IAA Lebanon Chapter Elects its New Committee for 2011-2013
Beirut, May 11, 2011 – The Lebanese chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) elected its new board for the years 2011 – 2013. The committee will be headed by Naji Boulos and includes the following members: Naji Irani (Vice President), Georges Slim (Secretary General), Joe Ayache (Treasurer), Ralph Bacha, Ghassan Germanos, Claude Hajjar, George Jabbour, Hana Al Khatib, Kamil Kuran and Paul Sabbagh (members).
On the occasion of the IAA fiftieth anniversary (1961-2011), Boulos noted that this jubilee will be vital in the history of the chapter: “This year will be an opportunity for the chapter to honor Lebanese Advertising men who created and promoted the growth of the Advertising sector in Lebanon and Arab countries.”
A book chronicling the 50-year history of advertising in Lebanon is being prepared and will be published in November 2011. Several activities will be added to the busy schedule of jubilee.
Boulos also mentioned the challenges that the committee will be facing counting the situation of the outdoor landscape in Lebanon and the laws regulating advertisements of the tobacco sector and the pharmaceutical products.
Social Media “Everybody is Riding but Where To?
Been almost a month that I want to write about this, but lot of things happening around preventing me to do so. Social media, online communities, community managers, social media managers, the SM revolution, how SM changing the Arab World regimes, and many other words that we hear or read on Twitter and blogs every single day.
Everybody wants to have the biggest fan page on Facebook, if they know a little more about SM, they would ask for a better presence on Twitter with much more followers, and if they want to think outside the box YouTube is what they will go for. This is the first time ever I think about the "X for Dummies" book series and if they did create one called "Social Media for Dummies". The answer is surely yes and not only one, but many (refer to the picture below). There is no shame to read this book whether you are a professional, or normal person who wants to know more about this big thing that everybody is talking about and investing load of money for it. If you are a professional that might be the best gift to give a client or a colleague, if you really love them and you want to gain their respect give them something that would help them more in what they are doing and where they are investing their money.
Clients really wants to be leading in their category, but most of them come and give you numbers that doesn't meet their industry audience penetration in the SM channel they ask for. 10,000 Twitter followers for a real estate brand in Lebanon, or 30,000 likes on Facebook. Let us go back to the basics and ask them. Do you need to be on FB or Twitter? Is your target audience active there? Can your brand be communicated on these channels? Why do you want to exist on SM? Did you know that social media is a very big place even bigger than FB and Twitter? Well the list is too long, the client should go back to the branding process, and see the brand character, voice, audience... Don't be laughing at me, yes branding, I know that most of these clients marketing people don't know what does MarCom word mean but that's why they come to us, for a real solution and our job is to deliver the right job by spending days and nights convincing them to go our way.
Time to talk about other SM channels, YouTube, LinkedIN, Blogs, Forums (yes web1.0 but what if you are in KSA, people spend most of their time there), Digg and many others. It is not how popular is the channel, it is about where are your audience, no? Before you spend all your money to build a fan page that one day the guys at Facebook might decide to close it or put restrictions on, start by building your brand website, blog or community site, than let us focus on the SM presence. Digital world gave you the chance to own the Media, so why don't you benefit from? SM is there to help you but it is not everything you need to do.
Agencies are working hard to cater to clients, big agencies are investing too much in this, small to medium ones are doing it right and wrong, some others didn't even think of it yet. The funny thing is that everybody wants to open a new business or claim that they have the department for that "Social Media", I (and many of you) pray that they are doing the right thing because it might revert back in a bad way on those who are doing it right, and maybe the whole industry in general.
We do know that big agencies/groups are doing many workshops, bringing different speakers to get their team ready to do the right job, but we don't really know if they are inviting clients to these workshops. I believe the smart ones are doing so.
In today's world, communication has changed, we moved from Linear to anything. We have different touch points with our consumers, it is not through mass media only, no we have to be everywhere but in the right place. So social media is part of it, yes it is a positive and good thing if we know how to use it and what to use it for, and might be just waste of time and total loss of money if we are still thinking about number of likes and FB pages only. No SM is made to get engaged with your consumers, create a certain relation between the brand and the consumer, make us better know what our consumers want, and because they are digital they make the relation and response faster. Marketers doesn't need to go sit in focus groups to know what is happening, but they are living it with the real consumers in the real time, they can act faster.
Well after all, SM made us live in a Chaos, and we need to analyze this Chaos first in order to know who are we talking to and where?
On as side note, though I am not into politics at all. What about that the Arab world revolution wouldn't happen without Twitter and Facebook? This is ridiculous, SM helped it happen faster, but this was being prepared since a long time. People made it go faster through SM channels, but never happened because of SM. SM was another communication tool to make it happen. We all agree on that now, so let us not give the credit to FB they don't deserve it, maybe Twitter do more.
Personal Views:
Twitter simply is like water for me, I use it whenever I hold my phone (80% I use it via my iPhone TweetDeck application). It keeps me connected to the world as I want it "through those who I follow". If I get spammed or bothered I unfollow the person and it is over. Twitter lists are amazing, I can categorize people, If I want to read tweets about Dubai all I have to do is go to my Dubai list and see it all, Advertising I go to my advertising list, and so on with the other lists. That's amazing. Twitter gets me connected in a very customized way, in a simple way and just the way I want it. It has 1/3 of FB global number of users but it is much more effective. Why? As we all know it, Twitter is an open circle and FB is a closed one.
YouTube is a gold mine, personally I almost use it more than Google search today. Video Tutorial, Superbowl Ads, WWE previous match, Missed on a nice live talk show scene, Royal Wedding, Scene from a Movie, Live Concert footage for a favorite band, and many others... Rich media is the future of the web and nothing else. YouTube is the greatest invention on the web, hard to say it but with Twitter they constitue 60% of the web.
LinkedIN I believe in this tool a lot, recruited lot of talents for the agency through it (since 2008). The most corporate network, all professionals you need to know are there. You loose your address book? You want to stay up-2-date with your contacts? All other tools failed at it, LinkedIN could make it. Not only you can hire and keep track of your contacts, but you can engage with them, know what they are doing on a professional level, hear interesting stories. Groups are a good tool, get into a community of what you are interested in, or simply ignore invitations. One thing I hate when people think of it is Facebook and start sharing with us their silly news (how lame they are, and sorry if you are one of those).
Facebook is a place to hang out online when you want to have a coffee break or a good place for my little cousin who likes to play games. It is a nice network to get connected to friends especially if you are living abroad, with no doubt a very successful one having over than 600million registered users, but it is a trendy thing. I've been into the digital world trends in live messaging and live communication since 1994 (mIRC, ICQ, Message Boards, Forums...) all had their good times, people were using them and felt it is the future of communication than they disappeared. FB wont disappear (but nobody knows) but let us start from ourselves, in 2007 we joined the network, didn't stop updating our photo albums, spend lot of time on it adding school friends, colleagues and get our network bigger, how long are we logging to it these days? 20min per day, once every week or maybe once per month and I am saying that based on personal experience and other friends experiences. I know few that deactivated their accounts and some others do not have one. I feel that FB started loosing ground when they converted their wall to what it is today trying to be like Twitter but for a closed circle. I personally could live without it for almost a year but had to return just because to the nature of my business.
Blogging and MicroBlogging are something that we 100% own and control. Same as if you own a house, FB pages are like if you live in a rented apartment the landlord will come and kick you out anytime (or maybe just leave you there as much as it is paying off for him).
"Social Media: Its like riding a village bicycle, everyone's riding... but where are you going?"
Online Stats About the Arab World
Head of Engineering at Google, Ahmad Hamzawi, presented statistics on internet usage in the MENA region at the ArabNET.
- Google searches reached 100 million (4 billion is the global number).
- Youtube video playback reached 100 million (2.5 billion is the global number).
- Youtube videos uploaded per minute is 1 hr (35 hrs per minute globally).
- What are users doing online?
- The most visited website in the MENA is Facebook. Number 2 is Maktoob, Wikipedia follows.
- In Egypt, most searched for word was (games, written in Arabic) then Facebook then (pictures, written in Arabic)
- In KSA, Youtube (spelled in Arabic) was the most searched for and guess what it was in Lebanon ? The word Lebanon !
- The average age of users in MENA region is 25, a young society of users.
- The percentage of search queries coming from mobile devices is 13% and mobile queries have made a 200% growth last year, led by Saudi Arabia.
- iOS grew by over 1500% in 2010 and 50% of all mobile traffic from Symbian devices, and Opera mini Is number 2 browser outside GCC.
- Youtube launched personalized pages in 7 MENA countries and KSA is at the top 3 mobile playbacks in the world (#1 if compared to its population)
- There are 18.4 million Facebook users in the MENA.
- On Arabic content, there are 350 million Arabic speakers in the world which opens up huge opportunities in Arabic content.
- 54% of queries in the MENA are in Arabic, 70 % in Egypt and 80% in KSA
Hope that was helpful if you got more updates numbers please share them in the comments.
BeirutNightLife.com Raises the bar to compete with International Digital Medias with its brand new look
Beirut March 30, 2011: BeirutNightLife.com (BNL), Lebanon’s leading digital media announces the launch of a new version of its website. The new look is fresh, crisp, modern and most importantly uncluttered. The design has been well studied to help the end users easily open the site and browse with a number of new features.
Based on comments, recommendations as well as notes sent to BNL by users and clients, the company has revised the whole system of the site, in addition to generating news and editorial material on a daily basis by their four editors and contributors. The site’s rich content, in addition to new and enhanced features, now make the BNL an even more popular address for everyone seeking news related to Beirut, Lebanon Nightlife as well as Tourism.
Founder/CEO, Jean Ghalo explains: "Our end users are always on top of our list. We wanted to create a design that is easier and more accessible. We believe that with the new look and new features will help BNL deliver on its goal in offering consumers in Lebanon and its Diaspora a number one portal. We always try to raise the bar in the digital field and with this new design BeirutNightLife.com proved that it is the most professional digital media active in Lebanon and the Levant region, meeting all the international standards. We believe in competition and we are ready to compete with international digital medias in the local market, and within the cities we are expanding in, such as Dubai.”
Ghalo adds that, “Our main objective remains to always promote Lebanon as a brand and as a prime touristic destination."
Since its launch in 2002, BNL has built well over 12,000,000 dedicated readers, with unique users added on a daily basis. BNL is the most active media on social media networks and communicates with the right target audience, with over 1 million followers/video views on their Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages.
The launch of this new look is the first in a series of new developments for BNL this year. Over the coming months, the company will continue to introduce new content, features and products aimed at creating a one-stop destination for all your entertainment news on Lebanon.
Features include:
- Increased Social Sharing
- Enhanced Photos and Videos
- Two Very Unique Products/Services
For further information about BeirutNightLife.com, please visit our website www.beirutnightlife.com
Twitter page: http://www.twitter.com/beirutnightlife
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/beirutnightlife
YouTube channel : http://www.youtube.com/beirutnightlife
The MENA Cristal Awards Day 1
Caught a flu, spent the week end at home, and had to get Sunday off. Monday had no choice other than head to Dubai Airport Terminal 3, take the evening Emirates flight on the boeing 777, and head to the one and only location all the industry (advertising) people in the MENA region are going to, Mzaar 2000 Kfardebyen, Lebanon for the Cristal de la Mena awards/summit.
Landed in Beirut, and straight forward to the mountains. A weather storm was there, and going up there with a normal 2 wheels car was a wrong choice, as I couldn't make it up, and I had a special adventure of my own at Faraya. To make a long story short, after 1 hour I parked the car somewhere "safe" and got a ride to the Mzaar 2000.
Tuesday February 2, 2011 The Cristal de la MENA day one, I woke up early, had my breakfast and went down to pick up my passes and 3 days passes. It was a disappointing start as morning lectures were all cancelled (maybe because of weather or global political situation in the region, couldn't know). The day officially started with the sponsored lunch by MINDSHARE at the Refuge. It was a nice opportunity to meet with new people, exchange business cards and do some business developments.
3:00PM as per the new schedule, the one of the lectures I was waiting for "The digital revolution in the modern whorl" but again more changes and Ahmed Nassef VP/MD Yahoo! Middle East only showed up, while all others didn't and special Osman Sultan CEO - du the one who I was waiting for. Though Ahmed Nassef did a great job with his presentation, for me it was something I know but the way he did it was lovely, simple and easy to go and most important didn't get bored. He focused on content, content and content, how it is about the right content to develop a digital media and keep visitors coming back. A few words about Maktoob history, and the acquisition made by Yahoo! for 175million US Dollars. A little bit about traffic, and how the Internet blackdown in Egypt made their traffic drop, and so the situation made them temporary shutdown Egypt office with its 30+ employees. Ahmed focused on where they do stand in the market, the internet penetration we have in the MENA region with 64million users, expected to grow up to 100million by end of 2011. Back to where he started, how to have the right content, with full focus on that. How they do work on to have proper content through great partnerships with different global and regional medias. A little bit of their newly launched sections such as Helwa, OMG, and how they got a big number of traffic. He also highlighted on how Online video engagement in our region is bigger than Europe. How Yahoo! work? The formula was Science + Art + Scale. Explaining how content is king, he pointed about how they have over than 24 persons dedicated to choose main page content, 40+ editors for each section, and more. Ended up with a comparison of Newspaper circulation and Online, spend on newspapers and online, where they have almost same circulation where $2 billion spent on newspapers and only $100 million fo online. Finally, announced a new Yahoo! iPAD API which is planned to be launched in March in Barcelona.
4:00PM Jean-Charles Decaux for the Outdoor Media: innovation, modernity, impact and digital developments, it was nice, a bit boring for me, and simply a pure selling presentation about who is JCDecaux, how they lead global market and how they are the best.
5:30PM How the create a dream team? DEBATE. Presented by the humble man Roy Haddad Chairman & CEO - JWT MENA, Turkey, Pakistan /, attended by Gérard BOURGOIN, President of AJ Auxerre Football Club (Former President of the French Football League) / Rolland COURBIS, Radio speaker (former Coach of Olympique de Marseille and Girondins de Bordeaux) / Samir Ayoub Mindshare MENA. Nice and different point of views, was a bit boring, with 2 France footballer ended up defending how the National team got out from round 1 at the South African World Cup.
Time for the cocktail offered by Abu Dhabi Media Company at the Mzaar Intercontinental Mzaar, just before that we head to the official dinner sponsored by JWT at Le Montagnou where FP7 just had their dinner somewhere else, anyhow the dinner was lovely and ended up in a nice party.
What I have noticed?
Few agencies attended, most of them were creative, and for me Day 1 was just below expectations, let's hope for a better second day. Hope we get back the 3D presentation.
Were you there? would love to hear your comments.