Myfashdiary undergoes redesign

Myfashdiary.com is undergoing a full revamp to celebrate its fifth birthday, inclusive of a new logo and sleek new design. Set to go live fully Saturday September 27, 2014, Founder Tala Samman has pushed for a design refresh of the renowned UAE-based platform and created greater ease in browsing through the categories on the site, from fashion and beauty, to travel and food.

“This is such an important milestone for myfashdiary.com to turn five years old!” says Tala, Founder and Editor, Myfashdiary. “The is an exciting new step for the site and I look forward to releasing our revamp soon.”

Tabitha Barda appointed Deputy Editor of Aquarius

Tabitha Barda has joined the team at Aquarius as Deputy Editor. Having been with Gulf News Magazines for a number of years, Tabitha was most recently Lifestyle Editor for Gulf News’ weekend supplement, Friday, where she covered a wide range of features and topics. In her new position, Tabitha joins Editor Louisa Wilkins in producing and editing lifestyle content, working across all areas of the magazine and its supplements, such as Aquarius Baby and Aquarius Beauty Heroes.

“I’m so excited to be on the Aquarius team and really pleased to be re-joining all my colleagues at Gulf News Magazines,” says Tabitha. “I’ve always been a great fan of the Aquarius brand and it’s brilliant to now be playing a part in it myself. Having just had a baby, it also feels like the perfect title for me to be working on at this time in my life.”

Louisa Wilkins, Editor of Aquarius adds, “With her experience on Friday, Tabi joins the team with a strong knowledge of local lifestyle issues, brands and experts. Additionally, as a new mother herself, she perfectly fits the profile of an Aquarius reader, meaning that she has first-hand experience and empathy on the topics and issues that are so close to the hearts of our readers. I’m delighted to have her on the Aquarius team and look forward to seeing her make her own personal stamp on the brand over the coming months.”

Caitlyn Davey joins 7DAYS

Caitlyn Davey has been appointed as Features Writer for 7DAYS newspaper. Prior to joining the team, Caitlyn was Section Editor for Time Out Abu Dhabi, where she took care of the beauty, shopping, community and food pages. In her new position, she will be responsible for writing features across the diary pages and Metro sections, pitching ideas, networking and attending press conferences.

“I’m really excited to be working with the team at 7DAYS – in a thriving country like the UAE, it’s a beautiful and fun place to work,” says Caitlyn. “There are always exciting things happening, interesting people and unusual events; it’s a great place to be a journalist…albeit occasionally waiting for a communication via pigeon-carrier.”

Stylist Arabia announces launch party competition

Stylist Arabia has announced its ‘Show Us Your Shoes’ competition to win tickets to the launch party of the women’s weekly publication. For a chance to win tickets, those entering simply need to snap themselves in their favourite pair of shoes and tag @Stylist_Arabia on Instagram along with #StylistArabia by October 7, 2014, when the winners will be revealed. The Stylist Arabia launch party will be held on Wednesday October 8, while the magazine hits the newsstands on October 14, 2014.

BBM Channels collaborates with Hootsuite

BlackBerry has announced that BBM Channels – the BBM subscription service – can now be managed with social relationship platform Hootsuite, allowing social media teams to engage with their Channel followers directly from the Hootsuite dashboard. The integration will allow Hootsuite owners to incorporate BBM Channels into their social strategy, leveraging a mobile and highly engaged audience. All users across Hootsuite’s Free, Pro and Enterprise tiers will be able to manage their BBM Channels, and for social media practitioners, community managers and digital marketers, Hootsuite will make it easy to incorporate content from other owned social media channels into their promotional strategies on BBM.

“Managing a brand’s social media presence is a juggling act,” says Matthew Talbot, Senior Vice President, Emerging Solutions at BlackBerry. “Marketers need tools that can help them automate and streamline the management of content across multiple platforms. With Hootsuite, we’ve made it as simple as clicking a button to share posts on BBM Channels to other social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and vice-versa.”

The owner of a BBM Channel can engage directly with their subscribers from the Hootsuite dashboard – posting messages, sharing pictures, sparking discussions, moderating and responding to posts, and sharing other brand-related content. As the community interacts with the content, the dashboard provides real-time analytics to the Channel owner that measure and report users’ activity.

Greg Gunn, Vice President of Business Development at Hootsuite adds, “With the undeniable popularity of messaging apps, brands are looking for ways to join in the conversation. Our collaboration with BlackBerry on the BBM Channels app will empower users to leverage social strategies in real-time across multiple platforms, straight from the Hootsuite dashboard.”

Judy Cogan made Lifestyle Editor of Friday magazine

Judy Cogan has been appointed as Lifestyle Editor of Gulf News Magazines’ flagship title, Friday. Having been in the position of Acting Lifestyle Editor since April of this year, Judy takes over from Tabitha Barda and will be in charge of Friday’s fashion, beauty, health, travel, food and review pages.

“I’m incredibly excited to be joining the number one magazine in the UAE,” says Judy. “Food, health, fashion and travel are all incredibly popular pages within Friday and I hope to make them even more compelling. I’m more than ready for this new and unique challenge and I’m thrilled to be given this opportunity. I’m looking forward to working with you all!”

Karen Pasquali Jones, Editor of Friday magazine adds, “Tabitha was a hard act to follow but I found the perfect replacement in Judy. She is a lifestyle expert with myriad ideas and an amazing energy – she is great at finding stories, networking and giving the readers exactly what they want.”

James Hewes, Publishing Director of Gulf News Magazines and Gulf News Publishing concludes “Judy is a fantastic addition to the team. Friday is going from strength to strength, and with Judy as part of the editorial team it will only get stronger.”

Lowe MENA helps Unilever attain World Record

MCN agency Lowe MENA has helped its client Unilever obtain an official Guinness World Record for its Ramadan campaign – with the largest collection of clothes for donation, consisting of 146,411 items for the Comfort and OMO brands.

The Lowe-Unilever team worked on the project from concept to completion, and were on stage during the event to recognise the achievement. Key team members included Sujay Nanavati, Anoop George and Sarah Nassar.