I was privileged to be invited to the unveiling of the results of the Second Annual Asda'a Buson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey on March 7, 2010 at The Address Hotel. The survey looked into attitudes to the financial crisis, technology, media consumption, social media networking, travel attitudes, spending habits, brand perceptions, education and future expectations.

I will not go into the details of the survey findings, but would rather focus on some of the surprising elements. It is, however, worth noting that a rather distinguished panel was present to discuss the findings:

• HE Ms Najla Al Awadi (UAE FNC Member, Deputy CEO of DMI)
• Abdul Rahman Al Rashed (General Manager, Al Arabiya Television)
• Mustafa Abdel-Wadood (Managing Director, Abraaj Capital)
• Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi (Chariman of Young Arab Leaders, UAE Chapter and Media Columnist)
• Lubna Qassim (Lawyer and Legal Reform Specialist)
• Ali Mostafa (Independent Film Maker)

Everyone seemed upbeat. Everyone put on a brave face and lauded how great it was to have the Arab Youth so optimistic about the future. There were even those who believed that Arab youths had every right to be optimistic, giving an example of the oil wealth the GCC has.

A few days ago, Socialize and YouGov Siraj issued a press release about the influence social media has on consumer decisions. The headline read: Most UAE residents use social media for purchase decisions. I had to pause for a minute. Really? Are you saying that UAE residents are the most tech savvy?

Oh, wait.. the survey conducted by YouGov Siraj is conducted online. So, we can rephrase this by saying, most residents who are online use social media to make purchasing decisions. Admittedly, this does not make for an attractive, attention grabbing headline. I'm not a journalist, so I'm sure someone can do a better job at that.

You talk to anyone in the PR industry about the blatant lies that come out of their agencies on behalf of their clients and they will vehemently defend themselves with words like "integrity" and "credibility". The truth of the matter is, PRs lie. Some stretch the truth, some bend it and most outright break it.

Although not unique to our region, but we do have a rather unhealthy obsession with being the 'first' and 'only'. I will not pretend, we love being the first and we try to always be ahead of everyone else. The problem is when you are so focused on that and you forget to check if you are indeed the first or not!

Indeed it's not just a question of lying about just being first or only.. it also goes back to throwing out figures that have no basis in reality. And oh how we love to give out dollar amounts! The general justification a PR will have is that journalists love numbers and so we need them even if we have to make them up!

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

In the fourth installment of our quarterly Real Estate Media Report 2009Q2, we see Emaar, for the first time ever, slipping behind Abu Dhabi developers in the PR numbers game.

The second quarter of 2009 has not been kind to real estate developers. April 2009 saw Emaar slip behind Aldar and Sorouh for the first time ever. Aldar took the lead in terms of absolute coverage size, followed closely by Emaar. It wasn't just purely quantitative leadership that was lost for Emaar. Aldar also had the highest amount of manifest (direct) mentions as well as positive mentions in April 2009. Not to mention that May 2009 saw Aldar taking the lead in terms of latent (indirect) mentions, followed by Sama Dubai and Nakheel.

According to an online consumer survey by Nielson, people trust people. There are no surprises there, but it is interesting that consumers are also willing to trust reviews posted online by 'people' (who could possible be corporate). After all, if the Israelis are doing it, who is to say corporations aren't?

Even more astonishing is the percentage of people who totally or somewhat trust editorial content in newspapers. This number, globally is 69% whereas it is 84% for the UAE. I think it is mostly astonishing because we often forget that most people who are not in the media industry rarely get a glimpse of what really goes on before a news article appears before their very own eyes.

News about etisalat's epic failure has been all over the place. You would have to be dead or living under a rock to not have heard about it. But, what does it say about du?

I commented on it earlier, but I have since found that a lot of people are missing a very important part of this situation. Where is du in all of this? When you see a poll in AarabianBusiness.com showing that 50% of BlackBerry users wanting to ditch etisalat, you can't help but think.. and do what?

In today's (July 21, 2009) Al Watan daily from Qatar, there was an op-ed piece by Raji Amer. In it, he blasts PR companies for being unprofessional. His main gripe? Press releases that are not well written, forcing him to rewrite them. He says, essentially doing their job for them.

Can you imagine a world where PR practitioners and journalists were one happy family? Yes, like buddies! Before you start fantasizing further, allow me to point out that this would be the mother of all disasters for news.

I often find it funny how much attention is being given to the struggle between PR's and Journos. This isn't unique to our region. In fact, this is how it has always been (and shall remain); an eternal struggle for power. A quick google search confirms what I have long believed. These two groups are locked in it till the death. Hell, I would say long after that as well.

The very nature of the relationship dictates that it is a barely civil relationship, underneath which lies contempt and sometimes (but rarely) respect. Tala's article in the National, covered here started a conversation that is still happening. A public conversation, which surprisingly, still continues.

The most recent was the National's, Transparency drive strains media, PR relations, gets warmer in identifying the complexities of the relationship.

Journalists have the power to publish or not publish certain material and PR's sometimes want things to be published and others not.. their interests are for the most part in conflict of one another. They are, by definition, rivals! This is not to even get into the "PR's don't know how to do their job" to "journalists who can't even write" arguments. Beneath it all, it is a mere pull and push war going on between the two sides.

I say, let it continue. The more balanced the scales are (and I prefer them to favor the journalists) the better. All that is happening now is that journalists are starting to gain some of that control. The status quo is changing. Is it the drive for transparency or is it more than that?

After years of being in the media monitoring and evaluation business, I still find it difficult to understand why PR agencies insist on selling their 'analytical' services. I cannot stress how absurd this is: does your accounting department perform an audit?

We have been involved in a marathon of a pitch process for a client in a rather specialized industry. While it is a 3-way pitch, our fiercest competition comes from a PR agency! The fact that the client is even considering a PR agency (oh they call themselves whatever they want, marketing communication, public affairs, bla bla bla.. -- at the end of the day, as far as actual work needed for this client, it's mostly media relations with a bit of advertorials) is rather curious.

While one can understand that clients don't fully appreciate the difference between a communication evaluation agency and a public relations shop, it is harder to forgive when a client demonstrates a thorough understanding of what the evaluation reports should include and exclude.

No one in the industry here seems to see anything wrong with this picture and I am beginning to wonder if it's just me who feels that way.

Let us ask this differently then. If media evaluation companies were to start competing with PR agencies for PR briefs, would the client even notice?