Absolute Communications and 3A Worldwide partner

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UAE and India-based corporate communications firm Absolute Communications has forged a strategic partnership with 3A Worldwide, an international communications consultancy, in a bid to widen its international network, strengthen its business platform and grow in its ability to serve more clients on the global sphere.

“As a fast-growing agency, Absolute Communications has been on a lookout for a network which can add value to what we do, believe in and in return, enable the network members to be able to reach out to their clients with confidence when it comes to their executions in the Middle East and India,” says Victor King, CEO, Absolute Communications. “This partnership will enable both 3A Worldwide and Absolute Communications to showcase ourselves as an agency with a global reach and local expertise.”

Miguel Ángel Rodriguez Caveda, COO and President of Europe, Middle East and India, 3A Worldwide, adds “This association is another step towards the consolidation of the multinational internationally, something very positive not only for us, but for all our customers who will be able to reach new markets through this partnership.”

RECMA names Vizeum fastest growing media network

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Independent notation reports company RECMA has named global network Vizeum the world’s fastest growing network in its Overall Activity Billings 2014 report, published this week. Across the 16 global agencies assessed by RECMA, Vizeum increased activity billings year-on-year by 29.1%. Companies with growth rates in the top five Overall Activity Billings of 2014 list also included MediaCom and Dentsu media.

Vizeum was launched in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in January, 2014, as part of Dentsu Aegis Network and has over 62 offices in 42 countries globally. The network aims to leverage the creative power of media in order to connect brands and consumers to help clients’ brands grow.

“We have achieved this impressive growth through our single-minded focus on making innovation in media create value for clients,” says Anouk Bondroit, General Manager, Vizeum MENA. “We leverage our globally consistent network and have witnessed great momentum over the last 18 months. This growth helps us to keep the agility required in the fast-paces media environment – It’s the only way we can credibly remain at the forefront of the industry and produce best in class work for our clients.”

Solutions Leisure welcomes Chorcha Harper

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Solutions Leisure has welcomed Chorcha Harper as Group Communications Manager. Having previously worked as PR & Communications Manager for Fresh Express, Chorcha also has experience with ITP Publishing where she worked on the launch of Women’s Health magazine. In her new role, Chorcha will be responsible for managing communications from Solutions Leisure managed venues such as Asia Asia, Karma Kafé and Q43.

“I’m delighted to be working for such a forward thinking and innovative company,” says Chorcha. “I have seen the Solutions Leisure brands grow rapidly in the region and cannot wait to get involved in their continuous development and the introduction of new concepts to the UAE market. Their collective experience and passion are second to none and I’ve arrived at a very exciting time for the company.”

CNN Style launches

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CNN has launched CNN Style, a new online destination for content spanning the worlds of fashion, design, architecture, art, automobiles and luxury. The website is aimed at a cosmopolitan, global audience and throughout July will be guest edited by Architect Daniel Libeskind.

CNN Style will be a highly visual online destination, featuring galleries, interactives and a range of video and written content aimed to bring international audiences closer to shows, events, trends and personalities across a range of style genres. Launch content includes interviews with photographer David Bailey, pop artist Takashi Murakami and designer Manolo Blahnik. The website will be tailored for mobile audiences and social sharing, spanning international and U.S. Digital editions of CNN.com, CNN Arabic and CNN en Espanol, as well as being integrated into CNN Money’s digital platforms, taking its place alongside other major CNN brands and verticals such as CNN Politics and CNN Travel. CNN Style will also be integrated with TV programming. The site will be headed up by Editor, George Webster.

“CNN Style is the essential destination to be immersed in beautifully crafted, intelligent and inspiring pieces about all facets of style,” said Andrea Demaria, Vice President and Managing Editor, CNN Digital. “This is a cosmopolitan home for a broad range of content. Attracting someone of Daniel Libeskind’s calibre as our first Guest Editor is a signal of our intent as we help redefine what ‘style’ can mean to an upscale, international audience.”

Ooh la la!

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When Team TMN discovered that Michelin-starred chef Frederic Vardon would be opening his first international restaurant in Dubai, we couldn’t wait to find out whether the food matched the creator’s impressive reputation…

What: La Résidence Restaurant & Lounge

Where: Raffles Hotel, Dubai

When: Open for dinner every day between 7pm and 2am

The promise: “Inspired by Parisian luxury brasseries, La Résidence Restaurant & Lounge brings French elegance and accessible haute cuisine to the centre of Dubai.”

Did it deliver? Upon entering La Résidence Restaurant & Lounge, you might be forgiven for thinking that you’d stumbled upon an English stately home – with its Chesterfield-style furniture, paneled walls and warmly lit chandeliers, all the space lacked was some stuffed animals and genteel men and women sipping tea. It was only upon noticing the quirky and distinctly French artwork and detailing that Team TMN realised we had entered a luxe French bistro. Following a warm welcome from our hostess, we were quickly led to our table, which was pleasantly intimate, without being cut off from the rest of the bustling restaurant. The high ceilings and warm atmosphere, while on paper seem to be at odds with each other, meant that La Résidence provided an atmosphere that was cosy and rich, without being imposing or overly fussy – in total contrast to the 40-degree heat and shimmering pyramids outside.

La Résidence is a restaurant built on the reputation ofFrédéric Vardon and it is easy to see his influence in all of the food we were presented with – beginning with an amuse bouche taster of miniature cheese soufflés, uniquely disguised as small spheres. The starters we sampled: a green pea soup, and soft-boiled egg ‘royale-style’, were both utterly delectable. The green pea soup was served chilled, offering a unique tasting experience which further enhanced its velvety texture, while the egg – though totally unrecognisable as an egg, beautifully reconstructed as a foamy mass – was deliciously rich thanks to the inspired mushroom addition, a pleasant surprise for a vegetable-based course.

For mains, team TMN chose a beef tenderloin and Dublin bay prawn ravioli. The beef tenderloin stood out as an expertly cooked and flavourful dish presented in a way that we had never seen before. Sliced elegantly, it appeared as two pieces of meat and truly melted in the mouth, while the homemade ravioli – with its generous filling and wonderful sauce – was another winner with us. Sides of seasonal vegetables and French beans were the perfect accompaniment.

Although completely full, we miraculously managed a little room to sample La Residence’s signature dessert of crêpes suzette. Rolled into small straw-like tubes, the paper-thin pancakes were utterly delicious. A panna cotta-like topping, and thin strips of candied orange peel balanced the sweet and citrusy flavors permeating the crepes, making the dessert a truly decadent and resplendently French way to end our meal!

The Verdict: La Résidence Restaurant and Lounge is a charming venue. It serves food that is both beautifully presented as well as truly delicious in a setting of genial ambience and warmth. As the first international venture from Frédéric Vardon, this restaurant definitely reflects his attention to detail and unique visions of French cuisine. Team TMN would highly recommend the venue as a place for a celebratory dinner, romantic date or simply a classy evening out.

Are viral campaigns a viable form of marketing?

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Given the overwhelming success of viral campaigns such as Dove’s ‘Choose Beautiful’, or the spectacular failures of those such as the McDonalds #McDstories, we ask: Can viral campaigns really work as a cost effective form of brand building?

“NO” says Nagham Akileh, Associate Director – Social Media, OMD

NaghamAkileh“I don’t believe marketers can engineer virality. It’s better for brands to focus on authentic storytelling”
If you start with the objective of creating a viral campaign, then nine times out of 10 it won’t go viral. If you take a look at what has gone ‘viral’ from brands, a lot of them have either had some sort of media or PR push to make them spread. Truly viral advertising means a brand does not pay for its distribution. So technically they can’t be considered as ‘viral campaigns’.

There’s a lot that stands in the way of a brand that wants to achieve ‘viral’ status. For one thing, online behavior is simultaneously very predictable and unpredictable. People will share, for example, cat videos or emotional stories that courage and show optimism. However, no one really knows which of the thousands of cat videos will appeal to people the most and get shared, or which emotional story will command people’s attention. There are also all sorts of bizarre things that catch people’s attention and go viral, like The Dress. Memes are another example, from the early days of the O RLY owl to Doge to Leonardo Di Caprio with a water gun. While they all have something in common, nonsensical origin stories, no one really knows which of the thousands of silly things online will end up becoming a meme and why. If we did, everything would go viral.

The second major challenge for a brand to go ‘viral’ is cutting through the noise. Millions of minutes of video content are being uploaded online every day, along with millions more GIFs, images and articles. Brands are not just competing with others in their category, they’re going up against everything online. The odds that a campaign is going to go ‘viral’ are slim at best.

Marketers also tend to overlook the source of virality. A lot of viral online content starts from sites like Reddit and services like Vine and Tumblr, before they make their way to mainstream social networks (and then die on 9gag). So, unless one of the guys on those sites pick up on your content and think it’s awesome enough to share, your slim chance of going viral just got slimmer.

I don’t believe marketers can engineer virality. It’s better for brands to focus on authentic storytelling and storydoing to add value to consumers while achieving their brand objective, using resources at their disposable for measurable success. There’s nothing wrong with pushing something online with media investments or PR to help a great idea catch on, but let’s not call it ‘viral’ because it isn’t.

Now, can we please erase this word from our buzzword dictionaries?

“YES” says Ramzi Haddad, Managing Director, Carat UAE & Lower Gulf

Ramzi“I really believe that all consumers living in the urbanised jungles of this world are no longer impressed with what advertisers do.”

What are we propagating here? Very simple: It’s great if you can make a campaign go viral, but you have to make it good. Brands tend to over think ‘viral’ videos by trying to build in super complicated messages about their product and end often end up communicating them in a super un-inspiring way. In order to say yes to viral, you need to understand that the value of entertainment needs to be higher than the product message you are building into it. Oh, and Mr. Brand manager, what you think is fun and entertaining is going to have zero value to your audience.

The proof in this comes from companies like LG who are successfully using viral videos to drive new product features, like their super thin LED – done in such a surprising way, using a realistic surveillance camera style that really makes you think twice about what you’re seeing. It also makes you want to press that share button and make that video go even more viral. Who remembers seeing the press ad for that campaign? Nobody! Because LG made the viral element the main comms vehicle and it has paid off.

I really believe that all consumers living in the urbanised jungles of this world are no longer impressed with what advertisers do, especially when they do it repetitively. The novelty wears off pretty quickly on almost all ad messages out there no matter how ‘glitzy’ they are, whether they are on the biggest mediums or the smallest. If online time is such a personal time that takes up almost one whole day a week for the young and restless audiences in this region, then the next question to advertisers should be: what content is worthy of winning those young and restless eyeballs’ attention?

Just think – is this good enough to get a million views on YouTube, on the first day?

So yes to viral. It’s like skateboarding for me. I don’t usually do it but I will always stand up and applaud a good trick.

The Seven Deadly Sins of PR

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Rachel McArthur, Managing Editor of Digital Ink offers her thoughts on the pitfalls that many PRs fall into in the UAE, and how to overcome them…

“It’s that age-old battle of Editors vs. PRs, and vice-versa. We’re the Tom & Jerry of media, constantly provoking each other.”

PR: you can’t live with it; you can’t live without it. At least that’s what the majority of us journalists say. If you’re a Twitter user – or Facebook friends with media folk – chances are you have come across posts complaining about the state of PR, or journalism – or both. Yup, it’s that age-old battle of Editors vs. PRs, and vice-versa. We’re the Tom & Jerry of media, constantly provoking each other.

In all seriousness, neither is that bad and I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of annoying someone in the past. But when it comes to the most regular PR mistakes, myself – along with some close journo friends – thought we would highlight the most common sins:

1) Calls, Calls, Calls
This is number one on the list for the majority of journalists. Let me set the scene for you – you’re hard at work trying to meet client deadlines, but you keep getting distracted thanks to friends calling you up every 15 minutes about plans for the weekend. If you took every single call, you will have achieved next to nothing by the end of the day.

And that’s what it is like for us. For example, today my phone went off at least twice every hour for things that were not urgent. If you have sent me an email release and it is interesting/relevant, chances are I’ll probably use it. Maybe today, or later on in the month. But please don’t call me to check that I have received it.

Personally, I am also not a fan of phone pitches as I have the memory of a goldfish, and so if it is not on email, I will have forgotten about it by the end of the day. The only time calls are okay is when something is urgent.

2) Know Your Audience
A little research goes a long way in establishing good relationships with Editors. A release that is not relevant to my publication is like junk email – totally useless. If I am a celebrity writer, chances are I won’t be interested in covering the Dubai Business Forum. The opposite also happens – when a PR doesn’t approach the right people. Only last week somebody was telling me about a car launch event where the UAE’s top three motoring Journalists were not invited as the newly-appointed PR agency had no idea who they were. Oops…

3) Not responding to queries
A good PR professional is someone who is happy to talk at all times – not just when they have an event or press release etc. I have lost count of the times I have reached out with a query, only to have my email(s) not even responded to. Granted, a lot of times it is down to the client themselves, but clients need to understand that it’s just like customer service: they can’t just acknowledge good feedback and ignore complaints… people won’t respect your position in the market if you’re weak.

4) Images & WeTransfer
Why do some PRs send out a release without at a single decent image? An image resolution that will work for web might not necessarily work for print, therefore, always prepare high-resolution photos. But even worse than bad images are images sent via WeTransfer, and here’s why:

a) If it’s not a breaking news story, chances are we won’t need the images straightaway (e.g. product images, restaurants etc.), so we’ll label the email and refer to it later. Unfortunately, by the time we get back to it, the WeTransfer link has expired! Why not use Dropbox or Google Drive? Make it easy for the journalist to refer back to your releases and you’ll increase your chances of coverage.

b) WeTransfer takes ages to download, especially when the file is over 500MB in size. Dropbox allows us to browse/choose the images we download, as opposed to downloading a massive file just to use one image.

5) No, I am not a blogger
Yes, there are some massively influential bloggers out there, but there are also quite a few who have bought their way to the top (you know who you are). Don’t mix Journalists with Bloggers… we’ve spent years in this industry, we work hard, and we have crazy deadlines. So when organising interviews, for example, it goes a long way if you prioritise journalists who have to go back to the office asap and file copy. A friend of mine – who works with one of the UAE’s leading radio stations – was made to wait for two hours at a recent celeb event because some bloggers were given interview slots before her. This is despite the fact she had to go on air later on that afternoon, while chances are the bloggers posted their stories later on in the week.

6) Missing important info
Got listings/info for shopping pages? Send me product names, images, prices and stockists, and I will love you forever and ever. You’ve just saved me an email requesting missing info.

7) Being told I will get something for free
And finally… a Journalist will cover a story, because it is interesting and/or it is of interest to their readers, NOT because they will get something in return. Please don’t send me an email inviting me to an event with a note at the bottom saying: “If you attend, you will receive X, Y or Z.” If your event/story is strong enough, you won’t need to bribe people to come. Right?

Now, I know this doesn’t apply to everyone and I’m sure our PR friends have lots to say about Journalists/Editors as well… so I’m looking forward to reading that post! Who’s brave enough?