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Unlocking Brand Experiences Through Memorability
The holiday season is in full swing, and businesses are leveraging every possible communication channel to attract new customers and retain existing ones. Hotels and resorts, airlines, retailers, restaurants, night clubs, event companies and every entertainment brand is exploring how to better reach the customer. Parallel to this, "Destination branding" is back in vogue as cities and states pursue image makeovers designed to help them stand out in the weak global economy.
In their book 'The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage', authors Joseph Pine and James Gilmore assert, “Business performances must rival those featured on Broadway and in ballparks.” It is indeed understood that the best way to attract and mobilise more customers is to bring a "showbiz" mentality to all marketing and 'at-show' strategies. After all, tourism and entertainment is a show world.
In today's marketplace, consumers are drawn by glitter and excitement but turned off by humdrum events. Total experiences are not “theater.”
The best and most successful brands are those that find a way to register on an emotional level with consumers. Emotions occupy space in the consumer's mind and successful businesses understand what their brand does and how it resonates and makes a difference in someone's life.
(See ArabAd August issue 2010 p.6) |
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Welcome to Syria
Syria has become increasingly popular as an ideal holiday destination in recent years with annual growth in visitors up by as much as 15 percent, double what it witnessed in the 1990s.
Syria used to be home to more than 33 civilisations, which is why it comes as no surprise to find a variety of sites from the Bronze Age through the Greek, Roman and Byzantine eras, as well as remains from the Islamic dynasty. Its capital, Damascus, is the oldest inhabited city that has, for the past two decades, received a great deal of attention from the government in relation to the conservation of its ruins and archeological sites, with additional plans to develop and improve the old part of the capital.
(See ArabAd August issue 2010 p.30) |
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Jonathan Harries and the Creatively Paradoxical
In this complex world, being oneself has become a concept, rather than a reality.
Advertising, which, in essence, is media neutral, started as a strategy to sell a product to reflect and thereby promote one’s identity.
Gradually, it shifted emphasis from the tangible to the living, whereby that individuality became the primary traded commodity. Peddling ‘stuff’ today means selling yourself, which reminds us of the ‘Everything Must Go’ sign in outlet stores at the end of any given season. Though advertisers are still playing on the ‘Be Yourself’ slogan, hardly anyone can truly give a clear-cut answer to what that entails.
(See ArabAd August issue 2010 p.38) |
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Auto-Idiotic Asphyxiation
By Naseem Javed
The sheer ecstasy of naming a gigantic entity can be utterly desirable, a secret fetish if you wish, and one hidden among the powerful gatekeepers of most boardrooms. With or without any knowledge or experience of the global corporate nomenclature, the ignorance-clad personal egos play out dangerous games and provide the reason behind most of the weird monikers of corporations in the world’s varied stock exchanges.
(See ArabAd August issue 2010 p.42) |
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The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
The French Riviera once again brought together advertising executives, marketers and ad agency creatives from all over the globe for the highly anticipated Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
This year witnessed over 8000 delegates from 90 countries--up by 2000 from last year—gathered to celebrate the best of creativity, discuss industry issues, network and much more.
The total number of entries submitted at the 57th edition of the awards reached 24,242, an increase of seven percent from 2009, all competing to win the coveted Lion trophy for the best Film, Film Craft, Press, Outdoor, Design, Cyber, Radio, Sales Promotion & Activation, PR, Media, Direct, Integrated and ground-breaking Titanium creative work.
(See ArabAd August issue 2010 p.44) |
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Shopper Marketing and the Future of In-Store Communications
By Richard Nicoll
These are exciting times for shopper marketers using this approach, which is becoming increasingly popular throughout the Middle East as brands realise that to win in a recession they need to win in-store. Successful integration of all the disciplines that shopper marketing encompasses is, more than ever, essential to effectively turn shoppers into buyers and improve the shopping experience in the process. So whilst direct marketing, for example, has always been an extremely valuable tactic within the shopper marketing approach, the future heralds an even more significant role.
(See ArabAd August issue 2010 p.56) |
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