from my inbox
You are currently browsing Darine Sabbagh’s articles.
Tags: arab world, email marketing, email scams, gaddafi, libya, libyan revolution, political unrest, politics, revolutions
Bonjus Popsicle ad billboard- Click to zoom in
This series by Bonjus really relates to the senses, with the great slice representations my mouth waters every time I see them. Undoubtedly they are one of my favorite ads of the summer.
Tags: ads, advertisement, beirut, billboards, Corporate marketing, ice cream, lebanon, outdoor ads, popscicle
Almahhal Al Mnih - Mahal Ma btestrih - Click to view full size
Hasab el Souk Betsouk - Click to view full image
Last year Jamal Trust Bank launched endearing visuals to promote their personal loans, and well this year I feel they have outdone themselves, as they created ads that really grab your attention, and for me present great visual remixes of street art and”street culture heritage” that really etch the brand into your brain and make you associate these common place objects, when you see them “off-bilboard” with the brand’s message, which is something every brand dreams of. My favorite, is their interpretation of ”back of the truck advertising” , now every time I see a truck with these funny phrases they have, I think about JTB. And the copywriting is such a good play on words, don’t you think?
More of these lovelies on Tarek’s blog.
* I could not capture the whole series and they have not updated their website yet, so if you can acquire them and link them to me I would gladly have the whole collection.
Tags: advertising, bank advertising, beirut, billboards, brand equity, branding, brqand reach, calligraphy, cult objects, financial marketing, grafitti, Jamal trust bank, lebanese banks, lebanon, outdoors ads, persona marketing, personal loans, social objects, writings on the wall
A lot of my stress in Lebanon is related to the plight of recklessness that we witness on our roads be it from pedestrians or from drivers. The Lebanese roads mayhem, can only be more favorable that the driving habits in Egypt, which is known to be utterly ‘kamikazeh’ reckless.
And though I may be late to comment, I am utterly in love with this new project on LBCI, Cheyef 7alak to document this sad state on Lebanese roads and highways an show the mischievous what it really looks like. Citizens are also encouraged to sumbit their own witness stories, photos and videos on the website, youtube channel, facebook and twitter.
Check out below my favorite episode of the series that showcases why it is “stupid” to use a pedestrian bridge and what a pedestrian bride is “actually made for”.
Great work Impact BBDO and LBCI this is a great awareness campaign, and the digital integration of the campaign is also good.
Tags: advocacy, beirut, cheyef7alak, crossing the street, driving regulations, impact bbdo, LBCI, lebanese drivers, lebanon, pedestrian bridges, pedestrians, public awareness, reckless driving, traffic
It’s been almost a week since I’ve returned from Tunis, and I have barely unpacked, and I literally have sand from the beach there in my favorite sandals. Asides from the massive amount of fun, sightseeing and shopping that was done there, those four days were dedicated to the Regional Meeting of Creative Commons, which also served as an initiation of the CC Tunis community, that I am sure will greatly enrich the region with their unlimited passion.
Within the event a series of workshops were incorporated to introduce ‘sharism’, creative commons and remixing in an open source worlds. The whole event culminated in an amazing concert, the music and program of which was created by the participants within these four days.
Photo take by Bilal Randeere's during the workshop and is licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA license click to view more photos by Bilal From Tunis
Together with Eman Jaradat from Jordan, we gave a workshop* on how to use Creative Commons in combination with Social Media to Create, Share, Network and Build Your personal brand. We tried to explain CC, the different social networking platforms and how to share/find work there as well as emphasizing the importance of proper attribution.
The most amazing part of that is when we gave the attendees an assignment to create their own works representing current Tunis. Our participants were mostly writers and journalists, but surprisingly they have created very interesting conceptual work with limited tools and the internet, whilst one group ‘borrowed’ a designer from the other workshop to fulfill their concept.
[slideshare id=8515540&doc=cctunis-110705151546-phpapp01]
You can see the results, as they were remixed into the video created during Stephanie Terroir‘s and Mahmoud Abou Wardeh’s workshops, which was projected in the concert.
Creative Commons Tunis Regional Meeting
Tunisia is a unbelievably beautiful country, with warm and welcoming people, despite the recent events, everything was completely safe and peaceful when we were there. So I absolutely recommend for anyone thinking of a vacation spot to pick Tunisia, you would not regret it!
_______________________________
*building the workshop and exercises and coordinating it online is a whole other story/miracle all in the spirit of CC, big thanks to Donatella De La Rata for bringing me and Eman together 
and Naeema for providing guidance, the slide background and some of the slides from her presentation.
Tags: #CCmena, Arab Spring, attribution, attribution rules, create, creative commons, network, personal brand, personal branding, remising, revolution, share, sharism, social mediqa, social networking, Travel, Tunis, Tunisia
UPDATE: Leo Burnett won Cannes Lions silver for this campaign.Check the full campaign recap video below. Thumbs UP! (The reach numbers seem a bit high to me though)
_______________________
Initially Published March 18
After an extremely dull strain of flash microsites and lame sweepstakes comes a completely refreshing SOCIAL social media campaign from Leo Burnett, that provides a unique and personalized message and is also 100% related to the cause at hand. To think that all of this time when I was raging that ad agencies DO NOT GET IT that influencers want to be ENGAGED they got IT !!!
It all started a few days ago when I found a friend request on my facebook from a “Darine Sabbah” who also had MY profile photo. Immediately I posted for all my friends to report this person and reported him/her myself. Friends rages, some said its a spam bot and that others have been hit too, a friend called me to check if I am OK, another said I must be pretty famous to be impersonated… whilst I stayed bewildered that the profile is still up.
And a few minutes ago I found what it is all about and it is so bewilderingly brilliant, that after my long round of silence and amidst my crazy commitments to Twestival Beirut (and instead of writing a post about that) I am writing a post about this.
So the secret was revealed when I got the following two Private Messages on Facebook.
Do I need to rave more about how insightful this campaign was?I would’ve probably created you some nice bullet list and a great deal of reasoning packed into 500 words or so, if I had the time, but I think you guys can go ahead and build it on your own, in the comments below.
So be ware “The closest things to you might be fake”. It’s time to take action.
P.S. What I did not like though that the PMs came from a from Brand PGs facebook user account and that that account is a closed account with little info and there is no Facebook Page for Brand protection.
P.S.2 The funny thing is that I got a Press Release from Leo Burnett a few days earlier about what they were doing for the campaign and tehre was a slight mention of facebook, but i completely disregarded it thinking it will be same old ads + page. I almosty feel like calling this “guerrilla social media” …
Tags: brand protection group, digital activism, digital agency, guerilla marketing, influencers outreach, integrated campaign, lebanon social media campaign, leo burnett, social media campaign, Social Media Marketing, social media marketing lebanon, social media marketing measurement, social media strategy
With the great number of creative submissions by both celebrit designers, professionals and amateurs for Bras for a Cause, it was really hard to make a choice. But my absolute favorite is the one above, the design by Millniece Pinto is really empowering and absolutely beautiful, I just wish it really gets to be made into real life.
Many women wish they could show off their bra, either because of the colour, prints or various other design aspects. I have designed a bra,taking this into consideration,by using a basic U-plunge bra and adding a yoke to it. I have designed this bra to be worn either under or over garments. Keeping in mind, women with breast cancer, the bra is designed as a pocket bra, where a prosthesis can be put in, if needed. Sacagawea being a symbol of women’s worth and independence, I have used her culture as inspiration whilst designing the bra. The Lemhi Shoshone culture has a lot of earthy colours used, that are sombre, yet bold. I have also used tribal print, found in the Lemhi Shoshone culture, in the design. The print has been inspired by a beaded necklace. To keep with the sassy, feminine appeal, I have chosen a combination of lace and cotton fabric. The bra is designed for women who are bold and young, and women who want to rediscover their youth.
What is your favorite? Vote Now and help in spreading awareness about breast cancer.
Tags: awareness campaign, bras for a cause, cancer, competition, csr, fustany, middle east, one wig stand, voting
The original Kono Pizza , webscreenshot from http://www.konopizza.it/eng/home.html
VS
The duplicate, received via email
Tags: coneinn, copy cat oproducts, copycat, goraeib, Kono Pizza, lebanese products, lebanon, pizza, pizza cone, pizza in a cone
My little sister was so joyous that James Blunt was coming to Lebanon, to be fair she’s happy when any artists comes to Lebanon even when she does not get to go to the concert. She went to her first ever live performance last month when Shakira was here. I asked her if she saw her from the place they were at , she said when she zoomed in with her camera into the stage she was able to catch a glimpse. Then I asked her if she knew that would happen and that she needed to stand in a crowd of screaming people for hours would she still have went, she said DEFINITELY.
So now, as you may have guessed she’s going to the James Blunt Concert on Monday and she’s really excited! She’s counting down the days and today she drew the artwork above to show her excitement and support Tamanna (I think the guy with the glasses is supposed to be James Blunt) .
As you may know, what is amazing about this concert is that it is organized to fulfill a child’s wish, and all the proceeds from the international signer’s concert are also going in support of many other wishes for children with terminal illnesses and improving their quality of life. So all of this is a fantastic international collaboration between Tamanna and James Blunt that enables everyone to help and support either through ticket sales, awareness raising, or simply wearing a white T-shirt.
You can also help by:
-Donating on the Tamanna website.
- Like and share Tamanna’s facebook page
- Follow & RT @TamannaLeb
- Raise Awareness about the NGO within your social network.
Also Check out Mohammad Hijazi’s and Marie Nakhleh’s posts about Tamanna.
Tags: artwork, beirut, charity, children, csr, events, fundraising, james blunt, lebanon, NGO, social media, tamanna, wishes
These are a few of the mantras that I try to repeat to clients to shift their paradigm to thinking about ONLINE marketing and their online presence. What are the mantras that you follow in your online marketing strategy?
- Advertising does not Guarantee Visibility
- Visibility does not equal Brand Leverage
- Visibility is nothing without Engagement
- Engagement can not result in friction points and frustration, as these “de-stimulate” and greatly impact conversions
- Engagement needs a series of personalized touch-points in order to create qualified leads that are then filtered into conversions
- Visibility through online advertising does not mean engagement and brand awareness in the online world
- Since online advertising is not interruption based, the challenge is in creating interactive ads and campaigns that will grab the attention of the online community and create conversions.
- Online advertising and other social media channels are used in combination to create multiple effective touch points with leads and community leaders to create brand engagement and awareness.
- Valuable content and value added in the community create a positive brand image will will eventually lead to more conversions
- Conversions are not instantaneous, online marketing, just like any sales process requires significant lead nurturing to make them convert and become clients.
- As each online experience is unique, we now have the tools to target each and every targeted group with individual messages and tailored communication strategies that will create multiple gateways for them to find out about the brand and come through gateways customized for them.
- In the online world, any activity performed by a company leaves a lasting footprint in the world wide web, unlike offline, where there is no feedback past the expiry of the month in which an add or press release was rolled out.
- On Digital Echo: Online campaigns, do not have an instantaneous effect, before becoming viral, a certain time-slot needs to be given for the online community to discover the content ( which we will be working on), get interested in it, explore it, adopt it and then start spreading it and becoming brand ambassadors. This resulting echo will further resonate the campaign and the brands position. That is why, the campaigns need to be present and fed with content for certain period to maximize their reach.
- Online advertising gives companies full statistics in terms of how many people viewed their messages/ads, how many clicked on their ads, where they came from, what they did, how much time they spent on the landing page… something offline advertising can not aspire to. Furthermore in online advertising you pay for targetted leads and people who actually viewed the ads , and not a mass of newspaper subscribers that disregard the ad, or people who switch channels during commercial times.
- Leads need to be put into a personalized nurturing process that will ensure their conversion with time through a series of various online and offline touchpoints with the brand.
Tags: building engament, conversions, digital echo, digital marketing, digital presence, digital reach, digital strategy, engagement, interactivity, landing pages, lead nurturing, mantras, online advertising, online advertising strategy, online marketing, social medi amarketing strategy, Social Media Marketing, social media marketing consultant
