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Tags: arab world, email marketing, email scams, gaddafi, libya, libyan revolution, political unrest, politics, revolutions
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
What do you expect to see when you click this? And it lands on the Lebanese President's Facebook Page
Tags: digital maketing, facebook ads, lebanese president, lebanon, online marketing, Social Media Marketing
This post is inspired by the lawsuit filed by Benihana Kuwait against the author of one of the most popular Kuwaiti blogs for an objective review they did not appreciate.
In my previous job, working in the International Sales Department, our main objective was to get new agents across the world to represent our brand and supporting them through thick and thin with Marketing Materials ranging from catalogs, brochures, photos, samples, emailer templates, templates, microsites… And that was not an easy job. Many a time clients would come to us directly from countries where we already had agents because they felt that we could service them better, more efficiently, that we had more know how, or simply because the agent was rude, unprofessional, unethical… And I can imagine how much more pressures you have for controlling standards and ensuring brand integrity in the B2C world, from making sure your outlets correspond to certain standards of look, feel, smell & sound, to a unified experience and service levels… especially if you have franchised your brand and no longer hold the remote control, only having access and being able to voice concerns on matters that are distinctly outlined in that one franchising agreement. Whilst on the other hand the franchisee, has the golden key and has the ability to drive your name into a wall at any time.
via BlogBaladi.com
Well guess what, with the world wide web, your reputation is not only threatened in that one location, worse come to worse, one slip up can cause a global ripple effect damaging all of your brand’s properties.
So today brands playing internationally also have to develop clear branding and marketing strategies for managing their digital identity and reciprocate those experiences into clear guidelines and strict policies with lots of case studies and canned responses for their partners to follow worldwide, otherwise, you’ll have another Benihana Kuwait nightmare on your hands. And well of course, have a clear cut crisis management plan.
I feel so sorry for Benihana New York and can imagine the nightmare they are going through at the moment unable to control anything and trying to explain to their partners how much damage they have done and convince them to change course of action. For all of you other brands out there, this is not an excuse for you to get scared of the online world and run away, it is just one more proof that you should be online, listen, monitor and engage in a structured way respecting the community that constitutes a large portion of your target audience and learn from cases such as these.
Make sure to check Mark’s roundup on all the amazing posts the community has written to support him and appeal to Benihana Head offices Japan through this easy was provided by @Alexandermcnabb.
For more marketing perspective also check @youmny’s post at Marketing in Lebanon blog – Benihana Kuwait, the art of creating a PR crisis. You can also check what Lebanese bloggers had to say on this.
Disclaimer: 24am is a blog that I have personally been following for a long while and recommend for all of you to follow due to the amazing quality of content it has and the objectivity of its authors.
Tags: #benihanakuw, b2b, b2c, benihana kuwait, blogging, branding, digital marketing, facebook, franchising, marketing strategies, middle east social media marketing catastrophies, socail media, social media crisis management, social media guidelines, Social Media Marketing, social media marketing middle east, twitter
Lately I am going to so many events , most are tech or social media related, but … well… a lot of the time… the digital me feels at unease and disappointed, unable to share the event with the world or growing a grudge against the organizers, so I decided to write this simple guide declaring openly to all event organizers that anything less would be a disappointment, and ,well if they do the things I mentioned, they will make the online community more involved in their events and expand their reach and visibility. Don’t they all want that?
Ah well, as my main objective is self centered I mainly focused in things that need to be going during and after the event. (Plus most of them score well on before event stuff after I corner them with my questions in emails) .
1. # – Have a HASHTAG!
This is an out most basic, but then again most event organizers forget to make it short enough, announce it publicly more than once and most importantly forget to register it at a hashtag repository like twubs or wthashtag, so most of the time I am livetweeting from an event my followers start asking me “what is this and that #xyz … any links… ?”
2. Official LiveTweeting
That brings us naturally to livetweeting. I have already talked about the importance of livetweeting here but i just wanted to emphasize that event organizers need to keep on livetweeting from the official event account to update people at the event on what is happening, remind who the speakers are and what their handles are, tell them where the live feeds are (doesn’t hurt to do all that in parallel on linked in and facebook as well) … AND if you are an event sponsor, especially at an event centered around social media, especially if your produce is focused around social media, big thumbs down to you if you are not tweeting about the event and not quoting your guest speaker. Yes @zawya I am talking about you and your zero tweets at MediaMeForum and your replying only two days later to my tweets. Which brings me to my next point.
3. Answer & Engage Tweets
For starters, there is no fun for a hashtag without a livescreen. At MediaMEForm the guys did a great job of livetweeting what was happening, BUT [yes it is a big but] they completely dismissed the twitter community. The twitter Screen was live only during the panels and it was put in a place where no speaker can see what we were talking about, and even the moderator did not address any questions from the tweets, nor did their official twitter channel. Unlike ArabNET, where there were ginormous screens dedicated to tweets and speakers paying full attention to what was happening with one speaker undressing to get a wave of tweets. Still , I think the impact will be even more augmented if you have a dedicated moderator to pick at least two questions from the twittersphere for each panel/speaker and ask them at the event. Honestly speaking, the questions are more pungent, very well formulated and more daring and provoking more mindful discussions, isn’t that what you want? Aren’t your events targeted at identifying the trends of the future?
4. Live Ustream
I was on the peak of bliss drinking my Pepsi, eating popcorn in my PJs watching the pitches at Yallastartup weekend day 1 and working on the other laptop in parallel… but then, lo and behold once the pitches ended and we started getting some cool behind the curtains views of the audience, their feedback and interactions, seeing familiar faces….. THEN the stream turned off and a vigilant message told me that the stream will only resume after one day to show the final pitches and that all in between will not be documented… I felt that that was plain mean… YallaStartup weekend is a sort of non-commercial example.
So all of you event organizers will be saying :”why should we put the stuff live for free, when people pay to attend?”
And I’ll tell you. one has nothing to do with the other.
Most of us attend the events for the networking and has nothing to do with the panels and the speakers, who by the way we realize travel from one event to the other with similar presentations, who most of the time blog a lot and more in depth about the subject, or write whole books on the matter… So you putting up a live stream doesn not diminish your financial gain, which BTW you have reaped in full from teh event sponsors and paying attendees. So you may as well give the sponsor’s their money’s worth and help promote their brands and spread their messages and you event’s messages (while your at it) to even more people. People, who by the way are highly targeted individuals, who simply could not catch a flight, or whose bosses came to the event but left them at the office, or teh bosses who sent employees there and want to make sure that they sent them to an interesting event… People who would love to come to the event next year. People who would tweet about the event and talk and talk about it…
It was so amazing to watch the few panels I have missed (due to my weird trip schedule) at Media ME Forum on their UStream account and the quality of the videos/voice/ the nice music they put when nothing was happening – really professional! And ArabNet, they really understood that if they just empower the social media addicts, their event will be promoted across the roof and that’s what happened.
4.PHOTOS
We live in the now and like to see photos now, and share them and comment on them – ALL NOW! So do not make us wait two days for your flickr or facebook gallery upload. You can set up something extremely simple on site, like that photo booth Arabnet had (could not find link), that immediately sent all photos to their flickr account. Also make sure if you have something like that up & running, promote it well before and during the event.
You have a lot of room to be creative here and there are more wonderful ideas out there to engage people in crowdsourced photography at your event.
5. Icing on the Cake – Netvibes
So you do all of the stuff I mentioned above and integrate all of them into one awesome netvibes page that people courting your event could easily follow. This is one of the more magical tools out there and one I really, really adore to look at when it comes to events I am not at and ones I am at (if they have one that is). For instance check the cool netvibes page SpotOnPR does annually for Gitex and while you are at it, check Spot On PR’s Netvibe’s page. Don’t you see how that will help your event to become more sharable and viral?
6. Social booklets
You lovely event organizers always give us those nice and creative booklets with all the info about the speakers, but why oh why don’t you mention the speakers’/moderators’ twitter handles, websites, blogs next to their names, so we can connect to them, address our questions to them, or just plain stalk them? and while you’re at it, dedicate a page at the beginning providing us with the event hashtag, livestream, netvibes page… et all
7. PLUGSSSSS
I always email event organizers about plugs, they always feel so happy when i tell them i am planning to bring my laptop to livetweet and welcome the thought and assure me WIFI and electricity plugs are available, but up till now, none of them have delivered on that. Do you expect our battery lives to be infinite? Do you expect us to have spare batteries for our iPhones? We want to enjoy the event all of its durations while checking on work email and tweeting or life-blogging YOUR event. Plain and simple, there should be a dedicated plug at least for every four attendees… Not that I mind making eyes to the camera guy to co-share his plug and carrying around at all times a multi-plug adapter, or stealing power for my mobile from a fellow attendees dying laptop…
8. GOOD WIFI
This probably should’ve been at the top of the list, but I consider it a basic and only as I reread the whole thing I decided to highlight it, just in case….
9.Screen & Screen Brightness
Also a little after thought: try to have several screens at the event and make sure that their brightness is optimal, so we are able to take good cellphone pics no matter how far from the stage we are without stealing your speaker’s valuable “top secrets”.
After Event Tips
- Encourage us to send feedback
- Send us all the lovely links for the photos, social pages, videos, slides … post event stats, news clippings about the event
- It is also lovely to receive some post event answers to questions that were asked during teh forum but did not have enough time to be answered properly or the material/numbers was not at hand.
- Send us an industry newsletter (yeah i do not mind up being automatically signed up for that)
- Ask us what do we want to see at your next event
- Continue Tweeting, Updating the Facebook/linked in page of the event and engaging all who were at the event
Next month, I am planning on attending the 1st Arab Social Media Forum, which the organizers are promising to be a wholesomely dedicated event to all social media aspects… so…. Guys, I am really hoping on seeing all that stuff there [wink, wink]!
Have I left anything out? What is it that you found missing at the last event you have attended?
*Update 1: Forgot to tell you how at Microsoft Open Door Event this year there were special giveaways prepared for tweeters. Small giveaway, but nonetheless, it was pretty sweet.
Tags: aha moment, Arab social media forum, arabnet, branding, campaign, communication, community building, creativity, crowdsourcing, engagement, hashtag, internet, livetweeting, marketing, mediameforum, middle east, netizens, PR, reach, social media, Social Media Marketing, twitter, ustream, viral marketing, wifi
Lebanese Ministry of Energy Promising 24/7 electricity
“Nothing more permanent than the temporary” – This is what my mother says after her lifetime of experience in moving houses and countries, and I think she got that proverb from her mother too, who being a military wife and having witnessed WWII had her share of moving. Every time we would settle in a new place, we would put off doing things and reforms, like painting a wall, adding an extra kitchen cabinet, or shelf, changing the hangers, updating the upholstery…, until “better times” , but these seemed to not arrive … and then we moved again…
I have been hearing that the problems with electricity cuts will be resolved, and we will have 24/7 electricity, ever since I was 10But something always seemed to get in the way, be it a little war, a bombing of the Power Station, a revolution…
And over a decade and a half later, I came to accept the electricity cut outs, and think of them as the government’s way to educate us about resource scarcity, global warming and saving energy, while contemplating alternative energy sources. Come global warming or any natural catastrophe, I guarantee the Lebanese will have the highest survival rate.
Last month, I was at an international conference in the Riviera Hotel in Beirut, even the Kenyan representative, whose country also suffers from power cuts, was smirking with the power blackouts and the generators inability to handle the Air Conditioners. The Lebanese organizers really felt ashamed…
Can the Ministry of Energy really keep its promise this time? But it is great that they are approaching the subject with self irony, admitting that something is OFF with Lebanon now.
Tags: advertsiement, blackouts, electricity, lebanon, ministry of electricity, ministry of energy
The day started with great frustration as I read Liliane’s blog post regarding the turnaround of events at CNN.
I’m not going to get into the details of how a 140 character tweet spiraled madness and let the network to believe that Octavia’s Position was compromised…
The first thing we learn about corporate social media practices, is that the benefits of it far outweigh the risks. We are also taught that successful brand social media strategies must reflect a personal approach and sincerity in communicating to your audience and reflecting your true persona.
Big companies such as CNN have been happily leveraging Social Media through their wide network of brand champions, like Octavia, who have been dedicatedly tweeting their personal & professional experiences from tehir twitter accounts, as well as sharing on various social networks, reaching out people, interacting with them and building relationships feeding the ultimate brand persona.
It is that sincerity and openness that helped Octavia build relationships and trust with the digital natives in the Middle East, relationships with which she enriched her employer and the quality of work she has provided.
And in the digital world, we naturally understand, without disclaimers, that whatever is tweeted by Octavia, though under the CNN handle reflects by and large her personal opinions which may not match that of her employer.
So doesn’t CNN allow its employees to have personal opinions (whatever they may be)? Are CNN employees only allowed to express their opinions when it benefits CNN and is not controversial? ( I would really like to take a look at CNN’s social media guidelines)
I find it very disappointing that at the sight if a small back lash CNN was so reluctant to overlook all that Octavia has contributed to CNN, instead of standing up for her. It is not the right way to treat a brand champion will definitely reflect negatively and strain o other CNN staff in their social media presence.
CNN how do you expect your brand champions to stand by you, if you do not cover their backs and put full trust in them.
I would appreciate if you can leave your honest comment on Octavia’s Post here.
Other Lebanese Bloggers who have covered this issue:
- Abzzyy
- Beirut Spring and his interview with BBC
- Mind Soup and here
- Facebook page created by @youmny
( if you are a Lebanese blogger who has blogged on the subject, kindly let me know to link back to your post)
I also particularly loved Jillian C York’s post – Shame on American Media – stating even more examples of media double standards.
Tags: brand champions, cnn, corporate social media, octavia nasr, social media, Social Media Marketing, social media policies
Image via Beirut Drive By Shooting
Ever wondered why men are always the ones kicked out of their houses, or know to have left “to buy a pack of cigarettes” to never return again?
TRUE STORY:
The last month has all been about packing our belongings into boxes, bags, suitcases, bubble wrap and newspapers… Since it is a tedious process that none of us wanted to do, we created the buddy system. The most enthusiastic person, or in our case the most responsible person, aka as hubby, would pack while the other person would monitor the packing process, hands the scotch tape & newspapers, labels the boxes… eliminating the possibility of weaseling out.
I must say that we have only lived in this place for three years, and I myself was astounded by the amount of stuff we have, bringing a lot of guilt surges regarding our consumerism habits.
The salt & bread of it all is whenever we opened a new closet the ratio of MY STUFF/ HUBBY’S STUFF was overwhelming, and he would always scream out something like ” I didn’t even know you own these” or “why don’t you ever use these” or “ Since you do not use these, let us give it away“. But my answer would always be ” YES, I NEED that“.
After a few of such episodes my dear had an AHA moment:
” NOW I know why it is always the women kicking her husband out by throwing his suitcase out of the window or leaving it on the porch! WOMEN root themselves deeply into the house with all their belongings so he can never accomplish gathering all her stuff and getting rid of her! It will be much easier for him to run away!”
Could it be that consumerism is uprooted in women’s DNA for survival purposes?
And now, we are faced with the challenge of UNPACKING!!!
Tags: cliches, marriages, moving out, packing
The visual is AMAZING and spot on. So far this is the only visual I have been able to find related to this specific campaign, below is an image from an earlier campaign they did. What I would LOVE to see in the future is how would they tackle the issue of Arguileh second hand smoke, an issue not covered so far in any campaign, although it is a very serious issue in Lebanon.
These visuals are part of a campaign lauched by the Lebanese Public Health Ministry in collaboration with al Azem Wal Saade association. So far I have only seen these in a magazine, although the tobacco control website said the campaign will be across all media channels starting June, but we’re not here to talk about that.
Let me know what you think, and read other posts I have written about the smoking ban.
Tags: advertisement, awareness campaigns, campaign, health, lebanon, second hand smoke, secondhand smoke, smoking ban, social change, tobacco control
Lesson #1: Your audience is ever more demanding!
TRUE STORY:
While watching the first football game of the World Cup:
- my father in Law: Damn this transmission has degraded, before they used to show the name of the player who has the ball and info about him, zoom into the player’s faces more when they replay, replay the goals better…
- my brother in law: Dad, this is on Playstation 2, not in ‘the real’ Fifa
Yes, we are getting more spoiled with new multimedia technologies, traditional media have to provide more information rich data, better interactivity options and more sharing opportunities. In short we want to be better informed and more involved and we expect you to do something about it!
Lesson #2: The Stakeholders Expect You to React FAST!
A day into world cup and everyone is complaining about these darn Vuvuzela’s. Three days into the world Cup and Germany filters out Vuvuzela noises to spare the fans. A couple days more Britain Joins and people start petitioning for banning the Vuvuzela( with over 300,000 fans on facebook and counting) . Add a couple of days and an app that adds vuvuzela noises to sites that filter them is created following the de-vuvuzelaing applets!
Needless to say, your clients will expect the same response rates from you!
Lesson #3: Do not forget about unexploited niches
For instant, women have to suffer while their prince charming enjoys row after row of football matches day in day out for a whooole month. So while everyone is gold mining the idea of the big flat screens to display the World Cup, why don’t you capitalize on the opposite – making your place a haven for football haters?
This Le Mall ad may be an attempt at just what I’m talking about, but I hate the fact that it belittles women. As a woman I would not identify with it and will consider it an attempt to trick me into going to Le Mall and being stuck watching football, rather than showing me a clear exit path – The “learn about football so people do not make fun of you” message VERSUS the ” while he is watching football break loose and shop” message I would like to hear.
So you see, there is a real propitious niche there, that your competitors are not exploring. And let us not forget about children, where do people with children leave kids to go watch the games? You say grandparents, I say create a replacement product…There are a millions of ideas and campaigns buried in unrealized consumer demand in your market too- Be creative, we’re expecting no less!
My personal favorites in this regard is the above Macy Gray video clip and this great post by Maya Zankoul.
Lesson #4: Shamelessly exploit trends?
I am not even gonna go into the myriad of brilliant and so and so ads, campaigns and offers linked to the world cup. Yes it is a good tactic. Yes, it will help you not stay behind, but if you truely wanna innovate, go back to point 3.
Lesson #5: We are watching You, and we have everything ON RECORD!
One of the first big time fxxx-ups in this world cup was the British Goalkeeper giving a slip to the ball, right after catching it. Man, it was a media circus at my in-law’s house. With the whole family lividly replaying his walk of shame and lively commenting how his career is over. And all of this replicated across millions of households in reaction to a slip of a man who by default can not catch all the balls shot at him. So Imagine what your Stakeholders will do if YOU slip up!
Have you learned any new marketing lessons from the world cup, let me know!?
Tags: 2010 fifa world cup, advertisement, advertising, beirut, competition, comsumer studies, Corporate marketing, marketing 2010 fifa world cup, marketing lessons, multimedia, new media, Social Media Marketing, USP
