Media and Marketing Show 2010 researches creativity drivers in Middle East agencies
With just over six weeks to go until the Media and Marketing Show, the Domus Group recently concluded a series of interviews with leading figures in the Middle East marketing community and key confirmed exhibitors for the show while also conducting a sample quantitative survey across the Middle East digital landscape.
The research was designed to take a temperature test on attitudes towards social media in the agency workplace and the changes to media consumption in the workplace and how agencies are looking to develop and adapt to the new technologies for their creative work ahead of the industry gathering on December 15th
The level of media consumption in those surveyed varied but nearly a third of respondents confirmed to regularly reading upwards of three newspapers per day, with over 50% still reading at least two weekend newspapers. On the online thread, 13% showed their reliance on online news forums needing news fixes from over 10 news sites per working day. With social media on the upturn across the region, facebook unsurprisingly continued to dominate the landscape but the 140 character networking site Twitter was gaining traction in agency heartlands with 48% using it regularly each day as a source of news and creative ideas.
“From our collaboration with exhibitors in recent months, we’ve been keen to gain a greater understanding of the issues driving marcomms companies throughout the region. The show is going to be a great opportunity for these disparate groups to come together and discuss their feelings on social networking, agency culture, buying trends, broadcasting developments and more.” Said Maysoon A. Abulhoul is the Managing Director of Domus Group, organizors of the Media Marketing Show.
“Earlier this year, Panda cheese became one of the biggest viral marketing successes of the year with a creative advert that quickly gained traction through social networking sites in the region, leading to massive global interest,” she continued. “As the need to create content that not only has the power to appeal to global audiences but can also match increasingly constrained budgets, agency teams appear to be looking to social networks to stir their inspiration. Similarly, agencies, particularly Public Relations professionals are under increasing pressure to not only stay abreast of the news cycle but also be one, if not two steps ahead of the next big trend.”
However, from the agency bosses’ perspective, attitudes to social media in the workplace continue to be divided. A series of one to one interviews with confirmed exhibitors at the MMS and senior industry agency personnel showed that formal social media policies are still in their infancy with only a small proportion having formal procedures in place. Alex Malouf, Communications Manager, Arabian Peninsula, ABB said, “We are a B2B company, and it is important to know when to use social media. For me personally in this part of the world, I know, in Saudi, that certain decision makers will not use these media channels. Their children will though.” He added, “The main challenges I face are resources. Social media work does consume a lot of time. However, the rewards are increased interaction and the creation of a dialogue with customers so for this reason, I strongly encourage my teams to use the platforms but also to use them wisely.”
Over the last 12 months, many agencies have recognized the need to change and adapt their policies to suit the changing landscape. Jan Diggs, Arabia Inform commented, “12 months ago, we didn’t participate in social media at all but now increasingly, we’re seeing the benefits of ‘live tweeting’ our thoughts at conferences we attend. The real time nature of it can help direct our thinking in a faster, more dynamic way and information flow really can’t be limited by the 9-5 working day anymore”.
While agencies and exhibitors recognized the need to harness the power of social media and its role in developing creative content, certain limitations are needed. Greg Moore, Partner and Founder of FSM, commented, “I believe there is still a learning gap with some employees in spotting the difference between personal social media and social media in the workplace. I am fully supportive of utilising social media in the workplace as long as there is a direct benefit for the business at some stage in the process. My team are voracious readers and I know that each of them are reading over ten different news feeds per day for inspiration, and rarely are these the same, day to day.”
The media and marketing show takes place between December 13-15th at the Dubai World Trade Centre and will include over 60 exhibitors and workshops from leading marketing and publishing firms from across the region.
