communicate levant | nov 2010

Levant Edition • The marketing and advertising resource • November 2010 • Issue N° 8 • www.communicate.ae

Twit to who? Flip Media’s Yousef Tuqan Media’s Yousef Tuqan Media’s YTuqan on how to use Twitter Page 30 Page 40 Page 44

Pot luck: The Chimney Pot’s CEO and local partner on why Beirut is partner on why Beirut is parthe right move

NGO worries: OMD’s Chadi Farhat on the appeal of working for good causes

Agency of changeWhen media agency OMG’s EMEA CEO Colin Gottlieb was in town re-cently, we caught up with him to see where the Middle East fits into his business. He tells us the region has done a lot of growing up.

MEDIA

(Page 36)

Souk it and see

Cause for thought

Pick-up line

MediaquestCorp

Jean Ghalo, from listings website Beirut Nightlife, says Lebanon is on a creative high. As evidence, he holds up the launch of the Old Souks, and Poliakov’s big-truck campaign. Marketing is all about sending the right message.

Most marketing is about making people want something enough to spend money. So selling a charity, where your audience doesn’t benefit directly, is always a challenge. Luckily, Lebanon’s marketers say they will rise to it gladly.

OPINION

MArkETING

CAMPAIGN

(Page 42)

(Page 32)

(Page 46)

Egypt................... E£ 10Jordan................... JD 4Kuwait ................kD 1.2

Lebanon........L£ 5 000Morocco............DH 22Oman ...............Or 1.5

Qatar ...................Qr 15Saudi Arabia........Sr 15Switzerland.......... SFr 8

Syria .................. S£ 100Tunisia ................ TD 2.5 U.A.E...................DH 15

THE rEELDEALDEAL

Communicate Levant’s production special looks at Communicate Levant’s production special looks at Communicate Levantevery angle of movie-making in Lebanon. How does

the industry look, and how can it do even better?

PrODUCT

ION

MAP INSID

E

MASTERE DE SPECIALISATION EN

MARKETING ET COMMUNICATIONIntroduisant le séminaire Euro MARKETING organisé en partenariat avec ESCP Europe avec la participation des auditeurs du même programme de ESCP Europe à l’étranger.

UN PROGRAMME INNOVANT AU SERVICE DE VOTRE EXCELLENCE!

Informations et inscriptionsT 00 961 1 373 373 F 00 961 1 373 374 C [email protected]

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Dans un univers où le progrès repose sur l’innovation, l’ouverture et l’excellence, le marché du travail est devenu plus concurrentiel que jamais. Le Mastère de Spécialisation en Marketing et Communication de l’ESA s’est naturellement imprégné de ces valeurs au travers d’une double approche académique et professionnelle, s’appuyant sur un corps professoral d’excellence issu des meilleures Ecoles de Management d’Europe comme ESCP Europe dont l’ESA est pôle associé.

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Les cours sont adaptés au maintien de votre carrière professionnelle.

Communicate I 3

Letter from the edItor | NoVemBer 2010

Lost & found

W e’ve all, at one time or another, faced this dreadful challenge: having to give directions to someone that has just arrived in Lebanon – or even a resident, for that matter.

The directions tend to be a little complicated: “Next to the pharmacy on the roundabout you take a left, then ask for the ballouta bakery, take another left, go 200 meters down the road, then it’s the fourth building on the right after the garden, facing the pet shop.”

Finding one’s way through the Lebanese maze – I’m not only referring to roads but every aspect of our daily lives – can be unnerving. Exhausting, even.

We may even reach a state of near hysteria, when it seems that the day will never end and all our unsettled business is piling up: getting the Internet connection back for the fifth time; ensuring electricity will remain on because the private provider took on too many clients and cannot deliver any more; planning to take a half-day off to finish paperwork in any given public administration, and so on.

At night, home in your haven of sanity, you may try to laugh it all away. Once I was tempted to tell a local food delivery chain – its operator had just asked for

directions to my house for the 12th time – that I lived in the second building on the left after the dog. But I’m not sure she would have enjoyed the joke.

Yes, finding one’s way in Lebanon is one of the numerous challenges that punctuate our lives. I’m not sure about you, but I often dream of a guide to living in this country; a map showing wrong turns to avoid and laying out the route to any destination, be it geographical or metaphysical.

Doing business in Lebanon is just as tricky as navigating our nation’s streets, even for those who have been in the field long enough to know the tricks and turns.

One must be endowed with impressive resource-fulness to clear a path through the local jungle of companies, pulling strings and clearing procedures.

Resourcefulness is indeed a quality many Lebanese are rightfully proud of. A little help is always welcome, though, so we decided to provide some in this issue of Communicate Levant.

Like an Indiana Jones of the Lebanese communication industry, we have found our way through the maze of production houses popping up across the country, dissecting, recouping, organizing, and putting our findings out there for our

readers’ convenience. Behold Communicate Levant’s first Production Houses Map.

It may not be one giant leap for mankind, but it’s certainly one small step for the industry. We all have to start somewhere to end up at the grey house behind the cat with a limp.

Nathalie Bontems, editor [email protected]

00-CLV08-letter-editor.indd 3 10/28/10 2:02 PM

4 I Communicate

Medialeader SAL, Azar bldg, 5th floor, Dimitri Al Hayek st, Sin el Fil-Horsh Tabet, Beirut, Lebanon, Tel: (961) 1 492 801/2/3

CO-CEO Alexandre Hawari CO-CEO Julien Hawari gEnEral managEr Simon O’Herlihy CFO Abdul Rahman Siddiqui CrEatIvE DIrECtOr Aziz Kamel OnlInE DIrECtOr Rony Nassour markEtIng managEr Joumana Haddad, [email protected] Tel: (971) 4 391 0760 DIStrIBUtIOn & SUBSCrIPtIOn managEr JP Nair, [email protected] Tel: (971) 4 391 0765 COUntry managErS Lebanon: Nathalie Bontems, [email protected], (961) 149 2801/2/3 Saudi Arabia: Tarek Abu Hamzy, [email protected], Tel: (966) 50 814 50 90 North Africa: Adil Abdel Wahab, [email protected], Tel: (213) 661 562 660

FOUnDEr Yasser Hawari managIng DIrECtOr Julien Hawari EDItOr Nathalie Bontems managIng EDItOr Austyn Allison SEnIOr jOUrnalISt Rania Habib SEnIOr SUB EDItOr Elizabeth McGlynn SUB EDItOr Salil Kumar COntrIBUtOrS Ibrahim Nehme, Karah Byrns, Aline Sara CrEatIvE DIrECtOr Aziz Kamel art DIrECtOr Sheela Jeevan art COntrIBUtOrS Aya Farhat, Alvin Cha, Jean-Christophe Nys ExtErnal aFFaIrS Manuel Dias, Maguy Panagga, Catherine Dobarro, Randa Khoury, Lila Schoepf, Laurent Bernard rESPOnSIBlE DIrECtOr Denise Mechantaf PrIntErS Raidy Printing Group aDvErtISIng The Gulf MEDIALEADER, PO Box 72184, Dubai Media City, AlThuraya Tower 2, Office 2402, Dubai, Tel: (971) 4 391 0760, Fax: (971) 4 390 8737, [email protected] Lebanon Peggy El Zyr, [email protected], Tel: (961) 70 40 45 44 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Tarek Abu Hamzy, [email protected], Tel: (966) 1 419 40 61, Ghassan A. Rbeiz, [email protected], Fax: (966) 1 419 41 32, P.O.Box: 14303, Riyadh 11424, Europe S.C.C Arabies, 18, rue de Varize, 75016 Paris, France, Tel: (33) 01 47 664600, Fax: (33) 01 43 807362, Lebanon MEDIALEADER Beirut, Lebanon, Tel: (961) 1 202 369, Fax: (961) 1 202 369 WEBSItE www.communicate.ae

Contents

nOvEmBEr 2010

nOvEmBEr 2010 | COntEntS

COVER: Production through a lens16 The bigger picture: The Lebanese production

industry is booming, but there’s still a lot of work ahead to ensure this growth is solid and can be sustained in the long run

24 The reel deal: Agency producers tell us what they want from Lebanon’s myriad production houses

28 Doing it for the kids: The industry plans to tell university students that production is about more than just directing and camerawork

NEWS6 Branding. Brand Central unveils its brand map8 Advertising. Leo Burnett tries to revive the

Lebanese pound10 Marketing. The Smirnoff Exchange Project picks up12 Digital. MediaME Forum scheduled to run in

Jordan this month13 Media. Mindshare hosts inaugural media summit14 Digital. Trends launches on iPad

FEATURES30 Web Wisdom. Flip Media’s Yousef Tuqan Tuqan on

how to listen, 140 characters at a time32 Marketing. Talking the good talk: How do you sell

a cause that doesn’t directly benefit your audience?

DEPARTMENTS36 Q&A. Area of growth: OMG’s Colin Gottlieb talks

regional growth, research, and rankings40 Q&A. Stirring the Pot: The Chimney Pot’s Henric

Larssen explains why his Sweden-based post-production house is expanding to Lebanon

42 Guest Opinion. Hot stuff: How to really make the best of Lebanon’s creative explosion

44 Guest Opinion. It’s good to care: Why it is important for advertisers to get involved with NGOs

45 Blogosphere. What the Web is saying46 Work. Selections from the regional and international

creative scenes50 Drive-by. One blogger’s take on Beirut’s billboards

00-CLV08-TOC.indd 4 10/28/10 12:33 PM

6 I Communicate

NOVEMBER 2010 | REgIONal NEws

Qatar, Iraq and Bahrain, we needed to strengthen our footprint in other strategic markets in the Gulf region. With our new affiliate in Jordan we have taken another leap forward in consolidating our regional offering, and now the next leap will be KSA. We are in talks with a leading local agency and will be able to share more as talks evolve.”

I PRINT

Trashed hits the newsstandsBeirut. On Time Publishing (OTP), publisher of Time Out Beirut, launched its new magazine last month. Trashed is a quarterly publication that targets students at university and those about to enter higher education. It also involves students in the production process, giving them an opportu-nity to create their own publication, according to founder Naomi Sargeant.

“We set up workshops that cov-ered design, advertising, photography and journalism to give students an opportunity to gain work experi-ence and empower and provide a unique voice and style to the intel-ligent youth,” she says.

Trashed also plans to launch a scholarship fund and work with the private sector. The magazine will be distributed to schools and uni-versities. Its digital edition will be available in January 2011

V I ADVERTISING

lebanon’s advertising revenues to reach $300 million by 2012 Beirut. According to a recent study by consulting firm PriceWaterhouse-Coopers (PWC), advertising revenues in Lebanon are set to grow by nine percent between 2010 and 2012, from $246 million in 2010 to $298 million in 2012. In terms of media, televi-sion should retain the lion’s share with 46.7 percent of total spend, followed by outdoor (17.1 percent), print (16.3 percent), dailies (12.6 percent), radios (4.9 percent) and online media (2.4 percent).

However, PWC forecasts an 81 percent yearly surge of revenues gen-erated on the Internet. Lebanon will generate only 4.5 percent of total regional advertising revenues across the 12 Arab countries studied, and is expected to reach $6,645 million in 2012, with an average growth of 11.7 percent.

adEaters night in November Beirut. The seventh edition of the Night of the AdEaters will be held on November 6 and 7 at the Palais UNESCO in Beirut.

BPg group signs affiliation with Elite advertising in Jordanamman. Dubai-based regional market-ing company BPG Group has added Jordanian marketing agency Elite Group to its network of affiliates. This is the fourth partnership for the group in the past nine months, with the number of BPG locations in the region now reaching 11.

Avi Bhojani (pictured, above right), group CEO of BPG Group, says, “Today’s clients demand so-lutions, not just services. Over the past year, BPG Group has been con-centrating on establishing itself as a marketing solutions company. While we have an extremely strong pres-ence in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait,

Brand Central designs a map for brands Beirut. Branding agency Brand Central recently released its Brand Map, a subway-map-like infographic visualizing a brand’s journey to consumers’ hearts and minds, and the intricacies of a brand’s relation-ship with the public.

The map is “a visual tool that outlines the complexity of the brand-ing process and how the routes of reason and passion intersect and connect at many stations to create the defined universe of a brand,” says Ibrahim Lahoud, Brand Central’s director of strategy and brand communication.

He says brands speak to the mind and heart but, in doing so, risk placing more stress on one than the other. “The balancing act

performed in a branding exercise lies in keeping the brand at equal distance between reason and pas-sion,” Lahoud adds.

The Brand Map aims to “first try and understand the way every segment of branding interacts with people. At which level does this interaction occur – in the mind or in the heart? What are the mile-stones of every process? And last, but not least, how do we put it all in a smart infographic that makes sense? We strongly believe it is a breakthrough in rationalizing how a brand pragmatically functions and [a breakthrough] in the way it was illustrated. So, for that, we went to the US Patent office and trademarked it,” Lahoud says.

clv08-Leb news-aa.indd 6 10/28/10 2:09 PM

Canada ........................C$ 7.50 France ..........................€ 4.57 Germany .......................€ 6.14

Egypt ..............................E£ 10 Italy ..............................€ 5.17Jordan ............................. JD 4

Kuwait ...........................KD 1.2 Lebanon .................... L£ 5,000 Morocco .........................DH 22

Oman ............................ OR 1.5 Qatar .............................QR 15Saudi Arabia ...................SR 15

Switzerland ....................SFR 8Syria............................ S£ 100Tunisia .......................... TD 2.5

UAE .............................AED 15 UK .....................................£ 2USA ....................................$ 5

A MediaquestCorp Publication

Janu

ary 20

10 /N

° 139

January 2010 /N° 139TRENDS

EGYPTHijab-free zones spring up in Cairo

IRANWealth, family ties offer no protection

WORLD EC

ONOMIC F

ORUM

SPECI

AL PR

EVIEW

Running on Empty

West Bank BattleThis time the fight is over mobile networks

Gulf nations scramble to build a lucrative future from today’s oil wealth

Registered in Dubai Media City

Lots of Hot Air Al Gore messes with industrial giantsLots of Hot Air Al Gore messes with industrial giants

Running on Empty

West Bank BattleThis time the fight is over mobile networks

Adddepthtoyourperspectivethroughouruncompromisinginvestigationsandunbiasedinsights.

Some people only see whatÕ s on the surface.

A MediaquestCorp publication

8 I Communicate


Beirut. For the latest Bank Audi credit card launch, Leo Burnett was tasked with creating a strong state-ment. The Loubnani (Lebanese in Arabic) credit card is the bank’s first card to exclusively use Leba-nese pounds.

As the country’s economy is heavily dollarized, the agency was requested to come up with a campaign that, by tapping into the past glory days of the early 1970s, would get people to use the pound once more.

“Lebanon is one of only 12 countries that commonly use two

currencies, and this is something that has become a sort of habit. Our insight came from the fact that this is wrong and would be fairly sim-ple to reverse if only people started spending in Lebanese pounds again,” says Peter Mouracade, Leo Burnett’s group communication director.

Using rare footage of Lebanon’s golden age, the agency developed a concept addressing both parents and children by showing a man discuss-ing the good old days with his son.

“We wanted parents and kids to share stories about the past and tell them that getting the Lebanese

leo Burnett revives the lebanese pound New female-interest magazine to launch in NovemberBeirut. Push, a new magazine for Arab businesswomen, is set to launch in November and will be the first publication from Young Arab Women Entrepreneurs (YAWE), an organization established in 2009 by Push’s publisher Samia Al Solh.

The English-language magazine will distribute its 25,000 copies across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

I PRODUCTION

VTR Beirut partners with screen Institute Beirut

Beirut. All-digital post-production facility VTR Beirut has joined forces with the Screen Institute Beirut. The Screen Institute Beirut, a Lebanese non-profit association with regional scope, says it aims to support and pro-mote film in all its forms, portraying cultural, artistic and social values.

VTR Beirut will support the association in its efforts to facili-tate film production by granting funds to selected projects in the Middle East. The Screen Institute Beirut has already developed The Film Fund (offering documentary production grants to emerging and proven talents in the Arab world), and documentary grants (enabling low-budget films to be produced, finalized and distributed by offering crucial financial support, access to professional equipment, mentoring, and professional advice), and its Screen Academy is in the process of developing its curricula.

Initial funding for its activities is secured through various grants from IMS (International Media Support, based in Denmark) and the Ford Foundation.

VTR Beirut will grant further funding, on a post-production level. Five projects have already been granted funds for the coming year. A sixth is waiting for confirmation.

pound to rise again is in their hands; with every transaction made, it will regain its power,” Mouracade says.

With the tagline “Khalli el lira terjaa tehkeh” (“Let the pound have its say”), the campaign – launched in early October with a TVC, and print and outdoor media – received great feedback.

In just two weeks the film was viewed approximately 13,000 times on YouTube, and local TV shows spoofed it repeatedly. Its second phase, to be launched by early November, hopes to “start a national movement,” Mouracade adds.

I PRINT

U Magazine lebanon set to lure fashionistas Beirut. Another fashion magazine is in town. U Magazine Lebanon – a franchise of Jordanian U Magazine, which launched in 2007 – becoming a reference for the Jordanian fashion realm, according to its publishers – hit newsstands in September.

Published by PromoPrints – the company also publishes luxury real estate magazine Ekaruna and student magazine The Gate, and deals in media representation – U Magazine aims to be “the first English guide to the best of the best in fashion, jewelry, beauty, health and society.”

Fifty percent of the content is provided by the Jordan magazine and is designed to address a universal

public, with the other 50 percent being made up of local content such as fashion and beauty shoots.

“We had a light outdoor campaign targeting Beirut and the suburbs,

and a TVC is currently running on Fashion TV and Al Jadeed TV,” says managing director Bernard Hatem. He adds that another campaign is scheduled to focus on online ad-vertising, as “this is the best way to reach our tech-savvy, trendy, core readership.”

Recently a lot of fashion titles have launched in the country.

“The fashion magazine market is still at its very beginning in Leba-non. The more players the merrier,” Hatem adds. “Besides, PromoPrints is part of the Joint Holding Group that also owns outdoor supplier PromoMedia, as well as various media-related companies, and also represents Al Jadeed television. This, on top of the reputation of U Magazine Jordan, gives us a great support, ” Hatem says.


Competitions are open for the MENA Cristal FestivalEnter your best campaigns to the “Cristal”

BEFORE FRIDAY 7TH JANUARY:BEFORE FRIDAY 22ND OCTOBER:

Direct & Promo

CyberMedia

FilmRadio

OutdoorDaily PressMagazinePrint CraftCorporate

International Production

Integrated

Call for entries!

31 Jan. / 4 Feb. 2011 - Mzaar Kfardebian, Lebanonw w w . m e n a c r i s t a l . c o m

10 I Communicate


Beirut. The Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project – a quest to dis-cover and celebrate the world’s best nightlife – arrived in Beirut in Sep-tember, and to promote it Diageo and Starcom Beirut erected a massive crate over nightclub BO18.

The installation aimed to engage consumers and invite them to contribute their ideas via Facebook (facebook.com/smirnoff-mena) on what makes Lebanon’s nightlife great.

The crate hung over the club from September 13 to October 22. Then it was swapped with Beirut’s sister city, Bangkok.

“We chose to hang the crate as it is an innovative way to break away from the highly cluttered outdoor scene in Lebanon,” says Amir Antoun, senior media executive at Starcom.

“BO18 offers great visibil-ity on the highway and, because most of its visitors are from within the target audience, it is a great

smirnoff Exchange Project picks up I DIGITAL First arab social Media Forum in Jordan set for December amman. On December 11, the Jorda-nian capital will host its first edition of the Arab Social Media Forum. Its organizers say it is the first event in the region to exclusively target social media topics, and share both clients’ and agencies’ experience in dealing with social media platforms and dif-ferent social engagement approaches.

Speakers will include Sameer Issa, founder and general manager of Jordanian creative production house 4D Creative; Duri Al Ajrami, sen-ior partner at OgilvyOne Toronto, Swedish digital journalism teacher; Mark Comerford; and Spot On Public Relations’ group account director, Alexander McNabb, among others.

Workshops and community panels are also on the agenda.

goNabit group-buying website launches lebanese portalBeirut. GoNabit, a regional group-buying website, recently launched its daily deal website in Beirut. The company chose Beirut as the latest in a phased roll-out of GoNabit across the region, following launches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Seven other cities are planned for this year.

“We believe the timing is right and the foundations are in place to develop e-commerce in Lebanon. People in Beirut are savvy consumers, credit card usage is growing and Internet access is improving; but there are few options available for transacting online. We plan to change that with GoNabit,” says Dan Stuart, CEO and co-founder of GoNabit.

way to get them engaged in this exciting project.”

Launched last September, The Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project aims to show the world how other cultures party. Involving 14 cities, Smirnoff has received more than 25,000 contributions, while the Lebanon Facebook page boasts 3,000 fans so far.

On November 27 an exchange will allow counties to “swap” nightlife.

I mEDIA New media law within a year? Beirut. Information minister Tarek Mitri has told journalists that a new “modern and comprehensive” media law will be drafted in one year as “it is beyond question that [Lebanon] needs [it].”

Mitri went on to say, “Our present laws are separated and inconsistent, and even contradictory sometimes...Some are old and sometimes inap-plicable if we take into account the stunning development that different forms of media outlets have seen and which have enhanced interconnec-tions between them.”

According to Mitri, Lebanon needs “a binding and deterrent law that combines [separated laws], secures consistency, modernizes what requires modernization, and fills legislative holes.”

However, the minister foresees a number of hassles, such as “the issue of organizing media professions, which starts with identifying those professions and the rights of press card holders, and touches on the organization of associations along with the social rights of workers in the media field and the issue of providing them with pension funds.”

It is still unclear whether there should be one association for all workers in the media field, com-prising several branches based on the different media professions, or a variety of regular associations.

Mitri assures the media commu-nity that no draft will be proposed without consulting them, and calls on all players to submit their ideas and suggestions directly to the Ministry. All proposals can be submitted at [email protected].


12 I Communicate


amman. The mediaME Forum 2010 will take place on November 7 and 8 in Jordan’s capital. This digital media conference aims to bring to-gether traditional and digital media industry stakeholders from Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine, with more than 20 regional specialists speaking at the forum and providing workshop training.

More than 300 marketing commu-nications professionals are expected, and topics will include the habits of

Arab Internet users, audience seg-ments and content preferences, digital media-buying strategies for clients and advertising agencies, search engine optimization and marketing (SEO and SEM) strategies, and more.

The two-day event is managed by mediaME.com, a regional on-line community for advertising and media professionals boasting more than 8,000 members. Zeid Nasser, CEO of MediaScope and founder of mediaME.com, says, “We have

MediaME Forum 2010 scheduled to run in Jordan in November

Continued from page 10GoNabit sources discounted daily deals from local businesses to be sold to its subscribers within a limited period of time. A minimum agreed number of purchasers must opt into buying the deal before it goes live and can be purchased.

Ministry of Culture launches websiteBeirut. The Ministry of Culture has launched its new online portal (culture.gov.lb).

Designed by the interactive communications agency Cre8mania, the website provides information about the Ministry and highlights the cultural initiatives of minister Salim Wardy.

It aims to promote the preservation of archeological and historical sites and address the young generation to engage it in cultural activities.

american publisher signs three partnerships in the Middle East

Beirut. US-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt International Publishers has signed three exclusive partner-ships in the Middle East that will allow it to provide digital learning solutions to schools in the region.

An exclusive partnership with Levant Distributors will introduce HMH’s portfolio to more than 400 schools in Lebanon.

A deal with Jeddah-based advertising and communications company Tihama will see HMH digital software become available in Saudi Arabia. And a multi-million euro partnership with the Jordan Book Center will introduce HMH’s products and services to schools in Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Oman, Israel and Palestine.

HMH’s portfolio includes Des-tination Math, Destination Reading, the Edmark House Series, Reader Rabbit and Mighty Math.

realized that the Levant is now ex-periencing the beginning of a digital revolution which requires efforts to bridge the knowledge gap and ex-penditure disparity with the Gulf. We aim to open up this part of the region to the great opportunities that digital media offers clients, agen-cies and media owners. We believe that mediaME can help facilitate this digital media transformation across the region, whether in the Levant, the Gulf, or North Africa.”

I mARkETING

Boucheron opens in Beirut Beirut. French jeweler Boucheron, acquired by the Gucci Group in 2000, launched its first operation in Beirut in early October.

The 55-square-meter outlet, set in the jewelers’ souq in Downtown Beirut, was set up in partnership with Fattal Group’s subsidiary Romance, which specializes in luxury product distribution. This location is “a symbol of reconstruction and of our trust in the future,” says Jean-Christophe Bédos, CEO of Boucheron.

Boucheron has been available in Lebanon for the past 20 years through a network of retailers and one point of sale in a mall, but had no direct presence since the early 1990s. Today Boucheron has 50 outlets around the world.


Communicate I 13

I TELEVISION

Al Arabiya revamps websiteDubai. Dubai-based television news channel Al Arabiya launched its newly revamped website, Alarabiya.net, last month. The site was unveiled at a party hosted by MBC Group, the broadcaster behind Al Arabiya.

“The redesign of Alarabiya.net rep-resents a digital transformation for our viewers to understand and engage with the news we deliver,” says Dawood Al Shirian, Alarabiya.net’s editor-in-chief (pictured, right). “It is the first news website in the Arab world to

introduce a video-on-demand option and links to social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, in addition to a tab option that allows users

to customize their homepage based on their news navigation preferences.”

Al Shirian places stress on the multimedia aspect of the channel’s news offering, saying, “Al Arabiya has continually succeeded in converging its on-air programming and news-gathering content across multi-media platforms such as Internet, mobile, and other marketing and on-ground activities, which enable its viewers to enjoy the same news-viewing experi-ence at any time or place.”

As well as Arabic, Alarabiya.net is also available in English, Farsi, and Urdu.

I OUTDOOR JC Decaux wins Saudi Airports Riyadh. Outdoor supplier JC Decaux has entered into a 10-year contract for the exclusive advertising conces-sion covering all of Saudi Arabia’s 26 airports. Decaux is represented in Saudi Arabia by JC Decaux ATA, a 60-40 joint venture between Decaux and its local partner, ATA.

The contract covers four inter-national airports – King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, and Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz Airport in Madinah – and 22 domestic airports in the kingdom.

In a statement, Decaux says the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has been expanding and upgrading its terminals. “The 26 airports have shown continuous and robust growth, jointly handling 45.3 million passengers in 2009, with 39.4 million traveling through the four international air-ports,” says the statement, which attributes the GACA as the source of that data.

Jean-Charles Decaux, chairman and co-CEO of JC Decaux, says Saudi Arabia is the 56th country where his group is present. “This is a strategic move that will strengthen JC Decaux’s position as the leading player in the MENA region, introducing a unique premium outdoor advertising plat-form. Our prime location networks will target high-profile audiences in the fast-growing markets of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Alge-ria. Through our airport advertising concessions in these regions, we will reach 100 million passengers a year.”

Dubai. Mindshare MENA hosted its inaugural Mindshare Media Summit in Dubai last month, using it to highlight advertising media trends and changes.

Samir Ayoub, CEO of Mindshare MENA, opened the conference, saying, “The Mindshare Media Sum-mit 2010 is part of our commitment to show the market how we are moving beyond the realm of media solutions to respond to market changes.”

“Understanding the optimum value and interaction between brands, consumers, and media channels will create competitive advantage for our clients,” he continued. “The summit provides us with inspiration and es-sential learning for the future of our partnership together.”

Nick Emery, chief strategy and client services officer of Mindshare Worldwide, delivered a keynote speech, addressing the death of the agency as we know it. “Media agencies need a fresh approach in order to survive,” he said. “They can no longer compete in price wars.”

He added that a new world order is emerging in the media industry: “Before, it was a top-down world of telling people what they want. The new world is one where the consumer is in control, where a brand is defined by how people use it, and the media controls your brand identity.”

After throwing around catchy – if scary – phrases such as “planning

Mindshare hosts media summit

mutants,” “maverick researchers,” and “digerati,” he called for a “rebirth” of media agencies, where old and new practices can coexist.

Numerous other speakers took part in the summit, which was divided into four sessions: Setting the Scene, which looked at new media dynam-ics and examples of successful work from around the world; Digital Pio-neers, which looked at the way the digital era is shaping the new adver-tising world; Responding to Change, which looked at how traditional broad-casters have tackled the transition to multimedia offerings; and Client Debate, which looked at effective consumer conversations through multimedia engagement.

Global strategy officer calls for “rebirth” of media agencies

Go to our Web site for the full stories:

www.communicate.ae

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Sport 360 launches Dubai. On September 28, Sport 360, a UAE-based daily sports newspaper, was launched in Dubai. The title bills itself as “the only sports-dedicated newspaper in the UAE, and even the world,” in a press release. (That release’s authors may have overlooked The Racing Post, launched in the UK in 1986 by Sheikh Mohammed,

Dubai’s ruler and vice-president of the UAE, and currently licensed to FL Partners, an Irish private equity firm. Technically it doesn’t cover as many sports, though.)

At the paper’s launch – which hosted 400 guests and featured dis-plays of capoeira and a kickboxing competition – Michael Chalhoub, founder and CEO of Gulf Sports Media, the publishing house be-hind Sports 360, said, “We created

Gulf Sports Media with one great ambition: to become the leading publisher of sports information in the region. And thus Sports 360 was born. It began as a dream, inspired by the one thing sports can do better than anything else and where all else fails: It can unite us all.”

Sport 360’s publisher is Didier Brun, the former CEO of UAE daily newspaper Khaleej Times.

VeRyBRIefSISI International Sports Services announces inter-agency five-a-side football tournament

Mojo Interactive wins Art Dubai account

euronews launches Persian service International Confederation of Music Publishers to host music rights workshop in Dubai

Google enterprise ppointments regional sales team

entourage launches new-look website

IAA UAE chapter hosts Hani Soubra

Abu Dhabi Ports Company hands media buying to PHD

HGW Media to launch Rolling Stone Middle east Backlite Media moves to new Dubai Media City offices Rubicon and MeC to tailor international video games for Arab audiences

CB Richard ellis property consultants launch urban photography competition Former national Saturday editor Burhan Wazir to edit UK daily for Muslim readers Anbaa Moscu celebrates first anniversary in the UAE MediaMost launches Aviamost Chinese magazine

Wolff olins appoints ekadaa PR agency laura Perez Diaz appointed director of communications by Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts Desert fish magazine ties up with online distributer other edition

Dubai. Communicate’s sister title Trends has launched an application for the Apple iPad that will allow readers to leaf through the business monthly on the move. The app is free, although each monthly issue of the magazine costs $5.99 to download (the cover price for the print edition is 15 dirhams, or $5.)

Mediaquest Corp., which pub-lishes Trends and Communicate, says the app – which can be downloaded from Apple’s iTunes App Store – is intended to pull in additional readers.

Trends was founded in 1998 and is positioned as “the leading inter-national magazine on Arab affairs.” Its writers report on and analyze the events shaping the political, social, and economic issues of the Gulf, Levant, South Asia, and North Africa.

Alexandre Hawari, co-CEO of Mediaquest, says, “Even though the print edition of Trends has an au-dited circulation of more than 50,000 copies a month, Mediaquest is still eager to attract new readers, and we believe the iPad application can help us do this.”

Trends launches iPad application

Mediaquest’s other co-CEO, Julien Hawari, adds, “Mediaquest is at the cutting-edge of new media; it would be wrong of us to ignore the popularity of the iPad in the region and the appetite for content through new technology. What’s more, the iPad version of Trends will carry advertising, which should be particularly appealing to those who want exposure to high-tech readers on the go.”

The Trends app is believed to be the first iPad version of a magazine in the Middle East.

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V I AGENCIES

Walmart presses its shops for efficienciesWalmart Stores is seeking proposals from its agencies for operating and cost efficiencies that could include consolidating its advertising and mar-keting services accounts in the US and globally, according to sources.

One person close to the firm ex-pects the retailer – the largest in the world – to look into holding-company consolidation of agency assignments, with an eye toward improving services and lowering fees.

Interpublic Group of Cos. and Publicis Groupe are the two main holding companies whose agencies handle work for the US Walmart divi-sion, by far the biggest spender among the global advertiser’s units. Shops under those companies that handle pieces of Walmart’s US advertising include Martin Agency and Publicis & Hal Riney for creative work; Saatchi & Saatchi X for shopper marketing; and MediaVest for media duties.

WPP Group and Omnicom Group have PR and market-research assign-ments for Walmart in the US as well.

Levi’s opens review of $100 million global media businessLevi Strauss & Co is launching a review of the global media account for its Levi’s brand. A spokeswoman

Coca-Cola announced internally last month that it is making changes to the leadership team of its global in-tegrated marketing communications and capabilities organization. That group, led by Wendy Clark, falls under Joe Tripodi, chief marketing and commercial officer.

“It’s recognition of a shift in the landscape,” says Clark, senior vice-president of integrated market-ing communications and capabilities. “Increasingly, we understand the idea of a liquid and linked landscape. And perhaps we weren’t structured for success within that landscape.”

Clark says the organization had been more siloed and, in some ways, put more emphasis on paid media. It was a revelation to discover that of the 150 million views the brand has amassed on YouTube, only 25

to 30 million could be attributed to content Coca-Cola had put into the marketplace.

The organization will now be structured around the principles of content, connections, and integra-tion, Clark adds.

The changes have been in the works for about six months, although Clark has been evaluating Coca-Cola’s marketing organization since

Coca-Cola restructures marketing communications teamEx-Naked communications exec Ivan Pollard tapped for new role as vice-president of global connections

she joined the team from AT&T just over two years ago.

“When I got here, I had to take time to learn the system,” she says. “And identifying Ivan [Pollard] and wooing him here was something that took time.”

Pollard (pictured, above), formerly global partner at Naked Communica-tions in London, will be relocating to Atlanta to take on the role of vice-

president of global connections. He had been working with Coca-Cola in his role at the agency, most recently leading the integrated agency push for the brand’s World Cup efforts.

The five other executives who make up the leadership team for the company’s marketing efforts will see slight changes to their roles. Internally, direct reports will also be shifting, while externally many agencies’ contact points will likely change. The company will also be adding talent, primarily to the team that will report to Pollard.

Rebecca Messina, vice-president of marketing capability and integration, Jonathan Mildenhall, vice-president of advertising strategy and content excellence, and Scott McCune, vice-president of global partnerships and experiential marketing, will have extended responsibilities.

for the marketer tells Ad Age, “I can confirm that there is an RFP [request for proposal] out for media buying. We’re working to create a consistent brand platform and leverage our global footprint to create efficiencies.”

Levi’s spent more than $60 mil-lion on measured media in the US last year, according to Kantar Media, but the global account is estimated to be worth $100 million, with nearly 70 percent of that being spent in the US.

According to people familiar with the situation, the review is an effort by the marketer to consolidate the nearly 20 media agencies it works with around the world to one or two agencies.

Interflora sues Marks & Spencer over use of AdWordsFlower delivery service Interflora is suing UK department store Marks & Spencer for allegedly “piggy-backing” on Interflora’s reputation. M&S pays Google to promote the retailer’s own flower business in results every time a user searches on Inter-

flora, so that “M&S Flowers online” appears directly below “Interflora” in the sponsored links section.

A Marks & Spencer spokesman says, “This is industry-wide practice, which we say is not unlawful.”

Interflora does not agree. The case is being heard in the European Court of Justice, the highest court on the continent.

Interflora has two main gripes. The first is that M&S is creating a link between its goods and the goods sold under the famous Interflora name, and the second is that, because its brand name is used by a large group of different traders, consumers may assume that M&S is genuinely one of the traders that have paid to be part of the Interflora network.

N I BRANDING

Gap to scrap new logo and return to old designJust four days after confirming its surprise new logo was, in fact, legit, Gap announced it was returning to its old design.

Marka Hansen, Gap North America’s president, informed the company’s marketing department of the change on October 11, acknowledging that the switch was a mistake and that the company would be postponing any changes for the foreseeable future.

The logo, created by New York agency Laird & Partners, was intended to be a long-term commitment for the brand with a nod to the future.

The scrapping of the design – which re-created the retailer’s name in a bold Helvetica font with a blue gradiated box perched atop the P – comes after Gap was put through the ringer for its new look.

The company became the whip-ping boy of designers, who besides merely disliking the new logo were enraged at the suggestion that design professionals should help fix the mis-take by offering up ideas for free.

Gap had posted a message on its Facebook account indicating that it would be pursuing a “crowdsourcing project” in the near term. But peo-ple familiar with the plans said that would not be related to the logo.

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Cover Story | NoveMBer 2010

Jean-Pierre Sikias, owner and general man-ager of Laser Films Beirut, likes to say that

the most important thing in production is what you put in front of the camera. Everything else, according to him, is detail.

Perhaps this near glorification by Lebanese producers of what goes in front of the camera is what has made the local production industry one to rival – a product of mixing just the right ingredients: skilled technicians, world-class directors, talented directors of photography, top creatives, competitive prices, and a strategic geo-graphic location.

“It’s a strictly Lebanese advantage,” says Rita Hachem, executive producer at Joy Films, who adds that no other country provides such a diversity of people and locations in such a compact and accessible space. There is also the adaptability and flexibility of the Lebanese to make things happen and solve problems – what she refers to as “the positive attitude.”

This consists of “the lack of red tape, the genuine willingness to keep the ball rolling, the innate spirit of being accommodating, and a great

understanding of global cultures and standards,” she says.

It’s no wonder Youssef Ayoub, chairman and general manager of Intaj, says, “I can say we’re on an international level, in terms of equipment, lighting, camerawork, post-production services, crew, location, directors, etcetera.” According to him, production standards in Lebanon are “better than anywhere else in the region.”

Layal Moukahal managing partner at Film Pud-ding, says Lebanon today is the production hub of the region, “without any shred of doubt.” It offers deals that beat even major production centers in Argentina and South Africa, two countries that have long been regarded as production powerhouses.

Production is “one of the most flourishing industries in the country,” says Gabriel Chamoun, CEO of production house The Talkies – which explains why everyone wants to be a part of it.

During the past couple of years, the number of local production houses has mushroomed, as new entrants, lured by lucrative business and low barriers to entry, set up shop. The total number of production companies in Lebanon today is 35.

A ChANgINg MArket. This significant rise in the number of production houses, from less than 10 in the 1990s, has been facilitated by major changes in the market.

“The mindset of the people working in the industry has changed, and the way of work has changed,” says Ray Barakat, executive producer at Clandestino, a production house he co-founded more than a year ago. Barakat compares the production market dynamics today with the dynamics 25 years ago, when the industry was still in its infancy.

Between the early 1980s and late 1990s there were a handful of production houses in Lebanon. These companies, considered to-day the founding fathers of Lebanese produc-tion, have controlled the local market since. They’re the ones with the big studios, high-tech equipment, significant machinery, large numbers of employees – and lots of overheads.

Yet, however big and powerful these compa-nies may be, the shifts in the market dynamics, according to Barakat, were to the advantage of small production houses such as his.

The bigger pictureLebanon’s production industry may be flourishing, but politics is playing the role of the villain, holding it back from attracting major international projects by Ibrahim Nehme


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gABrIel ChAMouN. CEO of The Talkies

“In the past two or three years, the whole film industry kind of expanded,” he says. “You now have three main equipment sup-pliers providing all the equipment one might need for a production, in addition to a large pool of freelancers with different production skills and talents.”

All the elements needed to make a good movie are now available. This wasn’t the case back in the 1980s and 1990s, when production companies owned everything in-house, a time when renting production equipment and rely-ing on a network of freelancers, as opposed to full-time employees, were not options.

The market transformed at a time when budgets tightened, pressure on deadlines inten-sified, and clients’ need for the most conven-ient and accommodating production solution increased. “A structure like ours has become as efficient as a big structure, and is better suited to accommodate today’s clients’ needs because it’s more flexible than big, rigid set-ups,” Barakat says.

BIg verSuS SMAll. The established production houses, however, have a different view. Ac-cording to Alain Toubia, executive producer at Fantastic Film Factory, the difference between big and small agencies is similar to that between supermarkets and small shops. He says small companies can survive “since they rely mainly on outsourcing and don’t have major operating expenses, apart from an office. They can take on small jobs, in addition to government jobs, which are normally done for free,” he says.

But Film Pudding’s Moukahal says these small companies are not just surviving, but seriously competing with the big guys and getting half their work.

She uses the word “boutique” to describe her own company, which she started two years ago in Dubai, moving it to Beirut after the economic crisis hit. “I strongly believe that the

more you grow, the more you become like a factory and the less personal involvement there is,” she says. “We’re not a proper corporation as far as rules and regulations go. We’re closer to filmmaking; we have the passion for it.”

Moukahal looks at the differences between the old and new companies from a generational perspective. “Big production houses need to understand that a 30-year-old creative in an ad agency no longer wants to work with a 60-year-old producer in a production house,” she says, hinting that most big companies are still managed by the people who started them 30 years ago.

While Moukahal accepts the older generation did a great job in setting up the business, she insists it’s time for them to bring new blood into their organizations. “As long as it’s dif-ferent generations connecting together, we still have the advantage,” she adds.

Chamoun, who heads one of the biggest production houses in the country, strikes a balance, saying it’s not size but the show reel that matters. He says, “You’re only as good as your last show reel, regardless of whether you’re 20 years old or 20 days old.”

gettINg together. This old-versus-new issue came under the spotlight after eight of the well-established production houses in town (Laser Films, The Talkies, VIP Films, Fantastic Film Factory, Intaj, Independent, Zoe Production, and City Films) decided to launch the Asso-ciation for Lebanese Commercials Producers (ALCP). The news came as a shock to most of the production houses we spoke with. Not only were they not involved in the talks, they also had no idea they were happening.

The eight “founding members” took it upon themselves to initiate the project in May 2009, but didn’t include their fellow industry members in any meetings or discussions.

According to Chamoun, there was nothing

lIghtS, CAMerA, ACtIoN. Production is one of the most flourishing industries in Lebanon

lAyAl MoukAhAl. Managing partner at Film Pudding

JeAN-PIerre SIkIAS. Owner and general manager of Laser Films Beirut

NoveMBer 2010 | Cover Story


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secret about it. He says it was simply impos-sible to contact all 35 companies and invite them to each and every meeting. Even among the eight founding members, “it was very rare to have more than four people attending each meeting,” he says, adding that the plan was to announce the ALCP to all the other production houses and ad agencies before the news broke in Communicate Levant (see “Lebanon’s first TVC producers’ association established,” page 6, Communicate Levant, September 2010). An event to officially announce the association is in the planning stages.

The unofficial announcement, however, gar-nered mixed reviews. Hachem says the motif of such a governing body is the issue. “Is it for the good of the industry as a whole, or is it a cartel – to do with control and self-interest of the few?” she asks.

“If this body wishes to set a standard to protect the industry from mediocrity and cor-ruption, then we will fully embrace and support it, whether we are included or not. But if it is about control and playing Big Brother then we will not tolerate it.”

Moukahal says if the association doesn’t include everybody, it will lose. “If we want to make this industry more professional and take it to a higher level, we should all be together, especially if we want to compete as a produc-tion hub with other countries,” she says.

regulAtINg the INduStry. While some pro-duction houses did not want to comment on this issue before they’re officially notified by the ALCP’s founding committee, everyone seems to agree that such a governing body is neces-sary to better organize an industry that needs regulation, despite assertions that Lebanon offers standards similar to those of internationally recognized production hubs.

“We first need to give our crew their rights,” Moukahal says. “Most crew still don’t charge

overtime, and clients take advantage of this. They come to Lebanon because there’s no over-time. Instead of shooting a film in two days, they shoot it in a day that is 20 hours long.” She says even if the market were to become 5 percent more expensive as a result of charging overtime, “we’d still be extremely competitive.”

“We’re not building a syndicate or union, but an organization that will arrange matters until we reach a point when we’ll have a proper governing body that would protect the rights of everyone (composers, producers, directors, crew, etcetera),” Ayoub says.

According to him, the association’s objec-tive is to “define and put in place a standard for the industry, so we become like Europe and the rest of the Western world.” He says the rules and regulations his peers are setting for the industry through the ALCP follow in the footsteps of those in well-regarded inter-national production markets.

“We took what’s appropriate from each country, but adapted it to the Lebanese culture in a realistic way. For example, if you want to get a quotation for a hairdresser in the US, you have to include with him/her three assistants. If you were to force this rule in Lebanon, it would increase the production budget, which is already too limited.”

PolItICS At PlAy. If the Lebanese producers are capable, through the ALCP, of controlling their practice, there is one issue that’s out of everybody’s hand: politics.

“We might have the best production serv-ices in the world, the lowest cost, the nicest locations, and the best weather, but if you have one event every week, such as people invading the airport or going down the street and burning tires, it’s not going to encour-age people to come here,” Chamoun says, adding that Lebanon’s political instability is the main concern for foreign producers.

NoveMBer 2010 | Cover Story

youSSef AyouB. Chairman and general manager of Intaj

WAdIh SAfIeddINe. Partner and producer at né. a Beyrouth

PIerre SArrAf. Co-founder and partner at né. a Beyrouth


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“Even if they are not afraid personally, they have a hard time convincing agencies and clients that Lebanon is a safe place – most of the time.”

Wadih Safieddine, partner and producer at né. a Beyrouth, says Lebanon is a competitive market as foreign companies he’s never heard of are increasingly approaching him to come and shoot in the country.

But Pierre Sarraf, co-founder and partner at the company, says this slight ray of hope isn’t enough. “If we really want to attract big projects that will give a boost to the industry, we need governmental efforts and sternness in political decisions, which are completely lack-ing,” he says, adding that political backing of the industry would facilitate everything. Sarraf cites Jordan as an example, which, thanks to willingness on the part of the royal family, attracted the producers of the Oscar-winning film, The Hurt Locker.

“The Lebanese government is completely incapable of giving tax incentives, facilitating airport procedures, or providing security to people,” he says.

“Lots of things still hold us back,” Moukahal says. “We still have problems bringing film rolls into the country. In any other city, you’d fill in the necessary documents that allow you to bring in filming equipment. In Lebanon, whenever the film rolls arrive at the airport, security takes them for investigation. I honestly don’t know what they do with them, especially when they’re unprocessed [at which stage you can’t open the canisters to see what’s inside, or they will be ruined]. How can we talk about encouraging post-production in Lebanon when

you have people who look at your footage for three days?” she asks.

Safieddine says, “You can promote Leba-non as much as you want, and show pictures at Cannes and other global events, but you won’t be able to attract the big shootings un-less the government guarantees and facilitates these issues.”

future-foCuSed. Until political stability and government facilitation become a reality, Lebanese producers will have lots of internal mess to clean up. Hachem says players in the industry must show the ability, willingness, and ambition to rise to international standards, while also wanting to work together construc-tively for the good of the industry. “They must be much more supportive of local talent and services and help promote and nurture their growth,” she says, and adds that companies must make the transformation from suppliers to production partners/consultants, drawing analogies with a chemist becoming a doctor, or a builder becoming an architect.

The ALCP will be a stepping stone to get there, or at least that’s what the founding mem-bers are promising.

It may be that what has made Lebanese production what it is today – a focus on what goes in front of the camera – is the rallying cry for its unity; putting disputes, small talk, and egos behind, and looking through the camera into the future.

For now, let’s just hope the cameras keep on rolling.

We’re rollIN’. Production houses in the country have come a long way since the 1980s


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When dealing with film production, it’s not all about production houses. There are producers

representing clients with their own demands, points of view, and constraints. Communicate Levant caught up with seven TV commercial producers working in agencies in Lebanon to talk about the regional industry and their hopes for the future.

On Lebanon being the region’s production hubGabriel Aboudaher, Leo BurnettLebanon is a hub for the region (that is to say, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula). We are all aiming to bring work from Europe. At Leo Burnett, for example, we do mov-ies for Eastern Europe. But it’s not easy. Among other things we don’t have the adequate cast, hair dressers, and so on to cater to Eastern Europe. In Prague they do. That’s why instead of bringing everybody here, we go there. However, our com-petitor is Egypt. They don’t offer great quality, but have better prices than we do.

Gilbert Nahas, JWTCairo is a hub in itself and for itself. It doesn’t need anybody. But Lebanon is becoming a regional hub. Filming happens in the streets of Beirut every day. This is because Dubai is not as strong as it used to be, locations are not available, and prices are around 25 percent higher than in Beirut.

Production companies keep opening in Lebanon because they feel there’s work to do here. Eventu-ally, it will move again between Dubai and Beirut, but the cycle is now in favor of Lebanon.

On the booming of new production housesGabriel AboudaherOur main problem is that we like to work with filmmakers, but many production houses are now being opened by businessmen. The good companies are the ones with real producers on board, who care about quality. Of course, we can always pick and choose, but unfortunately some of these busi-nessmen go directly to the client and the agency finds itself obliged to work with people like that.

Gilbert NahasThis is not a good thing. Others may tell you that it’s great because prices will go down. But if the prices fall, nobody will care about quality. Pro-ducers’ mindsets will be money-oriented instead of quality-oriented. Besides, my policy is always to try and give work to everybody. But I cannot distribute work to 30 companies.

Michèle Abdo, M&C Saatchi In general, variety allows for healthy competition. Having some 15 companies (as opposed to 30) would still give us a wide range to choose from,

The producersWe speak with agency filmmakers about where the industry is headed and their hopes for the future

by Nathalie Bontems

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gABrIel ABoudAher. Leo Burnett

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with different approaches to the same production. It doesn’t mean that we’d all make them work with us. Each one of us could encourage one of the new, young production houses, provided we were convinced of the quality of these people.

Caroline Abdelnour, Leo BurnettThe problem is that the crew, mostly freelancers, remain the same, so we find the same people working on every production. Having 30 pro-duction houses won’t help in that matter; they’ll be useless because we’ll keep using the same crew over and over. So these production houses should get together and work on creating a real hub instead.

On criteria when choosing a production houseMichèle AbdoIntegrity.

Caroline AbdelnourAdded value – the one who will go the extra mile to get you the best result.

Gilbert NahasReputation. It’s all about the person who’s be-hind the production house. If we don’t know the person, we’ll be afraid to entrust him with a job, however small. Production is about people.

Omar Boustany, Memac OgilvyMost of the people we work with are people we already know and with whom we have shot a number of TVCs. It’s not about the 30 current production houses; I don’t know most of them. We work with only a few. The newcomer should have a past in one of the big production houses so that we know him. If you take someone like Ray Barakat, who launched Clandestino, he’s very well known and respected. He has had a lot of experience with The Talkies and his partners are also recognized. It worked immediately and he’s fully booked. But nobody will go for a new company with producers nobody has ever heard of; that is just trying to cut the prices down.

Gabriel AboudaherAt the end of the day, we have a client and the production house will be meeting this client. So we need this person to be trustworthy for us to be able to give him our client’s product. This is why we need this personal relationship.

On the generational gap between the founding fathers and the new entrantsGabriel AboudaherThere is a gap. It is very difficult for a young producer to work with someone from the old school.

Michèle AbdoIt really depends on who the person is. Most of us worked with the big gurus of Lebanese production, but they are the exception rather than the rule. The majority is around the same age as the average agency producer.

Caroline AbdelnourThe older producers have know-how; they’ve been in the field for years; they’ve done many different commercials. Now it’s a very personal relationship and a matter of individuals getting along well.

Gilbert NahasWhat matters is the result. It’s much more dif-ficult, for example, to work with the so-called businessmen than with the “gurus” who have years of experience and know the job. Besides, it’s not only we who are working with them – the whole crew is, too, and has to get along.

On the TVC producers’ association (see previous story)Caroline AbdelnourIt’s a good start but they should spread it. Our industry needs to grow. We have the chance to be one of the low-cost centers, but we need to fight even-lower-cost places such as Egypt in order to bring work from abroad. If production houses don’t work together, it won’t work. We’ll remain at a minimal level.

Gilbert NahasThis association, which doesn’t concern us directly, seems unfair in the way it was done. There are 30 existing production houses, so there should be 30 producers joining it. They did it with only eight, which doesn’t serve a thing. If the associa-tion decides to level the prices, for example, an outside company may not respect the decision.

However, it would help us if they were all united. Then we could start an association of mixed agency TV producers to tackle the real issues. But not a selection of each. They cannot hope to organize the industry when less than half of them are in the association. oMAr frANgIeh. Impact BBDO

oMAr BouStANy. Memac Ogilvy

MAkINg the Cut. In a tough industry you are only as good as your last project


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On a future committee of agency TVC producersCaroline AbdelnourWe’ve been thinking about this for more than a year. The idea is to create an organization that would group all TVC producers to help this field grow. We knew each other, but we weren’t really mingling in professional terms. The industry needs more bonding. However, it’s a pity that some agencies [such as Grey Worldwide] are not participating. But they will join at some point, I’m sure.

Gilbert NahasWhat would it be like if one day all agency TVC producers were to speak the same language as production houses? At least if we sit together it’s a big step. Then we can take our ideas to production houses to share and discuss what needs to be done or not done. It could be the beginning of something. Besides, we need to help one another. Omar BoustanyWe’re happy to meet, because usually we are competing. In terms of quality, this lobby could yield results. Now, we will keep competing against one another; this is the logic of the market. The point isn’t to speak in one voice and become one, but to agree on crucial points.

Gabriel AboudaherOne of the objectives of this committee is the ac-tion like the one we’re preparing for universities (see page 28). We’re doing it for the industry, to help the market evolve and find solutions and

linkage. We will be more productive if we are part of a community. That way we can better reach our objective.

Michèle AbdoWe’re all in agreement and it’s happening in-directly anyway. The event we are working on with the universities is coming from us and we feel that we own it.

On what should be improved in Lebanese productionOmar Frangieh, Impact BBDOThe industry should be more professional. Instead of opening 30 production houses, we should stick to 15 and have, on the side, more specific and efficient services companies. In order to cover the whole region, we need production houses to provide us with more services and more specialized detail.

Michèle AbdoWe don’t have enough talent in each category. We need specific talent for specific jobs within the production process. We don’t have wardrobe stylists, for instance, so we always have to get involved, although it’s not our job.

Caroline AbdelnourThis is why we have a project at the moment that focuses on informing universities and students about the real needs of the market and various fields that are involved in production. For ex-ample, if I need to create a mask, I’ll need a good make-up artist who can do that. There are a lot of good people, but not at the higher level.

Gilbert NahasWe have a lot of directors, a lot of producers, and good lighting and grip equipment people, because we are obliged to have them. Otherwise there simply isn’t any film. But there’s a gap: We don’t have specialized art directors, good make-up artists, and so on.

Omar BoustanySome positions are overcrowded and others are lacking in talent, such as food stylists, make-up artists, etcetera.

Rachad Azar, FP7The problem doesn’t always come from us [the production industry]. Sometimes the cli-ent refuses to use someone local, even though he might be Lebanese. McDonald’s in Lebanon, for example, refuses to have a Lebanese food stylist. Sometimes the client is only happy to bring someone from abroad.

Caroline AbdelnourIf we had a very good hair stylist for my sham-poo ads, I would use him. And I’m sure I could demonstrate to the client that it’s the right thing.

On the Lebanese production industry being healthy and moving forwardAll: Yes!

rAChAd AzAr. FP7

gIlBert NAhAS. JWT

MIChèle ABdo. M&C Saatchi

SlICe of lIfe. Variety allows for healthy competition


28 I Communicate

The Lebanese production industry does pretty well, but it could do even better with a few

tweaks. One of these, as our panel of producers explains at length on page 24, is to have fewer wannabe directors, directors of photography, and producers, and more professionals in specialized, less crowded fields.

Meeting regularly on the impetus of the Cristal Club, a spin-off from the MENA Cristal Festival that aims to bring together the advertising industry in Lebanon (see “Club Premium comes to Lebanon,” page 12, Communicate Levant, June 2010), the Lebanese production community has built up momentum and is taking matters into its own hands.

Producers have decided to directly address students about to enter the industry. “I remember when I was in college, I was lost; I had no clue what the actual work was about,” says Diana Maatouk, head of communications at VIP Films. Maatouk, along with Samy Chahine, managing director at Zoé Productions, and Gilbert Nahas, television commercial producer at JWT, has been asked by fellow producers to spearhead a project to explain to university students what it really means to work in production.

This could even encourage youngsters to opt for different, more specialized and sought-after careers. “There are more than 15 different jobs involved in production,” Chahine says. “And there are several hundred new graduates in the audio-visual field in Lebanon every year. We simply don’t know where they go after graduation. Certainly not into the production industry.”

On November 19, the producers will hold an event in the Beryte auditorium of IESAV (Insti-tute of Audovisual Studies), during which they will show students a 15-minute film produced for the occasion by those in the industry. The docu-

mentary will feature professionals from various stages of the production cycle, including those in positions usually overlooked by students. It will also feature an in-depth look into the whole production process through a “making of” segment shot during three real-life film shoots, from pre-production to the final touches. Presentations by professionals will follow, before a Q&A session. “We want to both inform students and motivate them,” Chahine says.

The industry came together to produce the film free-of-charge; it would normally have cost more than $20,000, says Chahine. Young director Halim Sabbagh, who’s been working on a documentary about the Lebanese advertising industry, filmed for eight days, and Zoé provided the technical support. “We want to come up with an attractive yet seri-ous film that will catch the students’ attention and show them what the real needs of the industry are, and what the advantages of being part of it are,” Sabbagh says.

Nahas and Maatouk dealt with marketing, meeting the heads of Lebanese universities and educational institutions offering an audio-visual curriculum. “The majority were responsive, but I must say we expected most of them to care more about something that directly concerns their students and their future,” Nahas says.

According to him, a campaign was scheduled to start on October 22, with posters hanging inside universities, a viral film broadcast online, and activities on Facebook.

“This doesn’t amount to anything if students don’t attend,” Maatouk says, who hopes this first event will snowball into increased communica-tion between the industry and students. “There’s not enough awareness, so we hope by sharing our passion for production, students will realize that it’s not all about being a director.”

Reel them inOn November 19, Lebanese producers hope to show students the attractions of their industry. Will their appeal work? by Nathalie Bontems

dIana maaTouk. Head of communications, VIP Films

GIlberT nahas. TVC producer, JWT

samy chahIne. Managing director, Zoé Productions

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YOUR PRODUCTION PARTNER

Beirut+961 1 511 116

Dubai+971 4 367 1107

Cairo+20 2 374 87841

[email protected] - www.thetalkies.com

30 I Communicate

NOVEMBER 2010 | DIGITAL

When Twitter first opened its eyes to the world in 2006, no one could predict what a game-

changing phenomenon it would become. With more than 150 million users worldwide, Twitter has fundamentally changed the way people com-municate. By sending short messages, or Tweets, of up to 140 characters, users can communicate with followers who opt in to receive updates in their timelines.

While Twitter initially had a practical ap-plication in friends communicating, its nature has led to the almost instant broadcast (and re-broadcast) of millions of messages to and from users, millions of times a day.

Ever since December 2008, when a passenger tweeted from his seat in a Continental Airlines Boeing 737 that he was “just in a plane crash,” brands have realized they no longer have control of the message. Far from the olden days of daily news cycles, Twitter has made the news cycle instant, and brands no longer have the ability to control the message.

Closer to home, the Green Revolution in Iran, during the summer of 2009, highlighted the unique power of Twitter to unite thousands of youths in the streets as they broadcast and showcased their struggle in the absence of in-ternational news organizations.

Numerous brands (and personalities) in the Middle East have chosen to embrace this new form of communication in order to communicate to stakeholders, engage with consumers, and

become part of the conversation, with varying degrees of success.

In the summer of 2009, UAE-based telecom provider du set up a Twitter account – www.twit-ter.com/dutweets. At the time, there were only 5,000 people in the UAE on Twitter.

To any telecom provider, 5,000 users represent a number so small it could almost be ignored. However, these 5,000 people represented a special audience segment to du. They were tech-savvy early adopters who needed to be always online; just the sort of audience for their latest product, the iPhone.

At first, the messages posted by @dutweets attempted to capture user sentiment about gadgets and the mobile Web. Questions about the mobile Web were intended to begin a conversation with its customers, and nicely paved the way for the company to announce its iPhone packages in October 2009.

However, amid all of their marketing mes-sages, something interesting started to happen. Customers started talking back.

Having realized that they could get a faster, better response from the @dutweets team than via du’s call center, customers began flooding @dutweets with complaints of poor service, delayed installations, and faulty lines.

Du’s response to these customer complaints has become the standard for many corporate brands in the region. The firm quickly shifted its focus from marketing to customer service, and the end-

Changing your tuneTwitter can let you listen, 140 characters at a time by Yousef Tuqan Tuqan

YOUSEF TUQAN TUQAN.CEO of Flip Media

Web Wisdom

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Communicate I 31

DIGITAL | NOVEMBER 2010

less Tweets of thanks and praise from customers have made its work an example of how to use this channel effectively.

Even if you don’t know the different between a Tweet and a Tweep*, getting started with Twitter is easy. Registration is free, and the opportuni-ties are limitless.

Using Twitter online: five rules to follow

1. Remember that a conversation also requires listening: Followers demand engagement. Make the effort to also follow your followers, and respond to them whenever possible. Any comment, no matter how negative, can be turned into a positive one if you make the effort to respond.

UAE-based RAKBank (@rakbanklive) has been very successful in addressing hundreds of customer complaints within minutes of re-ceiving them, and regularly posts responses of satisfied customers who have had their problems solved.

2. Customers don’t want marketing messages; they want service: As we saw from the du ex-ample, customer service is quickly becoming the new marketing.

Dell, the world’s largest computer manufac-turer, has more than 1.5 million followers of its @delloutlet account, and claims to have gener-ated more than $6.5 million in 2009 through its Twitter account by using the site to advise customers on product choices, computer is-sues and, yes, special offers.

US company Best Buy uses its @TwelpForce, powered by more than 2,300 employees, to answer thousands of customer questions. Rather than refer Best Buy’s tech-savvy customers to call centers, the company allows its most passionate and knowledgeable employees – its salespeople – to speak for the brand.

3. Twitter is instant; make sure your decisions are not: Twitter has become a PR manager’s best friend and worst enemy. Short messages, written hastily and taken out of context, can have disastrous consequences.

In July, former a CNN senior editor, Octavia Nasr, wrote on @OctaviaNasrCnn, “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”

Her well-meaning Tweet was seized upon by thousands of followers less sympathetic to Hezbollah, and she was fired within two days by CNN.

4. Be conversational: For many companies and individuals who hesitate to actively engage with their audience, their Twitter feeds read more like a series of press releases. If you want to offer your audience real value, become part of the conversation.

Jordan’s Queen Rania’s @QueenRania Twitter account now has more than one mil-

lion followers, and has enabled her to spread her inspiring messages of peace and public service around the world, but she could not have achieved this with sterile PR messages. Instead, she has actively engaged with her followers and uses her platform to speak to us on a human level, which has endeared her to millions of new followers.

5. Speak with the same voice you always did: People can smell insincerity on the Web a mile away, so make sure that you speak to your audience with the same voice you have always used. While Twitter is faster, hipper, and more instant than many channels, it’s important to create a personality and tone of voice that is consistent with your brand. You only have 140 characters, so make them count.

The opportunity and expectation for brands to suddenly be everywhere at once, to come down off their pedestals and speak to us as equals, is an exciting new challenge. It’s terrifying because the world is changing faster than corporations can adapt, but it’s a wonderful opportunity for brands to seize the opportunity to show that they are different, and that they care.

The Web rewards those who try, and Twitter offers you and your organization an easy way to start a direct conversation with your audience. Be innovative, creative and brave, and you will be rewarded.

Next, we’ll talk about Facebook.

* A Tweet is a message on Twitter. A Tweep is a person who uses Twitter.

HELD TO ACCOUNT. Twitter lets brands and people engage with the public

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32 I Communicate

NOVEMBER 2010 | MARKETING

For those working in the field of non-profit or non-governmental organizations (NGOs),

the already common struggle to meet financial needs is topped with an additional burden: get-ting the outside world to not only look into a cause, but follow it – through investing time, money, or active effort.

As Omar Sadeq, head of content develop-ment at advertising agency Impact BBDO, sees it, marketing a cause isn’t about obtaining a lucrative result, but about raising awareness, generating a buzz, and breeding engagement. And “selling a cause takes longer, and relates to sociology, psychology, and how receptive the public is to the call for action,” he says.

Rather than instigating an artificial desire within the consumer, which will in turn increase chances of purchase, Sadeq stresses, NGO mar-keting is about shedding light on a given mat-ter and hoping the outcome will be a shift in behavior. Tracy Abou Mrad, account manager at creative agency Grey Beirut, says behavioral change is important. “When an NGO launches a campaign, it’s a call for action rather than to try a product,” she says.

PAPA DON’T PREACH. One crucial element for making an NGO campaign successful is to steer clear of any kind of preaching. Nadim Houry, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), says that for the NGO’s 2008 campaign to promote migrant domestic workers’ rights in Lebanon, “we purposely avoided any images of employees being beaten, because we did not want to reprimand the public.”

The HRW team, in partnership with Grey Beirut (the agency carried out the campaign pro-bono), constructed the “Put yourself in her shoes” campaign aimed at a target demographic they divided into three categories: “The very good employers, the very bad and abusive em-ployers, and the silent majority who, on the one hand are not evil, but still fail to provide work-ers with basic rights such as a weekly vacation day, monthly payment and more,” says Houry.

The campaign shows Lebanese women in the traditional uniforms of domestic workers, with copy asking if they’d agree to work under the same conditions as their employees.

Houry says, “If you talk to these people, they are convinced they are doing what is right;

Reaching out for a good causeIf marketing is about making the consumer feel he or she is better off with a certain product, how do you sell a cause that doesn’t automatically benefit the individual? by Aline Sara

OMAR SADEQ.Head of content development, Impact BBDO

TRACY ABOU MRAD.Account manager, Grey Beirut

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Communicate I 33

MARKETING | NOVEMBER 2010

so we wanted to get people thinking about this, hence the idea of putting yourself in her place.” He says the campaign was not about pointing the finger, but about transmitting a soft mes-sage – something “smooth, simple, and clear.”

The NGO’s limited budget was HRW’s biggest challenge. “We couldn’t bring it to the billboards or television, so we resorted to ads in the paper and flyers we distributed in the supermarket,” says Houry. He says people would take the fliers home and think about them.

Impact BBDO’s Sadeq says preaching is a big faux pas when it comes to marketing a cause.“Avoiding a condescending tone is essential to lure the public in, even if being suggestive is tougher, and takes more time,” he says.

GOOD VIBES. Efficient communication for NGOs today is about sending a positive message. Grey’s Abou Mrad says NGOs are gradually shifting their marketing style to something fluffier and more positive, hinting at a problem’s solution rather than dwelling on its negative side. She points to an ad for the Hunger Project, which uses wordplay to suggest giving a little contribution to those who are starving during the holiday season “People are hungry for your help,” reads the ad.

To avoid sermonizing, the Kunhadi road safety association tries to use “all directions – education, shock, humor,” says president Fady Gebrane. He says M&C Saatchi worked pro-bono for Kunhady, and outdoor supplier Pikasso gave the NGO a discount.

Broadcast on television, Kunhadi’s latest series of video clips promotes thinking before driving, and features a recurring character, the ass, depicted by the cartoon image of a donkey. “Irresponsible driving kills more than 500 people a year and is the number one reason behind youth mortality in Lebanon. Think before you drive. Respect the speed limit,” reads the copy. The ads also include facts, numbers, and statistics on road deaths, while highlighting scientific causes behind accidents, such as the physical effect of speed on a vehicle’s capacity to brake.

“We also tour schools with presentations about our work,” says Gebran, adding that the educational component is an essential part of Kunhadi’s marketing strategy. “We know that 85 percent of road traffic accidents involve Lebanese youths [under 25], so this was our first indicator of our target audience,” he adds. So far, the NGO has featured ads on TV, radio, and billboards, because youths are more likely to come into contact with those media channels.

Local drug prevention and rehabilitation center Oum el Nour’s earlier campaigns were also aimed at Lebanese youth. “They were lighter campaigns, more colorful, and fun,” says Mireille Abi Chahla, youth program manager in the de-velopment department at Oum El Nour. “We decorated 4,600 coasters and place mats in 15 restaurants and more than 50 pubs, with ads that featured quotes from celebrities such as Leonardo di Caprio.”

“Of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most,” reads one of the coasters, and the campaign attributes the quote to American rock star Jimi Hendrix. Oum el Nour’s mar-keting initiatives are all done in-house. “We don’t hire an agency but work with volunteers, themselves professionals, experienced market-ers and graphic designers who care about the cause,” says Abi Chahla.

However, Oum el Nour’s latest campaign, although more serious, also avoided any kind of guilt trip. A series of three different images shows how different drugs – marijuana, heroin, and cocaine – affect users’ eyes. “The eye is special and has a moral and psychological at-tribute,” says Abi Chahla. The preventative and informative campaign, with the slogan, “Keep an eye on your child,” is aimed at parents. “We wanted to highlight the importance of parents watching their children. But it was rather neutral, not too extreme, because we wanted to avoid making them feel guilty,” adds Abi Chahla.

CHASING CHANGE. Not ruffling any feathers is all well and good, but getting people the agency traditionally sees as consumers to change their behavior is another story altogether. And opin-ions diverge as to how best achieve this goal.

Abou Mrad says, “Marketing a cause in-volves emotion and pushing people to react, help others, or support a cause.” She says the ap-proach basically boils down to two types of ads that appeal to the emotions: those that make you

REDDY OR NOT? Oum El Nour’s ads show how drugs affect users’ eyes.

NADIM HOURY. Senior researcher, Human Rights Watch

MIREIllE ABI CHAHlA. Youth program manager, Oum El Nour

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34 I Communicate

NOVEMBER 2010 | MARKETING

laugh and those that make you cry. “NGO ads are the ones that make you feel something, and advertising’s role is to play it up with a touch of wit,” she says.

Although Sadeq agrees that emotions are important, he deems them more of a tool to increase a message’s efficiency. “It is about convincing the individual, appealing to their rationale. When a person adopts a different be-havior, it is because he is convinced,” he says. Building on emotion alone is not sustainable, he adds, because the message can eventually fade out. Or backfire.

Although some make an active effort to avoid provoking the public through preaching or excess drama, other campaigners do just the opposite. “Part of our goal was to shock people and get their attention,” says Justine Di Mayo, a member of The Act for the Disappeared, a group of activists that works to raise awareness of people who are still missing after Lebanon’s civil war. “We were trying to revive an already worn-out topic that has been discussed and po-liticized for many years,” she adds.

To that end, the organizers resorted to a powerful and aggressive guerilla campaign, plastering the city’s walls with posters show-ing a young boy under the copy, “Missing: Help me find my child.”

Without seeing the boy’s age, his name, or a phone number, many were left puzzled. The organizers also created a Facebook group with the same banner. “We needed to make the question

jUSTINE DI MAYO. Member of The Act for the Disappeared

more timely, less anachronistic, and this is why we used the young boy rather than photos of those who are actually still missing,” says Di Mayo. “The reaction was spot-on. Many felt concerned, and asked what they could do to help.”

But once the second part of the campaign was revealed – the same image with the number of missing from the war, the name of the project, and the date of a two-day event to revive the cause – the response was less positive. There were hostile reactions on Facebook, says Di Mayo, as some blamed the campaigners for toying with the public’s emotions. “I was personally happy, because we wanted to stir up controversy, so to a certain extent, we reached our goal and set a spotlight on the matter,” she says. “Our aim was to get people to question their own indifference, attitude, and apathy [towards the disappeared].”

Although Di Mayo was happy with the con-troversy, the campaign did not yield the end result she was looking for – getting people to come to the event. “The turn-out was minimal, so we were successful in generating the buzz, but disappointed with the event turnout,” she says.

“In Lebanon, this is one of the greatest chal-lenges,” says Sadeq, “Society is individualistic, and there is not much accountability. As good as your marketing strategy can be, there is only so much one can do.”

And quantifying efficiency is another of these NGOs’ obstacles, so marketers must sometimes work in vacuum. Marketing an NGO can be a tough mission.

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Communicate 24x33 OUT.pdf 1 10/25/10 6:46 PM

36 I Communicate

NOVEMBER 2010 | DEPARTMENTS

Colin Gottlieb, CEO of Omnicom Media Group (OMG) EMEA (Europe, the Middle

Eastand Africa), was in Dubai last month for a visit to the OMG offices in Dubai Media City. Communicate sat with Gottlieb to chat social media, talent, and research.

What has brought you to the Middle East on this trip?I am here because the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are extremely important within my region, because the team is outstanding, and because [regional managing director of OMG] Elie Khouri is a good friend. So there are lots of good reasons.

I make it my business to go to specific places; I’m going in and out of markets the whole time, predominantly on client work. But there are a few areas that I deliberately look to go to at least twice a year, and this is one of them.

It’s a good chance to meet the team, and there is a lot of best practice here.

How important is the MENA region, and why?Before autumn 2009, MENA was important in terms of the energy from the region – especially from the Arabian Gulf. Since 2008 it has taken on an even bigger importance, because there was clearly a challenge in 2009 for everybody. The importance of the Middle East and North Africa for us has just increased and increased. In 2009, we opened our office in Morocco, which is doing very well. Egypt is also very important. Prior to 2008, the region was young, fast, and growing. Now, because of the economic situation, it has taken on an even bigger role.

In the context of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the team here [handling MENA] is now effectively sitting alongside the UK and Germany in terms of size and importance.

Will the region remain important?Yes, definitely. I mean, what keeps up our GDP growth here (although by comparison to what it was before, that growth is low now) is the fact

Energy efficientWhy OMG EMEA boss Colin Gottlieb is looking to the Middle East for the spark to ignite his network by Rania Habib

Q&A

70-73-Q&A Colin Gottlieb OMD-aa.indd 36 10/28/10 10:12 AM

Communicate I 37

DEPARTMENTS | NOVEMBER 2010

that the region is still growing and there is still energy. The biggest challenge for marketers – and I’m including agencies – is growth. How do you drive growth? In a number of markets, it is extremely difficult to drive growth.

So, not surprisingly, a lot of our clients are also looking at this region, and everybody is coming to the Middle East. Everybody. The re-gion is on everybody’s radar, so I am lucky that we’ve got Elie, the team, and some great people. They’re smart, they’re young, they’re hungry, and they’re opinionated; it’s great.

What are the main changes you’ve noticed in the region over the past couple of years?Some things have shifted, other things haven’t. A good thing is that there is now a growing sense of maturity, because of the tough times. When I first came here in 2005, it was just amazing – fireworks. Now there is more of a mature outlook in terms of the development of the work, the thinking behind it, and the demands that clients are making.

Also, there’s an obvious digital trend. We are in a region that has 190 percent penetration of mobile phones. There is so much going on, especially in the mobile ecosystem. I think the Middle East is unique in that respect.

An area that is not changing as fast is the old issue of measurement. I still think it’s remarkable that in terms of television audience recording, the region is obviously still way behind. There are still good reasons for that. (Well, I’m being somewhat ironic when I say “good.”)

The incredibly powerful youth has gone through a major growing-up phase, and the next three to five years in the Middle East present an astonishing opportunity. There’s just something about the pull of this region. God willing, as long as things remain stable generally, there will be a phase when the young adults start to become even more powerful than they are now.

The social media and digital teams are now two separate entities at OMD. Tell us a little about that.We’ve now got a social media team here of just under 10 people, and they are doing some amazing stuff.

We have Dimitri [Metaxas, group director at OMD Digital], who set this up, who is very good, and who is an absolutely integral part of the team. What I like about the way he drives it, along with his whole management base, is that they look at the beginning of a trend and just go for it. In the case of social media, the level of practical expertise required for that is different from search and different from display. I think it was typical of the team here to say, “It’s highly specialist, it’s a big opportunity, it’s a need; let’s have a dedicated team.”

It’s doing really, really well. Everything the team does is probably 15 percent faster than anybody else. That’s what I mean by a sense of maturity. Rather than just saying, “We’re growing at 6 or 12 percent,” or whatever, there is a sense of, “We’ve now got scale, we’ve now got markets.”

OMD was recently ranked the top EMEA and global media brand by Research Company Evaluating the Media Agency Industry, and was voted the MENA Cristal Agency of the Year in 2010. How do you feel about that?It makes my job easier, to be honest. I’m happy and I’m relieved. None of this is rocket sci-ence, is it? There’s a phrase created by someone else, but I’m happy to steal it: “freedom in the framework.” When I first heard that, I said that’s exactly it; that is absolutely how we function.

The framework is clear: I completely trust Elie, and I completely trust the team. Elie and I have known each other for the best part of 10 years so if there’s anything he wants to check, he’ll call me first, but it’s that freedom that al-lows the team to go and do stuff. And if they do

BRIGhT OuTOOk. Gottlieb says the region presents an “astonishing opportunity” for OMG’s clients


38 I Communicate


stuff, it’s normally good stuff, it wins awards, and it wins new clients.

The single biggest, most important thing is talent. If you are here, you are part of a com-munity. Not only is it good to work for OMD or PHD [OMG’s two media shops] because of fame or success, but also because it’s a really good place to work. There’s a lot of freedom, a very clear strategy, and trust, which is how we keep it going. It’s down to the people.

OMG has a research company, Integral. How valu-able is that when there are so many third-party research companies that could do that kind of work for you? I am not a researcher at heart. I am a strategist. I like creating stuff. So what I want from research is for it to give me insights, because from the insights I can create stuff. Creativity for me is putting two abstract things together – and what you get from that you can’t get from a book or set of tables, and that is what we are selling.

Research, for me, is an extremely important means to an end. If I said to you, “The Middle East is one thing,” you’d look at me and ask, “Is he serious? The Middle East is anything but one thing.” It’s the same for research. There are so many different facets to research: whether it’s qualitative or quantitative, whether it’s audience measurement, whether it’s to do with brand tracking, etcetera. Research is a huge palette of different stuff.

We are trying to create real nuggets of in-sight so planners, or anybody who wants to cre-ate anything, can look at it and say, “Ah, OK, I understand it.” For me, what’s so important

about having an in-house research facility is that it gives us the opportunity to tailor specific pieces of research.

If you look in-depth at third-party research, the research can be flawed. If you don’t have the specialty in-house, you’re blind. You’re just taking a set of statistics that a third-party is producing. Now, if you are looking at those statistics and they are absolutely sound and robust, fantastic. But that is just going to be one sliver of research. If you’re advising a client in communications, you have to have the best in-house research facility. You can’t just Google it.

We should have people in-house to look at all forms of research and be able to give our teams fantastic nuggets of information from which to then drive strategy. Research for us is fundamentally vital because it powers people who will hopefully have the time and skills to look at the information and say, “I’ve got an idea, I’ve got an absolutely shit-kicking idea,” and then rush to the client with a considered, well-argued, robust proposition. So the client will sit there and say, “Fantastic, that’s what I paid for. I’m delighted.”

For us, that is vitally important. And I think it is vitally important for a lot of our major competitors; it’s not totally unique. What’s in-teresting about what’s been created here with Integral is that it is a separate company. During a presentation this morning, I was so impressed with Integral’s capabilities that next week in New York, I’m going to take it as best practice and present it to the board meeting. It’s really good stuff.

ThE uGly TOOTh. Earlier this year, an OMD media stunt saw snacks wandering Dubai for the agency’s chewing gum client, Wrigley’s

ElIE khOuRI. Regional managing director, OMG

DIMITRI METAxAS. Group director, OMD Digital


haya_Eng_comm_33X24cm.indd 1 5/4/10 11:50:35 AM

40 I Communicate


Henric Larsson, CEO of Sweden-based post-production house The Chimney Pot,

and his Lebanese partner, Hiram Na’aman, tell Communicate Levant why they’re setting up shop in Lebanon.

How did the partnership deal that you inked on October 12 to open a branch of The Chimney Pot in Lebanon come about?Henric Larsson: I met Hiram in Sweden a few years back. He came to me because he wanted international partners and artists for a new post-production project. Of course, he could have called on freelancers, but it’s quite different when you have them on your own staff, which we do.

The Chimney Pot has offices in Stockholm, Oslo, Warsaw, and Kiev. We’re opening in Berlin in a few weeks and we’ve been in Dubai for four years. Hiram thought we might be interested, which we were. So we started talking about doing something more than two years ago.

And what kept you from doing it up until now?HL: All kinds of things, actually. We had an office in Moscow that we needed to shut down, which takes two to three years there. We are finalizing

Moscow next week, in fact. We have a complete post-production operation there and we are moving everything down to Beirut.

What are the terms of the agreement?HL: This will be a full, new operation and Hiram will manage it from Lebanon. We’re going to support it with organization and expertise as well. Coming from Sweden, we strongly believe we need local partners. Our share is a little bit smaller than Hiram’s, but we will grow it over time.

How will you balance the business between the Lebanon and Dubai offices?HL: In Dubai, we are in partnership with produc-tion house Filmworks Dubai. It’s not going to be merged with this one. Dubai is Dubai and, so far, we don’t have any plans to open up to any other market. Post-production is a local business today, so bringing jobs from other countries is not happening anymore. It happens nowhere except London, Paris, and Los Angeles.

Hiram Na’aman: Our focus will first be on Lebanon, and then the rest of the Middle East. We’ll be

Stirring the PotThe men behind a new Lebanon post-production house tell us why the scene is set to call action on their venture by Nathalie Bontems

Q&A

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Communicate I 41


visiting other production houses in Egypt, Dubai, Qatar. And, don’t forget: Most production houses in Lebanon have regional clients, so when you target them, you get to the regional clients.

Why Lebanon?HL: I really like Hiram and I wanted to work with him. Also, we are outsourcing all our 3-D work to the Kiev office. But they are fully booked and can-not really do any more work for me. So we could send some of the work to Lebanon, particularly since you can find good talent for a good price here. It’s around one-third of what I charge back in Sweden. So I could move work from there to here. We have several places, so we have the possibility of moving our work around.

Besides, it’s not like we’re starting from scratch here, like we did in a few markets, having to find the right staff, the right manager, and so on. For us, being here is a walk in the park. We have a partner, we have a team, we have work. We have a base; it is small, but we plan to grow it slowly.

Lebanon is quite a crowded arena already, so what will your edge be?HN: Post-production is my business. I started it here. I used to have the most expensive graphic system in the world sitting in Beirut, when nobody had even tried using an Amiga to do post-production. We worked very well. We have an edge. There is prestige, there is know-how, but we also have the back-up of international artists who will be working with us, and we have very good internal commu-nications between [our collaborators, across our offices] through software we produced ourselves.

In Lebanon, for example, you cannot have a really good Liquid animator. But [The Chimney Pot] has so much to offer – they have amazing animators who can create anything – from liquids to realistic 3-D animals. So when clients see what can be done, they’ll want it. It will open doors to creatives to come up with any concepts they can imagine.

HL: This market is extremely crowded and it is also extremely price-sensitive. In Europe, people tend to try for a 50-50 balance between price and quality. But here it is a little bit more about the price than it is about quality.

Clients will go for people doing some work in their basement if they’re really cheap. Nobody really cares about paying good rates for the best artist. So it is going to be a fight, really, to show that there’s a need for quality. Now it’s a Catch-22 [situation] where not many post-production offices are producing higher quality, so the client isn’t used to paying much for it. The client doesn’t understand why he’d need to pay more.

And today equipment is really cheap, so it’s all about the talent. Anybody can get good freelancers, such as a really good colorist from Spain. But the work being done here today won’t keep him happy for long. If you bring an international artist from Soho, London, down here, he’s going to get fed up after three months because the cool jobs aren’t plentiful here. Not today.

What we can do is have a small base of inter-national artists in Beirut, and the back-up of our other offices with supervisors in Sweden. Usually, for example, we have big German jobs done in Germany, but we back them up from Sweden. That’s what makes us different. You can’t do that with independent freelancers.

It makes a big difference that we have 100 artists in the group. We can find the best-suited guy, the best-suited team for the job.

Players from the industry complain that we lack specific, specialized talent in Lebanon.HL: That’s what clients all over the world say. Ger-man clients complain there is no talent in Berlin. Come on, guys. To get people to grow you have to give them a challenge. If you have someone working on a logo or pack shot, they are not go-ing to develop and there won’t be great talents on the market. When we opened in Stockholm years ago, everybody was taking the jobs to London. It took us a year or two to turn it around.

So to do that in Lebanon, would you need to bring big, motivating jobs to Beirut?HL: Most of the jobs we see here have the potential for so much more. But we need to gain clients’ trust, show them four or five really good jobs to prove to them that it’s possible. And I also believe a lot of clients would be willing to pay a little bit extra to get it done according to high standards.

When are you planning to launch, exactly?HL: We are building an office, so it’s going to take a few months.

How many people are you planning to have in-house? HN: We should have around 20 people in the team. And hopefully it will grow. We’re interviewing a lot of people; we’ve been doing it for the past year-and-a-half.

HL: We don’t want to use too many freelancers because it is knowledge that walks out the door after a few days. So we’ll mostly have our own team. We’ll have two guys from Sweden joining in January. This operation is going to be bigger

FLuE’S cOMPANy. The Chimney Pot’s Henric Larsson (left) and Hiram Na’aman

than the one in Kiev. It will all depend on how much talent we can find here.

We are aware of the fact that communication between someone from a Swedish culture, for ex-ample, and someone from a Lebanese culture can be really tough and complicated. But we know all about that. We are not taking any chances anymore. We’ve been opening offices all over the place for 10 years, so we have been building special tools to handle that.

What other local hassles do you foresee?HL: There are a lot of people who get to look at the material and comment down here. It can be experienced production people, less experienced agency people, and it can be people without any experience, like somebody’s wife. And that can make the work difficult. We build our tools to be used only by profes-sionals, usually the production companies that make the calls and decide everything. They get the approval of the client and there’s no comment.

Our final presentation takes four to five minutes. The next day it’s finalized and if it’s fine, it comes out. Here there can be loads of changes, and this is something that we need to address. The job will be going back and forth for three weeks.

You seem quite knowledgeable on Lebanese ways. Have you worked here?HL: We have a couple of projects that we cannot discuss, and we’ve helped Hiram on a few jobs.

Doesn’t Lebanon’s political instability worry you?HL: I won’t deny that a couple of the older guys on my board in Sweden are worried. But no, I’m not that concerned. Previous experience showed that if anything happens here, it’s not the end of the world, and it’s not like anything’s going to be done for the next five years. Business can pick up in a matter of months.

HN: I’ve been in the business since 1987 and we’ve always kept working, even when the bombs were falling.

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NOVEMBER 2010 | DEpaRtMENts

Lebanon seems to be going through a boom period – not only in the real estate sector,

but also in terms of creative potential within the advertising industry. The need for creativity to send a message across to the right audience has become a must.

In the past year-and-a-half we’ve noticed that the big brands in town have taken fur-ther steps toward reaching out to the crowd. Some use social media, some go all the way, throwing a big bash with entertainment, while others use innovative outdoor campaigns to woo consumers.

Today, it’s not enough to just plaster images of your products on billboards or have a five-second spot on television. Advertising has come a long way. With cut-throat competition easily observed in the market, a company has to come up with catchy themes to be able to maintain its market share.

Let’s point out two of the most memorable advertising campaigns we have seen this year: People don’t need a reason to party, and nowhere is this truer than in Lebanon. Excitement builds when you trigger the right buttons. Beirut Old Souks was launched through events and outdoor advertising campaigns that reflected the spirit of the Old Souks as a place for fun, entertainment, fashion, culture, and more.

The campaign shows young, colorful peo-ple enjoying life and fashion. It is attractive, reflecting the joyous character and lifestyle of Lebanese people.

Alongside the outdoor campaigns, the Old Souks hosted a four-day event comprising fashion shows, art and culture displays, and a grand finale by French musician and UNESCO ambassador Jean-Michel Jarre. People from different walks of life came to the souks to soak up the atmosphere.

Mobile advertising is popular worldwide, and Poliakov, a vodka brand, first introduced its “big trucks” to promote one of its launch events back in July 2009, using the LCD-branded vehicles to tour Beirut’s hotspots. The impact was massive and it was impossible not to notice the attention lavished on both the trucks and the brand.

The brand also sponsors big events that attract thousands of people, and it uses digital media, an extremely popular medium.

Research shows today’s consumers have become more informed and require more in-formation to guide their buying decisions. So creativity in advertisement is very important and necessary; it enables a company to come up with appropriate adverts that are relevant to the market.

Full disclosure: Communicate Levant’s parent, Mediaquest Corp., represents Beirut Nightlife’s advertising sales.

Hot stuffJean Ghalo, co-founder of listings website Beirut Nightlife, says Lebanon is in the middle of a creative explosion

Guest Opinion

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44 I Communicate

Speaking of communication strategy, the beauty of supporting an NGO is that it gives us the elasticity and opportunity to explore the agency’s intellectual as well as creative potential. We could come up with limitless unconventional ideas that commercial brands cannot afford to take on board because of certain guidelines. This creates more passion in the heart of the team working on an NGO project and makes them use not only their minds in the planning process, but their hearts too.

In communication, in most cases, using emotions is vital to further understand what the public needs. Emotions make or break NGOs. Putting ourselves in the shoes of the beneficiaries makes us visualize, create, understand, and plan better. Again, this gives a different dimension of what the agency can offer.

We should be grateful for the presence of NGOs in our country and the work they are doing. We at OMD are proud to be able to contribute something to the unconditional endeavors undertaken by NGOs, and if we can strive to get their messages across via the best communication vehicles available, knowing that it might put a smile on the face of a Lebanese child somewhere, then our existence as a media agency is worthwhile.

NOVEMBER 2010 | DEpaRtMENts

simply because the nature of our job is to develop an agency’s communication strategy (when considered

necessary), the work we are in offers lots of exposure to other businesses, categories, and industries. But, beyond any doubt, the degree of an agency’s interest, pleasure, and motivation varies depending on the type of businesses we are servicing. For example, the interest, pleasure and motivation in servicing a bank are not necessarily the same as when servicing an FMCG brand, and so on. However, it boosts all our drives when the agency is appointed to service a non-governmental organization (NGO).

Apart from political campaigns, OMD is always keen on supporting causes that could make a dif-ference in our society. We look forward to strongly supporting causes out of the need that lies within every reasonable, rational, and realistic person to put a smile on people’s faces. We spend time work-ing hard to make the business happy, so why not work harder to make the general public happy – including us?

Like any commercial brand, a cause requires a good, efficient, spot-on communication plan to generate response. The message should be addressed clearly to the right audience to ensure proper re-

sponse from the public. The style of advertising is crucial to making a campaign successful. A bor-ing communication plan can diminish the public’s interest in a cause; a less serious one could make it lose credibility.

Therefore, a specialized company such as OMD is always needed to provide the best communication solutions for the cause. Associating the agency’s name to a cause could also change the perception of some that the agencies in general are profit- and commercially driven.

We are a results-driven agency and when we strategize the communication for a cause, we do it using all our resources and tools, thus ensuring the objectives and beyond. Some examples of our sup-port are the Toufoula, Brave Heart, Caritas, Child Abuse, and Bassel Fuleihan Foundation campaigns, among others.

Some projects might take longer than others; the agency ensures support as long as it takes to reach the objectives set for it. We have supported NGOs for years simply because we believed in the causes they espoused. Looking back, we are proud to stand in the crowd behind the success of these causes.

It’s good to careChadi Farhat, managing director of Media Direction OMD in Lebanon, explains why advertisers should love working on NGO campaigns

Guest Opinion

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Communicate I 45

BlogosphereLebanon’s blogosphere is probably one of the most vibrant digital scenes in the region. Lebanese bloggers are many, dedicated, and very, very outspoken.

Agencies are now turning to social media and online communities, listening intently to this direct feedback on how they are perceived. Here is what increasingly influential Lebanese bloggers – inside and outside our borders – have to say about local work and news.

They’re lisTening, and waTching. Just like everybody else in the country, Lebanese bloggers are back down to business, and with a vengeance, it seems, as winter approaches. Beyond politics – which remains the favorite pastime – our bloggers are all over the place. They are getting together for good causes, exchanging ideas, and criticizing overtly – and more often than not with acute wit – whatever is occurring on the Lebanese scene. Here is a sample.

DEPARTMENTS | nOVeMBer 2010

Blogger Mustafa may be living far away from our shores (in Ghana, to be precise), but he keeps an eagle eye on what is happening in Lebanon. The irony of the latest Label 5 scotch “Be different” ad didn’t go unnoticed. “In Lebanon, being law-abiding is so rare it’s actually cool,” Mustafa says.http://beirutspring.com/blog/2010/10/06/in-lebanon-being-law-abiding-is-so-rare-its-actually-cool/

The dispute over the credibility of the Crest smile competition continues on Blog Baladi. Najib, who had been questioning the validity of the contest’s results (see “Blogosphere,” page 45, Communicate Levant, October 2010) received and posted a reply from the winner. To be continued?http://blogbaladi.com/najib/lebanon/miss-crest-defending-her-title/#comments

This month Mireille Raad launched the first Lebanese blogosphere search engine. She used the “oh-so-powerful Google” to build a custom search engine that also provides refinements, promotions, synonyms, auto-completion, transliteration, and so on. “In other words, it is the power of Google at your fingertip (oh boy that was a cheesy line),” she says.http://migh.info/2010/10/a-lebanese-blogsphere-search-engine-and-more/

Yes, we already have Blog Baladi on this page, but this one was simply too good to pass up. Blogger Chahe gives an interesting take on why our very own, home-grown FAP mattress company is so often featured on American satirical website www.thechive.com. No wonder the ad is described as “Possibly the best billboard everrrr.”http://blogbaladi.com/chahe/lebanon/fap-what-does-it-really-mean/

Rita Kamel conducted an interesting experience this month: Looking for a new corporate identity for her family business, she used Google and Lebweb to pick eight random links and request a standard stationery set quotation. The results, which she posted, speak for themselves. http://ritakml.info/2010/09/30/corporate-identity-quotations-in-lebanon/

Many Lebanese blogs participated in the global Blog Action Day, on October 15, 2010, with water as the topic. Archangelus on Schizolax shows some pictures speak louder than words.http://schizolax-10mg.blogspot.com/2010/10/caught-wet-handed.html

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46 I Communicate


Regional Work

It just fits.Advertising Agency: Bold, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Art Director: Mohamad Baalbaki.

3D Artist: Ecleposs. Retoucher: Mohamad Baalbaki.

These ads (and more) can be found at adsoftheworld.com

Everything happens at Once.Client: Once. Advertising Agency: Spirit. Location: Beirut.

Creative Director: Maya Saab. Senior Art Director: Wissam El Karout.

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Communicate I 47


International Work

The Simpsons Movie.Creatives: Gabriel Queiroz, Ricardo Balbin.

Ambi Pur Bathroom.Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt Matt, Stuttgart, Germany. Creative Directors: Armin Jochum, Fabian Frese.

Art Director: Nicole Grözinger. Copywriter: Oliver Flohrs. Photographer: Attila Hartwig.


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48 I Communicate

International Work



IBM: Smarter planet.Advertising Agency: Ogilvy, Paris, France. Creative Director: Susan Westre. Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Ginevra Capece. Associate Creative Director/Copywriter: Fergus O’Hare. Client Account Director: Suzanne Assaf. Agency Account Directors: Kim Ball,

Ben Messiaen. Graphic Designer/Illustrator: Noma Bar. Illustrator: Tanya Holbrook. Typographer: Sid Tomkinst.

The new Audi A1. A big idea condensed.Advertising Agency: BBH London, UK. Creative Directors: Kevin Stark, Nick Kidney.

Art Directors: Mark Reddy, Adrian Rossi. Copywriter: Alex Grieve. Designer/Illustrator: Rich Kennedy.

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Communicate I 49


International Work

For little monsters with big imaginations. Advertising Agency: BBH Asia Pacific, Singapore. Executive Regional Creative Director: Steve Elrick.

Art Director: Eirma Webster. Copywriter: Angie Featherstone. Photographer: Xuan Ong, Groovy Studio.

Lego.Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Moscow. Art Directors: Arina Avdeeva, Rodrigo Linhares.

Creative Director: Mikhail Kudashkin. Designer: Dmiry Jakovlev. Illustration: Ninjafilms. Art Director: Sergio Lobo.These ads (and more) can be found at adsoftheworld.com

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50 I Communicate

NOVEMBER 2010 | dEpaRtMENts

Drive By

Watershed MoMentIs Lebanon ready for the rain? Most people remain helpless as we watch our greatest natural resource flow into the sea. Could Lebanon be waterless? Is the water of Lebanon worth more than oil? Oh my my.Blog Action Day 2010 – Water: sign the petition.

Merry-go-roundAn advertising magazine advertises on a billboard, which is posted on a billboard blog, which is featured in this magazine about advertising.

CheCkMateThe king and the pawn, the two most vulnerable pieces with limited movement and almost no power to attack… Can I be treated like a queen? A rook or a bishop maybe? OK, the horse is fine, too.

the dark agesOne day, maybe we’ll share stories with our grandchildren about how we used to hesitate getting into elevators, or juggle appliances so as not to overload the generator. We’ll laugh about losing power at the worst/ funniest times and we’ll wear these dark ages as a badge of our ability to survive the “tough” times. Maybe by then we’ll have decent Internet connection too. Until then, keep your light bulbs; I prefer the soft light of candles.

One anonymous blogger critiques Beirut’s billboards. All these examples and more can be found at beirutdriveby.blogspot.com

topless in Beirut… abbbbbbbbsolutely.

i’ll drink to that.Don’t drink and drive is a good start. Cheers.

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communicate levant | nov 2010

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