Communicate

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Long ago, in an office far, far away (five floors down, second right), a small piece of history was made. The year was 2004, and in many ways, it was another age. There were no iPhones, YouTube hadn’t been invented, and ancient pop group Girls Aloud were at Number One with their cover of “I’ll stand by you.” In those heady days there was no Salik in Dubai, no Mall of the Emirates or Ibn Battuta, and Modhesh was a lovable, cuddly symbol of all that was good about the world.
Then came the churning of the oceans. Storm clouds gathered, the earth shook, and the Arabian Gulf belched forth onto the earth the new face of media and marketing journalism. In December of that historic year, in that distant office, Communicate was born unto the world, kicking, screaming, and covered in a mysterious sticky goo.

What followed was five years of news, views and a brilliant light, shining into the gloom of the advertising world. Now, to mark our half-decade, we reach back into the sands of time, grab history itself by the scruff of its neck, and drag it out into the light. So take a seat in the old rocking chair, light up a pipe, and join us in our trip down memory lane. We will start at the very beginning…

December 2004. The launch of Communicate. Our cover story (under a false cover for Nissan) is on selling America to the Arab world. “America is the ultimate challenge,” we write, not very generously. “It is the car that bursts into flames, the detergent that stains your clothes, the toothpaste that makes your gums bleed.”
In our “Spin off” article, we discover that, “PR professionalism in the Middle East has come a long way in recent years but, according to many in the industry, it still has a way to go.” Some things will never change.
And we dedicate two pages to Team Y&R’s “Ten days in September” campaign for BurJuman mall.

January 2005. “Last month,” we write, “Hollywood film stars, international critics and the crème de la crème of Arab cinema flocked to the UAE for the inaugural Dubai International Film Festival. (DIFF). The trick for the organizers will be to make them return.” As it’s still going strong in 2009, they must have succeeded.

February 2005. British novelist Will Self writes about Jonathan Glazer’s famous 1999 ad for Guinness. “‘Surfer,’” he writes, “is a timeless evocation of the Promethean urge of mankind to master natural forces.”

April 2005. Our cover story is on place branding in the Middle East. Hermann Behrens, then managing director of Enterprise IG, says, “To me, the compelling story in Dubai is, ‘Anything is Possible.’ It’s as simple as that. Federer and Agassi playing tennis on the Burj [Al Arab helipad], that’s what Dubai stands for.”

June 2005. Nakheel says it has decided to pull out of outdoor advertising in its home market of the UAE. The property developer’s chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem tells Communicate, “There is suddenly a lot of competition for outdoor boards in Dubai. The minute we started putting up our signs, the agencies that rented us these signs demanded almost double.”
And we look at Doha’s advertising scene. “While it’s true that Doha is experiencing an unprecedented boom in construction, seeded by a surge in natural gas output, its advertising and publishing industries remain far behind.”

July-August 2005. Coke signs singer Nancy Ajram to take a chunk out of fizzy drink rival Pepsi.
Looking at the relationship between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, we discover that, “Lack of consumer understanding leads advertisers in Dubai to talk at, not to, Saudi consumers.”
In a story entitled, “The PC minefield,” we suggest that political correctness is not, perhaps, as ingrained in Middle East society as it might be elsewhere, as evidenced by Khaleej Times’ attempt at striking a blow for equality with the headline, “Midget says he can work like a normal person.”
And Mike Gillam, Unilever’s regional communications manager, tells Communicate he took the FMCG company’s $75 million media-buying account in-house in 2003, away from media agency Mindshare, to bring media closer to the brand, and to get better media value. “We brought prices down immensely,” he says. “I can tell you it came down by almost 40 percent in TV, which is the vast majority of our spend. There may be other reasons for the lower prices that have nothing to do with us.”
Alleged corruption was another reason. Later in 2005, Gillam tells Communicate, “We knew we could get a lot better value for our money and we knew that would affect the pockets of many individuals in the marketplace.” But by May 2006, Gillam will have left Unilever under a cloud of suspicion.

October 2005. Dubai’s Arab Media Group launches two new newspapers, Emirates Today (now Emirates Business 24-7) and Al Emarat Al Youm. AMG CEO Abdullatif Al Sayegh tells us, “UAE newspapers are 90 percent press releases and newswire copy, which I feel is just laziness. You have to give people something different.” We suggest the first issue is, “suffering an identity crisis – and awkward hybrid of a tabloid and entertainment magazine.” Even so, “Its sensational cover stories in particular – while not always strictly news – set the paper apart from its local rivals. And some of the features have been top-notch – a rare feat indeed in Dubai media.
In a new section called The Dish at the back of the magazine, we mock rival trade title Campaign and freesheet 7 Days for mis-spelling the name of AMG’s CEO. We’ve been picking on spelling mistakes ever since. (And never making any oursleves.)

November 2005. Our cover story is on copying ideas from other agencies. We speak to Louai Alasfahani, managing director of Paragon Marketing Communications in Kuwait, who is still one of the region’s most outspoken anti-copycat campaigners in 2009. He has taken to embedding holograms in every piece of his agency’s creative work. “I got the idea from banknotes,” he says.

December 2005. The GCC Advertisers’ Association lends its support to CASTOR (the Circulation Auditing Steering Organization) to push for print auditing. CASTOR says publications will have a one-year “amnesty” period before GCCAA members (which include McDonald’s. Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsico and Emirates, and represent 75 percent of ad spend in the GCC) will pull their advertising from titles that aren’t audited to CASTOR’s standards.

February 2006. We revisit auditing, and the GCCAA’s vice-chairwoman Sarah Sahely tells us that it’s too early to say whether Emirates (she’s also the airline’s advertising manager) will pull its advertising from all UAE-based Arabic newspapers and magazines, even though none are audited. However, she re-emphasizes that, “we do intend to honor our vow to support audited titles over non-audited titles from next year.”

March 2006. The IAA world congress comes to Dubai, and we preview it. WPP chief Sir Martin Sorrell, tells Communicate, “We’re very keen to add to our equity investments in the Middle East. We would like to continue to build our business, both organically and by acquisitions, not just by associating ourselves with new companies but by continuing to build our equity interest.” Joseph Ghossoub, CEO of The Holding Group (the parent company of Team Y&R, Asda’a, and Mediaedge CIA, which rebranded as Menacom in 2009), is the IAA’s world president elect. He tells us that the objective of bringing the congress to the UAE is, “to place Dubai on the world map of advertising and marketing.” A couple of years later, WPP will have bought a controlling share in The Holding Group.
A newspaper in Denmark has printed cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, sparking riots and protest around the world. Newspapers in the UAE tread delicately. “Asking UAE editors to discuss how the explosive cartoon controversy will affect press freedom in the country is akin to asking them if they want an enema,” we write. “The subject is, at best, awkward.”

April 2006. UAE daily Gulf News announces at the IAA Congress that it will be audited by both BPA and ABC auditing companies. Rival broadsheet Khaleej Times suggests Gulf News is coming to the auditing game two years too late.  Soon after, ABC pulls out of the Middle East.
In other measurement news, people meters for measuring television viewership are a step closer. Project Illumination, a people meter initiative lead by the GCCAA, hires Dutch consultancy PointLogic to begin the hunt for a research company in Saudi Arabia.
We interview Hervé Jaubert, the Bond-villain-esque CEO of submarine manufacturer Exomos. And it is all very 007. “Staff in their Exomos-branded yellow jumpsuits work on high-tech designs in a spacious warehouse overlooked by the large windows of the stylish office suite in which Jaubert greets us. It’s a shock that he doesn’t have a cat on his lap and claim to have been expecting us.”
A year later, Jaubert is accused of spying and embezzlement, and escapes the country wearing a frogman’s kit hidden under an abaya.

May 2006.
Communicate launches its first youth marketing report. It turns out kids watch TV, like to text and talk to their friends on mobile phones, and think soft drinks marketers are cool.

September 2006. We decide to test a theory that journalists in the Middle East are lazy enough to print just about anything, so we send out a fake press release about a company opening in Dubai to produce Pykrete, “the ice that never melts.” The release is: a) ludicrous, and b) run verbatim on Web site AME Info, and in dailies Al Bayan, Al Khaleej, and Gulf Today. Only Gulf News called to check whether we were fibbing.

November 2006. Deadlines have been set for people meters. By April 2007, research agencies will be appointed to install and operate the devices. “The current state aim of the Project Illumination board,” we report, “is to have the first batch of data validated and published to the industry by December 2007.”
Communicate arranges a round table for outdoor advertising suppliers, and agrees to administer the new Emirates Outdoor Advertising Association, “a self-regulatory organization for an industry in which the rules are about as strictly enforced as a Wild West frontier town.”

January 2007. We report on the “disappointingly dignified” elections for the government advisory Federal National Council – the UAE’s first election. The vote gave birth to the previously unknown (in the UAE, at least) marketing field of political advertising. But in the end the biggest advertiser was the National Election Council, who spent 5 million dirhams explaining the voting process to a population that had never voted before.
Our cover story on ethics and corporate social responsibility could be published again tomorrow. Far from being a chore, CSR can act as an insurance policy in case of bad publicity or poor performance. Mike Longhurst of McCann Erikson EMEA says, “It’s a defensive strategy – you build up a store of good will.” Communicate now wonders how big the stores were before the crisis hit.
And in a bout of page-filling desperation, we re-visit 2006 with “10 words or phrases that are so 2006.” They include many terms long since confined to the history books, such as Web 2.0, consumer generated media, join the conversa… Oh. Well. Maybe they’ll fall out of use in 2010.

February 2007. An analysis of the 2006 spending figures from the Pan Arab Research Center points to a shift towards television from major buyers. However, in terms of monitored value for 2006, Television and Newspapers were roughly neck and neck, grabbing 44 percent and 42 percent of total spend respectively.
A special showcase bemoans the commonplace “overpromising and shoddy design” of Dubai’s property advertising. Hard to believe, we know. The back of this issue features an ad with an artist’s impression of a building standing in a lush meadow that Communicate should be able to see out of the window by now. Needless to say, beyond the dusty car park there is no sign of it.

March 2007. An insider leaks details of a staff meeting at Al Nisr Publishing, during which the Gulf News publisher announced to staff the imminent fruition of “Project X,” its long-awaited foray into the tabloid market. A month later, Xpress is born.
Without a hint of schadenfreude, we report on rival title Campaign Middle East’s impending hiatus as publisher ITP unexpectedly pulls the plug. In October 2008, the title will be relaunched by Motivate.

April 2007. We report on the inaugural Dubai Lynx, and find that although Fortune Promoseven failed to grab top honors, their radio ads for Chiquita bananas were the crowd favorite. Little did we know back then what would happen when they did take top spot.

May 2007. Our main feature looks at the likelihood of the Middle East seeing Bob Garfield’s “Chaos Scenario,” in which advertising as we know it will collapse. “Ultimately,” we conclude, “what the ‘chaos scenario’ offers is a glorious opportunity for the media and marketing industries. Imagine a media world devoid of generic crap.” Yes, just imagine…

September 2007. Communicate introduces a new format as it shifts down in size, spruces up its design, and cuts down the word count in its heavier, shinier cover. We celebrate the fact with an oh-so-clever Droste-effect cover adapted from a Coke ad featuring Nancy Ajram. We also start running a gallery of work at the back of the magazine, and introduce and the X-pert files. Since they’re both still regular features, that obviously worked out well for everybody.
And we report the preparation of a new English language daily paper out of Abu Dhabi, helmed by the former editor of the UK’s Daily Telegraph, Martin Newland.

November 2007. One of our shorts investigates the use of a Hitler image in a property ad in Gulf News, and finds that, while images of a genocidal dictator (Hitler) or rapist and serial killer (Ted Bundy) are totally OK to run in the paper, a tasteful hand drawing of a woman topless was way out of bounds.
Communicate’s salary survey finds that, “Agencies have a major issue with people – either finding them or keeping them.” That’s according to Mounir Harfouche, managing and creative director at Lowe MENA. Other worries in the feature include a drift of talent from Lebanon to Dubai, and the widespread poaching prevalent in the PR industry.

December 2007. Two of the UK’s major media figures roll into Dubai for separate events. Former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell confuses with talk about blank whiteboards and baggage, and former Fleet Street editor Piers Morgan tells the region’s journalists they need to have some backbone. We’re too scared to disagree.
In the news, Emirates Today relaunches as a business title, and Enterprise IG has a new moniker: enter The Brand Union.

January 2008. Communicate parent Mediaquest acquires Gray titles and events, and CNN opens an Abu Dhabi bureau, signaling the beginning of Abu Dhabi’s expansion into the media scene.
Our cover story is on how mobile phones are changing the face of advertising, marketing and media in the region.
And we rip real estate developer Omniyat’s campaign for its property The Opus. “The copy makes us want to pour bleach into our eyes and scrub with a Brillo pad until we are unable to read anything ever again.”

February 2008. Leo Burnett shows the industry how low-budget campaigns can engage consumers on and offline with their Fred the Chicken campaign for Nando’s.

 
March 2008. Regional radio advertising gets a lashing for its lack of creativity.
The Brand Union opens its Abu Dhabi office, becoming the first global branding consultancy to set up shop in the UAE’s capital. “Branding is now something they see as core to their business,” says CEO Hermann Behrens. “In a year’s time I think we’ll see a similar trajectory in Abu Dhabi to what we’ve seen in Dubai.”

April 2008. Ströer Concept Outdoor signs a joint venture agreement with Shoof, the outdoor advertising arm of Dubai-based Arab Media Group, to bid for the Dubai Metro’s media representation. The Metro advertising will go to Kassab media eventually.
Abu Dhabi Media Company prepares to launch English-language newspaper The National.

May 2008. At the Dubai Lynx Awards, JWT Dubai wins the Agency of the Year award, while FP7 Doha comes in second, helped along by its campaign for EA Games’ Medal of Honor, which will also win Gold Lions at Cannes.
FP7 Doha’s creative director Fadi Yaish says,“ We wanted Agency of the Year. If anything, I think we gave it to JWT. They didn’t earn it.”

July-August 2008. Pierre Pereira, CEO of outdoor media provider Ströer Concept Outdoor, says the cost of large billboards in prime locations in Dubai has increased by as much as 50 percent in one year, thanks to real estate companies’ huge advertising budgets.
And, in our second survey of Arab youth’s coolest, Motorola plummets from third coolest in 2007 to second least cool in 2008. Zara takes the top honors for coolest brand, and KFC is least favorite.

September 2008. This is the first time the words “credit” and “crunch” appear on our magazine cover. Multinationals are tightening their belts, but the Middle East is largely untouched.
Dubai-based English daily Khaleej Times relaunches with a “dramatic” redesign. Kassab Media, in partnership with Singapore’s public transport system (SMRT) and Wellmark Communications, wins the Metro contract.

October 2008. Outdoor media company Stroer Concept Outdoor (SCO) and Shoof LLC, Arab Media Group’s outdoor advertising arm, announce a merger to form Stroer Concept Shoof, after working together earlier in the year to bid for the media contract for the Dubai Metro. Shoof will later pull out, before (then German) outdoor firm Ströer parts ways with Dubai agency Concept.

November 2008. A Dubai Virgin Radio DJ is fired for impersonating God on the air, and ITP launches an adolescent magazine, Viva Girl.
Communicate looks to Palestine and finds advertising is alive and kicking there. Outdoor advertising comes up trumps, according to Tareq Abbas, general manager of Sky Advertising & PR in Ramallah. “We are a commuting community,” he says.
Publics Groupe Media gives its management team a makeover. Alex Saber becomes executive vice-president and chief operating officer for the group, Tarek Daouk becomes executive vice-president of Starcom MENA, and Philip Jabbour is promoted to executive vice-president of business development for PGM MENA, and global account director.

December 2008. Memac Ogilivy’s breast cancer awareness ad creeps us out “The copy reads like the diary of a pedophile stalker, alternating between alarmingly inappropriate and plain stupid,” we write. “So here’s a heads up Mr. Copywriter: Girls do not give up dolls, pretty dresses and other hobbies to sit and watch their breasts develop.”

February 2009.
Communicate looks at the effects of the crunch on the out-of-home advertising industry. It’s not very good, as you might imagine.
Lebanon’s The Daily Star faces a bankruptcy crisis, and is shut by a court within hours of a bankruptcy hearing. Lebanon’s outdoor advertising scene, on the other hand, bucks the economic trend and looks towards growth.

March 2009. Digital planning is the future, and our cover story on it is a welcome relief from the credit crunch.
Leo Burnett’s creatives explain how linguistics (the agency’s “Khede Kasra” women’s empowerment campaign for the Hariri Foundation) and lamenting locks (the agency’s TV spot for Procter & Gamble’s “Pert Plus”) secured them two Grand Cristals at the MENA Cristals.

April 2009. Social networking comes under the spotlight in our main feature, but the biggest story in the industry is the year’s Lynx Awards. FP7 Doha’s Agency of the Year title is withdrawn, and given to FP7 Dubai, after an investigation into a series of ghost ads.
Twitter explodes in the UAE, and Lebanon’s The Daily Star comes back from the brink; owner-editor Jamil Mroue opens up to Communciate about the fall and rise of his title.

May 2009. The National celebrates its first birthday, as Forbes Arabia publisher DIT closes down at the cost of 40 jobs.
Communicate speaks to industry experts on what the agency model will look like in five years. Apparently, digital will be king, and integration is key.
In Afghanistan, we learn, advertising thrives on the telecom industry.

June-August 2009. The organizers of the Dubai Lynx announce changes to the awards show’s rules following consultation with the International Advertisers Association, after the March event brought the region’s advertising industry into crisis amid claims of plagiarism, and revelations that a significant number of entries hadn’t been signed off by clients.

September 2009. Communicate looks at the state of investigative journalism in the region. We speak to world-renowned journalists Robert Fisk and Yosri Fouda, and find that most Arab countries still rank very low in Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index.

October 2009. We report on the Dubai Metro’s launch, which in the end lacked both stations and advertising. And FP7 Dubai’s creative director Marc Lineveldt moves to Saatchi.

November 2009. We look at Saudi advertising again, and find that talent, creativity and culture are still challenges for marketers in the kingdom. But things are getting better.

December 2009. We’re five years old. But what you hold in your hand (the other hand!) is the future of advertising in the region. Enjoy.

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