Business is booming. New companies are being set-up in the region every

day. New products, new services, new schemes, all targeted at the same audience. Marketers and advertisers are increasingly coming under a lot of pressure to attract the attention of potential consumers. Can too much pressure lead to deception?

For Marwan Rizk, vice president and area director of the International Advertising Association (IAA) for the Middle East and Af rica, the issue is twofold. “Yes there is an issue of ethics, but before we look into the questions of the messaging part of it we have to make sure that there are auditing principles

in place, this is an important part of industry ethics.”

He added, “Our industry spectrum consists of advertisers, agencies and the media. Right now there seems to be a divide between the advertisers and the media. For too long the media industry, particularly print media, has been in a comfort zone of its own, most publications here are not audited for circulation and readership figures. If theyhave always claimed a particular level of circulation now and were independently verified,these claimed figures might befar from the truth. This is whatis making a lot of publishers wary of going in for audit.”

Auditing is an extended practice among media in many developed markets as a way

of gaining confidence withadvertisers. The clients like toknow who is seeing their ads and how big their audience is in order to measure the impact of their campaigns. Trusted figuresin audience research are therefore a must to attract international advertisers when it is recognised among those in the industry that exaggerated circulation numbers are widespread in the region.

It is the advertisers themselves who have brought about this change. The recently formed GCCAdvertisers Association (GCCAA) is one such initiative. It is also part of The World Federation ofAdvertisers (WFA) that represents 90 per cent of global marketing communications expenditures, roughly $700 billion per annum.

...Continues on page 4

THE INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING ASSOCIATION, UAE CHAPTER ◆ A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF THE ADVERTISING AND COMMUNICATIONS BUSINESS IN THE GULF ◆ ISSUE 3, 2005

DUBAI MEDIA CITY (DMC) celebrated its fourth anniversary this year, a year that saw it expanding its global mindshare with several international companies coming on board. Has it all been smooth sailing so far? Advocate finds out from Mohamed AlMulla, director of DMC.

...Continues on page 27

IAF to stage MENA Awards

Mohamed Al Mulla, director of DMC

Crossing the line

Guest ColumnsBy Sunil John, Jeehan Dahman Balfaqaih, Mark Hill and Lara Haidar Page 20

“So why have the PR guys been able to move into space that advertising folks couldn’t get into?”

Destination BrandsCountries have always had brands – some weak and some strong. Since the perception of a national brand has a major impact on con-sumers and investors, countries are now starting to take control of their brands to help drive investment, sell products and encourage tourism.Page 30

Andy Owen The IAA event committee organised a talk delivered by Andy Owen, one of the most influencial direct market-ers around today, on copywriting titled, “It’s only words and words are all I have to take your heart away”. Page 16

Flying Colours Matching perception to reality is a tricky business. More so, when there are changes in ownership. Shane O’Hare, head of marketing, Gulf Air, delves on the re-positioning of the airline. Page 28

Interview with Abdullatif Al Sayegh The latest addition to the list of new publications in the UAE are Arab Media Group’s two new compact dailies. How different are they from existing ones and what impact will this have on the existing players? Page 26

NEWS■ New agency network■ Hello! joins ABC ■ Lowe selects Chris Chard■ Dubai Marina aims for Guinness■ Viacom acquires Chinese firm ■ UAE reviews press law■ German magazine in Dubai ■ Future TV expansion ■ New appointments at DPC ■ 7Days launches Seven■ AME Info starts podcasting ■ OK! launches in Arabic ■ Doha briefs media on games

www.iaadubai2006.com

So far, so good?

THE UAE CHAPTER OF the International Advertising Association has signed an agreement with International Advertising Festival Ltd (IAF), the organisers of Cannes Lions, to manage future advertising awards for the Middle East and North Africa in Dubai from 2006 onwards.

IAF will also stage a three-day festival, along the lines of their highly successful Cannes event, culminating in the presentation of the awards.

...Continues on page 4

Terry Savage, Cannes Lions

The Dubai Development and Investment Authority’s (DDIA) ‘The grass is greener in Dubai’ campaign on taxis has generated much interest among commuters in London. All taxis used in the campaign have real grass on their roofs! This picture was taken by Angus Grieve, executive director, IAA UK

DUBAI CALLING

Tim Sebastian meets Antoine Choueiri, chairman, Choueiri Group during the media talk interview at the 6th Annual Gulf Marketing Forum

AS ADVOCATE WENT TO press, two associated, but very different events, were takingplace at the Dubai International Convention Centre. Participants and delegates in the two-day ‘Media as a Marketing Tool’ conference staged by Gray Business Communications under their GMR banner applauded the event and spoke positively about what was a very worthwhile forum and debate. Some participants in the adjacent ‘Media & Marketing Show’ seemed equally unanimous in their view that the event proved disappointing.

The Media as a MarketingTool conference was opened by the IAA World President Elect, Joseph Ghossoub who set the ball rolling with his comments regarding the challenges faced by media buyers in the light of there

Media marketing mix

now being more than 200 free-to-air TV channels and around 800 magazines. Abdullatif Al Sayegh during his DMC presentation bemoaned the fact that only five

per cent of print media were being audited – a theme taken up and hotly debated during the two roundtable discussions.

...Continues on page 14

4 LETTER

AdVocate

ADVERTISING ETHICS AND PRINCIPLES

TruthAdvertising shall tell the truth, and shall reveal significantfacts, the omission of which would mislead the public.

SubstantiationAdvertising claims shall be substantiated by evidence in possession of the advertiser and advertising agency, prior to making such claims.

ComparisonsAdvertising shall refrain from making false, misleading, or

unsubstantiated statements or claims about a competitor or his/her products or services.

Bait AdvertisingAdvertising shall not offer products or services for sale unless such offer constitutes a bona fide effort to sell the advertising products or services and is not a device to switch consumers to other goods or services, usually higher priced.

Guarantees and WarrantiesAdvertising of guarantees and

warranties shall be explicit, with sufficient information to apprise consumers of their principal terms and limitations or, when space or time restrictions preclude such disclosures, the advertisement should clearly reveal where the full text of the guarantee or warranty can be examined before purchase.

Price ClaimsAdvertising shall avoid price claims which are false or misleading, or saving claims which do not offer provable savings.

TestimonialsAdvertising containing testimonials shall be limited to those of competent witnesses who are reflecting a real and honestopinion or experience.

Taste And DecencyAdvertising shall be free of statements, illustrations or implications which are offensive to good taste or public decency.

*By the American Advertising Federation

Welcome

...Continued from page 1 Once we get over the question

of audit, the greater question is whether the industry is guilty of pushing the envelope just a little too far at times? Are they attempting to be, perhaps, a bit too ‘progressive’? Are the messages it’s sending supporting the vision and direction that the business leaders intend?

It is universally accepted that advertising is a form of commercial speech, but you have to be very aware of the products and services you are advertising. Materials must not be misleading or advertise an illegal product, among other things. Knowing your advertising ethics beforehand can save yourself

a lot of trouble in the future with authorities and clients.

In many developing markets and a few established ones, advertisers are increasingly under fire forupsetting the socio-cultural religious sensitivities and sensibilities of consumers.

Unfortunately, things are looking only worse day-by-day. With slashing down of the ad budget and with the business slumping, everyone is even more desperate to stand out in a hurry to boost short-term sales or to win ad awards. The industry sloganseems to be ‘Love it. Or hate it. Or think it is offensive.But you have to notice it.’

The objective is to cutthrough the clutter, to grip one’s attention and to create an impression that lingers on in the memory of the prospective buyers. And, while doing so, they create

desires, shape attitudes, mould temperaments, alter social values and raise many ethical questions, to which there are no easy answers.

The measure of advertising’ssuccess is the extent to which it increases demand. Competition or declining profits can blow goodintentions out of the boardroom. Under such circumstances, the perspective shifts from what is best in the long-run for the society, to what is best in the short-run for the company.

Why should the industry be concerned? Unethical ads are often found to have negative consequences, ranging from adverse publicity to diminished corporate reputation, to consumer boycotts and even legal sanctions. While shock ads and over-the-top

Crossing the line

IAF to stage MENA Awards

Advertising has become an integral part of our everyday culture – without advertising life would be very dull and we all would be out of a job! Consumers view advertising as a source of information, lifestyle and entertainment. The acceptance of advertisingby consumers relies on its trustworthiness.

One of the fallouts of the unprecedented boom we are witnessing in the region is the rise of fraudulent and misleading advertising.

An industry system of self-regulation can help to ensure consumers continue to accept advertising as honest – honest advertising helps to keep customers coming back. By practicing self-regulation, advertisers can ensure the integrity of marketing communications.

Fostering public confidence in advertising was theprimary concern that led to the formation of various organisations and systems in other parts of the world. Organisations such as the Advertising Standards

Association (ASA) in the UK, are based on broad principles of truth and accuracy and provide a guide for companies to use when questions arise. They regularly monitor advertisingfor adherence to these principles, as well as compliance with local, state and federal regulations relating to advertising. When possibly questionable advertising is noticed, the advertiser is requested to substantiate the claims that are being made, and to voluntarily comply with the guidelines.

You will notice that we have made further changes and improvements to the layout design of this issue of Advocate. This has enabled us to pack more contentinto the magazine while keeping the size and number of pages constant. I would appreciate receiving your suggestions on how we can further improve Advocate and make it the voice of our industry.

Preparations for Dubai 2006 (March 20-23) are on track. Advertising and PR for the event have already started in several countries. Online

traffic (www.iaaDubai2006.com) and registrationsseem to indicate a very high level of international interest for the event – which I promise will be the best IAA World Congress ever.

Dear friends,

IAA CONTACTS President

Tanvir Kanji

Vice-President Marwan Kai

General Secretary Nadim Barrage

Treasurer Najib Trad

AdministratorGhada Slim Melki

PO Box 71104, Building 8 Dubai Media City

Dubai, United Arab EmiratesT: +971 4 390 3232F: +971 4 390 8362

iaauae@emirates.net.aewww.iaauae.org

ADVOCATE CONTACTS Editorial

Jacob Joseph

AdvertisingShawki Abd El Malik

PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAET: +971 4 282 4060F: +971 4 282 7593

AdVocate is designed and produced for the International

Advertising Association, UAE Chapter, by

Motivate Publishing.

Printed by Rashid Printers

...Continued from page 1 Tanvir Kanji, president of the

IAA-UAE said “It was decided after our last awards that in future this would be best handled by an independent, international body and I am delighted that

through this agreement with IAF Ltd we will be associated with the very best in their field.”

“In the past Above the Line and Below the Line awards have been held in alternate years whereas from 2006

onwards the new Awards will recognise work through the line”, Tanvir Kanji added.

The agreement was signedon behalf of the Cannes Lions management by Terry Savage, himself a former jury president of the IAA– GCC Awards. Terry Savage has been involved

with Cannes Lions for 15 years and has been CEO since 2003. “The MENA regionis one of the world’s most exciting and fastest developing” Savage said. “It is a natural extension for us to host a major regional festival in this most international of markets”.

Tanvir Kanji President IAA UAE Chapter

Marwan Rizk, vice president and area director of IAA

promotional messages have proven that they can create awareness and generate short-term business results, we must closely examine the possible lasting impact before implementing such tactics.

6 NEWS

AdVocate

BUSINESS MEDIA experts from the GCC took part in a roundtable discussion on the current state of Arab business media and future industry prospects. The event was held inDubai and was a first in a seriesof roundtables organised by Al Arabiya news channel to engage the regional media community on issues relevant to the industry.

Representing Al Arabiya were programme editors, department heads and business journalists who discussed various issues of business programming with a number of journalists from specialised magazines throughout the GCC. Topics ranging from the historical development of business media in the Arab world, to the importance of business programming for regional economics in the setting of globalisation were

discussed, producing enlightened debate and lively interaction amongst participants.

Al Arabiya presented its business programmes and emphasised its focus on Arab markets with the aim of providing specialised and practical analysis to the Arab viewer. Moreover, the channel announced the launch of Al Arabiya’s online business programmes as a further reflection of the channel’s plansto expand its coverage into the Arab and international markets.

The business roundtablecomes a few days following the launch of its new business programming format. Jamil El Hage, Al Arabiya’s head of Business News, stressed the main role of all financial and businessplayers should be in the process of developing a specialised Arab business media in the Arab world.

Al Arabiya Hosts Business Roundtables

As Dubai Marina is set to become one of the most sought-after

pieces of real estate in the world, its branding evolution is also on-track to breaking an entirely different record: TheGuinness Book of World Records.

Dubai Marina, located between interchange five andsix on Sheikh Zayed Road has been billed as a one-of-a-kind, cosmopolitan marina experience and one of the largest man-made marinas in the world, expected to be completed by the end of the decade. Emaar Properties and Enterprise IG, the global brand agency, which

has been employed in the evolution of the Dubai Marina brand, chose to introduce the new brand language through the outdoor expression of the brand wall, illustrating the unique and spirited atmosphere of Dubai Marina.

Recently completed at an impressive length of approximately 2.6km, the brand wall is by far, the longest anywhere. With the wall’s images having been shot by an international lifestyle photographer, the scenes reveal a series of unique and telling aspects of the Dubai Marina lifestyle.

Dubai Marina Goes for the Guinness

Advertising Updates

THE MIDDLE EAST edition of HELLO! is the latest title in the UAE to join ABC UK. Its membership of ABC demonstrates a solid commitment to providing the market with independently certified circulation data, and its support in building a credible and transparent trading currency for the region’s media industry.

Motivate Publishing has appointed ABC UK to audit the circulation figures for the Middle East edition of HELLO!, as well as to certify these figures, in accordance with the ABC UK rules for consumer magazines.

Founded in 1931, ABC UK has been serving the Middle East for over 20 years and over 2,500 media titles worldwide.

Martyn Gates, ABC UK’s director of Newspaper and Consumer Magazines said, “Securing the contract to undertake circulation audits for the Middle East edition of HELLO! is another significant step and commitment to the credibility, comparability, transparency and trust ABC audits provide. Through the independent verification of its circulation figures, the Middle East edition of HELLO! is able to provide the

market with robust circulation data on which media buyers and advertisers can base their buying decisions”.

Ian Fairservice, managing partner of Motivate Publishing said, “HELLO! Middle East has ‘come of age’ with the announcement of its membership of ABC. By delivering certifiedcirculation data to the market we can be confident thatour advertisers can access trusted and comparable data on our circulation, in order to confidently commit anadvertising budget to the title.”

He went on to add, “Our own research and market reports clearly indicate that HELLO! is already the biggest selling celebrity magazine in the region”.

Advertising in the Middle East and North Africa is witnessing the birth of

a new agency network as Drive Communication joins forces with Dentsu the largest core advertising agency in the world. A partnership between Drive and Dentsu was recently announced at a ceremony in the Dentsu Group head officesin Tokyo. The agreement wassigned by Haruyuki Takahashi, managing director and board member on behalf of Dentsu and Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, president of ALJ on behalf of Drive Communication.

Drive Communication was originally established in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 1997 and has since grown to become a regional advertising network with seven offices covering the Middle Eastand North Africa. With this new partnership Dentsu expands its worldwide reach into the Middle East and North African market and Drive Communication is propelled from being a regional agency into a member of a leading international network. Young Saudi and Arab executives will benefitfrom exposure to the strategic

methodology and cutting edge creativity of a top international agency. Current and new clients will also benefit greatly fromthis new alliance which brings together the high international standards and reputation of Dentsu with Drive’s knowledge and understanding of the Middle East advertising market.

Both partners have already been co-operating for many years in marketing communication and public

relations. The formation of thisnew joint venture is therefore a natural and mutually beneficialstep forward for both Drive and Dentsu, who share the same vision for progress and a passion for excellence. Such an international strategic alliance, which brings a top international name into the local market can only reflect positively on theadvertising industry in the Middle East as a whole.

HELLO! Joins ABCNew agency network

Great wall of Marina

Towards a more specialised Arab business media

Lowe selects Chris Chard as Chief Strategy OfficerLOWE WORLDWIDE has hired Chris Chard, former regional planning director for Leo Burnett (EMEA) as chief strategy officer for theLowe network. This marks thecreation of a new position for the agency and is in keeping with the agency’s vision to create “The Next GenerationGrowth Network.”

Chard will be headquartered in New York, but will initially work out of Lowe Worldwide’s London offices, alongside CEOTony Wright. He stated, “Having spent so much of my time in planning, I knew that Lowe Worldwide’s new management team would not be complete without a chief strategy officer.His breadth of multinational brand experience with clients like P&G, Mars confectionery and Ford make him a perfect fit for our clients which includeUnilever, Nestlé and Saab.”

“Any director of Strategic Planning would jump at the chance to report to a CEO with Tony’s rich history and success in planning. Lowe Worldwide has always had a stellar creative reputation. Making sure that the planning discipline has as enviable a reputation will be my biggest challenge,” added Chris Chard.

FOLLOWING A MULTI-AGENCY pitch, the Bangalore-based Wolf Communication Partners has won the creative and media duties for Damas Exclusives. There were seven agencies in the fray, including O&M and JWT.

The pitch process, which included several phases, was initiated from Bangalore in India in June. For the presentation, the agencies were called to Dubai. As per industry sources, the size of the business is estimated to be around $400,000.

WOLF BAGS DAMAS IN INDIA

Members of Drive and Dentsu building partnership

AdVocate

NEWS 7

BAHRAIN-BASED Noorsat, the satellite communications platform created by investors from Saudi and the Gulf, says the number of television channels

broadcasting to the Middle East will double in the next five years. The bullish outlookfollows Noorsat’s agreement to use the capacity of two European Eutelsat satellites.

DIFF appoints ASDA’A, Lowe and Flip Media Organisers of the Dubai

International Film Festival (DIFF) have

announced the appointment of public relations consultancy, ASDA’A, advertising agency Lowe and interactive agency, Flip Media, for the second edition of DIFF, to be held from December 11-17, 2005.

“While the bids submitted by a number of agencies were all of the highest quality, our decision to go with incumbent agencies ASDA’A and Lowe is based on their understanding of the festival’s objectives and their track record,” said Shivani Pandya, DIFF executive director of Festival Operations. “With the addition of Flip Media in the mix, we will be aiming to achieve better results this year and increase the festival’s reach both regionally and globally.”

This year’s festival will seefilmgoers, industry professionalsand media representatives witness an even wider range of global cinema. TheDIFF management team anticipates showcasing a

rich selection of films, shortfilms and documentaries,including many regional and international premiers.

“We are very pleased to partner with the Dubai International Film Festival for the second year running. It shows great faith in the quality of the agency’s work and gives us the opportunity to add value in the communications programme of one of the region’s most exciting events,” said Sunil John, managing director at ASDA’A Public Relations.

“Working on Dubai’s firstInternational Film Festival was a very rewarding experience. Coming up with a core idea that could be carried across categories and mediums was an exciting challenge. In the end, it was gratifying to see our work impressively displayed around town. The positive feedback wereceived inspires us to make this year’s campaign even better. It’s an honour to be part of such an event,” said Omar Bibi, account director, Lowe, Dubai.

LEO BURNETT GROUP OF Companies, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), CEO Raja Trad has been invited to join the Leo Burnett Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Regional Executive Committee.

The appointment will have no effect on Trad’s existing responsibilities as CEO of the Leo Burnett Group of Companies, MENA, a post he has held since

1994. The executive board oversees the operations of 50 offices across the region, whichrepresents 40 per cent of Leo Burnett Worldwide’s total business.

In the past five years, Tradhas led a network that has both doubled in size and doubled its share of Leo Burnett’s worldwide business.

North Africa was added to his geographic scope in 2000.

A year later, Trad’s responsibilities were expanded to cover all non-media operating units in the region, namely brand agencies Leo Burnett and Black Pencil, interactive and CRM agency Arc MENA, public relations agency Manning Selvage & Lee and post-production unit The Orchard.

Leo Burnett MENA CEO Adds EMEA Role

Al Jazeera signs up FrostAl Jazeera International has signed up Sir David Frost, the veteran British broadcaster, for its new channel which is due to launch next spring. Sir David will work from his permanent base in London though his exact role at Al Jazeera, the Qatar based media group, is not yet clear.

UAE leads in FM radioThe UAE has the highest number of FM radio stations in the Arab world, with 19 stations operating under five networks,according to a report by the Arab Advisers Group. Algeria is next, with 17 stations operating under the state’s RTA network.

More films at DIFFOrganisers of the Dubai International Film Festival 2005 say this year’s event will feature more and diverse films. The programme includes films from new sections; Insights from Asia, Café Europe and In Honour of Africa. There will also be two sections; Dubai Discoveries and Emerging Emirates, which focus on Arab cinema and local filmmakers.

BBC appoints Asda’a in the MEBBC World Service has appointed Asda’a to represent its interests in the Arab world for the next six months. The agency initially pitched for a BBC Arabic radio campaign, which launches across five countries in the Middle Eastin February 2006. But the BBC has now extended the contract so the agency can handle Arabic language press relations for its planned Arabic TV station.

UAE reviews press lawThe UAE Journalists’ Association has formed a committee to redraft the Publications and Publishing Law to defend the rights of journalists, reported Wam. Journalists are particularly concerned about the problem of sources and dealing with social issues.

BBC shoot AD holiday showThe BBC Holiday programme is in Abu Dhabi to shoot a filmabout the development of the emirate as a holiday destination with Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen as the presenter. The programme will be aired in January and include the new Emirates Palace hotel.

IN SHORT

Richard Pinder with Raja Trad

Noorsat pushes satellite TV

OK! launches world’s first Arabic issue Page: 8New appointments at DPC Page: 10New leadership at Paradigm Page: 10N

EWS

THE MIDDLE EAST PUBLIC relations industry has come of age with a major conference on public relations designed to address specific regional andlocal on-the-ground issues and practices as they relate to one of the Arab world’s fastest growing communications sectors. The Public Relations Congress, organised by IIR to be held December 10-13, 2005 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Deira, Dubai, is positioned as the Middle East’s premier conference for public relations professionals.

According to Jennie Bishop, IIR’s conference director for the Public Relations Congress, “The PR industry has reached a level of growth and maturity in our region that merits a conference focused on the specific situation and

professional needs of the Middle East market. We will be providing a forum that will address the issues and practices most relevant to the regional communications environment. The Middle East Public Relations Congress will aim to fill this vacuum.”

The Public Relations Congress has been designed for senior public relations professionals from both the private and public sectors and aims to cover a wide range of region-specific issues fromthe growth potential for public relations in the Middle East, the current perception of PR in the region, raising the standards and practices of the local industry, to the often conflicted butsymbiotic relationship between public relations practices and the press in the Arab world.

Qatar Airways’ new campaign takes off Qatar Airways is spreading its new corporate campaign across print, radio and TV Page: 8

▲

First German magazine launched in the Middle EastPRO MASTERS GROUP launched the first Germanlanguage business magazine in the Middle East, on September 21, 2005 at the Coral Deira Hotel. PRO Masters is a group of companies with offices in Munich, Londonand Dubai. The companiesdeal in business and marketing consultancy, publishing, cosmetics and fragrances.

Catering to the specificrequirements of the German speaking tourists and residents of the UAE and other GCC countries, Profil magazine addresses concerns regarding the country’s business and financial situation; particularlythose related to the real estate market, as well as reporting on social events taking place in the UAE and the GCC.

As Dubai’s global presence has become more pronounced

through the accomplishment of spectacular projects such as the Burj Al Arab, so has the need to offer a totally Germanperspective on the region for the many German speaking tourists and businessmen who are playing an active role in the UAE’s economy.

For instance, the number of German tourists was 654,640 in 2004, a 67 per cent increase compared to 2003. In addition to this, there were 119,346 German speaking tourists from Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. This thenmeans that a total of 773,986 German speaking tourists visited Dubai. Considering the short flight time toDubai, the clean beaches, higher living standards, quiet and secure environment, this figure is likely to gobeyond 1 million in 2005.

Future TV names top media executive to spearhead expansionFUTURE TV HAS announced the appointment of Tarek Ayntrazi, one of the most prominent Arab media experts, as its general manager.

Backed by his impressive track record as the CEO of Starcom MediaVest, the leading media specialist in the Middle East, Ayntrazi will take over responsibilities of the general manger from Dr Nadim Munla who will lead Sheikh Saad Hariri’s team of economic advisors, a role he

played in the 90s with the late Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

“Tarek brings with him strong strategic skills and an intimate knowledge of the regional markets and Arab consumers. His proven ability to lead top performing teams and his track record of managing complex regional operations, while delivering impressive growth makes him the perfect candidate to lead the expansion of Future TV,” explained Dr Munla.

PR CONGRESS TO BE HELD IN DUBAI

Viacom acquires Chinese outdoor ad firmVIACOM OUTDOOR HAS entered into an agreement to acquire 70 per cent control of Magic Media – the Beijing-based company that has the primary rights for advertising on the city’s bus system. Thedeal comes with an option to

acquire the remaining 30 per cent in five years and representsthe Division’s first purchasein China. Viacom Outdoor will become a unit of the new CBS Corporation upon the split of Viacom Inc. into two independent companies.

8 NEWS

AdVocate

A new corporate campaign across print, radio and TV is being launched

by Qatar Airways which focuses on its hospitality and high standards of service.

The campaign highlights thepremium qualities of the airline, which has rapidly developed into one of the fastest growing carriers in the world.

Helping reinforce the message of Qatar Airways as a premium brand, the campaign projects a powerful image of quality and luxury for which the airline is renowned.

Attention to detail and service is the forte of Qatar Airways which is underscored by the airline’s popular slogan, ‘Taking You More Personally’.

The whole experience offlying can be daunting, butQatar Airways presents a series of different attributesthat enhance the appeal of flying with the airline.

The airline is alreadybroadcasting its message through a series of three storyboard vignettes on news channels CNN International and BBC World. And it recently signed up a year-long deal with London-based Sky News for the sponsorship of the weather on the international news channel’s service.

Qatar Airways’ chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker said the campaign showed how far the airline had reached in a few years to become an international airline of choice.

“Qatar Airways is spreading its wings far and wide, as well as its message of a caring, quality and premium airline which many observers in the industry are watching with envy,” he said.

“We have reached the heights that many airlines aspire towards and are proud to showcase the best we have to offer around the world.”

Online advertising rocketsThe latest US figures show thatonline advertising is surging. IAB/PwC figures showed a 26per cent surge in Net advertis-ing to $5.8 billion in the first halfof 2005. The Internet is now the fastest growing media for advertising and sponsorship, a trend that is also seen in the Middle East as more and more people go online for news and entertainment.

Doha briefs media on gamesOrganisers of the 15th Asian Games 2006 in Doha, have held the first broadcast meeting forthe major sporting event being held in Qatar. Organisers briefed participating international media representatives on production and broadcast plans for games, which start on December 1, 2006.

Etisalat interactive radioEtisalat is introducing visual radio, which allows users to interact with radio content by downloading images of artists and songs. Visual radio is seen as a way for marketing and content providers to identify user preferences and send targeted advertising. Mass response initiatives such as voting are also possible.

BBC, English on Egypt radioBBC World Service has agreed to produce a weekly programme on Egyptian radio, aimed at people learning English in Egypt. The bilingual one-hour segment will be broadcast on Middle East FM and Youth & Sport FM, with content also available online at bbcarabic.com.

SMBs prefer Internet to magazinesSmall and medium businesses use the Internet as their primary source of information for IT, at 70 per cent, followed by vendors and consultants, with trade magazines the least used source, according to new research from HP. HP ME SMB Manager, Hamid Hassan, says the results will influence how the company plans its future marketing and advertising campaigns.

Concept wins UAE health directoryConcept Media Publishing has won a contract from the Dubai Department of Health and Medical Services to publish the emirate’s first ever directoryof medical services. More than 5,000 facilities registered with Dohms will be included in the directory which will be produced on CD-ROM and available online in 2006.

IN SHORT

Qatar Airways’ new campaign takes off

JWT WORLDWIDE EXPLORES WHAT MAKES WOMEN LAUGHWOMEN OVERWHELMINGLY rely on real-life stories told in fun, fresh ways for humour versus punch-line-driven jokes, according to a qualitative report on women and humour from JWT Worldwide, the largest advertising agency in the US and fourth largest in the world. The report, based on a series of interviews conducted in the first half of 2005 with expertsand people all over the world, explores the truths and benefitsof ‘girlcom’ — girl comedy that brings together the distinctive elements of female humour.

By exploring what makes women laugh, JWT aims to develop better and more creative approaches to target the women’s market on behalf of clients, especially using

humour. “With women, the real feel-good-all-over, give-me-more sort of laughter comes when something or someone hits their H-spot— their humour spot,” said Martin Weigel, the London-based Global Planner on Unilever’s Sunsilk at JWT.

“Finding the H-spot means understanding how female humour is different from that of males.” Whereas the male approach to humour tends to involve set-piece jokes that build up to a climatic resolution, the study found that the typical female approach is conversational and spontaneous. They tell stories that may be about what has happened to them personally, what they’ve observed, or what other people have told them.

DTCM honours DSS 2005 ‘Sweet Surprises’ sponsorsTHE DUBAI Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) recently organised a ceremony at the Grand Hyatt Dubai hotel to honour its support sponsors for the Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS-2005) Sweet Surprises. Representatives of the local print and broadcast media were also presented mementos and certificates of appreciation for their contributions to the event.

More than 150 events were conducted during the second theme week of the eighth annual indoor entertainment and shopping extravaganza in July.

DTCM events manager, Marwan bin Beyat, and chairperson of Sweet Surprises Organising Committee Shaikha Al Mutawa, presented the certificates of appreciation and gifts to representativesof the sponsors and media organisations.

BBC World presenter due in Doha for Excellence in Energy Awards

NIMA ABU-WARDEH, the well-known presenter of BBC World’s weekly

financial programme, Middle East Business Report, will be in Doha as master of ceremonies for the much anticipated ‘Excellence in Energy’ awards.

“As a bilingual broadcaster with a deep understanding of the Arab world, Nima was an obvious choice for this important role,” said Eileen Michael, publisher, Reflex Publishing,which organisesthe awards on behalf of its leading industry publication Pipeline.

The fifth ‘Excellence inEnergy’ awards – the Middle East’s annual energy industry ‘Oscars’ will take place in Qatar for the first time on November23 on the lawns of the Doha Golf Club. The awards, whichare fiercely contested by theregion’s expanding oil and gas sector, are being held under the patronage of His Excellency, Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, Qatar’s Oil Minister.

Voting for the awards, which continues until the end of October, is reaching a record

peak. “Voting has been very busy with particularly heavy polling from within the host country,” explained Michael.

The Excellence in Energyawards 2005 features 10 honours and covers a range of industry issues from health and safety to environment, from information technology to project of the year. They are being staged tocoincide with the inaugural International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC), which will take place in Doha from November 21-23.

“These awards, together withIPTC will ensure the eyes of the regional energy industry are firmly fixed on Qatar inNovember,” said Michael.

The Pipeline/Landmark Open golf tournament is also being staged in Qatar at the Doha Golf Club’s championship course on November 24.

“There has been anoverwhelming response to this commemorative tournament which is now sold out,” said Michael.

OK! launches world’s first Arabic issueCPI CONSUMER officially launched the Arabicversion of leading celebrity magazine OK! Middle East, opening itself up to a whole new audience of readers within the Arab world.

Published in the UAE, the magazine celebrated the launch with an exclusive VIP event attended by stunning Lebanese singer Elissa, who also featured on the new magazine’s cover issue – the first time an Arabicstar has appeared on the cover of OK! magazine worldwide.

“We are thrilled to have Elissa cover our magazine at the launch of OK! Middle East in Arabic. She represents the ideal example of an Arab woman that has become a global superstar and is bringing the international world of celebrities closer to the Arab world,” said Dominic de Sousa, publisher, CPI Consumer.

The exclusive launch event,which took place at Kasbar, One&Only Royal Mirage in Dubai, was sponsored by Diet Pepsi who features Elissa together with Amr Diab as its official starsof the Arab World.

The event, whichwas organised by event management and PR specialists d’Events, was also supported by Siemens and Philips.

10 NEWS

AdVocate

Dubai Press Club (DPC) has announced the appointment of a new

executive director and other

positions upon moving to its new premises at Dubai Media City.

Mona Al Marri, chairperson, said, “The new appointments will

help promote the Dubai Press Club’s new set of activities over the coming period and put it on the map as an active centre for serving the media fraternity.”

The DPC new managementand staff include the appointmentof Mohamed Al Mansoori as the executive director, Hassa Al Rasheed as the events manager, Maryam bin Fahad as the special projects executive, Sereen Sabra as the head of customer service, and Shahla Kashif as the events executive.

Beginning September 2005, Gaby Chamat has taken over the power

at Paradigm Gulf as chief executive officer and majorpartner, leading the agency to enlarge its portfolio of accounts and provide full-service communication. Established in 1999, Paradigm Gulf is currently a medium sized advertising agency primarily handling local accounts along with some regional business.

The agency has succeededin maintaining long-standing clients with full dedication and a top-notch creative team.

Chamat’s profound experience has been built throughout his long career as head of the regional media department at Team/Young & Rubicam until September 1997 and until late April 2005, as a chief operating officer founding Elite Network

Advertising in the Middle East, where he has succeeded in building an independent marketing communications network that has been able to compete in a very short time with multinational-affiliated advertising agencies.

New leadership at Paradigm

New appointments at DPC

INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels & Resorts has launched a new global brand advertising campaign, the result of positioning work that has been ongoing since late 2004. The brand’s new taglinechallenges its audience to answer the question, ‘Do you live an InterContinental Life?’

“At a time when other hotel brands are working to keep people in a ‘bubble’, InterContinental wants to provide our guests with memorable and unique experiences that will enrich their lives and broaden their outlook,” said Jenifer Zeigler, senior vice president, global brand management, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts. “We believe the new social currency is about being ‘in the know.’ And we can deliver that to our guests through great travel experiences.”

The campaign launch consistsof a television commercial filmed in Sydney, Australia,featuring Australia’s Challenge Yacht, named Spirit, built for the 1992 Americas Cup in San Diego. The campaign’s first printexecutions feature photography shot on the beaches and in the local markets of Bali, Indonesia.

E-BUSINESS, THE WEB design and multimedia wing of GMASCO Marketing Communications has won the prestigious ‘Standard of Excellence’ Award at the 9th Annual WebAward Competition, held by USA-based Web Marketing Association (WMA), for the design and development of ‘Toyotauae.com’, Toyota’s UAE website.

WMA is an association that works towards setting high standards in Internet marketing and corporate web development on the World Wide Web. Thisendeavour is further endorsed with their WebAwards, the competition that internationally recognises and rewards web professionals who strive to maintain those benchmarks.

InterContinental Hotels & Resorts launches global advertising campaign

GMASCO’s E-Business gains international recognition

THE PALESTINIAN Ministry of Information has closed the Voice for Love and Peace Radio Station and granted a broadcasting licence to Radio SAWA to broadcast on the frequency 94.2 FM, which had been assigned to The Voice forLove and Peace Radio Station (VOLP) since 1996.

In accordance with the Oslo Agreement, the Palestinian Authority obtained the right to use 8 FM frequencies: VOLP’s 94.2 FM was one of them. The Telecommunications Lawhas emphasised that these frequencies are a national asset and a national wealth. Disregarding this law, the Ministry of Information is

issuing licences to foreign radio stations and assigning limited frequencies to them. The radio stations that havebenefited from this move areRadio SAWA (which belongs to the American Government), the South African Radio Station, Vatican Radio, and the Israeli Palestinian Peace Radio Station.

AME Info introduces new podcasting serviceAME INFO HAS TAPPED into one of the Internet’s fastest-growing trends – Podcasting – to provide flexible access to its growing library of audio information to users around the world.

‘Podcasting’ is a way of publishing audio broadcasts via the Internet, enabling users to subscribe to a feed of new files.

All of AME Info’s exclusive audio content, from celebrity interviews to product reviews, business features and travel guides, can now be downloaded onto an MP3 player and listened to offline.

The new AME Info podcasting facility is ideal for people working in busy offices, those with limited Internet access, or those wanting to listen to AME Info radio at a quieter and more convenient time.

It works on both computers and digital audio players. “It’s perfect for users working in offices

where noise is an issue, or for those who want to listen to AME Info’s range of audio features on their drive home,” explained Phil Blizzard, programme director, AME Info Radio.

“We give our users full control: all AME Info features are free to download and there is no restrictive copy protection, so AME Info podcasts can easily be shared with friends and colleagues, or listened to over and over again.”

The podcasting termcomes from Apple’s iPod, but any digital audio player or computer with the appropriate software can play podcasts. Unlike radio or streaming media, podcasts are time-shifted, meaning that listeners have control over when they hear the recording similar to a VCR playing back a pre-recorded TV show. This means that AME Infoaudio features are always instantly available, and can be listened to at any time.

Former South African president to speak at Leaders in DubaiFORMER SOUTH African president Frederik Willem (FW) de Klerk has joined the speaker line-up of the international leadership summit Leaders in Dubai, joining political heavyweights Bill Clinton (via videocast), Dr Madeleine Albright and Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad.

In his first speech afterassuming the party leadership, de Klerk, who was inaugurated as president in 1989, called for a non-racist South Africa and for negotiations about the country’s future.

On February 2, 1990 he lifted the ban on the ANC and all other political organisations and announced the release of

Nelson Mandela. He brought apartheid to an end and opened the way for the drafting of a new South African constitution based on the principle of one person, one vote and the entrenchment of basic human rights.

Together with Mandela, de Klerk was awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for their work in ending apartheid and laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa. He served as president until Mandela’s inauguration in 1994.

De Klerk takes his place in the Leaders in Dubai line-up in place of former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who is now unable to appear at the event.

Voice for Love and Peace shut down

Cityscape to increase exhibition space by 50 per cent for 2006IIR MIDDLE EAST, THE organisers of Cityscape, has predicted a 50 per cent growth in net exhibition space for 2006. An additional 5,000 square metres of exhibition space has been booked for the fifth annualCityscape, due to take place at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre on December 4-6, 2006.

Franck Dailles, project director, Cityscape 2005, said, “We were absolutely overwhelmed by the response from exhibitors during and immediately after the show. An amazing 80 per cent of exhibitors congratulated us on the success of the show and without exception have expressed a keen interest to exhibit again next year”.

7Days launches Seven7DAYS HAS LAUNCHED its new free weekly magazine, Seven, published on Fridays and distributed with the newspaper.

The magazine offers a mix of news stories, lifestyle trends, human-interest issues and a round up of the week’s entertainment.

OgilvyOne Paris Awarded Yahoo! Advertising Activity in Europe YAHOO! HAS ANNOUNCED that OgilvyOne Worldwide has been appointed as its online advertising network in Europe.

OgilvyOne Paris will act as the European lead, coordinating local Ogilvy offices acrossEurope. OgilvyOne will primarily provide interactive creative services, including digital media creation and execution for Yahoo!’s core product offerings.

Laurent Lilti, president, OgilvyOne Paris, commented, “Yahoo!’s decision to appoint OgilvyOne as its provider of online creative and marketing

services in Europe is an amazing opportunity to partner with a leading Internet player. We’re looking forward to helping Yahoo! grow its business in Europe and communicate its numerous product innovations through innovative creative ideas.”

Jérome Mercier, VP of Marketing for Yahoo! Inc, said, “We are excited to work with a leading creative partner across Europe. This aligns with our focuson uplifting the standard of online advertising and leverages Yahoo!’s international network to develop strong pan-European campaigns.”

New challenges for Gaby Chamat

Mohamed Al Mansoori, Hassa Al Rasheed and Sereen Sabra

12 NEWS

AdVocate

ACTIVE PR, THE STRATEGIC public relations and marketing communications consultancy based in Dubai Media City, has announced that 3i Infotech has joined the agency’s expanding client base. 3i Infotech selected Active PR based upon a solid combination of experience in the field of IT public relations,intelligent PR practice and a proactive approach to client-media development.

3i Infotech, is a player in enterprise business solutions for SMB, enterprise businesses, the insurance industry, banking, retail logistics and distribution industries and has witnessed strong regional and international growth over the last few years. Deriving much of its strength from cutting-edge, research-intensive industry solutions, 3i Infotech has attained a reputation for quality and versatility across major verticals

in the region and internationally. “We’re very pleased with

the addition of 3i Infotech to the Active PR Client roster. They’re a strong and innovativecompany that compliments our existing client base. 3i

Infotech appreciates process driven strategic PR and we look forward to providing

them with this,” says Louay Al Samarrai, managing director of Active PR.

ARABIC IT NEWS PORTAL (AITnews) announced the formal launch of its website: www.aitnews.com. The newwebsite is set to be the premier platform in the world that offersthe latest news and updates of information and communication technology in Arabic, and in accordance with the highest standards of online publishing.

Ahmed Abd Al Qadir, general manager of AITnews, which is based in Dubai Media City, says that the main reason behind launching this portal is to overcome the huge lack of Arabic IT news, and consequently meet the needs of all Arab end users.

“The new portal will be areliable and comprehensive

Arabic news source for all international and regional IT news round the clock. It is the only news portal in the world that is completely dedicated to providing this kind of news (IT), which receives too little attention from Arab media. aitnews.com is presented and supported by a group of professionals from all around the world”, he explains.

“This website representsonly the first stage of what isgoing to be the world’s largest portal ever to cover information and communication news in proper Arabic, in a bid to keep the hugely-increasing number of ICT users in the Arab world up-to-date with all international and regional

news round the clock. We have strained every nerve to make sure this website is second to none”, adds Ahmed.

The website targets bothend-users and corporate ones and offers them a widevariety of information and communication technology

news through numerous useful sections, such as ‘computer world’, ‘Internet news’, ‘digital cameras’, ‘mobile phones’, ‘e-security’, and ‘software & applications’, with more sections to come alongside the next stages of this tremendous project.

The World’s First Arabic IT News Portal Unveiled

3i Infotech appoints Active PR

MOTIVATE VAL MORGAN Cinema Advertising has been awarded the exclusive advertising sales contract for the prestigious new CineStar Mall of the Emirates. MVM will now handle advertising sales for all four CineStar Cinemas across the UAE.

CineStar has launched its fourth multi-screen cinema in the UAE at Mall of the Emirates- Dubai with a number of unique features. Foremost of these are two of CineStar’s ultra-luxurious Gold Class cinemas, complete with their own dedicated lounge area, and a 50s style diner-café-gelaterie, called Oscar’s, differentiatingthe cinema from a number of current and upcoming ones around the UAE.

The new 14-screen multiplexcinema has an innovative architectural design spread across two levels, and is equipped with the latest in projection facilities including e-cinema solutions that enable CineStar to screen more than just movies. Enhancing the movie experience are the Gold Class cinemas with 40 fully reclining leather armchairs each and the convenience for Gold Class patrons to collect their tickets without having to stand in a queue and to be served a menu selection of their choice from Oscar’s while they enjoy a movie in the comfort of an intimate setting. Thesecinemas will also be targeted at corporates for special screenings and presentations.

Robert Flynn, CineStar’s general manager, Middle East says: “Our group has around 150 cinema sites across four countries. I can categorically state that this new multiplex at Mall of the Emirates is one of the most exciting we have in terms of facilities and products offered and visual appeal. Afantastic, enthusiastic staff, whoare there to ensure our patrons’ experience is a first class journey,is the icing on the cake.”

Oscar’s is expected to take the cinema-going experience to another level. With its name echoing the coveted ‘Oscars’ movie awards, the diner promises to serve the best of classic fast casual dining fare with many popular offeringslike hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks and soups. The casual andfriendly atmosphere will serve as a perfect place for customers to dine and relax before or after the movies while, conveniently, not having to move from the exciting cinema surrounds. Non-movie goers will be equally welcome at Oscar’s, dining on popular selections while still getting a taste of the movies.

The new CineStar at Mallof the Emirates promises to be a ticket to a new experience in entertainment. Its inimitable and value added features truly make it an exceptional entertainment venue that must be experienced.

CineStar Mall of the Emirates contract awarded

Hari Padmanabhan, executive director & president, 3i Infotech

THE ART OF FLIGHT, Davin Anders Hutchins’ guerilla documentary about Sudanese refugees in Egypt, has officiallybeen selected to compete in the First Appearance showcase at

the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Running from November 24 to December 4, the IDFA First Appearance competition features 20 documentary

films from first-time featuredocumentary directors. Each film is eligible for theIDFA Audience Award. The announcement comeson the heels of the The Art

Of Flight’s World Premiere at the International Film Festival in Hollywood, where it competed with 12 films in the InternationalDocumentary Competition.

The Art Of Flight to Compete at International Documentary Festival

Active PR are pleased with the addition of 3i Infotech

MOTIVATE PUBLISHING and the Dubai Department of Trade and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) have signed a renewed publishing agreement for Destination Dubai and Dubai Business Handbook for years 2006 and 2007. Motivate Publishing’s involvement will include editorial, advertising and production of the publications for two more years. Motivate Publishing has published for DTCM for over 14 years.

Motivate and DTCM sign dealMIDDLE EAST SATELLITE broadcaster Orbit has signed an agreement with Microsoft in the first of a series ofmeasures which the broadcaster says will lead to a wholesale revolution in customer service by early next year.

The agreement will seewide-ranging upgrades in Orbit’s IT infrastructure by Microsoft that will dramatically improve the broadcaster’s capability and resources. The

improvements are the firstin a series of projects being undertaken by Orbit in a $2 million investment scheme for delivery of customer services.

“We have undergone an extensive licensing upgrade exercise and operating system overhaul with Microsoft that sets the stage for us to transform our customer service interface by early 2006,” explained Khosrow Afrasiabi, Orbit’s global IT director.

Orbit deal with Microsoft

14 NEWS

AdVocate

MEMAC OGILVY recently appointed Ronald Howes managing director of its Dubai office. Howestakes over from Roger Hawa, who previously combined the functions of managing director

TURNER INTERNATIONAL (Turner) and Global Broadcast News (GBN), a TV18 Group Company, have announced a partnership to launch a co-branded, 24-hour, English-language general news channel in India. Renowned TV journalist

Memac Ogilvy strengthens leadership

Edmond Moutran, CEO and chairman of Memac Ogilvy, and Ronald Howes, new managing director of the Dubai office, with Roger Hawa, chief operating officer for the network

SOME 200 LEO BURNETT Group of companies employees across the Middle East and North Africa region are receiving new job titles in a move that mirrors a major shift that has taken place at the agency, which now offers not just advertisingbut total integrated communication consulting.

Titles that used to be ‘account’ executive or ‘account’ director, for example, will now be ‘communication’ executive and ‘communication’ director. The move affects all fourcompanies within the Leo Burnett Group: brand agencies Leo Burnett and Black Pencil, interactive and CRM agency Arc MENA and Manning Selvage & Lee public relations.

Leo Burnett Group MENA employees receive new job titles

...Continued from page 1The highlight of the

conference was undoubtedly Tim Sebastian’s interview with advertising legend, Antoine Choueiri. Under a barrage of questions on the subject of monopoly, Choueiri insisted that in spite of his son’s comments to the contrary, he had never had nor wanted to have a monopoly in media sales. “Have you ever lied in business?”, asked Tim Sebastian. “No”, replied Choueiri as a groan went round the packed auditorium.

GMR’s 6th annual marketing conference was a huge success in contrast to the somewhat lacklustre Media & Marketing Show taking place across the corridor. The event, which organisersclaimed “would become as big as GITEX” failed to attract the expected number of visitors.

Media marketing mix

Turner International and TV18 partner in IndiaRajdeep Sardesai will spearhead GBN’s foray into the general news space as the editor-in-chief of the service. The co-brandedservice, CNN-IBN, will build upon the strong foundation of TV18’s newsgathering experience and infrastructure in India,

bolstered by CNN’s eminent and extensive global news network.

Under the terms of the agreement, GBN’s proposed channel – formerly known as India Broadcast News (IBN) - will have access to CNN’s trademark live breaking news, as

well as key feature programmes. This unique alliance will, for thefirst time ever, enable Indianviewers to view local news as well as relevant global news from CNN, the world’s news leader, on the same platform. The new channel will focus

on providing robust and high quality news from every corner of India with a complete commitment to the needs and aspirations of the Indian viewer, while CNN International will continue to deliver global news to Indian viewers.

of the Dubai office and COOof the Memac Ogilvy Group.

Hawa will continue to function as chief operating officerto the network and will focus on his regional responsibilities According to Edmond Moutran,

CEO and chairman of Memac Ogilvy, the move comes as a result of the expansion of both the Dubai office and thenetwork as a whole, which is looking at increasing its presence in the North African region.

16 IAA

AdVocate

Prepare, prepare, prepare. What are you selling? What are its benefits? Why should people be interested in it?What is better about your product or service than

others in the marketplace? Do you have a USP? What response are you trying to elicit?

The most successful writers always think before they write.There really is no other way.It is vital that you ask yourself thequestions above. You will be amazed how this discipline will help you focus and produce a more effective copy.

Create a riveting and benefit-laden headline The headline must contain a benefit and a relevance tothe reader. On average, five times as many people read theheadline of your ad and letter, than read the body copy.

Therefore, it is a golden rule that the winning idea, theproposition, must be in the headline, not merely in the copy. Because if it isn’t, there will be no selling proposition to 90 per cent of your audience.

So, if you have news to tell, don’t bury it in your body copy, which nine out of 10 people won’t read. Fire your biggest gun first. John Caples once said, “Based onhundreds of tests conducted, a good headline can be as much as 17 times more effective than a so-so headline.And this is with exactly the same body copy!”

AIDCA It was AIDA. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. I think in these tough times, we now have to add Credibility to it as well. So now it becomes AIDCA.

A sales letter should always be written using that sequence. No exception.

What’s more, it will never change, as long as the world keeps turning. Mess with it and your letter will under-perform. I guarantee it.

Recognise the enormous importance of the first paragraphThe first paragraph must carry on in the same positivevein as the headline and/or envelope copy.

Remember that the reader will not remain with you unless your first and second paragraphs hold the attentionand interest your headline and layout have aroused. And if you ask a question in the headline, answer it fast in the firstparagraph, or you will lose the reader right there.

The benefit in the headline must be substantiated,enhanced and expanded if possible, in the first two paragraphs.

This is where the experienced writer starts to takecontrol of the situation.

The IAA event committee organised a talk delivered by Andy Owen, one of the most influential directmarketers around today, on copywriting for direct mail titled, “It’s only words and words are all I have to take your heart away”.

Andy’s Gospel

IAA Brief

Andy Owen is a committed direct marketing professional, having been involved in the industry for well over two decades.

He still works at the ‘sharp end’ of the business, running one of the world’s most respected direct marketing agencies, who assist, guide and advise clients of all shapes and sizes in all corners of the world, in all aspects of the medium.

Andy is still personally involved in all the creative and copy that emanate from the agency and he studies the art of communication with a dedication that makes him very unusual these days.

As well as running a very successful agency and copy bureau, Andy

somehow finds time to travel vastdistances every year, visiting the company’s operations overseas and working personally with clients there.

For example, Andy visits Dubai every four weeks and has made the trip for over 12 years.

Andy presents conferences, seminars, workshops and training sessions on all aspects of contemporary direct marketing all over the world and regularly travels over 100,000 miles every year sharing his wisdom and knowledge.

He works for the DMA and the Institute of Direct Marketing in the UK and writes a monthly feature on copywriting called Copycat for the

Chartered Institute of Marketing. He also speaks regularly for the International Advertising Association.

His lively, passionate and hugely entertaining presentations are always very well received by delegates and show organisers alike. His very personal style is fast-paced and fun and he uniquely combines education with entertainment.

Andy is a highly respected contributor to several international marketing and advertising publications, including Admap, Marketing Week, Gulf Marketing Review, Direct Response, Direct Marketing Week, Direct Marketing International, Precision Marketing, AdAsia and Adline.

ABOUT ANDY OWEN

Use simple but effective wordsSimple words are the most effective in selling a copy. Useeveryday words, words that people recognise and are comfortable with. Words that flow easily and have anatural rhythm.

Don’t try to be smart or show off with your copy. Noone is interested in how clever you are.

Remember some wise words from Copy Master Ken Roman: ‘New usage offends many ears. Established usageoffends no one’.

Also try to understand the type of person you are writing to. Write to one person from that group and your copy will speak to all the people in that group.

People buy benefits, not featuresThis is so misunderstood right now, it is staggering. Theamount of mailings you see that talk about the company, how long it has been in business, its mission statement, what this product does etc – is mind-blowing.

No one is interested in the company, its history and its products and services, believe me. They are onlyinterested in what those products or services can do for them.

So, when you write your next sales letter, make the benefits the star,not the features, the brand or the company.

Emotional words always work better than intellectual words Keep any intellectuals that you may have, well away from writing sales letters.

People buy for emotional reasons and justify those reasons with logic. Gene Schwartz wrote an ad that ran for over two decades and sold so many flowers, itexhausted nurseries. It is pure emotion. Here’s part of it...

‘When you put this into the Earth and you jump back quickly, it explodes into flowers. And everybodyin your neighbourhood comes and they look.

And people take home blooms because you’ve got so many you could never find a house big enough to put them in. And you’ve become the gardening expert for the entire neighbourhood.’

Recognise the five basic objections your readers will have and address them within your sales argument ➀ I don’t believe you. ➁ I don’t need it. ➂ I don’t have enough time. ➃ I don’t have enough money. ➄ It won’t work for me.

AdVocate

IAA 17

75 per cent. The reason is simple. 75.6 per cent is sospecific, it makes it more believable.

Your reader will be sceptical. He wants to disbelieve you. The more you can do in your copy tocounteract this and win the reader over, the more it will give you a fighting chance.

And, when you think about it, those percentages are available anyway. Most use ‘over 75 per cent’ and similar phrases, simply because they are lazy.

Testimonials are gold dust Testimonials are all about confidence. Other peopletelling you what you have bought – or are about to buy – was, or will be, one of the smartest decisions you ever made. Use them whenever you can.

When you open Harvey McKay’s book, Swim with the sharks without being eaten alive, the first 15 pagesare filled with testimonials.

Make sure your copy believes in itself I call this ‘making the words connect to the eyes’. It is so important in this sceptical world that your copy has energy, belief and that wonderful word – verisimilitude – the appearance of truth.

Show some excitement for your product or service. Because, let’s face it, if you aren’t pumped up about what you’re selling, don’t expect the reader to be.

Be enthusiastic, but be believable. Do not raise doubts.The reader only wants an excuse to stop reading. In fact,they are looking for one all the time. Don’t give it to them.

Understand that good layout and type will support and help copy Words sell. Pretty pictures do not. However, the use of the correct graphics, fonts and layouts can greatly assist the delivery and understanding of your sales message.

If you would like further information on any aspect of copywriting for direct marketing, you can contact Andy directly at andyowen@aol.com. Don’t forget to check out Andy’s DVD on copywriting called How to write copy that really sells, available in the Middle East through Motivate Publishing for Dhs 250 (+9714 2824060).

Deadlines can be effective too. Most people won’t take any immediate action unless there exists a sound reason to do so. Deadlines are one way to generate speedier action, as long as your deadline sounds credible.

HOW TO WRITE COPY THAT REALLY SELLS

Shane O’Hare delves on the re-positioning of Gulf Air following the changes and what steps the airline is taking to deliver on its brand promises. Page 28

It’s a very clever approach. He is making you feel you have made one of the wisest decisions of your life by purchasing his book.

You are so excited to start the book after reading testimonials from people including President Ford, Billy Graham and Robert Redford, that you have already justified making the purchase.

Guarantees are expected. Don’t disappoint Give a guarantee. It is part of life now. It is expected. People will suspect you if you don’t give one, or if you wrap it up in small print. Less than two per cent of your customers will ever ask for their money back, so offeringa guarantee is a pretty safe risk.

What kind of guarantee? Well, as liberal as you can possibly make it. ‘No quibble’, ‘no questions asked’

are the best. Because they give confidence about you andwhat you are selling.

Don’t forget to tell the reader what to do I get amazed at the amount of mailings and ads I see, that seem to forget this.

The whole object of you spending your time and money creating good copy is to influence the recipient to buy from you. When they get to the end of the letter, tell them what they have to do.

Wherever possible, include a personalised order form or response device. It will always uplift response, especially in BTB (business to business) mailings. In addition, give the reader as many opportunities to respond as possible – mail, fax, toll-free numbers, email or website.

If you’re marketing on the Web, include a link or a button that makes it easy for your readers to order.

Deadlines can be effective too. Most people won’ttake any immediate action unless there exists a sound reason to do so. Deadlines are one way to generate speedier action, as long as your deadline sounds credible.

Use words that have magic, pizzazz and above all, words that SELL Use words that are proven in getting attention. But use them wisely. If you just string these words together, they are ineffective. But weave them into your copy, along with the essential facts and copy techniques described earlier, and they become very powerful indeed: Here are a few proven ones...

Introducing, announcing, astonishing, exciting, exclusive, fantastic, fascinating, first, free, guaranteed,incredible, initial, improved, love, limited offer, powerful,phenomenal, revealing, revolutionary, sensational, special, successful, super, time-sensitive, unique, urgent, wonderful, you, breakthrough, new, and how-to.

Notice most of the above are emotional words.

In a sales letter, the P.S. is a BIG player Big is right. Testing has shown that 79 per cent of people who open your mail will read the P.S. almost immediately. That’s a lot of people, so always use theP.S. to restate the offer and benefit. There should neverbe anything in the P.S that isn’t in the body copy.

It is imperative that any offer is restated in the P.S., together with any deadline.

Test ruthlessly Test. Test. Test. The rock on which the direct marketing church was built. Yet very few people seem to test these days. Some can’t be bothered, some are just plain lazy, some are naïve in such things and most blame budgets.

If you don’t measure it, you can’t prove it. People think testing is research. Nothing is farther

from the truth. Research is theoretical, not actual. Research is opinion, information, preferences, etc. Testing is real. The results of battle activity. Straight from the marketing trenches.

Many variables can be tested in direct marketing, but make sure you only do one at a time, otherwise you won’t know which element has generated the uplift.

If there is no offer, there will be no sale Ignore this at your peril. Remember, the individual you are writing to is now in control. What’s more, that person knows it.

This is 2005. People demand the best. If you don’t provide a strong offer in your mailing or ad, therecipient will go somewhere else. You may not like it. But it’s a fact.

Study successful copy Study the best writers. There are books available showcasing the most successful letters ever written. Treat yourself to some.

Read selected letters out loud. You will know instantly why they worked.

Write out some letters word-for-word in your own hand to get a feel for its rhythm.

You’ll find this is an interesting exercise.Remember that the best writers

study the business. The best writers study words.

Great copy comes from people who pay enormous attention to detail. Great copy comes from people who think beyond the words…

Use proven formats. For ads, consider an advertorial style This approach is doing well right now and can get 80per cent more attention than any other ad layout.

Correct typography helps people to read your copy, whilst bad typography prevents them from doing so. Best typefaces are serifs, courier, century, caslon, bakerville, trebuchet and times roman.

Use proven techniques to attract and seduce. You have to keep the reader reading any way you can. Subheads, bullet points and indents all work. These techniques also cater for the ‘skimmers’ who tend to glance at copy, as well as the word-for-word readers. The effective use of subheads is essential in selling copy.

A lot of readers, although attracted and intrigued by the headline, can be turned off by the sight of longbody copy. A subhead will give them an idea of what the body copy is saying, and can be a shortcut to getting a pretty speedy overview of what the letter is all about.

Subheads make it easier and more inviting for the reader to keep going down through more of the body matter of a letter. The first couple of subheads shouldbe powerful and interesting and support the headline. They do a vital job.

Tests have shown that two short opening paragraphs and then your first subhead is arecommended route.

Specifics sell, generalities do not 75.6 per cent is significantly more effective than over

18 IAA

AdVocate

JOSE MARIA AZNARPRIME MINISTER OF SPAIN (1996-2004)The man who led Spain economically and culturally back to the forefront of Europe now enlightens audiences with his views on the global economy and leadership.

STEVE FORBESCEO OF FORBES As an influential pro-growthadvocate and a writer and speaker on domestic and foreign policy issues, Steve Forbes is one of

the most well respected men of our time. In his speeches, the visionary and expert economist explores compelling global business issues of the day.

DAVID TAYLOREUROPEAN BUSINESS SPEAKER OF THE YEAR 2004

He has a 25 year track record in organisations that include Rolls-Royce, Hoechst and Cornhill, and is now at the forefront of success and leadership delivery. His book The Naked Leader was the best-selling book in the UK in 2003.

DR TONY ALESSANDRA AUTHOR, FROM NEVADA , USA Author of 14 books including the

highly popular business best sellers Non-Manipulative Selling, The Art of Managing People and The Platinum Rule.

SERGIO ZYMANMARKETING VISIONARY, AUTHOR AND FORMER CMO, COCA-COLA

A master of unconventional wisdom, Zyman literally wrote the books that definetoday’s market strategies: The End of Marketing As We Know It, The End of Advertising as We Know It, and Renovate Before You Innovate.

MARCIO MOREIRAVICE CHAIRMAN/ COO OF MCCANN-ERICKSON WORLD GROUP

Moreira started work as a copywriter with McCann-Erickson, Sao Paolo to pay for law school. McCann sent him to London in the early seventies.

NORMAN PEARLSTINEEDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF TIME INC. Pearlstine oversees the editorial content of Time Inc.’s magazines, including Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, In Style, Money, People, Real Simple, Sports Illustrated, TIME.

SUSANNAH OUTFINCEO OF CARAT INTERNATIONAL

Susannah who was vice president of Carat International Paris and has worked with Carat’s major international

clients became CEO of Carat International in November 2003.

SAHAR HASHEMICO-FOUNDER OF COFFEE REPUBLIC, UK

Coffee Republic is one of the UK’s most recognised high street brands. Hashemi was recently named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Her book Anyone Can Do It! was published in 2003.

KEN KAESSPRESIDENT & CEO OF DDB WORLDWIDE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP

Ken Kaess began his advertising career in 1977 at (what was then) Doyle Dane Bernbach as an account executive. In 1999, he was appointed president of (what is now) DDB Worldwide, the largest advertising agency in the US and second largest in the world.

MIKE SIMONSenior vice president, Corporate Communications, Emirates AirlinesDONALD GUNNThe Annual Gunn Report & ShowreelGHASSAN SALAMÉSenior advisor to UN Secretary GeneralJAMES R STENGELGlobal marketing officer, The Procter & Gamble CompanyBOB ISHERWOODWorldwide creative director, Saatchi & SaatchiCOLIN GOTLIEBChief executive OMD EuropeHAMEED HAROONCEO, Dawn Group of Publications, PakistanTATEO MATAKI Chief executive officer, DENTSU, JapanJOHN ELKINSExecutive VP Visa InternationalJERRY RAOChairman & CEO, MphasiS & past chairman, NasscomHOWARD DRAFTChairman & chief executive officer, DRAFTSUSAN E DOCHERTYGeneral manager, Hummer, General MotorsJAY RASULOChairman, Walt Disney Parks & ResortsJACK KLUESChairmanPublicis Group Media

IAA 2006 SPEAKERS LIST

Motivate Publishing signs major new agreements with IAA

The International Advertising Association (IAA)-UAE Chapter

has signed a new five-yearagreement with Motivate Publishing in respect of the association’s Advocate Journal. The Advocate has been published quarterly for the past 10 years and will in future be six times a year with plans to increase this frequency to monthly in the foreseeable future.

Motivate Publishing has also been appointed the OfficialPublisher of the IAA World Congress to be held in Dubai from March 20 – 23, 2006 and has committed Platinum Sponsorship of $500,000 to the IAA in addition to a share of

the event’s publishing revenue. As the official publisher,Motivate will be responsible for publishing the Congress Souvenir, the Congress Pocket Guide and Daily Newspaper.

Ian Fairservice, managing partner of Motivate Publishing, said: “We couldn’t be happier. Motivate Publishing has been involved with the IAA since its inception in the Emirates 26 years ago and has been a sponsor and official publisherfor every major event organised by the association. This is aunique opportunity for us to showcase our products and services on our home ground to visiting delegates at the cutting-edge of global advertising.”

IAA Bahrain Chapter hosts business gatheringTHE IAA BAHRAIN Chapter held a business gathering on October 2, 2005 at the Al Sawani Restaurant. Theevent was attended by over 120 key members from the industry including HE Ali bin Saleh Al Saleh, minister of Municipalities and Agriculture, HE Dr Faisal Al Mousawi, chairman of Shura Council, important dignitaries from the government and private sector, IAA Bahrain Chapter members and guests, as well as representatives from the advertising industry.

Sponsored by Stark Ads, Bahrain’s sole agent for public transport media, Airport plasma screens, Aqariya TV and developers of outdoor billboards, the

theme of the event was based on outdoor media.

The programme included an update on the developments in the advertising industry in Bahrain and a presentation on outdoor media by François Hajjar, general manager of Stark Ads.

Khamis Al Muqla, president of the IAA Bahrain Chapter, said, “The advertising businessin Bahrain witnessed an increase from a modest $20 million to $116 million last year. The firstsix months of 2005 touched $51 million, taking the industry towards achieving a similar expenditure this year or even exceeding it.”

ERIC TENG, DEPUTY chairman of AdAsia Singapore, scheduled November 20-23, specially flew to Dubai tomake a presentation on the Congress to our Chapter Members on September 13.

The event at the IAApremises in Dubai Media City coincided with the monthly social sponsored by Gulf News. The eveninghad a large turnout of nearly 100 members and guests.

L to R: Nadim Barrage, secretary general; Tanvir Kanji, president; Eric Teng, deputy chairman, AdAsia, Singapore; Marwan Rizk, area director (Middle East and Africa)

AdAsia Road Show for IAA Members

www.iaadubai2006.com

20 GUEST COLUMNS

AdVocate

Points of View

Most of you readers would say that this is a far-fetched

comment. But consider some of these observations: ■ Advertising is fast becoming a commodity in the region and the only differentation among agencies nowadays is the best value in media buying that a firm can offer a client.■ Traditional business models of any advertising agency had a special place for creative and strategy. That model is fast going pear shaped.■ Small and nimble ad agencies are seriously challenging the big networks.■ Talent is in short supply and thus standards are either static or falling.

You may ask why a PR guy is painting a grim picture for the advertising folks. Simply because the answer is – blowin’ in the wind!

It may sound too pat – but the time has come for public relations to show its true worth in this market – and it is already happening, albeit in a small but significant way.PR is today expanding its role as a strategic discipline for large and medium-sized businesses across the region, as well as government and semi-government institutions.

Most of the chief executives who run client organisations are increasingly turning for advice and counsel to PR consultancy firms that can lookat their businesses in a holistic fashion, grapple with problems that are ‘here and now’ and work towards creating solutions that go beyond just the ‘pretty picture solution’ within the communications realm. That is sheer valuethat can hold its own ‘at the table’ with the chief executive and make a difference in theday-to-day running of an

organisation and to the bottom line.

Let me give you some examples of assignments that PR agencies are increasingly handling in the region:

■ XYZ organisation has aspirations of working towards an Initial Public Offering and needs to understand how to position the company pre-IPO and sustain the value proposition post the x number of times the issue is over subscribed. ■ CEO of XYZ family-owned company has a problem with the new standards of transparency and corporate governance that are being swiftly adopted by several markets in the region and needs guidance on how to be seen as being compliant.■ XYZ Corporation is paralysed by the challenge of the liberalised economy following new WTO regulations and needs urgent help to change the mindset of the company’s workforce to survive.■ The government of a European country needs desperate help on issues management on how it can reclaim lost market share of a key export commodity which was pulled out of the regional market after a health scare.■ XYZ Bank needs to know how it can position itself as a benevolent employer to attract the best Gulf National talent and also be seen as a socially responsible company which meets the demands of quotas set by the government.■ XYZ brand has been in the market for over 60 years and has a clientele that are mostly over 40 years of age. They need help to reposition and stay relevant to a vastly

emerging consumer base in the age group of 15 to 25. They want to achieve this by using word of mouth marketing techniques that will create the buzz factor.

None of the above assignments would normally have been handled primarily by a PR consultancy. Traditionally some of these predominantly communications assignments would be assigned to a foreign management consultant – the suits – who would fly in tohand out recycled standard PowerPoint templates that they have used countless times. They hardly ever stopto think if it fits the marketneed. They would then ofcourse fly out with tonnes ofmoney in consultancy fees. This does continue to happen!

So why have the PR guys been able to move into a space that advertising folks could not get into? The reason is probably because advertising is still stuck with mothballed concepts. Though I am sure that the ad agency people continue to subject their clients to several patented strategy brand models which are intrinsically strong, but do not address the clients’ problems in a holistic manner.

The mantra of ‘reach and frequency’ hammers home the idea that in order to be effective, an ad must hit as many likely customers as often as possible to have any effect. This leads to ad executives being beholden to client ad spend. In their world, the more a client can spend, the more valuable they are and consequently, the stronger their brand.

In the book, The fall of advertising and the rise of PR, Al Ries points out through examples that increased ad exposure and expense will not necessarily increase sales. We are all aware of the fact that an advertisement is simply a pitch – a blatant attempt to influence consumption. Advertising, concludes Ries, is simply not able to fulfil its most basic mandate – the creation of brand loyalty.

Ries points to the fact that there are many examples of brands that have been built with virtually no advertising. Starbucks, Ford Mustang, Microsoft, The Palm, Body Shop, Wal-Mart, Krispy Kremes and Zara have been built with virtually no advertising.

The world of PR today is driven by the magic word, TRUST. As Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman PR Worldwide says: “Trust is the last word of political

discourse, communications and business.” But from ‘food for oil’ to ‘weapons of mass destruction’, from the pharmaceuticals industry to the BBC, people’s trust in long established institutions and figures of authority has been significantly battered. Successful companies and brands are now looking at building trust with their various stakeholders.

Edelman conducts a much quoted annual study called the Edelman Trust Barometer, a global study of opinion leaders in North America, Europe and Asia. In the sixth report issued this year the following new rules of engagement were identified to re-establish trust:■ Sacrifice control and perfection of message for speed and free-flowing discussion.■ Employees and ‘an average person like me’ are more credible than CEOs.■ Recognise the necessity of corporate social responsibility.■ The most trusted media is local or national, not global.

Having said all that, I must admit public relations strategic consultancy in the region today does earn its bread and butter by focusing on getting a good story in

a newspaper, an article in a magazine, an interview on a television newscast, a comment in a popular blog and peer-to-peer communications to create the buzz factor. The third party validation the brand receives will contain enough force to build awareness and trust in the brand. Sustained efforts will further reinforce the perception and have an even stronger influence on consumer behavior.

PR is increasingly going beyond the brand work. CEO positioning, corporate social responsibility, investor relations, internal communications, change management, public affairs and crisis and issues management are a few of the areas that PR professionals are hugely involved in.

PR talent is capable of walking into boardrooms and offering strategic public relations consulting that acts as a force multiplier to the marketing plans of clients. The number of PR companies in the region that can hold their own amongst clients in the boardroom are few – but they are fast growing.

ASDA’A is a public relations consultancy based in Dubai and the exclusive aff iliate of Edelman PR Worldwide.

THERE WAS AN era not long ago, when you were able to buy a magazine as thick as any Pulitzer-winning novel for just five dirhams. The difference of course layin the content. For these magazines were dominated by pages and pages of Lancôme and Christian Dior ads.

The media in the UAE,as in many other Arabian countries, suffered fromone main shortcoming: a lack of content.

This media focusedalmost exclusively on current hot political issues while fundamental and more difficultissues that needed to analyse poverty, education, health and prejudices in labour laws, to name just a few, were hardly discussed or even raised. Financial sections in newspapers or on the many Arab TV channels were very dry. Thiswas because it lacked the regular research and analysis needed.

It seemed that the Arab media did not understand that journalism is about new information, and not repetitive loud headlines.

Fortunately, a new era has begun.

During the last year, we began to see some successful attempts to address these issues. We have today some fine programmes especiallyin the social and financialsectors. These programmeshave investigative reporting at their core. We also have a few excellent specialised magazines that are original and creative in content. It seems that the call for specialised journalism has been answered. We now have educated journalists dedicated to law, medicine, technology, business or finance. Journaliststhat understand both the audience and the demands of the competitive market.

It’s true that the per cent of these specialised programmes or magazines is still small, but the future is very promising. This is especiallytrue after Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Minister of Defence, reiterated on Sunday October 9 his pledge for continuous moral and financial supportfor local journalists to help them achieve their goals, as he encouraged them to be bold and transparent.

Move over Advertising, PR is nudging its way in!

Managing Director of ASDA’A

SUNIL JOHN

Head of Corporate Communications at Rasmala Investments

JEEHAN DAHMAN BALFAQAIH

The world of PR today is driven by the magic word, TRUST. Trust is the last word of political discourse, communications and business. Successful companies and brands are now looking at building trust with their various stakeholders.

22 GUEST COLUMNS

AdVocate

So What’s Law Got To Do With It?

Someone asked me pretty recently, so what does a lawyer do in advertising, what has advertising got to do with law? As I was answering this guy’s question, it occurred to me how often I had heard similar comments, both during my time as one of the only few recommended advertising lawyers back in the UK and since arriving here in the Middle East mid last year.

So I figured it may not bea bad idea to look at a few issues which should be on your minds, whether you are an advertiser or an agency.

Just to set the scene, I will begin with a bold statement:

Advertising regulation is no different in the MiddleEast to advertising regulation in any other region.

OK, now just before some of you begin to disagree with that simple statement, what do I mean by it?

Well, what is advertising regulation there to do? Theanswer is the same regardless of the jurisdiction you are working in – it is there to reflect the cultural, socialand moral norms of the particular society to which the advertising will be directed. In other words, it is there to

reflect society’s inherentnature. So that is the very simple starting point for looking at advertising regulation in whatever country (or, if you are rolling

out a pan-jurisdictional campaign, countries) in which your ads will appear. Advertising regulation in every country around the world will simply find a different way toachieve this goal, depending on those norms I mentioned earlier. Now my role as an advertising lawyer (and your’s as an advertiser or agency) is to get into that culture! And, as I said before, it is no different here in the MiddleEast to anywhere else – we have exactly the same range of issues to consider including:■ Specific regulationsrelating to TV, radio and print advertising.■ Category specificrestrictions, for example in relation to pharmaceuticals, medicinal and health products, cigarettes, alcohol (or non-alcoholic equivalents), financial advertising andadvertising to children.■ Sales promotions including prize draws and competitions and price promotions (sales etc).■ Direct marketing.■ A whole range of e-advertising issues which are now arising in the fast approaching and growing world of e-business.■ Sponsorship and endorsements.

■ The effective protection ofyour key intellectual property rights (and including in particular copyright and trade marks) and also the safe use of a third party’s intellectual property rights; and so on.

When advertising for example on a pan-jurisdictional advertising or sales promotion campaign, I often summarise the situation to my client by saying that the controls over advertising are many, varied and often vague! And this is just as true in the Middle East as anywhere else. We have a real mix of legal, regulatory and practical controls over what advertisers and promoters can do. So for example:

Comparative ads pretty much don’t happen in the Middle East. For me, this is a shame as it is one of the areas where some of the most inventive and aggressive advertising arises. In the UK, US and elsewhere in Europe, comparative advertising is pretty much the norm in most sectors and you can make direct comparative claims about your competitors or their products. However, I have seen very few examples of cutting-edge comparative ads in this region in the last 10 years. The industry seemspretty cautious so far as ‘knocking’ ads are concerned. All we have seen so far was a recent ad placed relating to The CEO show taking a sideswipe at its rival The Apprentice in the midst of the

recent Kanoo vs Alabbar and an ad we advised on recently from the soft cheese market which didn’t even use a direct reference, but relied on colour to draw an inference of the competitive product. Perhaps this is one area where the Middle Eastern advertising industry could be bolder.

On the other hand, certain things are less restrictive here than elsewhere. For example, take a look at the prize draws which take place constantly in every shopping mall in Dubai. In the UK, that kind of promotion would be unlawful. The test for an unlawful lottery in the UK is that there is a contribution from participants (i.e. a purchase), that there is a distribution of prizes (e.g. you win a car) and the distribution of those prizes is based entirely on chance (i.e. a name is drawn out of a hat). That is exactly the kind of promotion which operates all the time in Dubai. There are certain practical things which you need to do in Dubai which relate to obtaining appropriate authority approval and involvement, but it may surprise many to find out that the law here is actually more liberal than in many other jurisdictions around the world. And then again in other countries in the Middle East (such as Saudi Arabia or even other emirates of the UAE), it is not so easy to run prize draws, but again you simply rely on the same tactics that I would advise on in the UK, namely the injection of skill to take it away from a chance based promotion – how many times have we seen no purchase entry/plain paper entry routes and questions and tie-breakers!?

The point of all of thisis that you are able to do different things in differentjurisdictions and it is all a question of simply figuring outthe extent of your boundaries. Working with advertising regulations is simply a matter of being practical – allow creativity and innovation to flourish whilst at thesame time ensuring that you do so within the practical boundaries that surround you. Once you know that, you can walk the right line.

Another area which really reinforces this point is intellectual property rights. Once again, the position in the Middle East is similar to the position in many other countries around the world. We have, in the various countries around the Middle East, different kindsof intellectual property laws which aim generally to do the same kind of things as

every other country’s laws try to do. Perhaps a good place to start from the advertiser’s point of view is copyright.

So What Is Copyright?As you might expect from the name, copyright is a right conferring on its owner an exclusive entitlement to copy and otherwise use certain types of work. These include‘literary works’ and ‘artistic works’. Copyright law plays a role in advertising in two key ways. First, it protects the work that is created by the advertising agency on behalf of the client, e.g. the brand which is developed for a particular campaign, the actual ads themselves, or even the characters that may have been created for the purposes of the advertising campaign (e.g. Tony the Tiger for Kellogg’s Frosties). Second, it is relevant in relation to avoiding the infringement of third party copyrights, e.g. artistic works, photographs, extracts from books, songs or movies, brands, or even other advertisements.

Now a key question is what copyright protects. First and foremost, it does not protect ‘ideas’ – it can only bite on the physical manifestation of that idea, i.e. the manner in which the idea is expressed but not the basic idea itself. What can be protected is the actual dialogue, copy, layout, photography, music or any other aspect of the actual expression used in the ad. In other words, it is not the creative approach that is protected but what is actually said, performed, photographed, shot, shown on screen or page and so on.

The Relationship Between The Agency And The AdvertiserA fairly frequent area of difficulty that I see in my practice is the mess that clients and agencies often get into when something goes wrong. I have had cause to advise on two different cases, one for an agency and one for a client in relation to the proper use of items that were created for the purposes of an advertising campaign. On the agency front, the agency had created and produced an animated ad for use on TV in the UAE for one of the larger household Hi-Tech companies in the Middle East. The problem is that there are no formal contractual arrangements between the parties (something which does not appear to be uncommon in this region!) and so there was nothing dealing with the issue of copyright in the work that was produced by the agency

Making sure your copy is rightAdvertising and media lawyer

MARK HILL

AdVocate

GUEST COLUMNS 23

for the client. The agency and the client have not been able to agree on the format of the TV ad, but the client does seem to like the particular characters which have been created for use in the ad. In fact, they like them so much that they have given some of the initial work to another agency to prepare print ads using these characters!

This raises two problems. First, the agency has not been paid for the work it did in the first place (because the ad has not yet been cleared). Second, the agency thought it was agreeing to a deal whereby it was paid for a specific job, namely the creation of characters for use in a TV advertisement. It is a well known theme in the advertising industry that the client has to pay the right fee for the right job. One of the earliest instances of this debate was a case from the movie industry relating to Disney’s movie The Lady and The Tramp. In that case, the actress who played the role of Lady became unhappy with Disney when video arrived on the scene and Disney were looking to release the movie on home video. She argued successfully that she had agreed to a deal with Disney which related to a particular use of her performance (under the copyright and related rights which arose relating to it) i.e. one which was limited to release of the movie in movie theatres. She argued that home video release was a different use and that a different fee would have been involved. She was successful (and quite rightly so in my view).

Going back to the agency and the client from our TV ad situation, the problem that both the agency and the client have is that nobody considered the contractual position – so who owns the copyright? There arerules which govern this, but unfortunately this kind of a dispute takes you into a murky, grey world of vagueness and uncertainty. And the sad thing is that this kind of situation is easy to avoid – the ownership and use of copyright materials is fundamental to the agency/client relationship and should be one of the key points which is dealt with when settling any contract. Put simply, if you (and I am talking to both agencies and clients here) operate on an unwritten or incomplete contractual basis, you are simply asking for trouble. Good working partners quickly cease to be that when something goes wrong. So the answer is simple – fix itand get a proper contract in place dealing with at least the basic provisions that are critical to the relationship and including copyright ownership and use.

What About Third Party Rights?As I mentioned, copyright law prevents third parties from copying that which has the benefit of copyright protection. In other words, if an ad is based on a pre-existing work which benefits from copyright protection or if it includes the copyright materials of third parties (such as photographs or extracts from books, movies or music) without permission then you are walking straight into the often-too-visited arena of copyright infringement. There are a few key things to bear in mind here.

First, somebody needs to have ownership of the task of clearing any advertisement that uses or relies on any third party owned copyright materials. In other words, if you ever get into this kind of activity, you should have a copyright clearance programme. Second, this practical ownership responsibility has contractual implications. If something goes wrong, who is on the hook? Again, this is an issue which should be dealt with contractually. There are various ways of dealing with it including having the agency give a warranty that they will not incorporate third party owned copyright materials without permission or putting in place a mechanism whereby the permission of any third parties is automatically sought, often with a form of copyright permission attached to the contract or at least a mechanism to ensure that client and agency have to sign off on this as an issue before the ad will proceed.

Pulling It All TogetherSo what have I learned in my time here in the Middle East? Well, as I indicated at the start of this article, my advice on advertising regulation in this region is really no different to any other region. The laws are here to do the same kind of things that they are to do in every other jurisdiction and are generally a mirror of the culture and society in which they operate. And as with pretty much every other jurisdiction I have ever advised in, the rules are many, varied, and often vague! Having said that though, this stuff is not necessarily rocket science. Let your common sense guide you and if you are still not sure, you could always ask a good lawyer!

So, to answer the question that was put to me recently as to what does a lawyer do in advertising? I guess the answer is: “quite a lot really!” but, above all, it is all about making sure that you walk the right line to ensure that your copy is right.

I’ve Got A SecretIn 1939, Colonel Harland Sanders gave the world its first taste of his famousOriginal Recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken, a secret recipe made up of 11 herbs and spices. That secret recipe madeKentucky Fried Chicken one of the world’s largest fast food chains today. However, few people know that Colonel Sanders tried to sell his recipe to hundreds of people, before he did. If Colonel Sanders had this winning formula today and was showing it offto hundreds of people in the hope that it would sell, how long do you think it would be before someone took that secret recipe and started a multi-million dollar fast food chain, for themselves?

Say you just invented a new software and are submitting a proposal for a potential investor, or prepared fabulous drawings and an interior design for a tower that will put Burj Al Arab to shame and presented these to your client, or are simply launching a new energy drink and are seeking marketing advice for the same. What if the investor shows disinterest, the land owner doesn’t like your price or the marketing consultancy has nothing catchy to propose? What would you do if two, six or nine months down the line you find your fancy tower raisedsomewhere on Sheikh Zayed Road, or your new energy drink has been launched by your competitors and is already available in the market? Can you stop people from nicking your ideas and inventions?

To Disclose Or Not To Disclose? The speed at which peopletoday can take an idea, reproduce, reverse engineer, or match it, is frightening. Before you even launched your product, someone may have heard about it, developed their own and beat you to it. But does that mean you should never talk about your project to anyone until you release it yourself? What if you are seeking investors for the same, or require some input from financial or marketing advisors? What do you do? Well, before you discuss your new project with anybody, or show anybody your designs or products, you can ask them to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. A non-disclosure agreement (also known as an NDA or a Confidentiality Agreement) is

an agreement in which the parties undertake to keep confidential thesecret information that is disclosed during a particular transaction. If you sign a non-disclosure agreement

with someone who then uses your secret information without your consent, you can take legal action against that person to stop them from making any further disclosures regarding your product, as well as claim damages.

Non-disclosure agreements have become crucial in the world of contracts today, especially when these are implemented to protect new technology. One of the best examples is that of Sabeer Bhatia, the founder of Hotmail who, over a period of two years, had 400 of his employees, friends and personal mates sign non-disclosure agreements, giving him what he believed was a crucial six-month head start over his competitors. What did that achieve? Well, when he finally sold Hotmailto Microsoft, it was for a reported $400 million in stock. Not bad for a project that started all hush hush!

It’s A Trust IssueIn the past, agreements were made orally or with a handshake, but those were different times.Today, in a morecompetitive business market, people rarely rely on such informal arrangements anymore because they are simply more difficult to prove legally.

The real purpose behind anNDA is to create a confidentialrelationship between somebody who has a trade secret and somebody to whom the secret is disclosed. The NDA creates alegal obligation on the receiving party to keep the trade secret or confidential information,confidential. You can then‘trust’ that they are less likely to be going about spreading or replicating that secret.

Whose Lips Are Sealed?An NDA is simply a contract that says who is not supposed to disclose what and for how long. Basically, it sets out four things:■ What is considered confidential information?■ What is not considered confidential information?■ What is the obligation of the receiving party?■ What is the time limitation?

There are two types ofNDAs, one is a mutual agreement in which both parties are exchanging some confidential information, forexample where a company seeking to launch a product uses the services of a marketing consultancy. Whereas the company that owns the product is keen on keeping that product

away from the public eye (or ear), until it is launched, the marketing consultancy may have its own confidentialinformation that it does not want used or disclosed, for instance price lists and special rates, contacts etc. There isalso a one-way NDA which is used when only one party is disclosing confidentialinformation, for instance in the case of the inventor seeking investors for his product. In this case, the inventor is the person with the secret product and the investors are there to determine whether they want to buy into that product.

But I Already Knew ThatWhether one party or both have confidential information toshare, this information should be specified in the NDA.Thereis a lot of information that the two parties may come to know about each other during the course of their dealing together, some or all of which may be confidential, e.g. financialinformation, information about the identity of shareholders in a company etc. Trade secrets also often protect valuable technical information that is not protected by any other form of intellectual property, for example the Coca-Cola secret formula. They can alsocover a whole range of things:■ Protect ideas that offera business a competitive advantage in the market.■ Keep competitors from learning about products or services which are under development, and from discovering their functional or technical attributes.■ Protect valuable business information such as customer lists, marketing plans, launch programmes and schedules, cost and price information.■ Protect negative know-how, i.e. information that comes to be known by the receiving party during the course of a project but, if disclosed, could be damaging to either the disclosing party, or the confidential project/product.■ Any other type of information that is valuable, generally unknown to the public or competitors and considered by a particular entity as a trade secret.

And Forever Hold Your PeaceAn NDA is also bound in time. Whereas some NDAs have a limited duration, for example for the period of the negotiations or two years after that, or until a particular event happens (e.g. a product is launched, or a patent application is filed), in someNDAs the receiving party has to simply ‘forever hold their peace’.

So NDAs really are very helpful instruments that are there to protect any type of trade secret or confidentialmaterial of any kind that is not protected by any other forms of legal protection, and that gives you an edge in the market, over your competitors or in business.

You have the right to remain silent

Advertising and media lawyer

LARA HAIDAR

24 NEWS

AdVocate

ABOUT THE BBC■ The BBC World Service’s global audience in 2005 is reportedly 149 million per week.■ Monthly page impressions to the BBC’s international news site, which include audio and visual content and offer users opportunities to discuss world events, is 350 million. This equates to over 20 million monthly unique users. ■ BBC World Service is funded through Grant-in-Aid from the UK Government Foreign Office. Thegrant for 2005/6 is £239 million. BBC World Service is an international radio and online broadcaster delivering programmes and services in more than 40 languages.

■ It uses multiple platforms to reach 149 million listeners globally, including Short Wave, AM, FM, digital satellite and cable channels. ■ It has more than 2,000 partner radio stations around the world which take BBC content, and numerous partnerships supplying content to mobile phones.■ BBC World, the BBC’s commercially funded English language international 24-hour news and information channel, is available in over 200 countries and territories and is owned and operated by BBC World Ltd, a member of the BBC’s commercial group of companies.

The BBC is to launch a television news and information

service in the Arabic language for the Middle East.

It will be the first publiclyfunded international television service launched by the BBC. It marks a fundamental change for BBC World Service which has led the world with its international radio broadcasting for 70 years; and more recently as a key online news provider.

The television channel willlaunch in 2007. It will initially broadcast 12 hours a day and be freely available. It will cover international and major regional issues and carry multi-media discussion programmes and debates in conjunction with the BBC’s well-established and trusted Arabic radio and online services. The BBC’s Arabictelevision service will draw upon the BBC’s unmatched newsgathering resources.

The operating cost of £19million a year will be taken from the BBC World Service’s existing Grant-in-Aid funding from the UK government.

BBC World Service director, Nigel Chapman says: “The BBC’sArabic language service is already the most successful, trusted and respected voice in the Middle East with more than 60 years’ experience of broadcasting in the Arabic language on radio, and more recently and successfully, online. The BBC ArabicTelevision Service will build on this legacy by offering trusted and accurate news with an international agenda to its world-wide audience.

BBC Arabic TV – the complete picture from the world’s most respected broadcaster

BBC ARABIC SERVICE■ Apart from English, the BBC Arabic Service was the first, andtherefore the oldest, of the World Service’s 42 language offering. It was launched on January 1, 1938. It is now the biggest service in terms of staff and budget. It draws its staff from a large number of countries, and has reporters in every Arabic-speaking country. It is a service which attracts top commentators and contributors. ■ Since 2001, it has broadcast 24 hours a day, with a mixture of news, analysis, features and English-language teaching. It is clear from media surveys in the Arab world that the BBC’s Arabic radio service is very popular – the leading international station in Arabic. In those countries that

can be measured, we know that regular listeners exceed 12 million people a week. ■ However, it faces strong competition from satellite television companies, especially in countries where FM broadcasting is not available to the BBC for its news output such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and North Africa.

■ The World Service’s Arabic Online Service, BBCArabic.com is by far the leading Arabic news site on the web, with its 24-hour news and analysis presence; this was confirmed when the site wontwo years running the international accolade as ‘Best Arabic News Site’. The site attracts around 17 million page impressions each month.

“BBC Arabic will be the only major international news provider in the Middle East offering a service in Arabicacross television, radio and online; sharing views and perspectives across the region and the wider world.”

“Recent research from seven capital cities across the Middle East indicates that between 80 and 90 per cent of those surveyed are likely to watch an Arabic television service from the BBC. We will be satisfying a strong demand from the region for accurate, trusted, independent and comprehensive news and analysis together with a discussion forum for Arabic speaking audiences in the region.”

The new BBC Arabictelevision service will:■ Meet the strong demand for a BBC Arabic television service repeatedly expressed in surveys.

■ Make the BBC the only tri-media international news provider offering Arabic languagenews and current affairs ontelevision, radio and online. ■ Draw on 67 years of BBC experience covering the Middle East in Arabic – supported by the world’s most extensive newsgathering operation: 250 news correspondents reporting from 50 bureaux allowing a global rather than purely regional perspective.■ Be totally independent in line with BBC’s long-held reputation for impartial, trust-worthy news reporting and analysis. ■ The first publicly fundedinternational television service launched by the BBC.

Nigel Chapman, director, BBC World Service

26 INTERVIEW

AdVocate

The latest addition to the list of new publications in the UAE are Arab Media

Group’s two new compact dailies; Emirates Today and its sister Al Emarat Al Youm, which hit the stands in late-September.

The Arab Media Group is thelatest to join the UAE media market with the launch of these two titles and have plans for three more in the near future.

The group’s young CEOAbdullatif Al Sayegh says emphatically that his publications are different thanthe existing ones in the UAE and will give readers a new kind of platform to express their voice – which is not there at present. Al Sayegh describes the new dailies as compact, not as tabloids.

He says that media has to come to terms with competition since more international publications are likely to enter the country soon. “What are they going to do then?” he asks.

“The existing media in the UAEdoes not represent the desires and aspirations of all the expatriates,” he said, adding that as media evolves, UAE nationals will also be able to express their aspirations and desires and in the long-run, create a new sector for appointment as well.

In the past, the UAE media publications by and large followed the limits of expression, but of late newspapers and magazines are pushing the frontiers of freedom. It is common nowadays for the media to publish critical reports on a daily basis.

Al Sayegh says the changes in the scenario were the factor which led to the launch of the new papers and added he is determined to push the boundaries.

“Our publications will try to raise the freedom bar and I am not afraid to try new things since the leaders of the UAE, especially Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and UAE Defence Minister and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE Minister of Information, have encouraged the media to use the freedom responsibly,” he added.

“The UAE leaders arealways pushing for more liberty and openness. We are going to reflect that freedom.We will use it responsibly.”

“With the UAE leaders encouraging media freedom, it was only natural that we started with the UAE, to be followed by other countries as and when they open up in the media sector”, added Al Sayegh. The UAE takes lead in so manyareas, right now it is time for us to take the lead in media.”

With the UAE economy booming and so many people coming into the country, it is not fair to them if they don’t have a medium to express themselves and their aspirations through. “We want to carry their voices and bring them closer to the decision-makers.”

Raising the freedom barThe UAE media scene is seeing a lot of changes, with many new

publications joining the fray. Along with the new players, comes

another challenge – testing the limits of freedom.

Awraq Publishing’s launch party took place at the Grosvenor House hotel, where more than 700 invitees were welcomed by the company’s CEO Mr Abdullatif Al Sayegh who announced the challenges and possibilities of creating two papers in less than a year, while addressing the need for ownership in Dubai. Mr Al Sayegh tackled the issues of rapidity in business, specificallyin the media arena stating that “there’s always room to grow, and we are here to prove that Dubai will soon be the hub for media. With our daily newspapers, we are sure to send out the message to the world; come to Dubai, invest, live and own your dreams. It is our responsibility and our pleasure.”

Mr Sami Al Reyami, editor-in-chief of the Arabic paper talked about the size of the paper being smaller due to demand. “Everything is becoming smaller in size, time is getting shorter, and our mind is over clustered with spam. It has become evident that people are in need of a paper that tackles all subjects in a precise and informative manner. There is no need in wasting people’s time. We are here to give it as it is.”

Standing in front of the hotel, the curtains dropped boasting the two papers with boys and girls running around giving out samples to everyone, meanwhile the sky was filled with glidersshowing off the logos of Emirates Today and Al Emarat Al Youm.

THE LAUNCH

So many people are coming into the country, it is not fair to them if they don’t have a medium to express themselves and their aspirations. Right now, our media has not made those people comfortable, as they think they just live in the country and are not part of the media.

AdVocate

INTERVIEW 27

talking to so many companies and our investment team is flying to manycountries to scout for the right market and partners.”

He said the group has eight radio stations at present and plans to make it 15 in the next three years. “We want to go for more niche markets.”

But competition does not bother him, in fact Al Sayegh welcomes it, saying that the market is not overcrowded and added it can take two more players besides the two new ones launched by the group.

“We want to make everyone’s piece of the pie bigger so all players can benefit. I don’t thinkwe are going to be affectedby the competition, we will work together with everyone to make the pie bigger and bigger everyday so that we all profit. I think thisis a very flexiblemarket,” he says.

Nationals are slowly joining the media sector

and as our publications grow in strength, more nationals will come in. “This is a greatplatform for nationals. Lots of people are interested. Without a good product they will not come and if the product is good, they will come.

But Al Sayegh says the paper has advertisements from Day One, thanks to the marketing strategy adopted by the paper. “the marketing campaign will never stop, it’s an ongoing process.”

On brand marketing he says if it is strong enough and attractive enough, it will last, but if you make it shaky, it will never last. Building a brand takes a lot of time and strategy. “We always want to lead, this is our attitude, if we don’t lead, we don’t want to exist.”

“Right now, our media has not made those people comfortable, as they think they just live in the country and are not part of the media. They don’t think mediais their platform to voice their worries, complaints and happiness.”

But he says his publications will change all that and become the voice of all nationalities that live in the UAE. “We are going to push towards that. My paper is going to represent all nationalities and will not distinguish between them.”

“Emirates Today is everyone’s newspaper, be it a national, Arab, English or Indian. Everyone will be able to relate to us.”

Describing the launch of the two papers as a success, he said that the group will expand within the region, and then go international. “We want to have projects all around the world.”

At the end of the day, one has to develop into other markets because there is a limit of expansion here. “We are

PROFILE: ABDULLATIF AL SAYEGH

Even as a boy, Arab Media Group’s CEO Abdullatif Al Sayegh wanted to have something to do with the media.

Now barely 32, he is the CEO of the media group and supervises three newspapers (two in Arabic and one in English), as well as from eight radio stations.

Arab Media Group is the branded parent company of the Dubai Radio Network, whose portfolio includes Dubai 92, Dubai Eye, Arabic channel Dubai 93.9 and Asian station Awaaz. And it also has under its wings the Arabian Radio Network channels City 1016, Al Arabiya, Al Khaleejiya and Hit 967.

“I wanted to be in the media since the first grade when I had to

speak in front of 700 students. Media is in my blood.”

Al Sayegh has had hands-on media experience in the US where he studied at Tampa University and majored in communications.

On his return to the UAE, firsthe worked on Dubai 93.9FM before making the transition to television and eventually, onto Dubai Sports Channel.

Later he started the firstArabic radio station in 1997, four years later he joined ARN Group and had to start everything from scratch. We started with Arabiya in 2002 and by 2004 we had eight radio stations. All of them were profitable in less than two years.”

“Then I was asked to take over Dubai Radio Network, so we took over Dubai radio stations and called it DRN and that was another success, and we turned it round in four months and added two new channels.”

How many publications, channels and firms have closeddown in the last 3 years at DMC? Of the 400 publishing titles established at Dubai Media City, 0.4 per cent of publications closed down during the last year. Of the four publications that did shut down, the reasons are quite varied. These include not having a business model that is sustainable in this competitive market. There are also instances where the owner decided to change the concept and the title.

If your question is specificallyreferring to the companies that have been asked by DMC authorities to stop operating, there has only been one such case in the history of Dubai Media City, and the reason is that the business partner deviated completely form their originally submitted business plan.

Have rents gone up in DMC? If so, by how much?Rents at DMC increased in April, 2005 from $25 to $30 per square foot, per year. It was not a decision that we took lightly and we still provide excellent value for money, even at the new rate.

Won’t rising rental costs and capital requirements limit new startups and their growth? Is DMC now interested in large sized companies?The market has of late seen rent increases. Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone is not the only organisation to have raised rents. This doesn’t really affect freelancers or start ups as the rent increase has resulted in substantial expenditure increases only for larger companies.

Moreover, setting up an officein DMC is still cheaper than in other parts of the city. DMC provides several value-added services covered by the rent, such as facility management. Several indirect costs resulting from red tape and hassles in obtaining government permits etc are considerably reduced by setting up at DMC.

Dubai Media City also has the best facilities for freelancers and entrepreneurs. DMC’s Business Centre offers flexible, cost-effectivepackages for this segment. We have seen and continue to see many entrepreneurs building highly successful businesses based out of the Business Centre.

Why is it that major media houses (Motivate, ITP, CPI, Gulf News, etc) in the region still operate outside DMC? Most are based outside with just a representative office inDMC? Is this because you have higher costs associated with real estate and employment?Dubai Media City has experienced huge demand in the recent years, which unfortunately we weren’t able to meet fully. In fact, in this regard, we are a victim of our own success. However, we have embarked on a massive infrastructure expansion plan that will more than meet this huge demand. The Al Thuraya 1 Tower, the first building developed by aprivate investor within the Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone has just opened for occupancy. This is the first of an estimated27 buildings expected to be created in the next five years.

Besides, some of the companies you have mentioned are establishing at some of the newer, more specialised free zones initiated by DMC. For example, Filmworks is moving to Dubai Studio City, and ITP will be moving to iMPZ.

iMPZ is a new free zone that will offer an eco-friendly environment to meet the needs of media production companies worldwide. It is the first free zone in theMiddle East dedicated to media production activities. Located on an area of over 50 million sq ft of land, iMPZ seeks to create a cluster environment for media production companies from across the industry value chain to interact and collaborate productively. While the infrastructure will support all sectors of the media and entertainment industry, the firstproduction cluster will focus on the printing & publishing industry.

Dubai Studio City is a new free zone that offers a comprehensive technical and community infrastructure exclusively for the film, TV and music productionindustries. It aims to house production companies, service providers offering production and post-production facilities, animation studios, services like dubbing, makeup, costume designing, stage designing and building, casting, telnet agencies, telecine and lab facilities, location shooting, location management services, music recording services, and film and television schools.

DUBAI MEDIA CITY (DMC) CELEBRATED ITS FOURTH anniversary this year, a year that saw it expanding its global mindshare with several international companies coming on board. Has it all been smooth sailing so far? AdVocate finds out from Mohamed Al Mulla,director of DMC.

DMC has come a long way since 2001

So far, so good?

28 INTERVIEW

AdVocate

How have the recent changes in Gulf Air sponsors reflectedin your branding strategy?In our case, we are actually rebuilding a brand. One of the ways that you can rebuild the brand faster is to have a positive association with another well known brand. A good example of that is formula one.

We have a major sport investment in formula one grand prix and have recently taken up a senior’s golf tour as well. Thekey for sponsorship of sports is to first of all understand yourbrand and who your customers are. And also, what stage of the life-cycle your brand is at.

When you rebuild the brand do the brand drivers change? They will change if the brandhas been neglected for a while. If there were no brand driver in the first place, becausethere might not always be a brand driver or if there has been a lack of investment in the product, you may then want to revisit brand drivers. Generally, brand drivers relate back to the culture and history of the product as well. In the case of Gulf Air, when we revisited our brand drivers a couple of years ago we looked

at the elements of what made Gulf Air successful in the past and retained some of these elements and added a couple of new ones. So we now have a fine mix of 55years of Gulf Air’s history and where we want to take the airline in the future.

How many re-branding exercises have happened in the last 55 years?Branding back in the 50s was more about image focusing on logo and symbols. It didn’t necessarily have a specificfocus on any particular target audience. Reflecting thistransition, there have been six to seven evolutions of the logos at Gulf Air since its inception and also in terms of the elements that go into the brand package. The latterincludes crew uniform, new products such as new aircrafts, aircraft colour schemes, service delivery and new in-flight entertainment systems.All these are incremental changes but they affect theimage of the brand as well.

Now however, there is a realisation that effectivebrand strategy can create a point of difference from your

competitors. And also, produce a very strong internal culture to the extent that the company seeks employees who match the overall brand drivers.

All airlines seem to be growing together in this region, making most elements standardised. Is that true?For us the core market is the high-end business traveller, because frankly that is where most of the profit comes from.We have inherent strength there because of our strong network in the ME and Gulf region, which we continue to retain.

Differentiation would comefrom value added features such as the quality of the frequent flyer programme, recognisingcustomers throughout the journey, problem solving, reliable flight schedules, airportlounges – depending on the target segment. Also, you need to consistently achieve these things across the whole network to gain business share – that is the bottom line.

Doesn’t the game appear much simpler in the boom time? It is relatively easy to fill anaircraft, but the return seat has to be maximised. The

aim is profitable volumes.It is a high fixed costindustry so assets have to be matched with the demand.

How do you build a brand in the market where you have either withdrawn your flights or thinned down yournetwork during a slump?You either operate in a country or you don’t, even if it is one flight. If you are in you use allthe branding tools to maintain the presence for as soon as you stop the efforts you will findreduction in brand awareness. We have recently stopped flyingto Colombo, Casa Blanca and a few other countries. But this does not mean that we will not fly back to Colombo. Hencewe still have a representative

office. Now if you go backin a short period of time it is a relatively easy exercise to establish the brand presence once again. There is definitelycost of re-entry, but that is a risk you have to take if you decide to pull out of a destination.

Does fast growth make it any more complicated?Growing fast means that first youhave to quickly change internally to change the culture and perceptions. This, in turn, demandsstaff training and improvedcommunication and PR skills.

You have to be gearing up all the time to changes taking place. It is not impossible as can be seen by the delicate balancing act that we have so successfully executed at Gulf Air.

HISTORIC TURNAROUNDSINCE GULF AIR’S BEGINNINGS as Gulf Aviation in the 1950s, it has been a market leader of air travel in the Middle East. When Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman bought the airline from British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), it quickly became synonymous with innovation, providing stylish and contemporary cabins in the famous Golden Falcon Tri-Stars, known colloquially as the Five-star Tri-Star. However, the global recessions of the 80s and 90s, the growth of competitor Emirates Airlines and the loss of support from Qatar (who set up Qatar Airways) led to serious financial losses by the late 90s.

The year 2004 was a landmark for Gulf Air. For the first time in sixyears, we are able to report a profit,

with even better than expected results from Project Falcon, the restructuring strategy approved by the Board on December 18, 2002.

This was achieved in an incredibly harsh operating environment. Globally we were challenged by events including the ongoing conflict in Iraq, SARS, theweak US dollar and the spiraling fuel cost, which alone cost the company $80 million in unbudgeted costs, as prices rose to levels no one could have predicted.

Within the region too, it saw heavily increased competition in all areas of our business. Despite these challenges, Gulf Air is back in the black, moving from a loss of $52.8 million in 2003 to achieve a profit of $4 million.

Matching perception to reality is a very tricky business. More so, when there are changes in ownership structure as happened in the case of Gulf Air. Shane O’Hare, head of marketing, Gulf Air, delves on the re-positioning of Gulf Air following the changes and what steps the airline is taking to deliver on its brand promises. As it gets more and more difficult to recapture the customer each time,companies miss aligning their deliverables to brand values.

Flying Colours

30 BRANDING

AdVocate

Made in Italy, Switzerland, Taiwan, etc, have very clear connotations. These countries arewell known brands. But it is not that someone

has created them. Instead, they have grown over time. As global trade and investment becomes increasingly competitive, many nations, regions and cities are turning to branding and marketing programme to promote and differentiate themselves in a much shorter period oftime. Thus, we have established brands such as Paris,London, New York, on one hand and a few upcoming ones from cities in search of high positions, such as Dubai, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, on the other end.

Significantly, national branding programmes can bedeveloped to support a wide range of national priorities and have proven to be successful in increasing exports, expanding domestic consumption, increasing tourist inflows, attracting investment and in repositioning.Cities, regions and nations have found that a well-conceived and fully implemented brand strategy gives them many benefits and advantages. Spain has carefullyorchestrated and promoted its re-entry into the European family; South Africa launched a national campaign to market quality South African goods and services in the interests of economic growth and job creation; Hong Kong’s success at communicating its business friendly environment; Australia’s hugely popular ‘Australian Made’ campaign, and Madrid’s international promotion, ‘Madrid 2005-2007 Internationalisation Plan,’ are some of the examples linking the exercise to specific reasons.

In the region, Oman and Abu Dhabi have already initiated similar exercises. “Oman needs to reach out and present itself to the world,” says Alexis Dijksterhuis, senior consultant, ME Strategy Advisors. Not many people outside of Oman would be aware of Oman’s cultural heritage, scuba diving locations, wadis or the khareef season in Salalah. Exploiting the firstmover advantage if Oman positions itself as ‘Arabian Essence’ other countries in the region have to move quickly to find authentic positioning platforms.

Looking at Dubai, it has a significant amount to offerin terms of economic opportunities, tourism, etc and it already has relatively good brand recognition achieved with extensive use of advertising and promotion through some very effective PR (leveraging Emirates airlines,etc).

“The world has heard of Dubai but most can’t tellyou the name of all the emirates. It is just not part of immediate consciousness,” points out Hayes Roth, vice president, worldwide marketing and business development, Landor Associates, starting the discussion on why Dubai should undertake an exercise in destination branding. “And it wont be unless someone takes the

Country Brands

Countries have always had brands – some weak and some strong. Since perception of a national brand has a major impact on consumers and investors, countries are now starting to take control of their brands to help drive

investment, sell products and encourage tourism.

time and effort to make it a household brand,” he adds.Branding provides all stakeholders with a focused

decision-making framework to consistently shape a strong identity and avoid the ‘ad of the month’ syndrome with frequently changing targets, designs, messages, images and themes. ‘Brand New Zealand,’ a destination branding exercise was merged with the existing ‘Buy New Zealand Made’ campaign to gather greater success.

To initiate a successful branding strategy, however, there emerges a need to identify unique and

differentiated products that amplify the destination’sstrengths with target markets while helping it clearly stand apart from competitors. Clearer positioning and differentiation from competitors is necessary toproject a winning edge in the mind of customers.

To persuade international audiences to discover and rediscover Madrid for instance, Landor Associates, the brand consultant, was asked to develop a unique positioning to help promote the city in a compelling way. Realising that great cities usually have emotional equity and are famous for something specific, whetherit is architectural, natural, cultural, historic or any other feature, Landor decided to draw Madrid’s destination brand out of this emotional equity or fame. In the case of Madrid, the emotional draw is the ‘lifestyle,’ but it is generally not as famous as other comparable cities. Hence, an identity built around the brand driver, focussed passion, a differentiating factor for Madrid.

From the early 1980s Spain was in a process of renewal and freshly revealing itself to the world. With the launch of the Joan Miró sun symbol and the tagline, ‘Everything under the Sun’, the nation created an identifier for a massive promotional programmeclosely linked to national change and modernisation.

Similarly, brand drivers for Hong Kong were the gateway to Asia, a city about business – a consumer goal as well as tourism goal.

“If you look closely you can find unique things toposition each country/emirate in the region. It is a visual thing,” says Bengt Eriksson, executive director, ME, Landor Associates, having supervised the exercise in Oman and doing it currently for Abu Dhabi.

“Dubai’s current logo and image is tied to Burj Al Arab or The Palm leaving a clear need to develop anumbrella national brand identity,” argues Dijksterhuis. No doubt, the brand ‘Dubai’, currently means many different things to different people.These are beach life,shopping, tourism destination, place to buy duty free goods, tax-free business location, etc. “At present there are no real ‘stewards’ of the brand - therefore we see many

different marketing campaigns for Dubai (e.g. throughDED, DCCI, Emaar, Dubai Holdings, Dubai Tourism, etc) that do not necessarily maintain a consistent image,” says Rupert Barnard, group managing director, economic development practice, Kaiser Associates.

The national identity has to clearly go beyond anassociation with a few projects to get associated with, say, a lifestyle experience or a specific feel of the place.Theassociation of New York with Big Apple is a case in point.

A structured effort, controlled and dispersed inthe form of iconic brands such as Nakheel, Emaar and Dubai Holding cannot be undermined. Theseand other numerous individual brands however, need to attach themselves to an overarching positioning and rub off positively from this personality of thenational brand. So Dubai’s real challenges now are to improve the coordination of the brand and make sure that the brand is staying ahead of the rapid changes that are taking place in Dubai.

The question to ask is what expectations dothe brand managers want to create about Dubai or any other place under consideration?

Even if this goal is elusive as yet, a clear direction seems to emerge if one puts all the announced plans together. Looking at the early phase of destination branding in this region it is important to get the building blocks, including infrastructure right. “Dubai already has the key anchors and probably should continue doing what it has already started,” says Dijksterhuis. Two important aspects driving this exercise in this region are easier consumer recognition and a barrier to new competitors wanting to introduce similar messages and product offers.

At the same time, using positioning tools on a brand driver platform could easily infere that Abu Dhabi doesn’t necessarily want to have the same tourist who comes to Dubai. “I don’t think Abu Dhabi will ever be a big leisure land like Dubai. They are looking at a completely different audienceand I think there is room for both,” argues Eriksson. In fact, they can actually complement each other.

Drawing an analogy from two famous brands selling largely similar products, Pepsi and Coca-Cola, brand managers point out that while Dubai and Abu Dhabi might look similar, both the emirates have inherent differences. According to Eriksson, Dubai and Oman alsocomplement each other excellently because Oman has the genuineness, nature, and connection with local people that Dubai lacks. Whereas, Dubai is the shopping hub marked by the hustle and bustle of nightclubs and other things.

Positioning Dubai as a one week destination opens huge opportunities for places like Oman – offering

32 BRANDING

AdVocate

themselves as part of double packages. “Already visa regulations have been streamlined to this effect,” informsDijksterhuis. Comparing the scale of development in Dubai and Oman it is likely that Oman is looking at high-end and more spend category vs. Dubai’s volume game. As for double packages with Abu Dhabi, it has the support of travel operators commanding greater profit margins in Abu Dhabi as compared to Dubai.

Apart from tourism, Dubai, as a gateway for the ME, could be a window to the mysterious world for outsiders. “People feel safe, confident and excited about Dubaiand, maybe, get some business done too,” adds Roth. It has been recognised that in this region Dubai could be the bustling commercial and tourism metropolis.

“The fact is that the UAE overall and particularly,RAK, Fujairah and Sharjah would benefit substantiallyfrom a UAE brand. Much of the initial benefit, however,would accrue to the other emirates, who could leverage the strong brand that Dubai has already created,” says Barnard unfolding yet another aspect of national branding.

While searching for this differentiating factorboth Australian and South African research showed that consumers place varying degrees of importance on country of origin according to product type, with people especially keen to buy food that is local, as well as clothing and shoes, for instance. Hence, the logic behind national branding campaigns in these two countries was that successful marketing of a clever logo assures patriotic consumers of the quality and local content of goods and encourages them to buy local. This, in turn, will prompt higher demand for local goodswhich promotes local industries and then creates jobs.

Extending the same argument, even stand-alone tourism projects could be the basis of such country programmes. Whatever the positioning, the need is to create more entertainment of the destination origin that is competitively a tradable commodity locally and in targeted markets.

Consistent messaging convinces visitors and leads to more word-of-mouth referrals helping nations

overcome negative perceptions of the place that had been out of date, inaccurate or unbalanced for decades.

The new abundance of diverse entertainmentproperties of Spanish origin, was most notable in audiovisual media. This was among the most powerfulingredients in the multi-layered confection of goings-on that put Spain in the spotlight as an admired new player on the world stage. Consequently, a host of new well-wishers, tourists, traders and investors from around the globe bonded to the country.

Since an integrated response can transform huge inefficiencies into opportunities, a foundation strategycould start by focusing on contribution to sustainable economic growth and facilitating private sector investment in tourism. Basically, energising stakeholders to more actively support the marketing of the destination.

As various segments of the country cooperate to develop complementary products, and focus on the need to offer different experiences to potentialtourists, branding strategy becomes a reflection of thebusiness plan, if we can use that term for a city.

Resources from the private sector will be a key factor in this regard. An increasing proportion of branding programme activities tend to be based around individual and corporate initiatives. In the case of Spain, these activities helped to rehabilitate and revitalise the country both in its own eyes and in the eyes of the world.

More important is to realise that you cannot create a brand that is not credible for a place. It must be founded on reality. When you have little control on what the product actually is – you must build the brand around the realities of that place and accentuate the positives.

One of the important elements for success of any branding exercise is identifying the target. Branding in the context of an identified target audience enhances thevalue of local businesses and provides the springboard and ‘celebrity element’ for the launch and export of non-tourism products e.g. wine, crafts, art. It leads to improved distribution, wider inclusion in promotions by third parties, and to the introduction of compatible new products and experiences to support the brand. Essentially, economic development objectives for investment, talent, and trade are more readily achievable.

In the case of countries targeting gets more complicated as there are more constituencies. “What’s more important is to establish a hierarchy-who is the most important audience that I must communicate to achieve my business or commercial or governmental goals,” says Roth.

This, it is hoped, not only allows greater synergy and harmony between all marketing messages

emanating from the city, but also enables premium pricing rather than relying on discount pricing

and incentives. By creating a unifying marketing umbrella and stimulating partnerships to project the city as a place with attractive and desirable qualities, the brand architects work towards building a larger world market share for the entire city.

Notwithstanding the planning, not everything about ‘Proudly South African’ is going to be plain sailing from a marketing point of view. Its target markets are very broad and the campaign’s message is also complex. The campaign must not imply that everything made in South Africa is necessarily high-quality, worth buying or made by a company that is socially responsible. Hence, difficult lines will need to be drawn between inserting ‘Proudly South African’ firmly in the public mind and overkill.

‘Proudly South African’ is also going to have to sensitively manage a range of tensions, for instance around how much attention it can afford to give to differentsectors, companies and groups and how to manage the use of major sponsor logos that could begin to interfere with the campaign logo if not juxtaposed wisely.

Since this value destruction takes many forms branding should never be a one off exerciseunless it is thought of just as a logo – it has to be renewed, understood and exemplified continuously.It is more difficult in the case of countries withchanging policies, regimes and other external factors that are more challenging. So effortdepends on the appetite of the government and what their challenges are at a given time.

All the diversity and beauty of Spain’s natural and ‘built’ environments were showcased over the range of media platforms in the country and abroad. In 2003, when the city was chosen as a possible candidate for the 2012 Olympic Games, it gained immediate international recognition. More importantly, it gave the City Council a perfect platform for investing in the programme. Leading up to and during the Barcelona Olympics and the Seville International Expo of 1992,

Spain leveraged these highly successful international encounters as strong motors for interrelated changes and lasting socio-economic benefits.

As for Dubai, industry and media links through an event already exists in the shape of Dubai Shopping Festival. Additionally, the city could be presented at international travel trade events.

As more and more countries build on previous successful projects to mobilise resources for implementation of their branding strategies an added benefit of strong destination branding maderelevant in the recent past has been a faster recovery from crisis such as a natural disaster. Strong brands survive downturns much better from a profitability/margin protection standpoint. The question ishow you would quantify these measurements.

Complexities of accurately measuring marketing impacts arise from the many factors that can influence demand and local market share and arange of provisos that must be taken into account.

With over 2,000 members, Superbrands, an independent arbiter of brands, has awarded Superbrand status to Proudly South African.

“See, you can always measure individual things but there is also a prestige factor. It is hard to attach a number to it,” says Roth. All brands come with inherent expectations creating a challenge to exceed those expectations all the time.

Even if the value of, say, brand Dubai is ascertained and found to be stronger than for other countries in the region it would still be far less than that for London or Paris.

For young companies and countries branding is an evolving phenomenon. Focussing on the regional country brands it is important to understand that while individual projects and programmes could be envisaged as long-lasting thrusts, a firm sense of collective strategic direction evolvesover time through a blend of numbers and yield targets. Implementation should follow rather than lead marketing.

34 CRITIQUE

AdVocate

KHALED GADALLAHExecutive creative director at Tonic Communications, has lived in Dubai for the last 9 years. Graduated with a BA in English Literature and a diploma from La Sorbonne, he started his career in Egypt as an editor. In Dubai, he worked as

senior copywriter at Bates before joining Impact/BBDO where he worked as Head of Arabic Copywriters and as a Creative Group Head. Khaled believes that the Middle East, especially Dubai, can become an international creative hub that competes with the rest of the world. In 2004, he joined in setting up Tonic Communications, the first agency in the Middle East to win a Gold Pencil from the OneShow Awards in New York and the prestigious Cannes Gold Lion.

You’ll never miss spotting the moon in a Ramadan Ad.

It’s true that Ramadan took people by surprise this year as it started one day earlier than expected. However, I don’t think this could be an excuse for most of the work we saw in the press over the past few days, which is, supposedly, created specificallyfor this festive season.

Advertising for Ramadan has always been either promotional, or designed to work as a greeting from retail to consumers. Maybe that’s the reason why it is widely thought that there would be no room for creativity in this matter.

How would advertising people expect this when retailers’ intentions are only to run ads that display their products sold at special prices. Not one inch will be spared for an idea. For clients, the idea is to show as many products and ‘low’ prices as possible.

Some clients see in Ramadan only an opportunity to greet their consumers. Theymake this a corporate habit.

In this case, the idea is to wish people a Ramadan Mubarak.

There is a third category:brands that release an ad with no creative idea or strategic objective other than it’s meant to run during Ramadan. Those will incorporatethe icons of Ramadan, i.e. crescent, stars and any Islamic motifs. The idea here is tosell during Ramadan.

Most of the ads I’ve seen so far have no creative substance and a review would not be in favour of many. Let’s start with those who tried to do it better.

The Emirates Palace ad isclean and stands out for its simplicity. When you do not have a creative idea, you’d better at least make the ad look visually appealing. That’sexactly what they have tried to do. The problem is that theyrelied a lot on the quality of printing... and it isn’t there.

Al Haseena Jewellery is at least using their product as part of the message and the layout. It is not very creative, but at least it is simple and straight to the point.

AdVocate gave Khaled Gadallah the chance to do what every creative person loves to do – separate media’s wheat from the chaff. Here, he looks at six of the latest ads that have been used in UAE publications and highlights their strengths and weaknesses. Do they carry a simple, clear message effectively? Are they targeting their market? Does the text clash with the visual? Are they original? And finally, do they carry the ultimateaccolade from a creative person – the ‘wish I’d-done-that’ level of praise?

Creative licence

AdVocate

35

The creative team workingon the Dubai Islamic Bank must not have had much time to think about it. An ad for auto finance with an overusedidea, add to it some stars and a crescent, voila! You have a promotion for Ramadan.

City Centre joined the flock.Stars have always been successfully used creatively and visually as part of their corporate campaign, but in this ad we have a heart! Is it here because the headline reads “Where we love to win this Ramadan” or vice versa? Again, because it is an ad for Ramadan, the crescent is happily hanging at the top of the page.

Ramadan is omnipresent in an Al Ain Mall ad. It wins the first prize for using the most Ramadan icons as possible: the catch phrase “Ramadan Kareem”, the Islamic motif, the arch with dates and a coffee pot, a crescent and shining stars adorn the skyline of a magical city. The only item missing is a sheisha. Also what’s with the square on the bottom left side of the ad?

Al Maya supermarket bought a full page to display the whole range of products at special prices during Ramadan. The creative team managed to fill the whole space, up to the last inch.

Question. What is that hand doing at the bottom of the page? Reaching for the moon?

Meanwhile, Al Farook International Stationary could have had better use of the money spent on this ad. For instance, sending special Ramadan greeting cards to existing customers would be more effective. The visual of the ad seems to be one of those basic background graphic templates used in PowerPoint. The good thing is that this ad may be the only one so far that did not use neither the crescent nor the stars.

These are most of the Ramadan ads I came acrossover the first two days. I hope it will get betteras we go. I think we can spend more time on ideas, especially if nobody can go on long lunch breaks. After all, whether it comes one day early or not, we still have a pretty good idea when it is coming and can plan for it. Ramadan Kareem.

The views expressed in

this article are the author’s

own, and not those of

the IAA or AdVocate.

AdVocate

TOTAL ADVERTISING EXPENDITURE FOR THE THIRD QUARTER 2005 BY MEDIA SPLITCountry Total Spend* TV Newspapers Mags Radio Outdoor CinemaAsian† 8,467 - 4,064 2,515 1,887 - -Bahrain 20,354 3,394 13,384 2,802 189 18 567Egypt 148,783 41,635 88,889 10,054 7,997 208 -Jordan 30,515 3,139 23,637 1,386 1,453 900 -Saudi 227,780 16,646 176,924 13,018 6,054 15,138 -Kuwait 95,256 7,907 68,025 11,587 1,669 6,067 -Lebanon 131,307 99,148 12,655 7,854 3,403 8,246 -Oman 26,177 4,128 20,792 1,134 66 18 39Pan-Arab 465,428 412,544 8,851 40,448 3,585 - -Qatar 24,713 458 23,674 474 107 - -Syria 4,974 537 3,612 825 - - -UAE 204,638 29,324 137,293 29,553 1,084 5,305 2,079Yemen 9,990 9,990 - - - - -

TOTAL ADVERTISING FREQUENCY FOR THE THIRD QUARTER 2005 BY MEDIA SPLITCountry Total Frequency TV Newspapers Mags Radio Outdoor CinemaAsian† 32,469 - 2,944 1,200 28,325 - -Bahrain 13,952 2,543 8,695 1,278 1,031 16 389Egypt 226,843 54,692 27,276 8,516 71,597 64,762 -Jordan 40,709 9,044 19,736 1,616 9,696 617 -Saudi 237,370 7,908 60,194 2,451 12,795 154,022 -Kuwait 154,907 17,772 97,752 3,817 9,058 26,508 -Lebanon 243,183 67,972 11,565 4,984 106,817 51,845 -Oman 30,515 10,073 18,985 907 515 20 15Pan-Arab 435,372 411,537 2,436 7,639 13,760 - -Qatar 21,459 600 19,727 299 833 - -Syria 5,486 814 4,041 631 - - -UAE 327,534 48,529 63,648 10,685 9,476 34,210 160,986Yemen 6,462 6,462 - - - - -

TOTAL ADVERTISING SPACE FOR THE THIRD QUARTER 2005 BY MEDIA SPLITCountry Total Ad Space TV Newspapers Mags Radio Outdoor CinemaAsian† 16,372 - 1,202 1,222 13,949 - -Bahrain 9,307 3,801 3,281 1,068 678 15 463Egypt 218,044 75,058 6,468 7,344 31,304 97,871 -Jordan 24,754 8,338 12,328 1,432 104 2,552 -Saudi 45,796 7,482 25,084 2,619 5,186 5,425 -Kuwait 57,112 20,502 18,034 3,692 14,210 674 -Lebanon 151,306 73,856 3,358 4,795 44,345 24,952 -Oman 13,677 6,089 6,555 764 239 - 30Pan-Arab 418,579 404,608 1,384 7,667 4,920 - -Qatar 11,002 924 9,223 302 553 - -Syria 3,816 1,246 1,996 574 - - -UAE 312,637 36,018 41,406 10,271 5,197 933 218,812Yemen 7,691 7,691 - - - -

�������

������

���

����

����

����

�����

����

�����

��

������

�

������

�����

������

��

�����

���

����

�����

������

�����

�����

�����

�����

������

�����

�����

�����

����

�������

������

���������

����

�����

����

������

����

��

����

��

����

��

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

����

�

Quarterly monitorTOP 19 ADVERTISING SPENDERS

(All figures in $000s)

* In $000s. † Asian media in the Arab World. Advertising frequency is a measure of the number of advertising transactions. Advertising space is measured in standard equivalent space units. One unit is equal to one 30-second TV, radio or video commercial, a half-page newspaper advertisement, a full-page magazine advertisement. Data Watch is produced with the co-operation of the Pan Arab Research Center, a member of market research organisation Gallup International.

36 DATAWATCH

AdVocate

Call it a marriage between art and commerce. The third

annual Swatch Group Mini Basel event in Dubai not only marked the group’s 21.4 per cent increase in net income in H1 2005, but also proved to be a celebration of art. The group unveiled 15 specially commissioned paintings representative of 15 out of its 18 brands. Undertaken for the first time by the company, the Art of Time Exhibition was commis-sioned by the Swatch Group Middle East and featured the work of Iraqi-born artist, Ali Al Mimar.

Leveraging the synergy between art and design and an identifying feature of Swatch watches, the paintings also attempted to integrate the region’s cultural heritage with the brand characteristics. “The Art of Time series represents a creative merge between Arabian art and the art of watch making,” explained Hikmat Traboulsi, deputy country manager of Swatch Group Middle East. “Each painting is reminiscent of the Middle East, while also expressing an essential characteristic of each of the Swatch Group brands.”

Over 300 watch retailers, distributors and top management from the Swatch Group came together for the annual event. “The Mini Basel event has grown tremendously since its inception three years ago, and it demonstrates our commitment to the region,” said Marc Hayek, member of the executive group management board, responsible for Swatch

Group Middle East and president of Blancpain.

Connecting its brands with elements intrinsic to the region was also the company’s way to communicate new standards for innovation and product choice, as well as commitment towards continued product innovation. “We are always keen to share our knowledge and expertise with our business partners

and valued customers across the region,” says Hayek. More so when the market is one of the strongest and consumer-driven. Apart from watches, the group is a leader in technological research and development, sports timing and telecommunications. The Swatch group represents 25 per cent of the watch sales in the world and offers products in every market category.

Although the paintings will be displayed permanently in the company’s Middle East headquarters in Dubai, one hopes that these tentative steps in the world of art prove to be the beginning of a more fruitful relationship between art and commerce. For now, one of Dubai’s leading hotels, the Royal Mirage, has shown interest in exhibiting these paintings for a month.

Art Watch Swatch unveils a creative way of communicating its brand values

38 ADVERTISING