The UM MENA Point of View

10 Mistakes Brands make on Facebook in the Middle East

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:38:00 -0500

10 Mistakes Brands make on Facebook in the Middle East:

A really insightful blog post from our digital, search and social marketing specialized agency Innovations_Digital. This highlights how brands can go wrong on their Facebook pages.

The best tech (online) gimmick oif the year: Google's "Let it Snow"

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:30:00 -0500

Tech companies great and small always have a gimmick or two up their sleeve, and Google has been known for their screen adaptations and their playful renderings of their logo on the main Search page. But this year’s “Let It Snow” frosting of the search result page takes the icing on the cake.

Just do a search for “let it snow” and watch the flakes fall across your screen until the search result window gets completely ‘snowed’ over and the blue ‘Search’ button at the top becomes ‘Defrost’. What’s even cooler is that once your screen gets completely fogged up you can also draw on the Google search results page like a finger on a window.

As of today (three days past Christmas) the trick is still on, and it may be a nice idea for Google to keep this on through the cold season. So, yes, even in Dubai, we can sit back at our offices or at home and enjoy the snow.

We hope you had a good 2011 and are celebrating the arrival of the New Year. At Innovations_Digital we wish you all the best for the Season. So, let it snow…

Sourced from our digital content and strategy agency: Innovations_Digital blog

Google news reader app launches on Android and iOS

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:54:55 -0500

Google has launched its news reader app on Android and iOS with titles including CNet, Huffington Post and Forbes among the initial publishing partners.
The app, dubbed Google Currents, lets publishers customise their content for the platform and is also integrated with Google+ so readers can share content.

Publishers can also monitor how their readers are accessing the content via the app by associating their account with Google Analytics.

By linking the Google Currents and Analytics accounts, publishers can track users’ content preferences, what devices their content is being viewed on and geographic distribution via the app.

Google Currents is currently available to US mobile users but remaining country launch dates has been publicly discussed at present.

Mobile users can download Google Current from the appropriate app store, choose the publications they want to subscribe to free of charge and also add RSS, video and photo feeds, public Google+ streams and Google Reader subscriptions.

The launch was confirmed by a post on the Google Mobile blog.

“We’ve worked with more than 150 publishing partners to offer full-length articles from more than 180 editions including CNET, AllThingsD, Forbes, Saveur, PBS, Huffington Post, Fast Company and more,” read the post.

The launch sees Google join the list of other content aggregator apps, such as Flipboard, AOL’s Editions and Yahoo’s Live stand, which are an increasingly popular way for mobile users to consume media.

posted by Debi Hickey, Media Director, UM Dubai

5 Ways to use the Power of Social Media

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:33:00 -0500

You can have a thousand friends on Facebook, and 10,000 Likes, but what do they mean? If you’re running a social media campaign for your brand, how do you convert “Likes” to sales, friends to customers? The whole idea behind setting up a successful brand page on Facebook, and of course getting ‘Likes’ is to truly engage with your best fans – your loyal followers, your brand believers. If you are able to identify – and cultivate – people out there who are genuinely interested in your products or services, they will in some way or another tell others about it. And, eventually, with the trickle down, and with friends trusting friends etc – your following increases – and your chances of selling and moving product gets better.

One way of genuinely engaging your target audience via social media include finding out what your target customers are interested in and then talking to them about it. That’s “content marketing” and this emerging leader in the tools of the trade game is showing up as one of the strongest performing channels – a very close second to e-mail. Yes, brands that are becoming “content publishers” – providing engaging, interesting content are winning the game. When you find it difficult to hard sell – and social media is not for hard sell anyways – creating and publishing content is a great tool.

Content is a great trust tool. If you provide value addition via content, people get to trust your brand. They find your brand and everything they associate with it relevant to their space. They end up trusting your product, believing in it. You get to the top of the top-of-mind position.

Another way is to ask your customers, your target audience about what they really want from you as a brand, or from your product or your industry. When you ask your ‘audience’ what they want to hear, you’re playing their hits, they’ll listen without hesitation – because it’s theirs, not yours. It’s relevant, and meaningful. That’s engagement, not monologue. If you are able to talk to your audience about what their interests are – and then build (or revise) your profile, your benefits around that dialog, you’ve got a winning strategy.

Lead them to where they want to go, not where you think they should. Follow their interests, listen to them, see what they’re really clicking through to, and provide a destination, a result that they want to see, to experience. If you are offering information on a new feature on a camera, no point taking them to a home page. If you’re selling a low-interest car loan, don’t take them to the Financing section on your bank site – take them to a page on the loan and a form that they can apply on.

Hard sell is the last thing you should be doing on social media. Think about it, you don’t go over to a friend’s place for dinner and start selling him your golf set. Friends don’t like that. If you’ve really gotten into “social” media, please do be social. Engage them, tell them a story, provide some information, share a joke, show them an interesting video. You can sell the product downstream.

And, finally, social is about shared experiences. If they genuinely “Like” what you have for them, they’ll tell friends, and friends will tell their friends, and like that it rolls forward. Make what you say easily shareable. If it genuinely adds value, brings a smile to someone’s face, causes a positive reaction – they’ll share it. But it’s your job to make that process easy. Provide all the buttons, the links, the encouragement. And, of course, the right stuff.

At Innovations_Digital, a digital marketing agency in Dubai, we work closely with our clients to harness the power of social media. Innovations is part of UM – and provides digital content, social media, search and mobile specialized solutions for clients’ brands.

The state of the US mobile platform base. Biggest...

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:21:00 -0500

The state of the US mobile platform base. Biggest opportunity: getting smartphones in the hands of non-smartphone users. (This is true of the US, but also very true of developing markets where the shift to mobile is enormous.). Apple slowing down, but Android growing by leaps and bounds…

How Recruiters use Social Networks to screen candidates

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:25:00 -0400

How Recruiters use Social Networks to screen candidates:

Click on the Header above to see a really interesting Infographic.

Social networks are being used increasingly to screen potential job candidates. To find out how your brand can benefit from Social Media marketing, contact us today, or visit our specialized Social Media content and strategy creation division at UM/innovations_digital

5 SEM Essentials for Brand Managers

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 03:46:00 -0400

from a post on Innovations_Digital

While Search Engine Marketing is growing by leaps and bounds (specially here in the Middle East), brand managers need to have a simple check list when working with their SEM strategy agencies to make sure Search yields the results they need.

A typical scenario we come across often is when a consumer in Dubai jumps on to google and searches for a LCD TV. Typically, within 0.17 seconds he gets around 6 million + results, but we know he will probably look through only the first few pages. The Search Engine will quickly look through its list of advertisers and place the most popular ones immediately as ads. And, of course, depending on how well the brand or retailer has done on their organic search strategy (SEO), their listing will appear on the page. And fight for attention with review sites, auctions sites, an Amazon or two, and a blog by a geek. This is where good SEM strategy can kick in to ensure that the consumer is empowered and enabled to make a positive decision for a particular brand, and a particular model being marketed.

1. Each specific search term (keyword, model name, key descriptor, brand, feature etc) should lead to a specific landing page. When I am searching for ‘lcd tv’ I should not have to trawl through a Home Page and try and locate Products > TVs > LCD > Brandname etc. How often have you searched for a ‘car loan’ and been proudly introduced to a “Our Leadership” feature on a Bank’s silly home page?

2. The specific landing page should be a sales tool for that specific offering. If I am looking for a 18 megapixel camera in my search query, oh, please don’t lecture me on the benefits of high megapixel. Sell me the D900. It’s not about persuasion in general (time is precious online), it’s about specific empowerment information. Don’t waste the consumer’s time, and don’t waste your budget.

3. On the specific landing page you take them to, reiterate the offer you made in your ad copy in the search result. If you have brought them in to your site with a lure of “lowest interest rates on car loans”, talk about it clearly, re-sell and shout about that specific feature. They did not click on “free credit card with loan” – so why put that in your landing page headline? Scream “Lowest Interest Rates on Car Loans”.

4. Be clear on context (see above) and be clear on content. Make all the information easy to understand, the offer transparent and clear, and the benefit of a purchase decision easy to see and understand. Gather the information you need – ask nicely, and give the consumer what they are looking for – which for the most part is a sense of direction, assurance and the enablement of a positive decision in your favor.

5. You’ll be tempted to say a lot since you have already started a conversation per se, but here brevity is key. Try not to provide dozens of links to your main company home page, other product pages, corporate mumbo jumbo etc. When you’re saying too much you end up not saying what’s really key. And what you say should be relevant – locally contextual, available, and immediate.

Do, of course ake sure that your organic search works hand in hand with SEM, and that your website content – particularly the landing page you created (yes! specific to the keywords you bought) has all the right words in there.

When working with your Search agency, or even developing a basic strategy, set goals and tick the 5 SEM Tips above. You’ll be five steps closer to the consumer making the decision that you want him or her to make – in your favor – right there. And armed with that, hopefully, he’ll click through to buy, or head off to the nearest retailer. Or bank, as the case may be.

Innovations_Digital is part of UM, and a digital marketing specialized agency that delivers online, mobile, search and social media solutions. Published in a blog post on InnovationsDigital.com :

(http://www.innovationsdigital.com/2011/10/5-sem-essentials-for-brand-managers/)

Blackberry OS6: Low battery life and how to fix it

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:30:00 -0400

Blackberry OS6: Low battery life and how to fix it:

Those of us who have switched to Blackberry OS6 have faced huge problems with battery drain. Here’s an interesting post on some simple tips on how to improve battery life if using the powerful new OS6. The post is from UM’s Innovations division.

YouTube and the world of music: Hits from the 70s

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 05:49:25 -0400

YouTube and the world of music: Hits from the 70s:

YouTube. Gags, stupid pet tricks, car stunts galore. But what we don’t realize is that it’s a digital treasure trove of all things archived. Including a massive collection of music you otherwise would have had to mixtape or totally file in that draw called oblivion. Thanks to the world’s second most popular search engine (yes, YouTube is only 2nd behind Google), today we can find music we grew up on, music we played in our car on our first date, music our folks listened to and today’s up and coming music as well. Imagine life without YouTube…

5 Essentials for Building a Successful Website

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 06:14:00 -0400

5 Essentials for Building a Successful Website:

Five key elements that you need to keep top of mind when looking to build a successful website are Idea, Ease of Use, Value Addition, the Details and the Team. Everything else is dressing. If you’ve focused on the key elements when building – or re-building, refreshing or looking for a solution – most everything else falls into place.

Click on the headline to read more…

5 Digital driven trends that are changing Media, PR and Ad Agencies

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:09:00 -0400

5 Digital driven trends that are changing Media, PR and Ad Agencies:

Advancements in digital technology, increasing demands of the consumer and the client, and changing habits of media consumption are all creating a new landscape in the ad world. What is emerging is scalable, adaptable, lean, multi-dextrous and nimble. And collaborative. Smart. The new ice age is dawning and the cold wave is technology.

5 web design trends in mid-2011 that you cannot ignore

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 01:54:00 -0400

5 web design trends in mid-2011 that you cannot ignore:

The lines between design and development are fading. It’s the marriage of form and function, and that is a true beauty. Which essentially means that design has grown up, become responsible, and it is is now a team player with technology. Halfway through 2011, and there are a few dominant web design and development trends that seem to have emerged leaders. Before we go into detail, we need to remember that lately, emerging technology is affecting how web designers are planning and executing their work. Let’s look at five interesting mid-year trends…

A media agency that does content?

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:40:00 -0400

The lines haven’t just blurred, they’ve auto-erased. Media agencies worldwide are fast acquiring, hiring, renting, even, content creation talents or agencies to become a complete solutions provider for their clients. That’s the nature of how today’s consumer’s use and dependence on digital focused channels of communications have changed the way media planning agencies behave in the ecosystem. You cannot put your head in the sand (and there’s lots of it around here) and stay in a silo.

We don’t look at digital in isolation, because digital is part of every day life and can no longer be viewed (as is often done in this region) as a ‘by-the-way channel’. We provide strategic consulting and execution on how best to leverage digital for your brand’s communication; how to optimize digtal touch points, develop strategic engagement plans across all media, look at new areas like social networking, search, viral, mobile and web 3.0 for true integration. Our solutions include a 360° approach where we provide our clients with knowhow, expertise and final product including the development, design, programming and full content.

Over the past few weeks we have strengthened our digital content supply chain so to speak with our partnership and M&A of Innovations_Digital, a digital focused pure-play who are specialized in creating and producing multiple levels of communications solutions both in digital and analog flavors.

Wimbledon and Social Media

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:19:00 -0400

No matter what happens to Andy Murray and the great British hope, taking on defending champion Rafael Nadal – they’ll never look back on how social media is heralding in a new-ish era of ‘open’ tennis – making players and the tournament both easily accessible.

The opening serve or volley, if you will came from Andy Murray and Head. Murray, being Britain’s great hope, is being followed with huge interest as he bumps now into Rafa Nadal.

But it’s not just Andy. Wimbledon, the only remaining lawn (or grass) tennis grand slam has taken up social with aplomb. The official Facebook page does live feeds, and photos are being updated almost as they’re being clicked. There are just under 660,000 fans. The posts are interesting, and sometimes outside the box. I saw a post that linked to a evian promoted page on Wimbledon. Nice bit of code-sharing on that.

They’ve raised the roof so to speak at Wimbledon. With a £100 million roof over Centre Court, Wimbledon will not be held under the weather. And both the official tournament and players are playing it pretty big on social media, mixing tennis on the lawns, strawberries and cream with a healthy dose of facebook and twitter.

Real time online access is now the norm. And, yes, Andy Murray did kick off the Wimbledon-on-Social wave this year with that ‘intended-for-viral’ film for HEAD – the tennis brand that’s trying really hard to keep head above social water, competing with the big brands like adidas, nike, and the new rising ranker – Babolat. HEAD’s ‘Get Closer’ campaign was published on both Facebook and YouTube, aiming to get fans ‘closer’ and more interactive with Andy Murray.

The iPhone App is also a big hit, but overall it’s the Facebook and Twitter feeds and updates that are catching every one’s fancy. The iPhone App of course is not new this year. This is the third year it’s been available, but every year technology partners IBM are working on the app (yes, IBM) to make it both intuitive and useful for spectator and couch watcher alike. With video updates, lots of pics, ground maps, scores, schedules and news, it’s a handy tool for all fans of the purple and green.

Nadal, who’s up against Murray in the ‘really important and nearly the final’ semi-final is also huge on social media. The Spaniard has more than 7,361,073 likes on his Facebook page. That’s over seven million! So are many other players. Sharapova, grunt and all, with just under 5 million fans also has a pretty cool page – and some of her wall photos are rather intersting beyond the grass court. Roger Federer, who had yet another early exit this year at Wimbledon has over 8 million fans on Facebook, and 75,000 followers on his news tweet – but the tweet lines are cold, newsy and impersonal almost. Not very social.

Overall, social media is having a great year at Wimbledon. It has matured in a nice way, and increasingly sports tournaments, sponsors, players as well as fans are being able to genuinely benefit from it all.

posted from: http://www.innovationsdigital.com/index.php/2011/06/serving-social-media-at-wimbledon-this-year/

HTML5 vs Flash

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 03:00:00 -0400

As we speak, more and more web developers are moving away from Flash for animation, video and navigation towards the new standard HTML5. The war over Flash is ongoing, and while it seems that HTML5 is emerging with a slight edge, one has to recognize that it is still under process. It is being continuously developed and improved over time.

Here’s the basic: HTML5 is a language used by developers to present (and structure) content for online. It is the latest version of the HTML (stands for HyperText Markup Language) standard first created in 1990. The very purpose of HTML5 is to improve video or multimedia presentation, while keeping it all easily accessible and understood by multiple computer devices, browsers and platforms.

Flash is still the choice of excellence – if you are building a fully interactive Rich Interactive Application experience – it’s becoming acceptable to nudge away and embrace HTML5, JavaScript and CSS3. With Flash not available across most mobile devices (specially anything from Apple), the migration seems natural. I’ve had clients call me and say “our site isn’t working” only to find that they were checking Flash driven content on their iPads. Core content built in Flash is a downer. Sorry Adobe.

Unlike as in previous HTML versions, where we depended on added-on, propreitary software such as Flash to view video or play a YouTube or audio stream, HTML5 allows for simple tags such as or to do the trick. And do the trick on mobile devices just as well, just as easily. That’s a win.

But wait. There are speedbumps. HTML5 as supported heavily by Apple is dependaent on the H264 codec. And that requires a bit of a licensing fee. Others like Mozilla and Google have pushed for open source formats as support. Mozilla’s Firefox 4 uses Ogg, and Google is pushing for WebM. Sounds familiar? Reminds the older generation of VHS vs Beta?

But do not lose heart. Firefox, Apple’s Safari, Google Chrome, Explorer 9 and Opera are all HTML5 friendly. And it is tilting. Things are finally shifting towards the new format. But there are brands and platforms still holding on, playing both sides of the fence. RIM’s new Blackberry PlayBook is being touted as ‘better than the iPad’ because it plays Flash.

While the Flash player has been free, Adobe’s development kit for us designers/developers has been expensive. HTML on the other hand is free. But all those games developed in Flash are not going to render in HTML5 and this will be a problem going forward. Because HTML5 is executed by the browser itself, and it is not a added-on plug-in, it will possible become the choice of new age developers. As long as the interactivity depicted is simple, ’5′ wins. For complexity Adobe’s Flash is still ahead. And the the jury is still out on which one overall. We’ll see.

From:http://www.innovationsdigital.com/index.php/blog-2/

I_D invites Seniors & Grads for Summer Internship

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 09:30:46 -0400

I_D invites Seniors & Grads for Summer Internship:

Sister agency offering summer internships in digital

Writing for web content: Less is More

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 09:26:00 -0400

Writing for web content: Less is More:

A digital agency viewpoint on how to write content for the web _ and how less is more. More content on digital is available on http://www.innovationsdigital.com

Emiratis 'captivated' by Korean culture

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 23:55:00 -0400

posted by Debi Hickey | Associate Media Director | UM Dubai

from The National

When Korean boy bands release a new video, Warda Saleh can hardly wait the few hours for her and her three best friends to get out of class to watch it.

To avoid wasting time, the 22-year-old Emirati, a student at Zayed University, finds an empty classroom and sets up the projector so they can watch their beloved fresh-faced, spiky-haired heartthrobs on the screen together.

When one is tardy the others call them. “Odi?” they say - “where are you?” in Korean.

Their ringtones often play songs from their favourite group, Big Bang, said Ms Saleh as she pulled out her phone.

Attached to it dangled two long strands of dozens of pictures of her favourite boy band pin-ups.

Like Ms Saleh and her friends, the dozens of young Emirati women who make up the Korean Club at Zayed University love Korean pop culture.

Many, like Ms Saleh, are obsessed with everything from the boy band members who grace their computers, notepads and compacts, to TV dramas, food, fashion, beauty products and language. They study Korean at the university. They order creams and make-up from South Korea. They watch Korean movies and cook Korean food and sing their favourite lyrics together.

It’s the soft side of deepening bilateral ties between the UAE and South Korea that Seoul is eager to foster. As relations have gone from strength to strength in recent years in military, diplomacy and trade - including a 2009 deal for a South Korean-led consortium to build the UAE’s first nuclear plants - the ambassador here has urged rounding that out with personal ties as well.

“Our nations ought to focus on better people-to-people and cultural exchanges to broaden and deepen how we relate to each other,” Kwon Tae-kyun wrote in The National in April, adding that it was important for bilateral relations to “develop far into the future in a lasting and meaningful way”.

Korean pop music, known as K-pop, along with Korean dramas have gained followings worldwide over the past decade in what is called the “Korean wave,” or hallyu. Most of the fans are in East Asia, though a few bands like Big Bang have had hits in the West. Soap operas are subtitled in Chinese, English and Arabic.

Some of their appeal comes from their seeming more conservative than their Western counterparts. The lyrics are less vulgar than in American hip-hop, said Hanan Khalid al Amri, a 21-year-old student.

Ms al Amri also finds the dramas more authentic than the local shows. Poor characters don’t wear full make-up, she said. Celebrities who appear on variety shows are willing to embarrass themselves in silly games, she said.

And then there is the inexplicable charm of boyish performers with sweeping bangs, matching outfits and winning smiles.

Amina Ahmed al Ansari, who visited South Korea last summer, said she stood outside the building of Big Bang’s recording company for an hour. During her visit she spotted two celebrities.

“I was like this,” she said, sitting with her eyes wide and mouth agape.

For the club’s first Korean Day in March, the first lady of South Korea, whose husband was in the UAE on official business, toured the campus and cooked Korean food, in a visit arranged by the South Korean tourism authority.

The organisation also brought life-size cutouts of the performers from Big Bang.

For some students, their fun obsession is a means to more serious benefits, if they can use their language skills and cultural knowledge to get a job at one of the rising number of Korean firms setting up here.

“We might end up in a Korean company,” said Sanaa Saoud al Hamzi, a 21-year-old business student who said she plans to get her master’s degree in South Korea.

She and dozens of others are studying the language through the King Sejong Institute, which opened at the university last autumn with support from the South Korean government.

More than 50 people are taking classes, said Donald Glass, co-ordinator of the institute and faculty adviser for the club.

Mr Glass said even he was surprised at the flood of interest in all things Korean when he gave a talk about his experience living there in 2009.

“Who would think that students would be interested in Korea?” he said. “To my surprise, it was a full house. Standing-room only.”

3D Projection Mapping & The Middle East

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:38:21 -0400

3D Projection Mapping & The Middle East

6Ps of Selecting an Agency for the Digital Age

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:47:00 -0400

6Ps of Selecting an Agency for the Digital Age:

Insightful post that helps brands and marketing people select an agency for digital projects and assignments.

By Tom Roychoudhury, CIO, MCN. First posted on http://www.innovationsdigital.com