Archive for June, 2006
Maktoob’s newly launched news section has received a boost by partnering with BBC News to deliver comprehensive Arabic news stories to the Arab World’s biggest portal.
Maktoob provided a news section for many years, but it has now undergone a ‘face-lift’ and is much more prominently featured on the home page. Plus is has a ‘Web 2.0′ character, thanks to the RSS feeds that have been added.
The press release on this agreement, however, does not clearly state whether BBC News will be added to the now existing AFP news, or will be replacing it.
Maybe someone from Maktoob.com can assist us with an answer?
Visit Maktoob News.
June 29th, 2006
It seems like we blog about Emirates airlines everyday.
It’s not our fault. They’ve got a very active marketing communications strategy, with a huge budget!
This is not a new story, but it’s being highlighted now by media in the UAE amidst the World Cup hysteria.
Emirates will be one of just six sponsors for the next two FIFA World Cup tournaments, in 2010 and 2014, at a cost of around $100m per tournament.
Emirates becomes the sixth and final FIFA Partner, joining adidas, Hyundai, Sony, Coca-Cola and Visa.
The current tournament has 15 sponsors, including Emirates, with each sponsor reported to be paying between $45 to $50m.
Read the story at the Yahoo! World Cup site.
June 29th, 2006
Something free from Microsoft?
Yes and it’s actually a neat tool, that draws its results based on search engine data from MSN Search.
Simply, you type in a website’s address or keywords and you get a ‘Demographic Prediction’ result that anlayzes search results revealing, for example, whether you have a more male or female oriented audience, with age groups and other useful info.
I was pleased with AdBlogArabia’s results. Apparently, 27% of our readers are between the ages of 25 and 34 and 23% are between 35 and 49 years of age.
The male-female split seems quite alright for the marketing communications industry at 42% female to 58 male.
Try it.
June 29th, 2006
With everyone talking about the rise of digital media, and the decline of magazine advertising and circulation, the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) is hitting back.
Visitors to www.magazine.org can receive a daily update of reports on the success of magazine advertising, and statistics on the magazine industry.
The site is an attractive flash-based presentation which allows you to chose a magazine from a coffee table, with a central theme of ‘ideas that live beyond the page’.
What’s interesting is that this site shows the user how fantastic digital presentation of magazines can be!
Digital magazines are the future and the MPA realizes this, but they want to make the best of the print-dominated present while showing magazines can lead the digital future.
Fair enough.
Check out the site here.
June 29th, 2006
Brands: they have evolved from simple labels stuck on commodities to elaborate expressions of corporate culture, and, some would even argue, an expression of societal culture as well. Global brands are also an expression of the strength of their countries of origin in the global market.
Japan is Sony. Korea is Hyundai. Germany is Mercedes, America is Microsoft. France is Peugeot. Sweden is Saab. Italy is Vespa. China is Huawei or Haier. Taiwan is Acer. I could go on.
So what is an Arab brand of global significance. Hmm. Is there any?
Al Jazeera often comes to mind when this issue is discussed. And with the imminent launch of Al Jazeera International (how imminent nobody seems to know) Al Jazeera’s international brand will be strengthened further. But there is a problem with this brand. It loses money (or break even as its manager would like to say). It has risen to prominence on the back of crises in the Arab world and Afghanistan (just like CNN rose to prominence on the back of the first Gulf War).
So for now, Al Jazeera is not a money maker and is actually having trouble signing up advertisers as well as cable and satellite distribution in the US. One could argue that the BBC is not advertising based and is government funded too. That’s a valid argument. The BBC is definitely a strong global brand. So it remains to be seen whether Al Jazeera can make the jump from ‘controversial’ to ‘accepted’ in the coming years.
So what else does the Arab world have in the field of global brands? Not much.
Watching the world cup games in Germany gives you a good overview of the global brand map. From the top of my mind I can remember Toshiba, Yahoo, Coca Cola, Budweiser, Avaya (what the heck does Avaya do?) and the lone ranger from the lands (or shall I say skies) of Arabia: Emirates Airlines.
Here is a brand strong enough and rich enough to play with the big boys on the world cup pitch. Emirates is the expression of the rise of Dubai. It has achieved global recognition by delivering high standard services and strong marketing efforts.
One could say that Qatar Airways is also trying to be there on the global stage. But in my assessment, the more mature Emirates is far ahead of it.
Sadly, the Arab’s global brand, Emirates, is also a reflection of the fact that Arab nations have no significance when it comes to brands that are based on technical innovation. Emirates’ planes, computer systems and even a good part of their staff are imported ‘resources’. Whereas brands like Microsoft or Apple are not based not just on great service and marketing, but on R&D and invention.
Future Arab candidates for global brand prominence? Emaar (again from Dubai). Orascom (mobile operator from Egypt, although it’s a business to business brand that consumers are not aware of), Aramex (originally from Jordan).
If you have any candidates let us know.
June 28th, 2006
Marketers ‘missed the boat’ this World Cup, failing to create advertisements targeting women.
Apparently, the generally held misconception that only males are interested in football has backfired spectacularly.
A Reuters report on television viewership data from around the world shows that 39 percent of the tournament’s audience so far has been female. That is the same percentage as for the entire 2002 World Cup, and by the time a champion is crowned in July, the figures are expected to be higher.
Maurice Levy, chief executive of Publicis Groupe, the world’s fourth-largest advertising and marketing services conglomerate, says “It’s a new phenomenon, which has been undervalued and underestimated. We’ve certainly missed an opportunity.”
Read the report at Yahoo!
Technorati Tags: World Cup Viewership Female Viewership
June 28th, 2006
A study conducted by the Nielsen/Norman Group found that Internet users in the US avoid viewing banner ads, reports Clickz.
It’s being referred to as Banner Blindness which means Internet users focus on the content on a page and ignore the advertisements.
“People are not looking at the typical blinding, graphical ads. They are not looking enough time to absorb a complex ad or branding message” says the Nielsen Norman Group report.
Do you still notice banners? I do.
And, from talking to some Arabic site owners, it seems Arab users are still happily clicking on banners.
So, if Americans are tired of banners after a decade of Internet use, we’ve still got a few years ahead of us before reaching that threshold.
With regard to our region, I wouldn’t take this study’s conclusions as facts.
June 28th, 2006
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