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I know I am usually all about the Social Media Marketing, but let us not forget, traditional marketing is still amkes up a huge part of a marketer’s day to day tasks. And though participation in tradeshows*, exhibitions and conferences may become less frequent it is still there for every marketer and is essential for business networking, at least for now.

When I was preparing for an exhibition at work I made this checklist in order not to forget anything, and thought I would share it with you. It contains the major things that you should do/coordinate/get before, during and after an event / exhibition that your company is participating in. Let me know if you would add anything to it, feel free to download it, modify it and scribble your own notes in, that  relate to you industry or specific event.

Fell free to ask me for the original file, in case you want to make major changes, I would be happy to see it get a new life.

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* Not that I like/enjoy the fact, to me they are more like the inevitable. Networking 101 without the 2.0 element ( and some events that I have to attend/participate in are like that) seem to lack an extra layer of richness and context. I do enjoy events directed towards netizens though.

I would sure like to see the digital strategy and the ROI behind all of these. Facebook has indeed become the new political landscape in Lebanon.

Last week I gave two lectures at the Amercian University of Beirut as part of the AUB Online Collaborative #SM101 Series.

In the first I spoke briefly about how Social Media should be approached and some do’s and don’ts expressed by case studies from the Middle East. The below slides cover glibly what we talked about (hopefully I can post a video of it soon). The lovely Brooke Anderson from the Daily Star wrote an insightful overview of the lecture here.

If you are interested in the subject of setting up a Social Media Strategy you will be also interested with the interview I did over at GIGALB with Patrick Atallah from 90:10 Group which gives first hand insights into the subject.

The second was an introduction to Social Media Monitoring and was all about the free tools one can use to monitor social media activity and creative way of putting them to use. Let me know if there are any tools you love to use that were not mentioned here.

It was a very interesting experience indeed, big thanks to Mohammad Hijazi for inviting me over and Mrs. Leila Khauli for the support by telling her students that the material will be on their exams.

Everyone is up to stirring a revolution these days, or at least, trying to juice out the buzz out of them towards their gain.

I’ve showed you previously an example of Irhal’s response to the Egyptian revolution.

This new example tries to echo a recent political rally here in Beirut, re-purposing it to promote their event. My Eyeballs, being used to political slogans all around were definitely caught up to read on. Nevetherless, I do not believe it added to the event’s exposure or made more impact compared to Forward’s usual print materials / ads.

What do you think?

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For revolutions I am interested in, I advise checking out Ontornet’s amazing efforts for advocating for faster internet in Lebanon.

I receive a lot of e-greeting cards and I am usually more than happy to share the most interesting ones with you, because I believe that seasonal greeting cards are an important touch-point within the overall marketing communication strategy.  Among the many cliche and uninspiring greeting cards I have received so far, the above is just beguiling in its quaintness, naivete and absolute personalized depiction of the business.

Have you seen any enthralling corporate e-greetings lately? I would be ecstatic to take a peek.

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.

Advertising and design companies around the Middle East have always worked on Ramadan greeting cards, which hold corporate messages and link back to the brands of their clients. Every year, the challenge gets even more interesting with a focus on creativity and visual impact that would surprise and inspire. But as globalization takes over the Arab world, interesting developments are easily noticed.

Starting with the design phase, all creative’s scout around for inspiration and ideas to create a card that is visually interesting, modern and creative. An essential part of “Islamic design” is the integration of old and modern Arabic calligraphy, the “star” of the visual, coupled with a layout design including interesting die cuts and new cardboard treatments and rendering the card an interesting design to display.

In the past few years, the display factor has become essential. With designers creating cards that would “stand alone” and display the message without necessarily being an actual physical card. Ideas range from regular cards to developed boxes that would hold two main messages: first, the company name, which would link the message to a specific brand and second, the actual message, which is a heartfelt wish and portrays the “humane” aspect of a caring company.

Recently, we can notice the introduction of Latin and Arabic texts at the same time, something never done in the past, a symbol of adaptation to the world and a way of sending a clear message and communicating the “Islamic life” to countries and people who do not necessarily understand the Arabic Calligraphy.

Similarly, the calligraphy, which is also a beautiful graphical element, is coupled with modern Arabic typefaces, an interesting thing to note. Calligraphy stays a visual link to the traditional Arabic past, a visual and historical story developing over time. In Ramadan, as people read and remember God’s word, they are reminded by its beauty and form (calligraphy is the Islamic expression of the beauty of Allah’s word).

I view this period as a form of advertising the Islamic world brand. All Arabs from around the Middle East unite in a similar manner (the everyday lifestyle adaptation to rituals). This unity creates a global brand forcing itself on the global audience. These greetings, given out to clients and businesses around the globe, are a simple form of communication. On one side, a certain company promotes itself (as noted above) on another side, it promotes the Islamic world, the religion, the people as one group, one complex identity, one brand.

This brand is currently evolving, integrating itself on a global, massive scale (Arabic typeface development is a simple example). On another hand, the global audience is more open to the Arabic language (with so many interested in learning it, and so many learning how to draw Arabic calligraphy) there seems to be surprising developments awaiting us in the years to come.

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Gabriel Ghali

Art Director, Blogger, Columnist, DJ

Blog: http://gghali.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @gabrielghali

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I want to thank Gaby for jump-starting this great collaboration and  his wonderful and insightful review of trends in Islamic art and the development of what is know as an “Islamic brand”, based on his many years of experience in branding and advertising in the middle east. Gaby has also provided the great gallery of cards, which we would like to contribute to as well. Just send your company’s corporate greeting card to contact [at] theidentitychef.com or add a link to it in the comment box.

Do not forget to subscribe to Gaby’s Blog and follow him on twitter for his amazing daily doses of positive vibes. While you are on Gaby’s blog download his Exotic Sensation’s Tracklist, which is simply divine.

Ramadan Moubarak My Dear Readers, I wish you Warmth, Empathy & Spiritual Uplift in this Holy Month.

SMEDS Ad Campaign for Car Giveaway

My Car has been giving me a very hard time lately, it has had it coming  since I graduated Uni and yet we have been concentrating on getting through with the wedding and then saving up for the house…

So even though I do not eat any type of processed cheese and don’t even like the car that SMEDS are giving away, those typical scenes from our daily commuting lives, just make me feel so understood. And I get that certain warm feeling towards SMEDS.

This is what every Campaign should be able to achieve, right?

Despite the stupendously negative reaction of the online community to the demeaning Mon Bijou Mon Droit Ads, I have spotted these once again on Big Banners all around town.

This time around it seems that Moukarzel have a brand champion in the form of some starlet, livid on capitalizing on the huge wedding wave in Lebanon.

This is what happens when brands do not study the return and feedback on previous campaigns and bastion themselves within the walls of their own ignorance – Sad but True.

Moukarzel’s Competitor’s take notes and rejoice while they are stuck in Marketing 1.0.

Some Links from Bloggers regarding the first wave of this Campaign:

- Cafe Thawra

- @Naloves on twitter and on her blog

- Beirut NTSC

- Maya’s Amalgam

(if you have written an opinion about this campaign, please let me know so I can link back to it)

So you may have had enough of hearing this word, or are probably immune to the meaning behind it. Let’s see how powerful it would be to apply the same in the world of Advertising and Communications.

Anyone who worked in Advertising/PR will probably drone for hours about how clients think they know what s best for them , and how frustrating it is when campaigns do not generate expected results, or simply how thin the line is between a great success and miserably failed Ad.

I ve presented this solution to different Advertising/PR professionals, and it has never been met with anything less than an “AHA!” reaction. Reason being: it is simple yet profound: Change things up.

Benjamin Franklin wrote:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results…

Advertising folks like to admit that they’re outside the norm. Crazy, you say? Maybe. More like non-conformists. We live by the only code which is: NO CODE.

But when it comes to generating results, attitudes are different. You can t afford to be too crazy (or Insane as Ben Franklin quotes above). Simply put, if you keep applying the same method /concept / approach you should not expect to get better/different results.

In a broad sense this has several implications for Ad folks. For example, if Brand X uses the same general platform for too long it risks two things: people get bored quickly or people simply get attached to the platform and will refuse the new platform.

Solution: Change things up.

If your research is not bringing you closer to the consumer, change your tools. Go out and be the consumer.

If your brief is not inspirational enough, break it down and use a different template.

If your media choice is not generating interest, explore alternative media.

If your client refuses to invest in a bigger campaign, change your selling technique or upgrade your negotiation tactics.

Simply put, same behavior generates same results.

The next time you feel inertia against a new idea by a client, just remember Ben Franklin’s statement – it is simply insane to expect your results to change if you continue doing the same things.

Go ahead. Change it up.

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BIO: Khaled Itani is an ex-AdMan with an MBA in Marketing from the American University of Beirut. With years of Advertising/Communications experience from Grey Beirut and JWT, Khaled is currently a Client Services Manager for a leading North American e-Commerce firm.

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Read Khaled Itani’s Previous Guest Posts:

• Living Habit Number 5 – How to improve your understanding of people and situations?

• Worried about making BIG decisions? Don’t be!

And also, read other Guest Posts on the Identity Chef.

For some weird reason, I do not know how he does it, but Khaled always ends up sending emails into my inbox with precisely the answers to the questions that are on my mind, drawing from his personal experience and whatever rubbed off on him during his years as an Ad-man. Thank you Khaled for inspiring me and unknowingly satisfying my curiosities. It is an honor to share it on the Identity Chef.

So guys I am interested in what you think, what’s your perspective?

Today, IVY was giving dating advice on twitter and asking people for feedback on her make a move rose giveaway and planning a tweetup dinner.

Yesterday, at the table, we sat arguing for around 20 minutes whether IVY is real or not.

The whole week before, people were passionately interacting with IVY on twitter…

Two weeks ago, Ivy registered to attend a tweetup and blogged about it.

And the truth of the matter is that we shouldn’t care if IVY is real or not. We should be happy that companies have finally understood the language of digital natives and is creating campaigns that resonate and interact with us, as well as the other poor mere mortals. After EXOTICA’s  unexciting Different Christmas campaign, that even failed to point us to the blog on their billboards, Leo Burnett, Exotica’s ad agency,  reviewed all of its mistakes and came up with something with a phenomenal snowball effect. Yes, as I said before my friends, social media marketing is sparking to life in the middle east and you are either with us, or eaten by the competition.

Things to learn from Exotica’s IvySays Project.

1- Give and you shall receive

The IVY we have come to know and love is a giver. She started by giving us dating advise, which though we may not all apply, but we all loved and we felt compelled single people everywhere felt compelled to try out Ivy’s moves and then… Ivy slipped a rose into our hands and made it all the more easier. Think about your clients, think about what they need. And even if you are B2B business, think: Do your they need education, help, comfort, care, empowerment? All of us do, don’t we? Now how can you use all that your expertise to help them, regardless of your product?

2-Engage and you shall be engaged

Before IVY got to her first post, she got a twitter account and after that, she did not just re-tweet her own posts, she replied to people, she talked to them, shared her opinions on outside issues, gave them advice and encouragement. There was no pushing her message or asking for anything for herself. That is why, when IVY asked questions she got enormous feedback, even from those who were in doubt about her true identity. And that is value you will not be able to leverage unless you create a genuine online persona [not to be confused with a retweet bot].

3-Go where they go, do what they do!

Ivy blogged about various creeks and corners in Beirut, be in Kayan, Greedy Goose or Le Grey, and that is what made her connect and resonate with her audience. Ivy did not blog about flowers she blogged about fashion, make-up, glamor, plastic surgery, national pride, chocolate- SUGAR, SPICE and EVERYTHING NICE – and we all like nice things.  Then again, she went to twitter to reach digital natives and, mind you,  she even guest blogged and re-blogged it on her own site. Did IVY ask girls to go to EXOTICA to get the flowers? No, they went out to  the most up and coming place – Gemmayze, Achrafieh and Hamra. The only thing that could’ve been done differently would be  giving out roses all around Lebanon, and not just Beirut.

4-Empower and you shall be empowered

Even if they did not comment, retweet or send emails, thought they actively do, with every dating tip IVY empowered ladies to take actions. Girls, being the gossip machines they are, would discuss it – which means GOING VIRAL offline. And then again with every rose given out to a guy Exotica created a positive sentiment, that is teh first step to along lasting relationship, not with the guy, but with the brand. And come 2011 I expect more girls to send out flowers to beau’s, and now, not because they[roses] are free, but because it makes them feel good. And this is the golden key to any successful brand. And did I mention the publicity, Ivy’s campaign is getting from mainstream media?

5-Going against the current and bringing the currents together

There are two stakeholders in any relationship – MAN & WOMAN. Exotica’s outdoors visuals empowered men, by teasing them with images of women they could have had in 2o09 if only they were brave enough. While Ivy, took a less traditional approach, and she looked to empower women. Mind you, women are not traditionally the ones we think first of when we think about selling flowers, right? But then again, I have seen countless times flowers being delivered to men at our offices from girlfriends, wives or wanna-bes. And then again, think of it, if a girl gives a guy one rose before valentine, and the guy likes the girl, on Valentine he will get her no less than a bouquet and what will his 1st choice be? Certainly EXOTICA. So you see, by bringing people together and spreading love Exotica may actually have record sales on February 14.

Finally,  I want to congratulate Exotica on the Brilliant Initiative and hope that IVY , whoever she is, continues blogging even after February 14, otherwise the digital natives all around, both those who think IVY is Real and Fake, will feel beguiled and disappointed.

Googling I found this song called IVY SAYS, I wonder if it had anything to do with the origin of the campaign.

Photo by the fantastic Naeema Zareef (twitter.com/naeema)

Two events have been the highlight of the last week of 2009 for me. One of them was my darling’s stiff resistance of the flu and the other was a live encounter with a typical Marketing Manager 1.0. And , eventually, yours truly got to celebrate the assent of the new year in bed with fever as well… making the lessons learned from these two encounters all the more vivid.

1)Ignore it, Maybe it’ll go away

Years of evolution have not killed the breadwinner’s instinct in men, which even stands above the instinct of self preservation. When your man falls sick, he would always keep on going to work, as usual, doing all his house chores in an exemplary manner, without admitting that something is wrong. I suppose in ancient tribes, the sick were isolated or cast out of the villages & left to die alone. So God forbid for your man to admit that something is wrong. But what goes in the manager’s 1.0′s head is beyond my understanding. M1.0 says that the marketing has not changed and that the foundations and underlying rules still remain valid, he has a moment of truth when he condescends to admit that advertising has changed, and then he switches back to denial by saying that advertising is only a part of marketing, he goes back to touching on changing customer needs, but breaks off at specifics… And, of course, in the same manner that prince charming audaciously refuses to take a sick day and stay in bed, M1.0 would say, – “We do not need a website now, we’ll start working on it in a couple of months, we’re studying our competition for now.” But by the time they are weakened and overpowered by their disease, the first would’ve plowed through a week of 20% productivity at work and then lying in bed for 2 days to recuperate and another week and a half of insane coughing, which is a significant trade off for staying at home for two days, as I did, and then going back to work a 100% recharged.  And our M1.0 Would greatly benefit said competitors by not having a significant online presence by as much as he will frustrate his prospects, who would be unable to find a way to contact them and find out more about their products. And no, a Facebook page is not as good as Corporate website (if you disagree with that, let me know, I’d be more than happy to share my views!).

2) Time Heals everything

Mon Beau will tell you that it takes seven days to cure a flu anyhow, so why bother and put your life on hold? M1.0 says that brand awareness will come with time, after my comment about missing opportunities 5 months after market entry. Well, in my dictionary, one week equals, on average, 70 tweets, 3 blogposts, and a possible email marketing or other online campaign. Multiply that by 5 and you will have thousands of touchpoints with your clients that come at a fraction of a cost of traditional media. Maybe our generation is too aggressive, but less than a month in my new job, I am already feeling unproductive for not bringing in more value and having to cram up on literature/research 50% of my time and that is precisely why, I use the remaining 50% to make actionable change NOW. In my eye, less is more in the long run, and little things done now, be it a greeting card, sms, news release… may not just prevent you from LOSING an existing client, but also get you a new client TODAY!

3) Expenditure = ROI

When hubby does reach a pharmacy, after 5 days, he’ll sweep off the shelves everything  that can remotely help him, or at least that is what he thinks. But by that time, the poles have shifted and all he needs to do is really wait, sip orange juice and rest to recover, instead of ingesting antibiotics which will further drain his life -resources. M1.o will also go to extremes, after 5 months, hiring top models, pampering them and doing runway shows, publishing ads in glitzy magazines… in two words maniacally spending!  But same-same, time would’ve done its thing, and that extra investment would’ve been too little too late! But that does not mean that you shouldn’t still take in your vitamins regularly. Don’t wait until you get a soar throat to take action. Act now, act always! Because,

4) Nobody Cares about YOU, as much as You!

Your boss is not going to give you a day off when you are saying you are a little sick but already came to work, and your clients are not going to run 20 google searches, searching for your coordinates if you landing page, facebook page, twitter handle or corporate website have not been SEO and keyword optimized. And if your marketing campaign does not relate to me, your target client, and if I do not find what I want about you, no money in the world would buy you my consumer’s sentiment and loyalty. And beware, I am too studying your competitors, and so far , they are ahead of you.

5) Birds do it, bees do it…

Men have this secret solidarity pact about enduring illness at the office, when I used to take a sick day at my previous job, I sometimes felt my boss took it as a personal offense. On the other hand, my spouse’s boss can call him while he’s sick saying, – “Aren’t you man enough, chuck on some pills and get on going!”. Bizarre and unacceptable, but, nonetheless true! But, even if denial is the trend, you should take advantage of it. While everyone is “hachooing” at the office, retreat and come back rosy cheeked and productive. And while your competitors are stuck in their old ways, you have the time to experiment, innovate and advance! Your mindset is your only handicap!

Post Approved for publishing by Prince Charming, M1.0 feedback pending. What about you?

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Disclaimer: I am aware that most of my dear readers are nothing like the Lebanese Laila I speak of. In fact, my readers are amazing bright Lebanese women who reject being branded with media stereotypes and have worked hard to become well established respected  professionals .  Male readers, especially those from outside of Lebanon, may not believe that such a species of women actually exists here, but it DOES… And unfortunately,  it co-exists with the cliched “Haifa like” “Lebanese Laila”. Images and personifications of which are all too painful for true Lebanese women to see. So I am really sorry my dear readers for delving to explore this cliche, I do not abet Laila or aspire to be like her, but I  I believe that the Lebanese Laila is a brand. A brand which in spite of all of the harm caused, can teach us a lot!

This post is part of the Kolena Laila Campaign.

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Yes the “Lebanese Leila” gets a lot of laughs and criticism from us women for being silly, superficial, unambitious, short-sighted… But then again, doesn’t Laila always get what she wants effortlessly? And isn’t that what everyone, not just a marketer, wants? … Now you’re listening? Well, take notes:

1) Be where you community is.

No my dears, Laila does not Blog! Laila does not even Twitter! Some of you may say it is because she does not have much to say… But no, it is because she knows all too well her target audience. And she knows that her target audience of Don-Juans and starlets does not read, does not spend time in soul digging and does not have an artistic streak. She knows that her audience is on Facebook, and she makes sure to have a very attractive profile there. Which brings us to point two.

2) Always give your audience what they want.

They don’t read, but they have eye-balls and curiosity. And Laila always makes sure to have a great set of profile pics of her at “such and such party” or “such and such wedding” make-uped and air-brushed to perfection.  Her fans, her target audience, her prospective husband to be, will devour these photos  and comment on them (audience engagement). Moreover, these photos together with the comments will enlarge her footprint on the web and spread her content through her audience. And that is what every brand wants!

3) Be active in connecting to your audience.

Laila is always the first one to wish you a Happy Birthday, give you a nudge / missed call if you have not connected in a while and adding you on facebook after meeting you after a random gig in Gemmayze. And that is how she retains a “loyal” network of connections. [Chuckles of Disbelief in background] Well these strategies are exactly what allow Laila to get extra $$$ on her mobile phone credit whenever her heart desires, get a free invite to a party, or even get that necklace that she put as her display photo for a week on facebook with a tag ” I WANT THIS” instead of slaving for months to buy it…Sad, But True.

4) If you can’t create  – imitate.

To us mere mortals, Laila seems like a fashion victim, with her Haifa lips, tatooed eyebrows, Shakira Curls, Rihanna Shorts… Then again, doesn’t Laila make heads turn in the mall (product placement)? Doesn’t she have her photos all over Layalina and Mondalite (free PR)? Doesn’t she have more friends on facebook as a result (brand equity)? And eventually more choice of rich cavaliers for her to choose to be-wed (product demand) ? And keep in mind this is what she wants!(achieving marketing objectives)

5) Know your competition.

Even Layla knows, that in today’s open age it is a loss not to keep track of what your competitors are doing and using it to your advantage. She will always text you when Celine’s dress is too short, Jana’s husband is cheating on you, or email you and another 100 of close friends a video of Dana wasted at a party. She would always go shopping with her drop dead gorgeous cousin, whom her fiance adores, just to advise her to buy the ugly top and last season boots. And yes , when she was 16, she would spend hours browsing through her “frenemies’” new photos, because if just one of them got their nose done this year, she also had to do it.

So you see, if Laila can do it and achieve her marketing objectives, you with YOUR BRAIN can as well, just play by the rules of the New Media Age.

So tell me, have I missed anything?

P.S. I Found this FANTASTIC lebanese blog all dedicated to Lebanese Illustrators, check it out: http://kootoob.blogspot.com

Images via: Maya Zankoul, http://kootoob.blogspot.com and  Stavro .

Patrick is a dream guest blogger, he is someone a host blogger can only dream of. And as promised, he has made a come back and is answering all your questions about blog advertising. Also don’t forget to check out Patrick’s latest project the Gift Cheat Sheet,  that is available for free download, and follow him on twitter.

How can I manually install an advertisement banner on my side bar?

If you have the banner already, figure out its size and then paste this code on your widget bar which will endorse the ad (fields marked in blue needs to be modified accordingly):

<a href=”http://www.yourlink.com”> <img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-2647″ title=”Advertising” src=”http://projektcyan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ad.gif” alt=”My First Ad” width=”160″ height=”607″ /></a>

Some definitions:

Þ      <a href> This is the redirection link. You need to replace “www.yourlink.com” with the appropriate redirection link (the link the user will be redirected to when he click on the ad).

Þ      <title> This is the title of your ad (you can delete this if you like).

Þ      <src> This is the URL of the location of the ad (the image on the internet), you need to replace that with the one for your ad.

Þ      <alt> This is the ALT field, whatever you write here will be shown as a tooltip when the user mouse over the advert. You can also remove delete this field if you do not want a text to appear.

Þ      <weidht and height> You need to replace these field with the right sizes depending on your ad.

Of course they are other codes that can embed an ad, but this is what I use. Some other codes can embed Meta Tags in your add for more efficient SEO results.

Can the ad be animated?

Yes ads can be animated; you can place GIF or SWF (flash) or even FLV videos on your blog as ads. You can also place interactive flash ads, for instance on mouse over a sound can be played or the ad expands to a bigger size to play a video, endless stuff you can do!

Does BuySellAds work in the Middle East?

It works anywhere as long as you have a PayPal account. They pay via PayPal or cheque (by post) or bank account transfers.

Just tried adbrite.com, but unfortunately their ad generator code has Javascript in it, but wordpress.com doesn’t allow JavaScript. Are there ad websites that use code without JS?

Yes free wordpress.com blogs will not understand Java and they do not have plug-ins that do. You need to upgrade to a self-hosted blog so that you can benefeit from that and a lot of other things.

Which one pays better between AdSense and Third Party Marketplace? I know it depends on the ad, but do you have any idea of the average?

In Theory, AdSense pays the least. Some of the third party market places like BuyAndSell.com allows you to put ur own prices to some slots, but ur prices got to be competitive with others like you (millions of others) so you cannot really put high prices otherwise people wont purchase your slots.

At what daily visitor count did u introduce ads, what would u advise new bloggers re-that?

It really depends, some clients would be interested if you get 5000 hits a day, and others will not even consider you with such Impressions. But in my opinion, if you get about 1000 unique visitors daily, you can easily start renting ad slots if you do it right.

I started with about 1000+- unique daily visits which translated to over 3500 hits per day.

Note: Unique Visitors is different from Hits. Meaning if today I visit your blog 10 times, it will count as 1 Unique visit + 10 Hits, accordingly.

Also don’t worry about not getting a lot of comments, as long as you have high stats it can make it up one for another. But some clients prefer to advertise in blogs that are very active in terms of comments and discussions. This is when your negotiation / convincing skills kicks in

How much money did it make you at the start?

At first I was giving away all my spaces for free to attract potential clients and pitch the prices with something concrete, it stayed like that for 5 or 6 months. Now I sell some spaces for $100 up to $500 per month per space, depends on the size and location of the ad. I also have Google AdSense banners and one or two from BuySellAds.com which I only look at every 2 or 3 months.

How much has the revenue changed over time?

It increased, and its increasing time over time. I am now selling space for almost double the price for what I used to sell 2 years ago. Also the more popular your blog gets the more demand you will get = the higher you can charge.

Could one live from blog ads, in the Middle East?

Not at the moment no, sometimes you get empty spaces for a month or 2 = no income so it’s a bit risky, unless your blog is really really popular. But in USA for example, some people quit their jobs and became full time bloggers, earning their lives from advertising / sponsorships revenues.

But as I said in the post earlier, advertising in blogs is becoming more and more popular and more accepted, specially in the Middle East, so soon enough I think it would be possible to make a living out of your blogs (yes, I think you need more then one blog for that).

Daily / Weekly effort (in Hrs) for managing ads?

I deal with each case as it comes along. When I get an email or a call from a client who wants to advertise I send them the rate card and take it from there.

Usually when the ad is placed, I just keep track of its schedule through a Word or Excel sheet and its usually not for another month till its up for renewal. So in theory, for me it’s a monthly effort, to place an ad it takes 10 minutes and so to replace / remove one.

I try to sell my spaces for monthly or quarterly or yearly contracts only. Easier to maintain and run that way.

How about in-text advertising?

I don’t personally like it and don’t recommend it really.

Note: in-text advertising basically works by turning some of the words on your blog into hyperlinks, the words are chosen randomly, for example the word CAR will become a special hyperlink and when you mouse over it will display a small advert in a tooltip format which can also redirect you to an advert.

Just stay away of these, you can’t monitor the type of ads and revenues are rubbish. If you still want to try it, these are some links: http://www.kontera.com/ and http://www.infolinks.com/

What other advertising methods I can use on my blog?

There are ads that you can inject in the videos you post on your blog, this is something I might actually consider using. You need the WordTube plug-in for that. You can read more about it all here: http://alexrabe.de/wordpress-plugins/wordtube/

How much do I charge?

It’s really up to you, you know better. It also depends on your blog’s stats. Please refer to the post or to some of the questions above for more info..

Will advertising bring more traffic?

I don’t think it would. It might in some way or another but I don’t see how it could bring more traffic to a blog. Traffic bring advertising, not the other way around I think

And Since Patrick is a saint, I am sure that if you leave additional questions in the comment section, he will explain more.

This was sitting in my draft folder for an eternity, I’m gonna just quick post it since the issue was brought up @twitter.

From mid-October until the end of November, Dunkin’ Donuts customers will be able to donate 1,000 L.L. to the Beirut firefighters’ brigade with each purchase of 1 small Dunkalatte or Dunkaccino and 1 Donut. The Beirut Fire Department will use the amount collected to purchase severely needed equipment that will enable them to better save and preserve the environment and thus, to benefit the society at large.  Source : Executive Bulletin

 

Where Dunkin Donuts Fails?

- The guys does not look like a Lebanese Fire Fighter.

- The posters only started appearing recently, while I was stalking shops all of last month to find one.

Lessons to be learned

If you want your campaign to succeed, have images that your audience can identity with.

IF you want a campaign to succeed, campaign in advance agressively.

*Male readers,  passionless for shoes, do comment about subjects that move you & I’ll try my best to find a guest blogger on that matter… but take a peak I believe you’ll still be interested…

Remind me to someday show you a photo of my [our, technically, but over 75% of the closet and the floor and the boxes over the closet... belong to me] shoe closet! In the last two weeks I became the proud owner of not one, not two, but FOUR pairs (!!!) bianco shoes and two clutch bags… And I must say in my defense that, usually, I shop in moderation (one pair every 2-3 months) but massive amounts of sales and good shoes put together are just like absinthe to me!

So anyway I decided to check out what this brand is made of marketing wise, because usually it is hard to find clever shoe advertising, and ,my oh my, I was up for a treat! I’ll let the gallery and movie speak for themselves now!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_cUT2P5QkI]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDvf1aa8ByA]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S9T8FS3Y0Y]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NKmSiSnsaU&NR=1]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BNP_BseT9I]

Another thing I loved is the bianco shoes contest that has the ultimate shoe lover’s dream prize : ALL THE SHOES YOU CAN CARRY OUT F THE STORE! The contest asks participants to submit their feet’s photos! And there are a lot of interesting entries you should check out! The contest closes in end November so await an update!

_____________________________________________________________

You can buy bianco shoes in Lebanon in Sports et Loisir and  Dunes Verdun. If you know other places please share.

I found this little beauty in last month’s Executive Magazine. I am half certain that I have seen this concept before in some design handbook, but one must admit its interactive and very effective!

After you take off the business card you, the message reads:

“If not you can remain in a business of wasted opportunities where clients complain which will lead to your employees resigning. You won’t get any bonuses. You wide will stop hosting dinner parties. You will sell the Chalet, the sports car and the golf kit. then before you know it your family will be living on discount coupons.”

The only thing that I don’t like is that it does not convey the fact that Terra Biz is part of Terra Net and the services they offer are internet related.

If you’ve seen any of its predecessors , tell me!

Impressive animation that ‘speaks’ to you without words conveying the message – CCTV is aware of everything ! Even if you have a very slow connection, WATCH IT & tell me what you think!

[vimeo 6794856]

CCTV Ink TV Commercial – Directed by Niko Tziopanos from Troublemakers.tv on Vimeo.

[Found VIA: Creativeroots]

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now, but was always afraid to approach it, or undermine the importance of the subject matter. Because it is a story that personally touched me & encourages me to push myself every day…

In her last month in the company Angi had an extra beat to her step, a glamorous shine in her eyes and was always accompanied by a very trendy white clutch bag. Only at the farewell party, did I find out that this is what she was planning to do in the future – her own brand of hand bags, purses and clutches…. I instantly had a million questions and incessantly bullied her into answering them & showing me more….

The Dream

“I always had it my head that I want to do something, my own thing, so that people will know this is Angi“*, Angi told me. But when there is a flood of Graphic designers with raging price wars, Angi though to herself : “What does a girl want? What can’t she do without?“.

The unique business model

Having previous experience with leather business gift items, certainly helped. But please do not understand the challenges of finding perfect quality execution, raw material suppliers and building a satisfactory business model. All of which Angi has achieved through sweat and blood slash careering between her office job and her entrepreneurial dream.

She focused on selling through various exhibitions, getting the word out through Facebook, and certainly satisfied customers. She told me that a whole chain of recurring clients can sometimes build up through one random purchase: “A guy buys a bag for his girlfriend, then his mother, then his friend wants to buy for his fiance… and now you have a group of loyal clients.”

And her business-model has a lot of integrity too. “I do not pitch up my prices like many retailers do, it simply doesn’t work for me, my prices are fixed and I can not bargain a lot with my clients, but at the end, I would never allow myself to price a handbag over what I, as a young girl, would afford to pay for one…It is not fair  it is not right…”. Angi told me that on average all  her handbags are between 30-65 USD, which is a premium bargain, since they are hand made in Lebanon using the best materials and accessories.

Going an extra mile is also normal for Angi, she accepts orders via telephone and can even design custom models upon request. Moreover, she is ready to deliver anywhere within Lebanon, and she even does it in person most of the time.

The Future

Besides being in every major exhibition on the Lebanese terrain, Angi is now planning to open her own store really soon, and is also working hard on launching her own website. And she is happy with what she has achieved so far – ” The good thing is that people are starting to know Angi as a brand.”

So even if you are not in need of a handbag drop by the Mother & Baby exhibition @ Biel to meet this extraordinarily inspiring girl, who has such amazing energy. Maybe it will rub off on you, as it did on me And remember if you think hard enough about it and work enough your dreams will come true too.

Do you know any other successful young entrepreneurs?

*All quotes in this post are liberal and not literal

It is that time of the year when companies must decide on their end of the year gifts. Gifts which will enhance the company’s brand identity and stay a constant reminder to its receiver of the company’s message and generosity!

I am really glad to inform you about my first ever guest post over at Krikor.info , which a very interesting design & architecture blog.

The post is actually a follow up on the Ramadan Greeting cards post, as it is a selection of the Eid Al Fitr cards I have been collecting .  Without further ado I will let you now go over and visit this post, but first I would like to once again thank Krikor for the invitation and more so for allowing me to do things at my own terms. But of course he will be all too humble about it and say that he is not CNN.

Also do not forget to follow @krikor over at Twitter.

Two very creative ads for Logomark I have found in PPB Magazine.

The second one is so amazing because it refers to the economic crisis in a very creative way.

When it comes to great Ideas we’re always on.

Are you working with the right company?

When you hit rocky times, look for a diamond in the rough.

Are you working with the right company?

Brilliant idea on LGU’s part, enhancing its German identity with the most renowned German festival! But should German education be associated with booze?

Tell me about it if you do go!

Have you seen these banners on the streets or maybe received an emailer? Take a closer look…

C&E is made up of all dried up branches & AUCE of thriving greenery. What’s your automatic association? C&E is crap! No?

Now read the tagline ” Ism Jadid Li Madin 3arik” ( Which is liberally translated to : ‘New name to a legendary past’).  Don’t you see a contradiction?

How can a some feeble shriveling tree branches represent a glorious past?

Besides knowledge is supposed to be a well rooted mighty tree and now a collection of green bushes, don’t you think?

Someone really went out their way to make AUCE look bad!

Do you know of any other re-branding campaign disasters?

The amazing guys at Spot On PR conducted a thorough study of the MENA Tweeps and came up with a detailed MENA Twitter Demographics & Stats Survey (press link to check it out).  And in the spirit of Social Media Marketing and Sharing Spot On PR have released their report to be copied, tweeted, quoted and perused in any way you may wish. Thank you Spot On PR!

It wasn’t surprising that 40% of MENA twitter users are from the UAE, however, with such a great cultural diversity it would be interesting to find a more microscopic dissection of these users, I am sure that would lead  to very curious results.

Another interesting thing is how the age distribution differs from global trend. For instance, the 15-19 make one of the largest Twitter user groups worldwide, but has only a small percentage in the MENA scene, which is prevailed by those 20-29.  Which I have found quite refreshing, as you get to twitter in a community of tech savvy professionals, which is a challenging and learning experience.

Twitter influence is growing in the MENA region, Spot On PR have mentioned that only in Augustthe total number of Twitter users from MENA region has increased by 17%.

Marketers, are you ahead of the curve?

* According to Spot On PR statistics may still be fuzzy due to the limited geographical tracking the Twitter platform offers at the time.

** as a show of good faith follow Spot On PR’s Blog & follow them @spotonpr.

Someone ought to do this to the Lebanese ‘politicians’ as well shouldn’t they? Can you imagine all the fun and political pun that will come out of it? Imagine people of opposing political views gathering for Tea? This is a great promo item for ‘black campaigning’ too! I love it!

These products are offered by German Design Company Dunkey Products and are part of their ‘Tea Party’ Series. They also have a whole range of other interesting ‘non-tea related’ cult items.

The Chamber of Commerce of Industry and Agriculture of Beirut and Mount Lebanon (CCIA)* is once again holding its Business Administration Training Programs in collaboration with CCI Versailles. Participants can choose amongst four programs Business Administration, Marketing Management, Financial Management or Human Resources Management. And the final diploma  will be certified by both CCIA Beirut & CCI Versailles, which will make you a holder of an international diploma.

It was very hard to find someone who has actually taken this program before. I have actually found one Lebanese expat who attended another  CCIA business related training program (Documentary Credit) and he was very satisfied with its practical applications**.

So, Having no further testimonies I phoned CCIA up to check for details.  I really wanted to know if it is worth the money ( as I was considering taking their marketing course – been doing so since last year).  And this is what I’ve found out:

- The classes will be in English and the professors are Lebanese ( PhD holders from prestigious establishments worldwide)

- The course is built on practical training (case studies) primarily, with some book cramming involved

- Examination is administered at the end of the four month training  period and those who passed examination will receive their certification ( certified by both CCIA Beirut & CCI Versailles) ***

- Course consists of a  96-hour program starting on October     5, 2009 and delivered twice a week from 6 pm to 9 pm.

- Courses will take place in CCIAB, Sanayeh (next to Sanayeh Garden)

- The fee is 680 USD per program + VAT ( one can not forget VAT could they?)

- Each class contains a maximum of 12 students (me thinks it is a very good deal)

Registration before October 1, 2009 (Places are limited)

For Further Information/Registration, please call 01-744167

As for me, I found an old email about a program CCIA did this summer in collaboration with the American Marketing Association ( AMA), and I think I am going to wait for a second run of that show. Marketing professional wise this one is more rated, and I would like to believe that they will have something to say about New Media Marketing by that time as well. But those looking for additional backing to their existing certifications in Business Administration, Finance & HR will undoubtedly benefit both technically and CV Karma wise by taking these courses.

Good Luck in your career path wherever it may take you!

* Who unfortunately don’t have ANY relevant info on their training courses on the website.

** Twitter world, and Lebanese tweeps are amazingly responsive. Thanx guys!

*** If you do not pass the exam, you can not retake it untill next year, and then you will have to attend the program all over ( Just so you know).

____________________________________________________________

Update 16-9-9

Also found out about their Business English courses .

We kept receiving these one week prior to Ramdan and all of last week. So I have selected the most interesting ideas and/or ones that really plugged into the corporate identity… here we go…

NBK card is the most appealing to me becuase they have incorporated the camel from their logo into the card putting it to live. Aramex’s idea to offer an imsakiya ( which you can choose depending on your region) is also a great way to show empathy and improve corporate persona perception.

Only three weeks to go till the EID greeting cards start pumping in:)

Have you received any interesting cards?