The Middle East Media Guide book compiled by Ben Smalley lists 100 PR shops based in the UAE alone for 2009! This ofcourse excludes a few advertising agencies who are more and more intruding into the PR business!

There are more "bad people" in PR than good and they are hindering the progress of the profession and diffusing its power.

Sadly, this makes the sailing really rocky to raise the bar of the PR industry in the region and it harms all efforts made in this aspect.

The question that arises here is how many of these agencies are practicing an effective PR exercise as an integral discipline to other marketing communications vehicles?

Also, another key point here, I think advertising agencies should admit it that they can’t deliver PR as a minor activity in their marketing campaigns.

I don't recommend marketing budgets which horrifyingly buy all sorts of bells and whistles. Our major marketing successes as PR agencies should merely come from engaging public relations to drive desired business outcomes.

Agencies should shape up or ship out. The key success factors to lead in the PR industry are transparency, credibility, responsibility, measurability and most significantly quality and professionalism. While there is a huge demand for strategic corporate communications counsel, the majority of the PR agencies are still offering shallow PR tactics.

The bulk of PR agencies in the Middle East aim at gaining more media exposure to their clients. I think evaluation fits in when we smartly link this media exposure with pre-set business outcomes to our clients.
Needless to say that organizations from both private and public sectors in the Gulf have recognized the power of public relations in strengthening brand equity and enhancing corporate reputation.
They started to recognize that PR involves creating, maintaining and enhancing long term relationships with stakeholders.
Clients in the region realize that their stakeholders have become too demanding. These facts make it imperative to PR practitioners to start providing integrated solutions directly tailored to match their clients’ PR requirements and precisely evaluated according to pre set business outcomes to move PR from being “lovely to have” to being a crucial part of any business strategy!

Dubai’s decision to establish the Dubai Media Affairs Office 'Brand Dubai' in June to coordinate Dubai's media affairs internationally is a classic example of recognition of the value communications bring to the table. While the new office will work as a platform to project Dubai's continuing achievements on economic, cultural and social matters, it also demonstrates that Dubai is a great believer in communications as the key to emerge one-up in the current global crisis. If an entire Emirate can adopt this innovative approach to communications, Arab governments and businesses should made extra efforts to retain their communications personnel because this is the time where they are needed most.

Once I was chatting with a new client as he was about to leave for Ottawa to celebrate New Year's Eve. He was in an angry mood and complained bitterly that he had not heard from his retainer agency since mid-November!