RELEASE: Etihad Airways splits media account between MediaCom and LBi

test — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:52:41 -0700

Etihad Airways has recently concluded a tender process to select global media agency partners.
MediaCom, part of the WPP group, has been selected to manage above-the-line media planning and buying. LBi has been selected to manage digital media strategy, search and affiliate marketing. Both agencies will service the account globally from Abu Dhabi.
The selection is an outcome of a routine agency review process during which Etihad Airways invited select global media agency networks to respond to a creative and media brief.
Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways’ chief commercial officer, says the airline “sought out media agencies that cannot only keep up with our pace of growth, but also help us bring our brand to a global audience in a more innovative and effective way.”
“This is the first time we have split our ATL and digital media into separate contracts, which we elected to do simply to ensure that we are able to best leverage specialist agency strengths,” he adds.

RELEASE: Publicis Groupe acquires Flip Media

test — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:04:01 -0700

Publicis Groupe has announced its acquisition of Flip Media, a digital agency network in the Middle East.
Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Dubai, Flip Media has more than 100 employees across the Middle East and India. The agency provides end-to-end solutions, including digital strategy, digital design/production, content/delivery and technology/platforms.
The agency will be folded into Leo Burnett Worldwide and will retain its name. Its founders, Martin Diessner and Dinesh Lalvani, will continue to be involved with the new entity as non-executive directors and Yousef Tuqan Tuqan will remain CEO, reporting to Leo Burnett MENA’s CEO Raja Trad.
“Flip Media is a strategic and cultural fit for our company, and we believe its service offering of digital strategy, design, production and content delivery will be a perfect complement to the incredibly strong digital presence we have built across the region,” says Tom Bernardin, CEO of Leo Burnett Worldwide.
“This acquisition is the logical next step for Flip,” say Dinesh Lalvani and Martin Diessner, co-founders, Flip Holdings Ltd. “Integrating with a large network gives us the opportunity to provide a strong foundation for through-the-line communications strategy with digital at its core...Being part of Leo Burnett and the larger Publicis Groupe family will bring with it access to more clients, people and resources, all of which are key to take a company like ours to the next level.”
“Today’s acquisition of Flip Media not only strengthens our offering but, more importantly, represents an important investment in strengthening our digital offering for the benefit of our clients’ businesses. Our mission is to ingrain digital thinking into every aspect of Leo Burnett's work and culture,” says Trad.

RELEASE: Cannes launches Young Lions Design Competition

test — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:47:23 -0700

Cannes Lions has announced the addition of a Young Lions Design Competition to the 2012 International Festival of Creativity, taking place from June 17-23. The new competition will see teams of two briefed to work on a special project on behalf of the client, either a charity or non-profit organization.
Given just 24 hours, teams will be required to deliver a brand identity for the project which may be fictional or real, depending on the appointed client. Within the allotted time competitors must produce a logo/brand identity, a 150-word description of how the brand identity fits the brief and a 150-word description of how the brand would evolve.
Steve Latham, Cannes Lions director of talent & training, says, “With the introduction of the Design Lions category in 2008 it makes sense for us to recognize and encourage the young design community, allowing them to showcase their talent on the global stage at Cannes.”
The competition is open to young designers holding positions such as graphic designer, web designer, retail designer, product designer and other specialized design roles. Competitors will be welcomed from design agencies and advertising agencies and should be aged 28 years and under. The Young Lions Design Competition will see competitors briefed on Sunday, June 17, with the competition running on Monday, June 18. Entries will be judged by the Design Lions Jury. The winners of the competition will be announced and presented with their medals at the Press, Design, Radio and Cyber Lions awards ceremony taking place on Wednesday, June 20 in Cannes, France.
The Young Lions Design competition will sit alongside the existing Print, Cyber, Media, Film and Marketers competitions. With a dedicated Young Lions Zone providing networking opportunities, other festival activities for the young in Cannes include a series of master classes, The Cannes Creative Academy for Young Marketers and the newly-launched Young Creative Academy.

RELEASE: Dudu acquires new domain name

test — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:54:55 -0700

The multilingual social network, Dudu, has announced the successful negotiation of a $1 million sale for the domain name dudu.com.
Located in Dubai, the buyer of dudu.com is Alibek Issaev, businessman and chairman of Dudu Communications. Dudu is a social network which uses translation technology to allow its users from around the world to communicate with each other in their native languages. The network was located at www.godudu.com, and the company decided to invest in a domain that corresponds to the exact name of the network.
“With the purchase of dudu.com, we will be able to match our platform’s brand with the exact domain name we need, and migrate from using godudu.com to this shorter version,” said Issaev. “This purchase means we keep attracting important traffic, and at the same time we ensure that visitors from around the globe will remember our brand’s name.”
Dudu has more than 2 million active subscribers from around the globe and offers them the opportunity to communicate with each other in Russian, English and Arabic. More languages will be added in the near future.
The sale of dudu.com to social media network dudu was brokered after three months of negotiations by Sedo’s international team with Chinese social media network Renren.com (the former owner of dudu.com).

RELEASE: Impact BBDO to create brand campaign for OSN

test — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:00:50 -0700

Impact BBDO has been selected to create a major brand campaign for OSN, a subscription television service in the MENA region. The win follows the September launch of OSN’s new brand identity, 'Just Imagine.' With the campaign scheduled to start at the end of January, Impact BBDO will bring ‘Just Imagine’ to life across TV, print, outdoor and radio. This will be the first campaign that OSN has done with the support of an agency since Orbit and Showtime merged in 2009.
Hamad Malik, chief marketing officer at OSN, says he is pleased to see that the relationship, originally pitched as a project, is already expanding and that Impact BBDO is becoming a strategic creative partner.
“This is the vision we had,” says Malik. “Impact BBDO won the business due to their campaignable big idea which will certainly resonate with our audience. Impact BBDO’s pitch was impressive and committed, and we are thrilled to be working with an agency that understands and shares our passion for TV.”
Dani Richa, chairman & CEO of Impact BBDO MENA, says, “We are very excited about this win as we feel OSN is a fantastic platform for us to flex our creativity in a category that is all about entertainment and consumer engagement. We look forward to working very closely with Hamad Malik and his marketing team; we share a lot of creative values.”

RELEASE: Exhibition to showcase creative newspaper designs

test — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 06:06:20 -0700

Steve Dorsey, president of the US-based Society for News Design, is expected to speak on the evolution of newspaper design in UAE and open the official Best of News Design exhibition in the American University of Sharjah(AUS).
The exhibit, which will be held in the College of Architecture, Art and Design (CAAD) gallery at AUS from Nov. 20 - Dec.1, will feature award winning work from the MENA region by publications such as The Gulf News, The National, Al Bayan and Times of Oman.
The displays are selected from The Best of News Design Creative Competition and the award winners are featured in the 37th annual book, The Best of News Design. The Society for News Design, founded in the United States in 1979, and the Newhouse School of Communication at Syracuse University sponsor the annual Best of News Design competition, as well as related exhibitions and publications.
At the AUS event, Gulf News will present some of the best designed pages published last year.
Dr Mario Garcia, from Garcia Media and responsible for the first Gulf News redesign, says: “Right now, with so much emphasis placed on digital media, I can see how an exhibit that makes newspapers the protagonist is a very good idea. Many people know newspapers as household items, like they do a chair, a table or a fork. Not much attention is paid to them.”
“For the newspapers in the region that are still not up to speed in terms of design, the exhibit will be an eye opener to all the possibilities,” he adds.
Lucie Lacava, responsible for the redesign of The National and Al Ittihad in Abu Dhabi, says: “Newspapers in the Middle East have reasons to celebrate the extraordinary work from the region.”
“This exhibition brings to light the importance of visual journalism in the storytelling process. From page design, to photography, illustration and info-graphics, in just a couple of years these papers managed to reach the highest standards of visual excellence, an accomplishment which often takes decades to reach elsewhere,” she says.
According to Lacava, “The challenge now is not only to maintain this lead and level of creativity, but to also apply it to other platforms, since newspapers can no longer rely on the print version alone. But in doing so they must remember to maintain and enforce their loyalty to the brand, as they evolve into other mediums.”
The exhibit opens on Nov. 20 at 5pm in the CAAD gallery and runs till Dec. 1. The opening will feature a round-table discussion in the CAAD auditorium on the state of news design in the region.
“What is most impressive is the degree to which newspapers in the region have plainly made intelligent, innovative design core to their missions,” says Stephen Komives, SND’s executive director. “It is not seen as a luxury but a central value. And it is not confined to a single paper or country, but continuing to spread throughout the region.”
________________________________________
What: Best of News Design from the Mideast
Where: The American University of Sharjah
When: The exhibit opens Sunday, 20 November at 5:00 in the CAAD gallery. Sunday’s opening will feature a round table discussion in the CAAD auditorium on the state of news design in the MENA region.

Participants will include:
Steve Dorsey, President, Society of News Design
Douglas Okasaki, SND Regional Director, region 20- ME and Africa
Miguel Gomez, ArtDirector, Gulf News
Laura Koot, Managing Editor, The National
Adonis Durado, Design Director, Times of Oman
Luis Chumpitas, Art Director, Al Bayan
More information snd20@snd20.org

RELEASE: Jack Morton Worldwide launches in the Middle East

test — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 04:19:02 -0700

Global brand experience agency Jack Morton Worldwide is to open a new office in the UAE, effective this week. The agency is opening the office in response to requests for an increasing number of events and experiences in the region amongst its global client base. The Dubai-based agency will serve clients throughout the Middle East.
The office is to be led by Alex Apthorpe and Yvonne Hoffzimmer who previously founded The Bridge Live Communications. Apthorpe and Hoffzimmer grew the company to service a broad range of clients across the region. They will report to Julian Pullan, president EMEA.
Apthorpe and Hoffzimmer, joint managing directors, Jack Morton Worldwide, say, “Jack Morton already has an amazing reputation in the region and we are very excited by the opportunity to build the brand further. We are delighted to be able to offer Middle East based clients Jack Morton’s renowned levels of creativity and service.”
Jack Morton Worldwide has worked in the region for many years, building teams for large projects, resourced from its extensive global network. The agency is starting off with assignments for Samsung and Kaspersky in Dubai and Credit Suisse in Qatar within the next month.
Pullan says, “This is an incredibly exciting launch for Jack Morton, allowing us to better fulfil our global clients’ needs. Apthorpe and Hoffzimmer are a perfect fit to represent our brand in the region and provide the high level of service our clients have come to expect from Jack Morton.”

EXCLUSIVE: Yahoo Maktoob strikes content deal with BBC Arabic

test — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 05:21:24 -0600

Yahoo Maktoob has finalized a content agreement with TV channel BBC Arabic, Hosam El Sokkari, head of audience at Yahoo Middle East, tells Communicate.
“We will be having [access to] all the content from the BBC Arabic television channel: news and current affairs and every single piece of production that they do,” he says. “We will launch it with a revamped news site that we will have by the end of this month or the beginning of next month.”
The deal comes hot on the heels of the October announcement by the digital media company’s US office that it has formed a strategic alliance with ABC News whereby the channel’s content will be available on Yahoo.com.
According to El Sokkari, Yahoo Maktoob also has agreements with Reuters and Al Jazeera which give it access to Reuters’ news and current affairs videos, and Al Jazeera’s production for news and current affairs as well as content from Al Jazeera’s documentary channels.

RELEASE: TBWA\RAAD appoints Ghassan Kassabji as managing director of its Dubai agency

test — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 01:32:12 -0600

TBWA\RAAD announced the appointment of Ghassan Kassabji as managing director of its Dubai agency after completing a transition period. Previously, Ghassan was managing director of TBWA\RAAD Saudi Arabia for five years.
"Ghassan has been around great work his entire career. He is a true believer in the power of what great ideas can do for a brand and understands what it takes to achieve greatness,” says Reda Raad, COO, TBWA\RAAD. “He is also no stranger to Dubai and has been a part of the TBWA\RAAD family for many years.”
Prior to his Saudi assignment, Ghassan worked for four years as client services director and regional director for the Nissan Middle East business for TBWA\RAADin Dubai. In 2006, Kassabji was promoted to managing director of TBWA’s operations in Saudi Arabia.
“I am very excited to return to Dubai and work with a great team. My challenge is to build on a very successful track record and lead the agency in the midst of interesting times in our industry,” says Kassabji.
He has more than 20 years of business development, marketing and advertising experience in the US, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Lebanon.

Impact BBDO wins Playnation, Magic Planet and Ski Dubai

test — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 05:01:20 -0600

Following a multi-agency pitch (involving Saatchi & Saatchi, TBWA/Raad, Face to Face, BPG, Action impact and Spice), Majid Al Futtaim Leisure and Entertainment has appointed IMPACT BBDO as lead agency to promote three brands: Playnation, Magic Planet and Ski Dubai. This win is IMPACT BBDO’s second major piece of MAF business following their successful pitch in 2009 for Mirdif City Centre - the biggest opening for a Mall in the Middle East.

Douglas Palau, Vice President of IMPACT BBDO commented, “This is a great win. Playnation, Magic Planet and Ski Dubai are exciting brands and the insightful creative that won the pitch was built on strategies honed from BBDO’s worldwide experience on youth brands and our own local expertise and understanding.
We have a close partnership with MAF Properties and we aim to build a similar understanding with the MAF Leisure and Entertainment marketing team who have a great eye for big ideas and IMPACT BBDO certainly loves to create them”.

Omar El Banna, Marketing and Sales Director of Majid Al Futtaim Leisure and Entertainment commented, “We saw a lot of good work during the pitch but IMPACT BBDO’s creativity and 360 thinking shone through, with big ideas integrating every discipline across all three brands. We are confident BBDO’s creativity will have a positive effect on our business.”