In This Month's Issue

Star power: Famous faces shift products, it’s undeniable. But making the most of celebrity endorsements requires more thought than many marketers put into it
Star-ship enterprise: Pepsi’s “Sea of Stars” looks set to take regional celebrity marketing into uncharted territory
Keeping it real: How one Dubai agency glamorized a brand using product placement instead of a celebrity ad
Communicate’s celebrity survey: Regional youth decide who’s hot and who’s not

How to win Facebook friends and influence people: Social networking will be worth a billion dollars this year, and local entrepreneurs are jumping on the bandwagon
What’s cool?: Communicate’s exclusive survey on celebrities yielded some surprises
Air farce won: Politics turned the battle for Beirut's airport ad space into a comedy of errors

Regional rituals: Impact BBDO’s Hubert Boulos explains the regional relevance of BBDO’s global “Rituals” survey
BBDO’s five universal daily rituals: The “Ritual Masters” identifies five daily rituals performed by all consumers throughout the world. They are:

Training day: As the region comes under more scrutiny from the world’s business media, specialists are coaching executives on facing the press

Ad-funded mobile networks in the Middle East?: Not until the advertising industry embraces digital media, says Nick Wiggin, vice-president of media and advertising for Zad Mobile, a San Francisco-based facilitator of mobile advertising solutions

A patient pioneer: TBWA/Raad boss Ramzi Raad relishes the road less traveled. He talks to Communicate about potholes and partnerships

Know more bias: Grey adds greater relevance to Al Arabiya, but may have strayed from the “ideology-free” company line

Direct diary: Wunderman’s Kerry Platts, the first Cannes juror from a Middle East agency, went to France to sift through a huge pile of mail. Here’s what she was thinking

Communicate