Namrata Manghnani joins The Indian Trumpet

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Namrata Manghnani this week joins The Indian Trumpet magazine as Social Media Executive and Editorial Support. Upon joining the team, Namrata will be writing engaging articles and creating communications content to promote the magazine, as well as managing The Indian Trumpet‘s online social media platforms.

“I’m looking forward to being a part of The Indian Trumpet team,” says Namrata. “I will be gaining valuable experience about what goes on behind the scenes of a magazine, and am excited to learn and grow as a writer as well!”

Logistics News ME magazine launches

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Logistics News ME magazine has launched across the Middle East. The monthly B2B publication will be circulated across the GCC, with most of the circulation concentrated in the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. With 5,240 copies to be distributed on a complimentary basis to logistics professionals, as well as those in other sectors that cross-over with logistics, Logistics News ME provides focused, accurate and up-to-date business information and market intelligence on the supply chain management and logistics industry in the Middle East.

“We’re looking forward to the logistics B2B audience discovering our outlook on the industry and the implications logistics has on GCC business as a whole,” says Diarmuid O’Malley, Group Publishing Director, BNC Publishing. “Together with Logistics News ME Editor Malcolm Dias, we hope to keep the sector’s professionals informed and engaged with our content on a monthly basis.”

Courtenay Hamilton joins Fifth Ring

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Courtenay Hamilton has joined Fifth Ring as its new PR Account Executive. Previously based in Abu Dhabi, Courtenay was most recently with the Integrated Marketing and Communications sector at RedFilo Events. In her new role, Courtenay will provide essential support across a range of energy sector clients to develop and deliver PR plans that will have real, measurable effects on clients’ businesses.

“I am delighted to have joined the team at Fifth Ring,” says Courtenay. “I’m really looking forward to being involved with the dynamic and exciting industry that is the energy sector.”

eBay to launch its first global brand campaign

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eBay is launching its first ever global brand campaign entitled ‘Shop the World’, in preparation for the run-up to the Christmas shopping season. The brand advertising campaign officially debuts in the United States tomorrow and in the UK on October 20, with plans to roll out across Australian and German markets in the coming weeks and more countries expected to be added in 2015.

The campaign has been developed in partnership with Goodby Silverstein & Partners and seeks to show how anything – be it a marathon, music festival or film screening – can act as inspiration for consumers, highlighted by the purchasable items within white boxes that appear throughout the advertisement. Running across digital, television, mobile and social channels, the 60-second campaign will aim to showcase the vast range of over 800 million listings on offer at eBay.

“The strength of the eBay brand represents the strength of our business and our entire community,” says Richelle Parham, Chief Marketing Officer, eBay North America. “Whether you’re seeking street style from Berlin or the perfect guitar to unleash your inner Jimi Hendrix, you will find an unmatched assortment of authentic new and vintage inventory from experienced eBay sellers to help fulfil your passion.”

 

Zaid Al Farah joins Ketchum Raad

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Zaid Al Farah has joined Ketchum Raad as Account Manager. With extensive experience across in-house and agency PR, Zaid joins the Ketchum Raad team from Jordan, where he was most recently Senior PR Officer at Umniah. In his new role, Zaid will specialise in the automotive PR sector, working alongside Ketchum’s talented automotive PR team.

“Working for such a renowned company will without doubt add valuable experience to my career,” says Zaid. “I am really excited and looking forward to working for this leading PR agency.”

Sayidaty magazine to launch Arabic platform

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Sayidaty is set to launch an online Arabic shopping platform known as Sayidaty Mall. Going live at the beginning of November, 2014, Sayidaty Mall will offer a new shopping experience, providing users with extensive and detailed information about stores, malls and brands across Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as sourcing credible information about where to shop for specific brands, what discounts and promotions are available, and will showcase the latest collections from popular brands. Sayidaty Mall will also be the first Arabic social commerce website, where subscribers can earn points based on interaction with the website – sharing products they have bought, reviews they have given and what products they have purchased online.

“Launching Sayidaty Mall in Saudi Arabia is one of the many steps we are working on to cover the Arab region and the demands of the Arabic shopper both on and offline,” says Mr. Alharthi, Editor-in-Chief, Sayidaty and Al Jamila Magazines. “The second step will be covering the United Arab Emirates, in addition to launching Sayidaty Mall applications on mobile devices which will provide distinguishing features for the Arabic shopper.”

 

TINT to launch in the Middle East

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TINT – a social media aggregator used by 40,000 companies worldwide – is launching in the Middle East, marking its first expansion effort outside of North America. TINT will be the first social media hub in the Middle East to allow brands to collect and curate all social feeds and social hashtags from multiple networks, and is set to work with the region’s top brands and marketing agencies to create campaigns for brands including du, Ferrari World and Dubai Mall. The technology also affords customers the creative autonomy to brand their display, which can be enhanced with Chromecast access, customised posts and calls to action.

For brand owners in the Middle East, TINT also has the back-end functionality to moderate content and with analytical tools advertisers can measure ROI that allows companies to tailor their entire social media strategy with new insight and data.

“Our growth from Silicon Valley has been exponential; in the space of one year we are now working with over 40,000 brands and 60 percent of that business is generated from international markets,” says Tim Sae Koo, CEO and Founder, TINT. “Dubai is the ideal gateway to help us establish a more customer-facing relationship with clients in the East. It’s ambition to develop as a smart city makes Dubai the perfect environment to foster entrepreneurial and technology inspired companies – like TINT – to grow alongside its own unprecedented progress.”

Launching at GITEX Technology Week 2014, TINT will showcase its platform, which allows anyone to connect a page, handle or hashtag from any social network and then display it on websites, mobile apps, retail TV displays, event walls or huge jumbotrons.

Google launches new tool for display ad targeting

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Google has released custom affinity audiences – which aims to give advertisers more flexibility in targeting users based on their interests across the Google display network. This builds on from the affinity audience segments which Google launched in 2013, allowing advertisers to target users across 80 set interests and demographics reflected by the individual’s search and site behaviour. While the new Custom Affinity Audiences will still utilise Google’s interest data, advertisers will now be able to take control of their target advertising by creating their own segments, as opposed to selecting from a pre–defined set of audiences.

Additionally, until now advertisers have had to work directly with a Google rep to create a custom segment. With the release of this new tool, advertisers will be able to build custom affinity audiences themselves in AdWords. When setting up custom affinity audiences in AdWords, advertisers can mix interest segments with sites related to those interests, and Google will provide reach estimates broken down by demographics and top interests.

Alarab news channel to launch by end of year

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Alarab, a Bahrain-based 24-hour news channel, is set to launch by the end of this year, with the news channel set to target Arabic speaking viewers across the Arab region and extending globally. First announced by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud in 2011, Alarab is an independent venture from Kingdom Holding Company and Rotana Group, and is expected to compete with Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and Sky News Arabia.

The channel’s launch has been announced by Prince Alwaleed after visiting the headquarters of the news channel at Bahrain World Trade Centre to oversee progression of the channel, with Systems integrator Qvest Media having designed and built the complete production and broadcasting infrastructure for the Alarab News Channel.

Earlier this year, Alarab News Channel announced a deal with Riyadh-based media company, DurAlpha Group, and has also signed a partnership agreement with Bloomberg to include Bloomberg-branded business reports in its daily coverage, as well as supporting five hours of financial and economic news programming throughout the day. Alarab has also recently appointed a number of well-known broadcast journalists from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and neighbouring countries to join its news programming team.

Facebook closes WhatsApp deal

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Facebook has completed its purchase of mobile messaging app WhatsApp, paying nearly $22 billion for the acquisition. With WhatsApp’s share price having risen by more than 13% since the deal was struck in February of this year, Facebook has been coerced into paying an additional $3 billion on top of the original $19 billion price tag.

“We are looking forward to connecting even more people around the world, and continuing to create value for the people who use WhatsApp,” says Facebook in an official statement.

Terms of the deal include adding Co-Founder of the messaging service, Jan Koum to Facebook’s Board of Directors, as well as remaining head of the company, where he will receive a one dollar per-year salary, mirroring that of Facebook Chief Mark Zuckerberg. Jan will also receive 25 million restricted stock units if he stays with the company for four years; with the RSUs at a current market value worth over $1.9 billion.

In a statement regarding approval of the deal, the European Commission said that Facebook and WhatsApp were not close competitors, and that consumers would continue to be offered a wide array of choices.

Joaquin Almunia, EU Compeition Commissioner adds, “We have carefully reviewed this proposed acquisition and come to the conclusion that it would not hamper competition in this dynamic and growing market.”

With WhatsApp now used by 600 million people, the buyout included 177 million Facebook shares, as well as $4.59 billion in cash. In addition, Facebook has agreed to provide 45.9 million restricted shares to WhatsApp employees.