gif Branding and Marketing
and 2008 and came runner-up in 2009. 2009 was also the year that ‘Best Central Bank in Promoting Islamic Finance’ was won by Bank Negara Malaysia for the fifth year in a row, proving you need neither be exclu- sively to do with Islamic finance or a private company to leverage good publicity from these Islamic finance awards.
Types of events:
Business to Business
Business to customer
Community events
For instance, in the July 2010 issue of Middle East Insur- ance Review, there is an advert for FWU Group with the tagline ‘Global Leader in Takaful Expertise’. How does the institution show it has the credentials to justify this title? At the bottom of an advert, in a coloured box that is sure to grab the reader’s attention is the subtitle Awards received 2008-2009. In this box are the three logos of the Awards events from which the com- pany has won ‘Best Takaful Product’, ‘Best Takaful Opera- tor’ and ‘Best Bancatakaful Provider’. The events are the International Takaful Awards 2008, the International Takaful Awards 2009 (same Awards but different year and logo) and Islamic Business &
The best thing about press releases is the speed and depth with which they dissemi- nate information. Once a press release is on just a few websites, or in the hands of just a couple of news agencies such as the Press Association or Reuters, innumerable other publications, such as Global Islamic Finance Magazine will often pick up on the press re- lease and publish the content themselves.
Benefits of sponsorship:
Increase sales of your products and services
Introduce your products and services to new clientel
Brand your company
Finance Awards respectively. Publicity for Awards Organisers
One may wonder why these Awards have their own different logos-even deploying dif- ferent logos from year to year. It is because the Awards ceremonies are as important to the marketing & branding strategies of the Awards organisers as they are to the strate- gies of the Awards recipients.
The organisations that arrange the Awards are usually profit- seeking corporate businesses in their own right. For instance, the International Takaful Awards are organised jointly by Istishar iQ and Afkar Consulting. Istishar iQ deals with a number of busi- ness areas and one of these is events planning and manage- ment.
On their current Events Listings for the second half of this year is 13 events, all Islamic finance events. Some of these are major
Advertising & marketing materials
Whilst press releases are a type of ‘instant reaction’ to getting an award, companies
70 Global Islamic Finance October 2010
events and their geographical reach is vast. Almost all the events have different events organisers, showing how popular the busi- ness of events organisation is amongst the
can make the list of awards they’ve received work for them all year round. They can do this by using adverts and other marketing materials such as the booklets that are on offer from many a ubiquitous Islamic finance conference. Some companies even seek to gain leverage from awards through advertis- ing for more than a year after the original award was won.
world’s companies. Table 1 shows all of the events, their titles, themes, lo- cations and organisers, giving us an idea of how significant, cosmopolitan and competitive a part of Islamic finance the busi- ness of events-and events organisation is.
Events Attendance and Sponsorship
The two key things the best events organisers look for when putting on an event are a) attendees and b) sponsorship. Often the right sponsorship can lead to more attendees. Getting the right sponsor for an event will attract the right delegates to it. For in- stance, selecting popular and high quality Islamic finance publications to act as media patrons for a summit on, say, sukuk or takaful will also attract their readers to your event, especially if they are particularly interested in the theme of the event. As a regular media patron for the biggest events worldwide, Global Islamic Finance Magazine has first-hand experience of this.
Islamic finance publications, including GIF Magazine, tend to have a diverse reader- ship including academics, professionals and even those who have recently become inter- ested in the industry and are seeking basic information. All of these people regularly at- tend Islamic finance events for different rea- sons. Media patrons have a variety of ways to promote each event to their readership, including:
• In the publication itself-through a pro- motional article or in its regular events calendar • On their website-again on a events cal- endar or perhaps through a press re- lease • Through social media platforms • At other events of which they are spon- sors • Through newsletters and email alerts to their subscribers • By telephoning their subscribers and associates
Once at an event, delegate companies can network in order to initiate or continue busi- ness opportunities or cooperative partner- ships; attendees can find out more about different Islamic finance brands and initia-
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