mart Stores still has more than 10 times the sales and more than five times the market capitalization of Amazon, but BrandZ’s calculation subtracts tangible assets from market value to help estimate brand value.

Amazon, with no physical stores, fares well in that process. The Walmart brand value also doesn’t include Sam’s Club or other overseas affiliates with different brand names owned by Wal-Mart Stores.

Even so, Amazon’s rise, combined with declines in brand value, not only for Walmart, but also for other top global retailers Tesco and Carrefour last year, marks the shift toward e-commerce.

“Amazon benefits incredibly by having user reviews integrated into its site,” says Eileen Campbell, global CEO of Millward Brown. “Everybody does that now, but Amazon was the first, so it’s done an incredibly good job of building trust.”

Rebounding from a tough year battling widespread recalls and reports of quality problems, Toyota’s brand value rose by 11 percent to $24.1 billion last year, putting it back at the top of the automotive brands.

But BP, hit hard by its Gulf of Mexico oil spill, took a 27 percent hit to brand value. And it may not bounce back as quickly as Toyota, Campbell says. Toyota’s quick rebound reflects the underlying strength of the brand. But BP faces substantial doubts in surveys among decision makers on drilling leases and contracts, she says.

According to Campbell, growth of tablets and smartphones led to big gains in brand value for a lot of tech and telecom brands, which occupied the top three spots and six of the top 10. All but one of those, Google, gained brand value year-over-year.

Google slipped 2 percent, despite the success of its Droid operating system.

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Branding | JULY/AUG 2011

In an e-mail, Campbell says Google’s drop is mainly attributable to a 4 percent decrease in market capitalization from the year before and investments in such mobile platforms and the Chrome browser that she described as “heavy and ahead of return.”

Google’s exit from China only affects about 2 percent of its revenues, she says, but did help boost search engine Baidu’s value.

“Google is still pretty hot,” she says. “It remains one of the most desirable and trusted brands we track.”

Down the list, BlackBerry’s brand value also slipped 20 percent last year, which Campbell attributed to the once-dominant smartphone brand not having as much new-product news as competitors.

The fastest growth in brand value came for Facebook, up 246 percent to $19.1 billion and No. 35 on the list. Chinese search engine Baidu was the second-fastest grower, leapfrogging dozens of older brands with a 141 percent increase to land at No. 29 on the list at $22.6 billion.

Wells Fargo led a number of financial players whose fortunes rebounded from the financial crisis and recession of 2008 and 2009. Its brand value nearly doubled, up 97 percent to $36.9 billion, or No. 16. Overall financial players gained 9 percent in brand value on average, as 15 of the top 20 financial brands on the list gained in value, nine of them by double-digit percentages.

The insurance sector also gained substantially on the list, thanks heavily to new entrants on the list – China Life and Ping An—both from China and now ranking first and second in their industry.

Fast-food brands also fared well, up 22 percent collectively, led by McDonald’s, up 23 percent to $81 billion and No. 4 overall among global brands.

Campbell attributed the strength of fast food to continued frugality among consumers turning away from pricier options.

Not a single packaged-food brand appeared on the list, however, largely because most don’t have global reach. Wrigley fell off the list, not from any problem with its marketing, but because it was acquired by privately held Mars, so its data could no longer be analyzed. Some privately held brands, such as Facebook, still made the cut because of publicly available valuations, in its case from Goldman Sachs.

Coca-Cola led beverage brands, up 8 percent to $73.8 billion, beating Budweiser, flat at $15.9 billion and Pepsi, up 1 percent to $12.9 billion.

Personal-care brands were also fairly flat, up 3 percent, with growth led by L’Oréal, up 11 percent, and its sibling Lancome, up 17 percent. While highmargin, market-dominant Gillette has long been the most-valuable brand in personal care, it slipped 4 percent last year to $19.7 billion, nearly overtaken

by Procter & Gamble Co.’s sibling Pampers, up 11 percent in brand value to $19.4 billion.

BrandZ valuations are similar in some ways to how an investment bank would value brands, Campbell says. They’re based in part on brand-equity tracking surveys and financial data from Bloomberg and analyst reports. Millward Brown uses these data to calculate the earnings attributable to a brand, how much of the earnings can be attributed to a close bond with its customers and growth potential for the brand-driven earnings.

brand value 2011 Apple Google IBM McDonald’s Microsoft Coca-Cola1 AT&T Marlboro China Mobile General Electric ICBC Vodafone Verizon Amazon Walmart Wells Fargo UPS HP Deutsche Telekom2 Visa

% CHANGE FROM 2010 $153,285,000 $111,498,000 $100,849,000 $81,016,000 $78,243,000 $73,752,000 $69,916,000 $67,522,000 $57,326,000 $50,318,000 $44,440,000 $43,647,000 $42,828,000 $37,628,000 $37,277,000 $36,786,000 $35,737,000 $35,404,000 $29,774,000 $28,553,000

84% 2% 17% 23% 2% 8% N/A 18% 9% 12% 1% 2% N/A 37% 5% 97% 35% 11% N/A 15%

1-The Brand Value of Coca-Cola includes Lites, Diets and Zero. 2-Deutsche Telekom is in the process of re-branding its business to ‘T’, which incorporates T-Mobile, T-Home and T-Systems. Source: Millward Brown Optimor (including data from BrandZ, Kantar Worldpanel and Bloomberg)

TOP RISERS 1. Facebook 2. Baidu 3. Wells Fargo 4. Burberry 5. Apple

246% 141% 97% 86% 84%

NEWCOMERS TO TOP 100 53. Deutsche Telekom 33. China Life Insurance 35. Facebook 43. Agricultural Bank of China 52. Tencent/QQ

$29,774 M $19,542 M $19,102 M $16,909 M $15,131 M

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JULY/AUG 2011 | MARKETING

Shifting trend for luxury boutiques Retailers are helping to make high-end brands more approachable by shifting strategy from glossy magazines to digital and social media by Natalie Zmuda

P

icture this: The economy is tanking and your key clients – the world’s foremost luxury brands – are sweating bullets over pullbacks in consumer spending. That was the reality for not just one, but numerous boutique agencies built on the backs of fashion houses and high-end retailers. The result has been the embrace of digital and social media, an area that brands, long used to funneling the bulk of their ad budgets into glossy magazines and billboards, had only tepidly begun to experiment with before the recession.

Agencies, as a result, have seen their digital businesses explode.

“When the recession hit, fashion and luxury brands were probably hit the hardest,” says Dianne Desroches, CEO of AR New York. “Some pulled advertising internally. Some went dark.

Some were smarter – they said, ‘Let’s think creatively about this.’”

The pullback hurt some of these specialty agencies because fashion and luxury brands have long gravitated toward small, independent shops.

A single designer or visionary at the helm often seeks out a similar structure in his or her agency, according to Ruth Bernstein, executive director of strategy and a partner at Yard. “Smaller, independent agencies tend to be owner-driven as well,” she says. “The designer who started his own line or the makeup artist who started her own line wants to find a peer to co-create with.”

Designer John Varvatos, a Yard client, echoes that view. “We don’t have SWAT teams of marketing people, and we don’t waste a lot of people’s time going down a wrong path that I might not want to go down or that might not be right for the brand,” he says. “I’m working directly with the owner. ... [Yard] has become so intertwined with the culture and our brand. I don’t feel like I’m working with an agency. I feel like I’m working with someone who is part of our company.”

Boutique fashion shops across the board say spending has largely bounced back after a rough 2009 and 2010. Still, they believe the fashion- and luxury-advertising landscape will never be the same again. And that’s probably a good thing.

“The recession was the best thing that happened to the fashion industry,” says Richard Christiansen, founder and creative director of Chandelier Creative. “A lot of what was going on before the recession felt very formulaic. …

The recession was a great opportunity to get a bit more aggressive and dip your toe into digital or something non-traditional.”

For those brands that got creative, there were new partnerships, forays into social media, and a willingness to experiment with things such as New York’s Taxi TV. Sites such as Gilt Groupe and Ideeli introduced new ways of moving highend goods. And e-commerce sales continued to grow steadily, forcing designers to embrace an area they’d once shunned.

Matt Mason, director of innovation at Syrup, says he’s seen fashion brands accustomed to oneway dialogue via monthly magazines realize the power of listening to and communicating with the consumer through Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare or any number of other digital and socialmedia channels.

Social media is making inaccessible brands accessible, and consumers appear to be hungry for it. Consider that Burberry has 5.8 million likes on Facebook, while the Twitter feed for Donna Karan’s brand DNKY, @dkny, has more than 320,000 followers.

Still, this set of marketers has a long way to go to catch up to other industries when it comes to embracing social and digital media. Jane Deery, president of PGR Media, a boutique media shop, estimates that fashion and luxury brands spend just 1 percent of their media budgets on digital. But that media mix is shifting online, Deery says. And to prepare, agencies are staffing up. PGR added two digital specialists in the past two years, with plans to add a further two to its 26-member staff soon.

Digital agency CreateThe Group has benefited from the shift to digital and says revenues and staff have grown by double digits in the past year.

“The pendulum has gone the other way,” says the company’s founder and CEO James Gardner.

“Anything new, any new technology, [luxury brands are] jumping on and looking at and thinking about how to use it.”

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Prove it

The GEMAS Effie Mena Awards is the regional version of the Effies, the world’s premier awards for marketing excellence, judged upon real, quantifiable and measurable results from marketing campaigns.

GALA AWARDS CEREMONY: 24th November 2011, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai For more information, please email: gemaseffie@mediaquestcorp.com

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JULY/AUG 2011 | ADVERTISING

Secret agents

As advertising becomes more intertwined with consumer data, does your agency need a chief privacy officer? by Matthew Creamer

W

hen the CEO of the second-largest owner of ad agencies talks, people listen. So when John Wren, at an industry conference in the US in March, declared that agencies should think about hiring chief privacy officers, he signaled an important moment in the evolution of the agency business.

In the broader business community, the chief privacy officer is hardly a new concept. Companies such as Microsoft and IBM that play in large amounts of consumer data installed such roles years ago, as have less famous direct-marketing companies. But thus far, the role hasn’t been necessary at ad agencies for a lot of reasons, top of the list being that data wasn’t always so crucial to the business. And when it was, it could be outsourced to a third party.

But as advertising becomes more intertwined with consumer data, especially in behavioral-targeting campaigns, and agencies become more deeply entrenched in the regulatory thicket of digital privacy, that could very well change.

So, should agencies be taking Wren’s observations seriously and hiring a chief privacy officer?

Probably not right now. That was the consensus after I spoke to a number of players close to the issue. Still, it’s quite clear that every agency needs to figure out how consumer-privacy issues affects it – and fast.

What I was told is this: All agencies need to understand whether and how consumer privacy issues touch their business. For digital shops and media buyers, for instance, it will be more of a priority than at purely creative shops working more in the crafting of ads than in their distribution. There does need to be oversight at the agency, everyone seems to agree, but not necessarily in the form of a C-suite executive for whom it’s the only duty.

“Embrace privacy, have consistent privacy messaging, have privacy programs, and have someone responsible for compliance,” says Carla Michelotti, executive vice-president and chief legal, government and corporate affairs officer at Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett.

“If that person is a chief privacy officer, they need to know that they’re going to be making an impact on marketing, IT, and finance. Knowing what I know about companies, that makes for an interesting dynamic.”

BEAST OF BURDEN. Michelotti says she’s wary of agencies appointing a chief privacy officer as though that hire alone solves the problem. There are underlying organizational challenges and personal liability that come with the role. She favors the notion of privacy-by-design supported by the FTC. It’s been described as: “A roadmap

to integrate privacy considerations into business models, product development cycle and new technologies.” The distinction here is between just giving someone a title that may or may not have any clout versus baking privacy awareness into key processes.

Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the Internet Advertising Bureau, was warmer to the idea, with some key qualifications that recognize that hot-button political issue digital privacy has become.

“In the ideal world, what you would want to have is a chief data officer, because the uses and misuses of data transcend the privacy cliché,” he says. “But given the politically charged environment, because of the way anti-business opposition groups are looking at the issue, it may make perfect sense for agencies and media companies and marketers to have chief privacy officers.”

Among agency executives, the person probably most involved in talks on the topic of privacy is John Montgomery, chief operating officer of Group M Interaction, part of the WPP-owned media-buying firm that manages more than $70 billion in client spending. WPP has been the most aggressive of the holding companies in investing in its own data-collection capabilities. As a result, WPP manages a sizable amount of consumer data for its clients, and the issue cuts close to home.

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prime numbers Data is one of advertising’s greatest growth opportunities TELL ME. When I visited Montgomery in his office, not far from New York’s Penn Station, the South African native immediately burst into an excited story about his recent testimony before Congress. As it turns out, Montgomery might be the closest thing there is to a chief privacy officer in today’s agency landscape. He spends, by his count, 40 percent to 50 percent of his time on privacy matters. He has an operations person who’s spending even more time educating clients about the particulars of the issue, especially trying to ram home the importance of the industry’s self-regulation program. That program revolves around an icon that brands can display in or near behaviorally-targeted ads. Clicking on it leads to disclosure and an opt-out mechanism.

He’s also recently been named chairman of an American Association of Advertising Agencies committee dedicated to addressing Internet privacy.

Montgomery’s thoughts on the need for a chief privacy officer are, as a result, a bit different from some of his peers’. “If it’s a person who’s wellintegrated into the organization and can execute things … I think it’s a fantastic thing,” he says. “If it’s a legal person who’s going to attend meetings and try and limit liability, it’s not totally useless, but I don’t think it’s going to do what we really need to do, which is to communicate to our client base and get our consumer base educated about why behavioral advertising is really useful and vital to a free Internet.”

It’s no secret that online advertising has become more reliant on consumer data collected from any number of sources, including people’s browsing behavior. Advertisers can tell a good deal about the likes and dislikes of anonymous Web users and what products and services they might be in the market for.

SPY GAME. The development has spurred some powerful politicians and journalists to frame the practice as a rather stark question: Are corporations spying on your movements online? Just last month, US senators John McCain and John Kerry introduced a Consumer Bill of Rights that touches on online privacy. But that legislation is far from the doomsday scenario that would see users en masse prevent advertisers from following their movements around the Internet.

Before long, do-not-track buttons will be placed on all major browsers except Google’s Chrome, creating an easy way to opt out of behavioral targeting.

“If they opt out in large numbers, say 60 percent or 70 percent, the threat is that our advertising becomes less effective and the Internet doesn’t grow as fast,” Montgomery says. “And it will restrict the amount of new capital that flows into the startups, which will suit the big established players who already have a base.” Agencies could lose, too.

Framed as it has been recently by politicians and journalists, it’s easy to think of data as risk, but it’s not just that. Data is one of ad land’s greatest growth opportunities, probably even dwarfing social media.

Consider the number of ad-tech startups, many of which were created to collect and then slice and dice consumer info. And data is no less crucial to the future growth of mature agencies that buy media or do direct marketing, the latter of which has, for years, used consumer information collected from a variety of sources to send direct mail and e-mails to customers.

The work of fending off regulation has typically fallen to publishers, search-engine companies, ad networks, and those technology and data companies that facilitate targeting. Agencies, with some exceptions, have been less involved.

DATA STEWARDSHIP. Rothenberg calls that part a history of “abdication” that stems from the in-between nature that’s inherent to the definition of an agency: they act as agents for other companies. “Data stewardship” is one of the areas where responsibility has been passed along.

“They have had a tendency over the decade to pass on a lot of responsibility, for example, to the media companies,” he says.

Nancy Hill, who’s Rothenberg’s counterpart at the American Association of Advertising Agencies, is trying to change that: “We think it’s an important issue in the broader context of how our industry is viewed. Consumer confidence in how we’re using our data is essential in keeping the new targeting tools available to us as marketers.

We don’t want those to go away.”

That’s all well and good, but by this point it’s clear that, while important, industry compliance will only get you so far.

Ultimately it’ll be up to consumers to choose whether to turn off behavioral targeting by pushing a button on their browsers or leaving it on.

Everyone in the industry, from media owners to agencies, talks about the importance of getting your average Web user to understand the “value chain,” in which targeted advertising is linked to free Internet content.

Put a different way, that means consumers need to understand that unless they’re willing to share some data, using the Web will cost them more.

And that entails talking to clients about the icon and also education, likely to manifest in the form of a new campaign currently being discussed by the trade organizations.

You know, advertising – something agencies know little about.

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JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

Cream of the crop

Ogilvy Action’s Robin Smith on how his Pond’s campaign proved romance isn’t dead by Sidra Tariq

L

ove makes the world go round. Love can move mountains. We’ve heard of all that. But can love make you win awards? The answer may well be yes.

Skincare brand Pond’s’ GCC launch campaign in 2009 by Memac Ogilvy’s brand activation network, Ogilvy Action, won two Golds at the GEMAS Effie MENA Awards (an annual awards ceremony organized by Communicate’s sister publication Gulf Marketing Review). The campaign, which was based around the idea of rekindling romance, scooped the Gold in the “Best New Product Launch” and the “Nonfood FMCG” categories. The Unilever brand’s launch campaign in the GCC used ads and messaging that focused on rekindling the romance in relationships, and promotions that offered a chance to win romantic getaways, in addition to other activities.

“Keep looking beautiful; look after yourself and in turn your husband will love you and it will nurture the romance and your relationship,” was the key message of the campaign, says Robin Smith, who was the creative director at Ogilvy Action during the campaign. Smith was promoted to regional creative director of Ogilvy

Action Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in November 2010.

ON THE MAP. Pond’s campaign was a “groundbreaking” one for Ogilvy Action and really put it on the map as an agency, says Smith. The campaign’s brief was to launch the brand in the GCC and gain market share quickly. At the time, Pond’s was well known in Europe and Asia, but not in the Middle East. “So we had a fantastic opportunity to launch a brand from scratch,” he adds.

“One of the key challenges for us was to gain as much market share in a really short space of time, because the competition [brands such as L’Oréal and Olay] was really cashing in on [the skin-care product category]. So our task was to create a big impact in a really short amount of time, and that’s exactly what we achieved,” says Smith. Within six months, Pond’s’ GCC market share had grown from nothing to 17.1 percent.

“There were a lot of challenges, even internally, where people really didn’t know about Pond’s, so it was a very top-secret sort of assignment for a couple of years internally before it was even communicated to their own internal staff. A lot

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JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

of our challenges were internal, but we also had a trade challenge, where we had to go out to the retailers and educate them on this market and get them on board, and then obviously all the consumers as well. So it was a real fully-fledged, big, integrated campaign, where we combined that with the television commercial, the audio advertising work, outdoor, digital work, PR, sampling, in-store promotions, and so on.”

“I remember presenting [the idea] to the vicepresident of Unilever at the time,” says Smith.

“He was blown away. He actually said ‘I’ve never seen a presentation as detailed,’ that it was the sort of stuff you’d get from an agency from New York and London. We knew we wanted to create a fantastic campaign and leave a good impression.”

“The thing we single-mindedly wanted to do was to really get to the heart of what Pond’s was about, and it’s about romance. We were trying to leave that sort of indelible message with the consumers and the trade guys, that if they were to think about Pond’s, they’d think about romance, and that is the real key for us,” says Smith. “Other brands like L’Oréal are more about scientific sorts of things. Olay might talk about something else, but what’s key for us is to keep driving home that sort of brand message and being true to that in everything we do.”

All that glitters. Pond’s Gold Radiance is a proven success

CREDIBLE ROMANCERS. The campaign started by creating buzz within the company and worked its way out.

Smith shows Communicate a Pond’s promotional video that explains how more than 1,000 GCC staff members were given pre-planted red tulip bulbs (the tulip is the brand’s icon) a month

prior to the launch, which they could grow and nurture. Ten tulips turned out to be pink, and those who grew them won a prize.

The sales staff was also pumped up by being given weekly romantic gifts for a month: chocolates, sparkling date juice, bouquets of tulips and a Pond’s gift set – that they could present to their wives. This approach was taken since most of the sales personnel for FMCG brands are male. “Maybe in Europe you’d have sales women so you wouldn’t have such a challenge, but the challenge here was how do we turn [the sales guys] into credible romancers,” say Smith.

“And that was by giving them gifts to take home to their wives. Their wives would feel great and be interested, and the debate could start to happen, which is a really nice metaphor of how we could drive the romance.”

Once the staff was educated about the brand’s foundation of romance, it was time to connect with consumers.

A set of television commercials was aired to spread awareness about Pond’s in the region. The first TVCs got the product out there and offered money back if the product didn’t work, says Smith.

“The second part was to reinforce the more romantic attributes. ‘Your husband will notice the difference and rekindle the love in your relationship, and let it blossom,’ was the sort of messaging that we had there.”

The campaign tried to cater to the different nationalities in the GCC. Within the activation campaign, points-of-sale at 793 stores across the GCC were decorated and customized according to the demographics that frequented those venues.

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What is, What was, What will be.

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JULY/AUG 2010 | DEPARTMENTS

friends. They could then have Pond’s nights and have the product there. Ideas like that may be a bit of a challenge to put together, but I still think they are relevant and good ideas.”

Ground-breaking. Pond’s campaign put Ogilvy Action on the map Supermarkets that mainly attract Asian shoppers had in-store promotions where shoppers could win a trip to the Taj Mahal in India. Those that were mostly frequented by Westerners had stations where consumers could get face analysis done. The names of participating shoppers were then entered in a draw to win a romantic weekend at a five-star hotel.

According to Smith, the face analysis machines were specially produced and devised for the campaign. They analyze shoppers’ skin conditions, and recommended the most suitable Pond’s product for them. They also demo what the product can do. In addition, Ogilvy designed store furniture, produced informational material, and trained brand ambassadors to engage with consumers, he says.

Smith adds the campaign was a “great learning curve” for Ogilvy Action. “That was a combination of incredibly long nights and weeks. No joke, that was four months of non-stop work with a huge team, which was brilliant, and was a really proud moment.” Ponds was also delighted.

ROAD BLOCKS. Every project comes with some challenges, and Smith says there were a few in the Pond’s campaign. “Some of the challenges were on a budgetary front,” he says. In his 20 years of experience in London, Smith has worked with some “fairly massive budgets,” he says.

“But here you tend to find the budgets aren’t as massive.”

Time was also tight for the project. “We were set in December 2008, where we did a big presentation to the board and the vice-president of Unilever, and we had to have this live in the market by March 1,” says Smith. “So, from concept to delivery, that was the huge challenge; that was non-stop, seven-days-a-week for three months.”

Smith adds that this campaign wasn’t the only idea Ogilvy Action had for the Pond’s launch.

“We had bigger brand experiences that we would have loved to have rolled out. They would have been bigger activities happening in malls, ideas like ‘pop-up salons’ where people could come for a more special experience with a brand.”

The cost of mall space would have been prohibitively high, though, so Pond’s chose to invest in smaller-scale activities such as the face analysis machines.

“I think the good thing with a lot of the ideas that we originally conceived is that they are starting to come back to life. So with all the newer briefs that we get, we go back to our original creative ideas and they are still relevant,” he adds. “We had quite a nice idea for how, in Saudi Arabia, we could actually get more local brand ambassadors – maybe housewives – and give them an incentive to host parties for their

ALL ABOUT SMITH. Smith, who is from the UK, chose the creative industry “because I would have sucked as a banker,” he says. “My brain is more wired to creativity – music, art and film – but not analytics, not math, figures and science. My family is the same; we are all artists, designers, creatives, musicians and stuff like that. I think it’s one of those genetic things. I’m quite happy to be one of those people, doing my own thing.”

Smith says he has always worked in the creative industries. He has moved around, though – working with design consultancies, exhibitions, interior design and marketing. “For the best part of 15 years I have been working in marketing and sales promotion agencies, which is really where my personal expertise lies,” he says. “I started out as an illustrator and quickly moved out of that as I realized it was hard to make a living and moved into more communications and advertising. But it’s still a foundation, and I still say to all the young guys that those basic principles, about being able to write and being able to draw, they are the real key components as creative people, and provide the bedrock for what we do.”

Smith has been working in the Middle East for more than three and a half years. His portfolio includes a number of big household brands – both internationally and in the region, he says. He’s worked with Unilever, GSK, and McDonald’s among others. British American Tobacco, Kraft and BP Castrol are also Ogilvy Action clients.

When Communicate spoke to Smith, he was still new in his position as regional creative director. “Part of my job now will obviously be to get my creative teams in place around the region to support the business directors, just like the model we have here,” he says. “Then I need to educate them more on activation on a more global level as well, because it’s not really an area of specialism here in the Middle East. In Europe it’s become quite a tried-and-tested sort of form of communication.”

Among Smith’s other campaigns at Ogilvy Action is the Dustvertising work the agency did for BP Visco Engine Oil, which won a Grand Prix at the 2010 Dubai Lynx Awards. Stencils were used to brush out the shape of an engine on the bonnets of dusty cars in Dubai, with the message: “Keeps your engine up to 30 percent cleaner.”

The Pond’s campaign, however, is the one that put Ogilvy Action on the map, Smith says.

“When I look back at the Pond’s campaign, what I liked about it was that it was so effective.

I mean, it may not have been the most overly creative, but it is very consistent, very detailed and very thoroughly thought through, and is an effective project. Something like Dustvertising is a lot more creative, so there is a sort of beauty for us where one can balance out the other.”

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JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

Q&A

Made to measure

PHD’s Mike Cooper tells Communicate why markets such as Saudi Arabia will only become more important, and how to benchmark social media by Austyn Allison

M

ike Cooper, CEO of Omnicom Group media agency PHD, was recently in Dubai to head up the Media jury at the Dubai Lynx awards show in March. With initiatives such as its book, Media Agency 2014: PHD on the Future of the Media Agency, PHD has developed an emphasis on prediction, and Cooper in particular has been a strong proponent of the role of “Next 11,” or N11 countries in the evolution of the industry. Those countries are Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam. Markets in this region are not far behind.

Communicate caught up with Cooper after his keynote speech on the measurability of social media, and asked him about how developing markets and digital media will help drive the industry.

predictive text.

Industry evolution

You’ve talked a lot about the N11. What’s PHD’s strategy regarding emerging markets, especially in the Middle East?

We have a very strong profile in emerging markets, and in any conversation with clients these days you spend a disproportionate amount of time talking about emerging markets because it’s what’s on everyone’s minds. Everybody is looking for growth; economies have slowed down in North

America and Europe – the traditional western markets – so everyone is talking about growth in the emerging markets.

We have particular strengths in central and eastern Europe, and we have particular strengths in Asia and Latin America. We want to be in the emerging markets as they come on stream, so we opened an office in Saudi Arabia last year and got an office in Abu Dhabi. We will try to make sure we have the best possible coverage in this part of the world, so that we are not left behind.

Hopefully we are ahead of most. In the past 12 months we’ve opened offices in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi; we are very anxious to make sure we have a very strong presence in all of those places.

Are your clients pulling you there or are you taking your clients there?

It’s a bit of both. With regards to some of the Southeast Asia markets, certainly client activity pulled us there. If you are not in some of these places, and a client wants to be there, they are going to work with somebody else.

At the same time that question raises a larger point, which is: If you are going to be somewhere you have to be there meaningfully and you have

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DEPARTMENTS | JULY/AUG 2011

© Getty/Gallo Images

to have a real presence on the ground. You can’t pretend you have a real presence somewhere and run the operation from somewhere else, because you’ll get found out. Many of the large, sophisticated multinational clients that we work with have been in many of the next wave of emerging markets, in some cases for many years, and you can’t pull the wool over their eyes about what kind of presence you have in these places.

What trends are we likely to see in media ­worldwide, and in emerging markets specifically, over the next five years?

At PHD, one of the areas we try to own is predicting the future of media. We have a book called 2014 (which is supposed to be five years ahead, so it’s being updated to 2016). What happens in media is affected by demographic issues and is affected by regulatory issues. But the fundamental thing that drives change in media is technology.

There are two major things that are really coming through at the moment.

One is social media. There is just so much attention from clients in social media at the moment. We wanted to put together a presentation [at the Lynx] that was a definitive guide to what we know about ROI in social media. It sounds easy, but when we got down to it we sort of trawled the world and went through absolutely everything we could find – we might have missed out on one or two things, but I think we got a really good whole in terms of what is out there – and it is staggering how little research there is about social media at the moment, how few really strong case studies.

I think in 12 months’ time or 24 months’ time, and in five years’ time, you will see an absolute explosion in terms of social media campaigns.

So far we have just scratched the surface; I see the uptake of social media growing at a rate of something like 25 percent per annum at the moment, which is absolutely extraordinary.

That’s basically the growth of people signing up to things such as Facebook and Twitter. The global population is around 6.5 billion, and we have slightly over 2 billion Internet users. Three quarters of those are on social networks. There is a huge amount of potential for growth in Internet usage. We are going to be at the point very shortly where if you are an Internet user you are pretty much automatically a user of social media.

But what about the two-thirds of people who are not on the Internet?

This takes us to our second major trend, which is mobile. I don’t think mobile has taken off as a medium in a way that it was expected to four or five years ago. But with the growth of 3G networks or 4G networks, what you will start to see is that markets that do not currently have great broadband penetration (look at India, where broadband penetration is very limited) will completely leapfrog the rest of the world. They will go straight to mobile, rapid, high-speed networks using smart phones and accessing Facebook and Twitter or whatever other localized social media vehicles emerge.

looking ahead. Mike Cooper assesses the future of media Mobile is a massive opportunity and it is very much an untapped opportunity at the moment. If you think about mobile advertising you think of interruptive texts, which people are quite resentful of. [For example,] there are a few commercial organizations that have my mobile phone number.

I get a text that my optician has a special offer on this weekend so I can buy a second pair of glasses at 20 percent off. You don’t want that message and it is quite irritating.

That is a world away from social media, where you see an organic recommendation for a product.

A friend of yours whose taste and outlook you trust – you may even regard him as a retail mentor because he has a better idea of what products are hot – and if you got a message that said he just liked the latest range of Levi’s jeans or Gap shirts or Rolex watches, that is so much more effective than a piece of unsolicited communication.

That opportunity to then touch your smartphone to go to a link and see a special offer, that is a massively, exponentially more powerful piece of communication than what is currently available.

It is just a colossal leap from where we are today.

Social has only just started getting going. If you are not strong in social, you are going to be a bit of a dinosaur in the very near future.

Is there room for localized versions of social networks?

You look at a market such as China where Facebook is banned, you have Baidu there, which is the localized version and has incredible penetration. I think it depends on the abilities of companies like Facebook or Twitter to meaningfully penetrate these markets, but I wouldn’t be very surprised if in some of the more far-flung

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Judge report. Cooper (head of table) chaired the Media jury at the Dubai Lynx markets, some of the more emerging markets, there were stronger local propositions that might offer a better understanding of the nuances and the peculiarities of that market. In the same way, Google today – or Apple or Microsoft – can’t be strong everywhere in the world.

How do you benchmark social media?

We work with some really big global advertisers, people such as Unilever, Kraft and GSK [GlaxoSmithKline]. The biggest question that they have at the moment is about digital as a whole: “How much should we spend online?” and “How much should we spend on social?”

Twenty-three percent of people’s time in terms of media consumption is spent online.

(That was in 2010; now I suspect that number is higher, more like 25 percent.) That was in major markets, but it included some emerging markets as well.

In theory, taking that as a benchmark, you should be spending 25 percent of your money on some form of digital advertising. People are spending 5 percent or 6 percent of their time on social. I don’t know of a global advertiser that spends that portion of money on digital.

The reason it is important to benchmark is that if you are one of the biggest advertisers in the world, spending multiple billions of dollars on advertising, and studies suggest you should be spending a quarter of your money on digital, then you are going to want to know where it is going; you are going to want to know you are getting value for money.

You talked at the Lynx about measuring the value of a Facebook fan. What are fans worth?

One of the things that is interesting about that question is the enormous variation in the value of a Facebook fan. It is not an easy thing to quantify.

We looked at two studies at the Lynx. One was by a company called Virtue, which was looking at the value of Facebook fans compared to the price of normal media, and they equated it back to television. They have measured it on a costper-thousand basis and came up with this number, $3.60. If you were an advertiser trying to reach that number of people through traditional media this would be the cost.

A second company called Syncapse has done a study and they looked at in a lot more depth. They looked at it more in terms of influence. Influence is the key word to describe the benefit of social media. They have tried to measure Facebook fans based on their level of influence over other Facebook users; the cost of acquisition, which is a standard advertising model. You know, trying to get someone’s approval, to get somebody to become a customer or an advocate – however you choose to measure it.

If someone has actually signed up to be a fan of a certain product or service, they must feel pretty good about it. It’s highly likely that they are already using your products or have the propensity to use your products, so they aspire to use your products – like a brand we look after globally, for example, Porsche. It’s worth a lot of value to have people who are available to you, who are going to receive your messages over the Internet, and who are brand advocates. Syncapse looked over the whole range of data and came up with $136.38.

One of the reasons I wanted to use those two studies in the presentation was to say there is someone over here saying a Facebook fan is worth $3.60 and someone over here saying that it is worth $136.38. I think it’s kind of indicative both of the lack of real in-depth knowledge of what the power of a Facebook fan is and what the value of the Facebook fan is.

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JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

Q&A

Staying connected

Yahoo’s EMEA vice-president of marketing explains how the brand is setting itself apart from other Internet players by Austyn Allison

J

ames Tipple, Yahoo’s vice-president of marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), came to the company from Vodafone in October 2006. At the time, Yahoo was building up its mobile business unit Connected Life, and Tipple joined as director of marketing for Europe. He has been in his current role for 18 months, arriving when Yahoo acquired Middle East Web portal Maktoob. Communicate sat down with him to see how business is going.

Why did you acquire Maktoob?

The whole point of the acquisition of Maktoob when it first happened was we wanted to take all the global experience that Yahoo could offer and bring it into the region. It is a huge, growing region. Arabic is a hugely growing language online, and if we can apply all that we know from a human content point of view and also the innovative technology products that we have – not only from a consumer perspective, but also from an advertising perspective – then there is a real, strong growth opportunity for us here.

When Yahoo bought Maktoob it got a ready-made footprint in the region and Arabic-language capabilities. Is that model unique to the region?

When you are entering emerging markets there’s a lot of benefits from making an acquisition of the likes of Maktoob. You’ve got a lot of heritage, and

what Yahoo does on top of that is add the Yahoo benefit from the global play we’ve got – what we know about personal-touch experiences from the content perspective and the ad technology platforms that we do.

When you mix the two together you have a really strong play where you can have a straight foothold into a market and start evolving all the skills that they have at a local level and all the excellent products and content that they develop locally, and applying the global experience that Yahoo has on top. Putting those together gives us a winning combination. We will look at something that we think is right for the region. It will depend on the position we find ourselves in globally.

It seems that Yahoo is not homogeneous around the world.

There is a nucleus of stuff – of product technology, product infrastructure, strategy, human-touch content – that is the nucleus of what Yahoo is. So we are able to be a premier digital media company that is supported by innovative technology, but also personal experiences so we can give you a “your Web your way” experience wherever you are.

If you’ve got that as your nucleus and strategy, then what you have to do is apply the local context that enables you to bring that strategy to life in a local region. To think that you can just get a global

blueprint and apply that anywhere wouldn’t work.

However, you can get the nucleus of this strategy that is Yahoo’s, and then add the local context. That gives you that winning combination so you can be personally relevant to the people in your region, the heart of what is going on globally. And that enables you to be more efficient and enables you to get to the market quicker. It also enables you to be more relevant.

Is Yahoo’s model a catered content model? Google is this open thing where you go and look up whatever strikes your fancy, whereas Yahoo brings more to you.

Yahoo is so much more than that. Google is a search engine, and search is important to us in the business; we have search as a core product. But Yahoo is much more about giving our users the content they want to find. If that is from our own, homegrown editorial team that is fine; if it is from content acquisitions that we do to enable us to bring the best content, the most relevant content, to our users, we will do that as well. In the region here, we have done content partnerships with Al Jazeera, we’ve got BBC World, we have done a great content deal with Rotana, which brings us a wealth of entertainment video content for the region. Also, we’ve done things like revamp our women’s property, Helwa, as well. So we will continue to look at opportunities that mean we can bring the best content to our users for the

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delivering. Yahoo is all about giving users what they want, says Tipple region. That’s what we are about; content is going to be our differentiator.

Is your focus on your own content or on content from partnerships?

It is a balance of the two. Original content is fantastic, and if we can generate original content we will do that on a daily basis. But it is also about delivering content our consumers want. So if it means, for example, in the Rotana deal we can get entertainment content that is video-based – and video-on-demand is going to be essential for moving forward – then we will work with partners who can help us get the content our users want.

Then we will bring that to Yahoo, fundamentally giving people their world on the Web in one place – your Web your way. And you know what is important about that? If we are getting more of our users to come to Yahoo to consume this content, be it original or with partners, then that’s excellent for advertisers as well. It enables our advertisers to talk to our consumers with relevance.

That’s the joy of working at Yahoo from a marketing point of view: On one side I am trying to get compelling content to get users to come to Yahoo, and on the other we’re a media agency. If you get these two things working very well together then you are able to get consumers coming here to consume content and you are able to connect them with our advertisers with relevance to enable them to get access to customers.

Yahoo just launched Livestand, its mobile and tablet platform. What’s Yahoo’s stance on mobile?

Mobile is absolutely fundamental for the company as part of Internet consumption. If you start looking and applying that to the region, broadband pen-

etration and mobile penetration is high here, and smartphone penetration is growing. We also see that there are big new-to-Net opportunities, particularly in markets such as Egypt where there could be a mobile-first experience, where we can actually engage with our users for the first time from a mobile phone. So mobile is essential for the strategy that we are using globally.

You used the phrase “new-to-Net.” What does that mean?

With mobile as an Internet consumption platform, we have a great opportunity to engage with users for the first time via the mobile phone. Then we hook them in via the mobile phone and introduce them to the portal. We talk about that as a “mobile-first” opportunity with Yahoo; it is fundamental that our content offering for our key products such as mail are available with a great user experience via the mobile phone.

If we are trying to engage with a younger audience, that doesn’t have access to PCs, then the mobile phone is a great way of engaging with the Yahoo brand and Yahoo products.

Is research becoming a selling point for Yahoo?

Definitely. The way we can differentiate ourselves for our advertisers is to bring data into the equation.

When you have got more than one in two people using Internet in the region, that’s a massive opportunity; this enables us to create case studies, and enables us to educate the whole industry about the huge potential that digital advertising has alongside traditional media. That’s when you start seeing how digital enhances traditional media spend. It is an important message that we can really help educate the industry on in the region.

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6/23/11 3:06 PM

JULY/AUG 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

X-pert Files

Can’t get no satisfaction

AMRB’s Aarefa Kukshiwala says there’s a world of difference between a content customer and a loyal one

© Getty/Gallo Images

due to better client retention, increased profitability through expanded relationships, and new revenue from customer referrals.

Companies who are interested in the loyalty of their customers and use the voice of the customer to drive business results have drastically outperformed the market in terms of shareholder value.

O

+

Truly Loyal

High Risk

Trapped

Attitude

Accessible

–

Behavior

+

Source: Walker Information, US

Aarefa KukshiwalA. Leads the Stakeholder ­Satisfaction Research business at AMRB, a ­research company covering the MENA region

n the surface, it seems like a logical conclusion: Keep customers and employees satisfied, and an organization can expect to earn their loyalty.

That’s actually a huge leap of faith.

For starters, many confuse customer satisfaction and customer loyalty — assuming that they’re essentially the same thing. Actually, they’re quite different, and it’s important to understand the difference.

Satisfaction relates to the results of a process, whether it’s the process of sales, service or product performance. Loyalty, on the other hand, is a much longer-term proposition. Loyalty relates to a relationship — one that can actually survive a negative product or service process. Truly loyal customers look beyond the occasional negative experience, continuing to purchase a company’s products or services.

As many studies have shown, satisfied customers do not necessarily become or remain loyal customers.

Research and empirical evidence have shown that satisfying stakeholders tends to require fulfilling only their minimum requirements and is thus a poor predictor of loyalty or future buying behavior.

Loyalty captures a customer’s perceptions and attitudes about a company, including whether or not they intend to stay a customer. A customer can be satisfied with a company without being loyal.

Only working to build a strong relationship with the customer will help to improve loyalty. Good customer loyalty can help companies realize significant financial benefits, including reduced sales costs

Measuring loyalty. Much marketing literature equates loyalty to longevity or purchase behavior.

However, using behavior as a single measure of loyalty can be misleading. Consistency or inconsistency in purchase patterns is not equivalent to loyalty or disloyalty. The distinguishing factor in loyalty is the psychological landscape underneath the behavioral pattern – motivations, preferences and emotional bonds that lie below the surface must be considered to have any real handle on loyalty. Loyalty involves the subset of all repeat purchase behavior that is psychologically motivated, reflecting commitment or attachment to the brand, product or service.

A loyalty construct comprised of a behavioral component (likelihood to continue doing business) and a relative attitude component (commitment and attitudinal differentiation) can be used to accurately identify truly loyal respondents.

Most customer loyalty constructs help segment customers using a 2x2 matrix (see figure, left).

Truly Loyal – These customers have every intention of continuing to do business with you and they have a positive attitude toward your company. They are more likely to increase their spending and recommend your company to others.

Accessible – These customers have a good attitude about working with you, but do not plan to continue their relationship. What it typically means is that something has changed in their business and they do not need your product or service any longer.

However, they are often good advocates and will typically speak highly of your company.

Trapped – These customers show every indication of continuing business with you, but they’re not very happy about it. They feel trapped in the relationship.

This is common among organizations locked into long-term contracts, lacking a suitable substitute, or finding that it is too hard to switch. Eventually, trapped customers will find a better option and are not likely to continue or increase business with you.

High Risk – As the name implies, these customers do not intend to return and do not have a healthy attitude about their relationship with your company.

They are halfway out the door and they will not only no longer be loyal customers, but will also talk poorly about you in the marketplace.

This provides a practical and flexible way to segment customers. For each quadrant action plans can be drawn to improve business performance.

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Communicate

From Fitness to Fashion Next time you hop onto the Metro, www.readme.ae

JULY/AUG 2011 | departments

Regional Work

Relationships Matter.

Agency: Team Y&R Creative Director: Husen Khan Copywriter: Wilbur Dcosta

Star Cafe.

Client: Ets. Michel Najjar & Fils Product: Star CafĂŠ 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 Food Stylist: Fabrizio Post Prod: Band. Milano Music: Velocity studios/Philip Khayyat

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

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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

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W k O o N bo e R ou sav TE y u IS e r o G rl i e y a RE e e or m Th he t

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International Work

Noise Reduction Headphones.

Advertising Agency: Mudra Communications, India Chief Creative Officer: Bobby Pawar Executive Creative Director: Nirmal Pulickal Creative Director / Copywriter Raylin Valles Art Directors / Illustrators: Raylin Valles, Satyam Patel

Open For Night Visits.

Advertising Agency: Spicy Comm, S達o Paulo, Brazil Creative Director: Douglas Mizuguti Art Director: Fabio Le達o Souza Copywriter: Fabrizzio Casado Photographer: Giacomo Favretto These ads (and more) can be found at adsoftheworld.com

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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

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Looking for

Mr. Right?

Try some Communicruitment

and start putting together your company’s dream team To advertise on these pages email grace@mediaquestcorp.com

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JULY/AUG 2011 | Off the record

The Dish Literally watch “A few of my good friends here were pregnant and literally screaming for good maternity wear that was not overpriced or dated.”

–Founder of BlushandBloom Loretta Kish reveals to The National that she might be hanging out with mothers to be who get more emotional about their wardrobe than is strictly necessary.

In an ID-al world Hope springs eternal on the editorial desk of Gulf News if this snapshot of the UAE daily’s website is anything to go by.

“ID card problems a thing of the past,” reads the bottom story.

We can only assume a lot had changed since the articles above it were written.

An attractive offer We remember when skill alone was enough to get a job in journalism.

Well, along with nepotism and bribery, of course.

But it appears that some titles are going a little further into aesthetics during their hiring process, as in this ad from the website JobsinEgypt.com. “english magazine in hurghada is urgently looking for a person with fluent very good english or native english to edit/write articles for a new magazine and to make interviews in english. job qualifications: - very good and fluent english language - good-looking - experience in the field of ed iting, writing and interviewing.”

Luckily, at Communicate it’s enough that our mothers say we are beautiful.

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Tanks a lot Communicate is still happy to be on the mailing list of Egyptian training company Settec. We get invited to their events, although sometimes we’re not sure why. Previous invites to courses have included: Defensive Driving in Egypt, Emergency Preparedness, and Be in Different Places at the Same Time.

We can appreciate the usefulness of these skills, but not necessarily the relevance to Communicate (with the exception of the last two – oh, all right, and the first one when we visit Cairo, but you know what we mean).

Our latest invite is particularly suited to muck-raking hacks, though.

The Storage Tanks Hazards course “presents the necessary safety precautions, before starting the job, before opening the tank, opening the tank, removing flammable materials, getting rid of sludge bottoms, cleaning the tank and returning it back to service.”

Pretty much what we do every day then.

Honestly speaking Communicate gets quite a lot of spam in its inbox. Whether it’s from deposed Nigerian princes, spurious pharmacies or lonely Russian ladies, though, it normally pretends to be genuine.

So it was refreshing to get the below, which makes no pretences to honesty.

“Hi My Name is rita, I will lie to know you well, My email ritaukazi20@yahoo.com i will post you my photo.”

Greek to me “Treat yourself like Zeus or Aphrodite in a half-board, double-occupancy room for three nights at the awardwinning, five-star Thermae Sylla Spa & Wellness Hotel in Greece starting at 1799AED,” reads the offer from group-buying site Groupon.

It’s been a while since Communicate’s last classics class, but a search of Wikipedia turns up this: “Due to her immense beauty, Zeus was frightened that [Aphrodite] would

Poet’s corner

“Paying homage to the maritime wonders of nature, Loewe has created a unique collection, Treasures of the Sea, inspired in the seas of the world and marking the beginning of an exclusive and complete journey around them, taking as its first stop the Mediterranean Sea, thus creating the first Treasure of the collection: Agua de Loewe Mediterráneo.

Because the feeling of freedom, of peace and of wellbeing it provides is unique. Because with that infinite beauty, with that breeze that envelops one, with that evocative aroma, it succeeds in bewitching the soul… That’s Mar Mediterráneo, a canvas painted by the most unpredictable artist of all, nature.

A sea, a Treasure of Nature, which invites silence, peace, reflection. Which sculpts its coasts with strength and determination, just as Loewe’s perfumes highlight the personality and elegance of those who choose them.

Because the Mediterranean seduces, because it transforms, because its character, serene yet firm, demonstrates a passion that is respected and admired in equal parts. Because the Mediterranean Sea tells a story, thousand of stories, just like Agua de Loewe Mediterráneo.”

- From a press release announcing the launch of Agua de Loewe Mediterráneo.

be the cause of violence between the other gods. He married her off to Hephaestus, the dour, humorless god of smithing.”

So, ladies, if your Dad points to that offer and suggests it would be a great opportunity to introduce you to a lovely chap called Heph, who works in the manufacturing trade, have your excuses ready.

OOH is taking off It’s an oldie but a goody. One of Communicate’s spotters recently pointed us in the direction of this beauty via the Adverblog website.

Y&R in the Netherlands produced it last year for out-of-home company Interbest. We all know that the market’s been a bit slow, but do desperate times really call for measures this severe?

(There are five pictures in total in the sequence. If you’re brave enough, check it out online.)

Communicate cannot guarantee the accuracy of the rumors, innuendo and idle gossip that appear on this page.

Send your anonymous Dish tips to editor@communicate.vg

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