MIDDLE EAST
28
DIGITALWEEK
23 November 2008
GADGETS WHAT NEXT
Stuff we liked this week
Gamucci electronic cigarette
Get your buzz on
Watching Mad Men makes us hark back
Anthony Rischard, CEO of Catch, explains his company’s online
to the good old days, when hard-
working admen could enjoy an buzz marketing proposition
honest cigarette at their desk.
And their boss’s desk. And their
boss’s secretary, on the boss’s
desk. But we digress. Sadly
those halcyon days are long
gone and office-based lighting
up and touching-up can lead to
all kinds of trouble. We can’t do
anything about the latter (and nor
would we try) but how about this. An
electronic cig that apparently tastes
like the real thing and produces real smoke, but is harmless. Finally,
the perfect office-friendly stressbuster for when you’re faced with an
ad campaign but all the superlatives have been used already. Twice.
LED car sign
Why is it that when you’re driv-
ing along it’s always everyone Coco Mademoiselle. Promoted by
else that’s the idiot? And because Keira Knightley. And bloggers
it is against the law to express
many of the more colourful
‘Hey, here’s a brand that actually who are writing about, say, ‘I love
hand gestures, you can’t even
respects us.’” fast food!’ There’s no real danger
educate them of that fact, so
The catch for Catch is that— there.”—and has some multina-
why not try this little gizmo?
regionally—brands aren’t re- tionals interested in doing some
With five different expres-
“T
here are a num-
ber of ways that
brands can get
involved in on-
line-only conver- nowned for respecting consum- work with them.
sions including a smiley face,
sations with bloggers: good ways, ers. And certainly not the sort “We’re aiming for first or
‘back off’ and ‘thanks’, it sits
bad ways and suicidal ways,” says of uppity consumer who might second quarter of 2009,” says
on the back of your headrest and
Anthony Rischard, CEO of Dubai- sometimes have the cheek to Rischard. “Part of that depends
smiles annoyingly at the dimwit tailgater behind
based independent digital agency write about their products in a on hitting the critical mass of
you. Unfortunately, ‘dimwit tailgater’ isn’t on the
Catch. “The suicidal way is the fake less-than-glowing way. bloggers that we need. Part of it
list of LED sentiments.
blogger. That kind of subterfuge is “[The Chanel example] is the is the reticence—at this point—
Pencil pen very quickly brought to light. And, essence of how a brand can com- of brands in this region to spend
The most transient item in the frankly, is pretty much dead. municate with bloggers in an ef- money on anything but above-
universe is the office pen. We defy “The second way—the not good fective way,” Rischard says. “Of the-line.”
anyone to keep hold of the same way,” he continues, “is attempt- course, the client has to be sure But he expects that to change as
pen for more than a week. ing to influence them by saying, enough about his brand and his the financial situation worsens.
Keep your thieving fellow ‘Here’s a set piece that shines a products to let the bloggers go off “We will see an increase in on-
creatives from nabbing glowing light on our brand and and say what they will. That is our line budgets. Because it’s cost ef-
your biros with these we want to publish it on your blog challenge in this region, where fective, and it’s measurable. The
pencils designed as and we’ll pay you for it.’ Bloggers transparency is far from the norm, need for marketing departments
pens. No one steals pencils because there are no sharpeners in are—in general—a very proud and where brands tend to want to to demonstrate return on invest-
any office, thus rendering the pencil an obsolete item, and your bunch. And they really don’t like spin things with a lot more force ment to their boards drives that,
disguised ballpoint perfectly safe. to be manipulated or bribed.” than in the Occidental countries. certainly,” he explains. “But that
The third way—of course—is
BLOG WATCH where Catch comes in. This sum-
mer, the agency signed a deal
The client has to be sure enough about
Dubai Sunshine
with Vanksen|Culture-Buzz which
his brand and his products to let the
grants Catch the use of Vanksen’s
bloggers go off and say what they will.
BuzzParadise tool. And, Rischard
says, enables Catch to offer mar-
That is our challenge in this region.
keters the chance to get involved
the ‘good’ way. “That said, they are starting to doesn’t mean they’re necessarily
“That is saying, ‘You want to be come around,” he continues. “The going to take a risk on something
an independent writer. Great. You way we put it to them is: There is that’s a little bit new. For the next
know your subject, you’re pas- a conversation going on around few months, we expect them to be
sionate about it. We know you’ve your brand. You can either ignore on the more traditional side of new
got a large audience. We are going it or you can be part of it. If you media, if you see what I mean.”
to offer you a great opportunity, ignore it, you have zero control. The BuzzParadise model,
the brand will pay for it, and then Simple fact. If you participate, however, doesn’t really seem like
we’re going to send you home. Say at the very minimum you’ve got that much of a ‘risk’, if Catch does
what you will.’” the right to respond. And at best, its job properly and the brands
Dubai Sunshine is—as its title suggests—one of the sunnier and The most famous example of you’ve got an opportunity to enter have genuine faith in their prod-
more upbeat regional blogs. The frustrations of expat life are all what Rischard is talking about is into a dialogue with people who ucts. After all, compared to an
there in vivid detail, but there’s plenty of humour to smooth the ride. Vanksen’s work for Chanel’s Coco actually care about your brand.” ad campaign, the cost for, say, a
Dubai Sunshine’s author moved back to the UAE a few years ago Mademoiselle, when more than BuzzParadise allows bloggers new hotel opening in the region
after a decade’s absence. She started her blog as a parallel to her a dozen perfume-crazy bloggers to put themselves forward if they and flying some ‘travel writer’
sister’s existing Abu Dhabi Sunshine, sadly idle since early 2007. But were flown to Paris for a tour of might be interested in any such bloggers over to stay for a week-
Dubai Sunshine is still a healthily active site with at least one well- Coco Chanel’s apartment and the offers—with the understand- end is minimal. But the results
written post a week. company’s perfumery. There were ing that they are free to write could be fantastic.
The author says her blog is about “nothing in specific... just no expectations put on them, but whatever they want, no matter “Absolutely,” Rischard agrees.
snippets of information I feel the need to share with the rest of the feedback was—unsurprisingly— what freebies they might receive. “The marketing people get that.
world”. But the focus is very much on the UAE. The most recent overwhelmingly positive. Rischard says Catch has already But the people above them
posts are a checklist of Dubai issues: the traffic, pollution, the Atlan- “It got wonderful feedback from identified several regional blog- holding the purse strings look at
tis, the weather, taxi drivers, and rivalry with Abu Dhabi. the bloggers and it spread like gers—“Obviously, the ones we’re it and say, ‘Errr… no.’ They want
And relief now the weather has finally cooled, “and there’s a nice, wildfire online,” says Rischard. interested in are not the ones guarantees that the feedback
almost chilly breeze in the evenings, almost requiring a little jacket “And they wrote as much about screaming about this government will be good. But they will come
or a pashmina...” the product as they did to say, or that government. It’s people around. Definitely.”
www.mediaweekme.com
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