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Firas Sleem's picture

Advertising Agencies: hands off PR & PR shops: either shape up or ship out!

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.

Mohamed Elzubeir's picture

Facebook News Feed Patent: The Social Media Legal Wars

Facebook Patent: Facebook Patent: Facebook awarded major patent by US Patent and Trademark Office

Facebook filed a patent claim on August 11, 2006 for what is now called the newsfeed patent, which was awarded on February 23, 2010. Commentators are calling this the single-most significant patent since the Six Degrees patent, which had its fair share of drama. So, what is so significant in this patent? It is vastly broad and open to interpretation. Twitter's future comes to mind and according to Nick O'Neill Facebook are claiming that this does not apply to status updates, instead it is about implicit actions and stories that a user is engaged in. Implicit actions?

Mohamed Elzubeir's picture

Social Media Tips for the Consumer

Twitter

I have seen many Twitter HOWTO's and Guides, but I have yet to come across one that shows consumers how they can get the attention of brands/products. We have all been busy talking about how we can talk to consumers, how we can engage with them.. which is all great, but we seem to forget that just like marketers, a lot of these social media tools are new to consumers as well. After all, we are all consumers.

Being on the monitoring end of things, I hope that I can give some insights to how brands see the world and how you, the consumer, can make your voice better heard. The most important thing you need to know is this: good brands are really trying to listen.

Give your opinion weight

Mohamed Elzubeir's picture

Google's response to Yahoo's Middle East entry: Egyptian Egabat

Egabat Screenshot

Yahoo's acquisition of Maktoob posed an interesting challenge to Google, whose approach has been slow and calculated. The truth of the matter is, there are millions of Arabic-speaking Internet users who are not interested in English-based content. So, Yahoo bought their way in.

Google appears to have gone their own way and decided to build their own base. The Egyptian Egabat (egabat.google.com) is the answer. As a product, it is completely uninteresting. It offers nothing that is new or exciting, except that it is an Arabic-only product. In fact, it's so Arabic it's Egyptian.

Now I understand that Google recruits a lot of their Middle East staff from Egypt, but the Egyptian branding of their first Arabic-only product is curious, to put it mildly. It is either Google doesn't understand the region or that their staff are taking this as an opportunity to highlight Egypt's importance in the region.

Mohamed Elzubeir's picture

Yahoo!Maktoob acquisition proves innovation on whose part?

Yahoo!

The Yahoo! acquisition of Maktoob.com has been hailed as a new dawn for the IT sector. A new dot-com boom set to explode in the Middle East! Some are even perplexed by the media's rather uncaring take on the deal (the amount of coverage received not as much as they would like to think). While it is always good to see money pumping in the Middle East for any sector, I just don't see everyone in the world coming down here and buying out companies.

Yahoo! has no interest in, perhaps, Maktoob's most innovative product, araby.com. The only thing that interested Yahoo! is the overwhelming number of eyeballs Maktoob managed to amass throughout the region. While it is a clever way to make yourself attractive for an acquisition, it isn't exactly the pinnacle of innovation.

So, let us please not go overboard with self-congratulations that is so typical of the region without actually looking at what is happening around us.

Twitter Feed

  • Yeah.. I'm not terribly impressed with them outside of MENA RT @AdamFlinter: Be great if they could focus on delivering stuff instead 48 min 6 sec ago
  • Indeed. Startups are no joke and you gotta have tough skin RT @nagisalloum: It's way tougher than you think http://tumblr.com/xgben7cfk 52 min 10 sec ago
  • @AdamFlinter I don't believe him. Sorry. Most people I know give tips that range from 5-10dhs. I think some of them like to play the victim. 1 hour 1 min ago
  • @AK_BAH ditto. 9 hours 19 min ago
  • Interesting take on the role of the #TRA and its obligations toward consumers @samuraisamdxb http://bit.ly/afs0jt (but not so much on du) 20 hours 20 min ago