Action Qatar has handled media relations for many events this year, but definitely the most prominent event in our calendar so far was the Qatar International Business Forum (QIBF) which took place on May 17 & 18 at the Ritz Carlton. The QIBF is a prestigious event hosting high-profile women from all around the world who have excelled in the region in economic, political and social fields. The forum took place under the auspices of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. It paid tribute to a quartet of prominent regional personalities: H.E. Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, the Chair of the Emiri Diwan ; H.E. Dr Ibrahim Al Ibrahim, Secretary General – General Secretariat for Development Planning in Qatar; and Members of Parliament, H.E. Mrs Bahia El Hariri from Lebanon and Ms Suhair Al-Ali from Jordan.
It is not the first time that Action has handled events celebrating women’s empowerment; we have previously worked on the 2008 Qatari Businesswomen Award and Corporate Ambassadors’ Forum that experienced a huge success in Qatari society. We really enjoy working with people who are making such an impact on society.
Despite tight deadlines (of just a few days) and a number of last minute requests, 3 members in our Doha team were able to gain coverage in the local and regional media prior to the event, prepare media materials in both Arabic and English, draft newsletter for the forum, organise around 15 press interviews with key personalities and prepare for managing the media on the day of the big conference on May 17th. At the same time, we ensured the correct messages were communicated, as well as achieving the right balance when translating into Arabic to address any sensitivities to the issue of women’s empowerment.
It was a challenging project due to the time constraints, but it was extremely satisfying for the whole team. It was very successful, with around 40 media attending, including Al Arabiya channel, Al ‘An TV, CNBC, Al Bayan and Arab Women & Business magazine. In the end this is what PR is all about – getting the best results for the client in the required timeframe.
Action carried out PR for the Qatar International Business Forum (QIBF)
The irrefutable power of blogs to keep the Greek public informed was confirmed recently during the country’s nationwide four day media strike. With all outlets from newspapers and magazines to radio, television and news websites participating in the strike, the country was left in a total media and news blackout.
Seeking to take advantage of the clear gap in information provision to the Greek people, the government sought to exploit the situation by attempting to pass a number of bills that would otherwise have gone through different political channels to be passed and which may have resulted in greater political cost to the government. Furthermore these bills would have certainly generated significant discussion in the media and among the general public had the country’s media been in operation.
In protest against the media blackout and the government’s attempts to take advantage of the situation, Greek MPs rejected the passing of these bills, with the dialogue between the MPs played out on the nation’s blogs. Members of Parliament claimed that the country would plunge into great social and political unrest if the media strike was not brought to an end.
However while the country’s media remained steadfast, the power of blogs was cast into light, being the only source of information and regular news updates. For the Greek market – in its current state of turmoil and where strikes are rife – blogs have emerged as an important communication tool and a way out from the political and economic chaos that has threatened to leave the Greek population uninformed about the very events and issues that affect their daily lives.
One of the projects on my desk this week is the strategy for this year’s dyslexia awareness program for our client OMV. We knew the pilot project was successful and appreciated by the public and we were glad that OMV decided to continue into 2011.
But nothing worked better to get me and my team inspired than to learn that our 2010 dyslexia campaign was nominated in the SABRE EMEA Awards, the ‘Balkans’ category! Yey! I was pleased to see that of five nominations, three have come from Romania.
Congratulations team and fingers crossed!
On Tuesday 8th March, International Women’s Day (http://www.internationalwomensday.com) was celebrated around the world. Flowers or other presents were given by family, friends co-workers and by companies, National Holidays were observed, big and small events took place and women were the focus of attention (which we all like!). There is no standard way of celebrating it and its importance varies from country to country. In Eastern Europe and parts of Asia particularly, it is considered as a major annual event and numerous initiatives are carried out, serving as a source of inspiration for many people. In many of the countries that form part of the Action Global network it is a Public Holiday, such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. But, did you know that the first International Women’s Day took place on 19th March 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland? Over a million men and women took to the streets to campaign for women’s rights.
In fact, its origins lie slightly earlier than that, in 1908 when 15,000 women marched in New York to demand fairer treatment at work. The following year, the first National Woman’s Day took place in the United States. Then, in 1910 at an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, the leader of the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany suggested the idea of an annual International Women’s Day. This was approved and, to this day, it is still celebrated. This year, it has taken on increased significance as it is the hundredth anniversary and countries that normally don’t do much, such as the UK, are getting in on the action.
So, what do people do? In Bulgaria, men give flowers, or chocolates, or other presents to women, both at home and in the workplace. Children may give their mothers flowers and usually after work people celebrate with their family and friends. In Ukraine, it is a big Bank Holiday and at Action’s offices in Kyiv, they came up with a creative way to wish their clients and suppliers a happy Women’s Day. Tiramisu is a very popular desert there, but the original Italian ingredients are hard to find. Most of Action Ukraine’s client contacts are female and we sent our female clients and suppliers a box, which had a note sending them best wishes for International Women’s Day and added, “… as beautiful women, you are being sent one of the finest desserts, but to enjoy its pleasure, you have to carry out some Action….” Underneath was the recipe for Tiramisu and all the ingredients. Action Ukraine received many calls telling them how it had made their day!
Action Ukraine celebrates International Women's Day with clients and suppliers
In Russia, according to Action’s office in Russia, “It was perfect, the men in the office gave us beautiful flowers the day before, there were flowers everywhere and it was a sunny day. It was like spring was beginning!” The office sent flowers to its female clients and the day itself was a Bank Holiday. People generally like to spend time with their families and friends but there are also a lot of big events and concerts. At the same time, it is seen as a celebration of the past and of women today.
Slovenia, also celebrated and one of Action’s clients gave out around 20,000 chocolate bars to female customers at filling stations, with the chance to win spa weekends and other giveaways. In Kazakhstan, just a couple of days before International Women’s Day, the first Women’s Congress of Kazakhstan took place, with prominent women from across Kazakhstan.
So what did you do for International Women’s Day?
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The dawn of a new year also heralds the dawn of thousands of social media experts trying to outdo each other with their hit predictions on what the next big thing is for social media marketing.
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It’s one month in and already we’ve heard and seen a number of opinions, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. On the side of sublime – check out
Quora, a social Q&A site which allows users to post and answer questions about nearly anything. It’s already gaining traction, in particular with journalists and tech enthusiasts – both vocal and influential groups within the digital space.
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Group buying in the Middle East, via sites such as
GoNabit! and
Cobone are beginning to go great guns, destroying the old prejudice that “ecommerce does not work in the Middle East.”
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There’s also
Qwiki, which is an entirely new way of presenting searched-for information, turning search into a potentially impactful experience.
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Leaning more towards the ridiculous – more and more buzzwords and “social media gurus” are on the scene. Brands beware – there are snake oil salespeople out there confusing everyone and each other by concocting acronym and buzzword campaigns, in order to claim some kind of social authority. It’s entirely counterproductive.
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Here’s our tip for what we see as the next big thing in social media marketing: organisations will become more educated and finally realise that social media engagement is not about a campaign, it’s about a dedicated, ongoing digital communications programme; it’s becoming the price of entry to doing business in the modern world.
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It means auditing and monitoring your online presence, dedicating resources to observe and engage with the conversation in a respectful and conversational tone, whilst measuring the impact on your organisation or brand’s reputation.
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Organisations will look to spend their money more effectively by evaluating the right social media outlets to engage with, premised on where their audience is and where the organisation’s being spoken about; and that it’s not about spending money on the latest and greatest new social media network, simply because it exists.
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Lastly, we believe we’ll also see a marked clampdown on social media brand activities which contravene the terms of the sites they operate in. We’re seeing some worrying instances of brands buying fans and creating fake fans on Facebook, for example. In doing so they are risking their ability to continue on Facebook; pages will be shut down. This really beggars belief – it’s about the quality and relevance of an audience – not the sheer number of fans. So please stay abreast of the guidelines across all your social media channels – the Facebook guidelines were updated as recently as December 2010.
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Wishing you all a successful and engaging new year!
