dotone

SMB’s dragged Online with GoNabit

Saleh Esmaeili — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:58:26 +0000

Years and years digital agencies have been crying n’ whining about how hard it is to sell digital media & products in the Middle East. Ten years later, most of the brands are online, most of the governments have woken up but SMB’s are still out of the picture, having said that, SMB’s form the bigger number of the companies n’ businesses in the Middle East, specially in Dubai.

A month ago a new service floated on the MidEast Internet gulf–GoNabit. I really got interested about the project prior to its launch when @danstuart from Bayt.com announced that he’s goin’ to be workin’ on it full-time, ever since I’ve been registered with their Newsletter. So they launched, and I keep on receiving these interesting Nabit 50+% offers on goods/services that I might like.

The Value & Problems Solved

Looking at the big picture, GoNabit is one of the most creative approaches in filling the gap in the e-commerce & online media markets for the SMB’s. Now check this out.

E-commerce is nearly impossible to implement with little budgets in the ME if we don’t consider the very low quality payment gateways given and managed by banks & ISPs. Yea, brands and chain shops with huge marketing/sales budgets can go e-commerce but what about the little boys, for those with no big budgets? for those that do not work with ad-agencies? SMB’s are all those in Dubai. So what does GoNabit do? Sells the coupons! In a transparent way it’s not just informing you about the offer, but letting you Nabing it so it assures business & visits, but the value lies within the buzz and the awareness that comes with such sales–sales of coupons & special offers.

GoNabit buzzes around everywhere in the Online social space, starting from Twitter(@GoNabit) all the way to Facebook(GoNabit Page). With every Nabit there’s a good chance for the business behind the offer to be acknowledged and marketed with viral & user generated word of mouth. And that is a start to keep a good taste in SMB’s mouths to come back to online & the digital space again and again.

The idea is not coupons or the group buying as noted, the idea is Marketing + Leads packaged in coupons business. What businesses get from working with GoNabit is direct-mail-gone-social. Direct as in solicited direct, no spam. The only people who hear about or receive the e-mails about Nabits are those registered. So take a look at the media and digital channels used, only the best, the solicited ones. E-Mail & Social Meida. So no sperm-like-unsolicited-1-go-die-the-rest kindda’ approach to reach and buzz. Lovely!

Microsite: Saab Aero X

Saleh Esmaeili — Fri, 14 May 2010 09:26:55 +0000

It’s always exciting to checkout Microsites that are made for Concept cars the reason being all the futuristic visions and feels of the designers & the brilliant thinkers that live the life of conceptualizing such cars get painted on a small browser window. With that comes the high level of expectations from concept cars Microsites.

Saab’s Aero X is one of those concept cars that do take you to the future. Being a petrol head I personally find it a mixture of Veyron & the new Camaro. Nevertheless a beautiful concept inside out.

But the Microsite? Designing such a car or the concept version at least takes a high level of interaction design, not jus’ feelings n’ passion so apart from the looks the industrial interaction design speaks for itself while looking at interior design or doors rollup. Oh, but the Microsite? Zero interaction.

The Microsite is really not made by interaction designers, it’s a work of Visualizers alone. Cinematic 3d filmography + great feel to the concept of the site which is futuristic jus’ like the car.

800×600? Such a waste, 160 pixels wasted right there. The timeline style navigation in the bottom does not do the site any justice while it could serve as a seekbar for the video style presentation of the website that tries to go by camera angel, it is still not up to the design of the beautiful Aero X. The rest of the page is fairly small and standard specially the top links that work as a patch and looks like an after thought to complement the timeline navigation for ease of use as an alternative navigation.

But wait, don’t judge the presentation, judge the content. Simply the content is good, as good as a print catalogue though, breif description for each part but not enough for a petrolhead. Just a show off content copy for the general mass who are unfortunately not the target audience anyways.

NaviFlix, 1ne simple app

Saleh Esmaeili — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 10:56:55 +0000

In the past if you wanted to know what’s playing in the theaters you had to drive to a theatre n’ grab one of those monthly booklets to know what’s showin’, when, and where. And then came websites that syndicated theater titles & Showtimes such as UAE Films, or the only two theaters in the UAE namely Grand & Cinestar which lately were placed against Reel & other theater houses.

If it happened that you were on the move and wanted to check the shows and their showtimes you had two options, call the close by cinema or fire that browser on your phone to checkout what’s playing on say Grand Cinema’s website. Oh and if you call, you’d be as lucky as a Radio 1 caller if someone actually answered your call n’ didn’t keep you on hold till your ears bled. And if you opened your browser n’ dialed that Cinema’s website address you’re onto opening/downloading Flash(if you were on an Android phone) and huge images of movie titles, long story short the visit to a homepage of a cinema website could cost you near AED 10 on a pay as you go 3G plan. No Mobile Web!

Some two weeks ago I got access to NaviFlix’s Mobile Website prior to the launch of their iPhone app as it was getting approved by Apple App Store. Checked the site, and with no glorification, a small Mobile Website, a simple service, could save everyone time & bandwidth.

NaviFlix comes in two flavors as of this writing, a Mobile Website and an iPhone app. While the Mobile Website is free and sports simple UI elements and great UX it taxes the users with AdMob ads, which is fair. NaviFlix’s iPhone App is priced at USD 1.99 which is again very fair for such a valueable service and in addition to all that is supported on the Mobile Website the app is Location Based that uses your GPS to locate the nearest theaters for you to select hence the Navi in the name.

On to the review

I’ve been playin’ around with NaviFlix’s iPhone app and the Mobile website for a while now. The look and feel of the app is designed with maximum care and love, it shows that it’s been brushed with love, it shows that it’s not work of software engineers alone, there’s a creative team behind every touch and listing.

You could select your location manually from a drop down or enable GPS services so that the app locates nearest theaters for you automatically. There’s Search. And the main list; “Now Showing”. One small part of the application that I’m against is the way the “Now Showing” list sorts the titles, it’s Alphabetic A-Z.

The argument on how the Now Showing is listed could come from the assumption that most of the users know what they’re gonna’ watch so they’re gonna’ either search or scroll alphabetically. But the other side of the story are the users who are browsing to check what is playing right now, which makes more sense for having the titles sorted by Date of arrival/release of the title. So the newest movies shown first and so on. e.g. the first title shown is 9 n’ followed by Alice in Wonderland while the latest titles today are Clash of the Titans, The Forth Kind… Movies are usually released on Wednesday Midnights(in Grand Cinemas) so sorting by that could give the latest movies a little more visibility and hence making the users informed.

NaviFlix's Now Showing List

It’s not a Great piece of software, it’s a small app that does you Great! Makes showtimes accessible on the go everywhere. Neat!

Props to Flippers on starting the App Game!

is du building another Weyak?

Saleh Esmaeili — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 06:53:27 +0000

du’s digital ambitions were arresting in a great piece by The National’s David George-Cosh(@itsdgc). Right from the beginning of the article and its revealings, it’s screaming Weyak, Etisalat’s equivalent to du’s project codenamed Fassel. Flashback to what Etisalat called an opportunity, what Etisalat called their entrance to the Content world and the Pan Arab content “Community”.

Back in the days of Etisalat building Weyak, Social Networks were not that hip, it was the glorified Blogosphore days. So Etisalat jumped in with all hopes n’ Monopolizing ideas. No, don’t look for a young portal built by young entrepreneurs, don’t buy, no! Build one n’ crush them all.

So du, now, as quoted in the article is about to raise AED 1bn and they have plans to build another iTunes? well, they’ve been already doing something perhaps uncool called My World: http://content.du.ae which I covered last year, check my What’s with du, it’s so dunt. It’s du, yea, they can afford that, and they have the tieups that could support their content ambitions. But one thing remains, hiring a web team can’t get you the right product nor the top content strategists could get you to the right path when your entering a market that needs patience and growth, from far of, it looks exactly like how every other Big player becomes an obstacle for the smaller players.

It gets scary when the key players in the industry who are usually the obstacles to industry’s success begin on competing in it.

“Content that is relevant” this gets repeated all the time, feels like this is the next sell phrase for every idea from now on until the next we-can-do-it conference. Should be fun waiting for the end product and du’s clear intentions of such a portal. I just hope it’s not one of those let’s-look-digitally-cool-and-relevant projects. Until the launch.

Bayt.com: you do my job? okay! I’ll do yours

Saleh Esmaeili — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:36:30 +0000

After dubizzle got some traction n’ started appearing in conferences n’ started selling some real ad spaces, every one with a little online background n’ some development cash in hand went with classifieds. That’s understandable to me, as Mohd Al Abbar once said, in Dubai & the ME we have a business viral syndromes called “The Falafel Syndrome” where if one man opens a Flafel shop on a side road you’ll see that full side road becoming a complex of Flafel shops. True that!

Bayt.com needs no introduction. The biggest, oldest n’ a number of …est stuff in the Middle East. Respect!

After the boom in the classifieds business online, Arabian Business, AMEInfo, GulfNews, and you name’em they all started their own Jobs sections & some like Gulf News pulled their offline Classifieds and streamlined them online, which I believe is really great.

But! Bayt.com goes with Classifieds? That I don’t understand. Yes it’s a good market, but Bayt as a brand is known for Jobs, CVs, Employment Services. First were ads that appeared which didn’t make sense for a proud company like Bayt.com to serve really irrelevant ads on Job pages. Yes, you gotta’ make money, you already do with business subscriptions & cv searches along with cv services. So taxing the Job Seekers with ads?

Now, getting over the ads on Bayt.com. Classifieds? I mean really Classifieds? Bayt.com now has a full portal for Classifieds. And! Jobs is a category in their classifieds as well. Good for them. I’d just expect a lot more originality from Bayt. But hey, they’ve got user base and the opportunity right? so let’s screw our Jobs-only name?

Man on Wheels, Challenger ain’t no Wuss

Saleh Esmaeili — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:56:01 +0000

In October ‘09 I posted how Dodge’s agency made Challenger a bonecar n’ forgot about its muscle business. After lots o’ jokes and many Challengers seen on roads there comes Man On Wheels campaign to finally do the car some fair Justice.

What I love about the Man On Wheels microsite is not the execution. I love the copy. It’s exactly how a Muscle car owner thinks about the car n’ I love that attitude being shown.

It’s all talks though!

But then, it’s all about this cowboy who’s admiring the car n’ jus’ talkin’ about it. Again, nothing’s being shown. The car is shown in its whole form, no details are shown. It doesn’t show the Tail, the cowboy jus’ talks about it, the 6.1 Hemi, no burnout is shown, no Engine sound to get you going and most importantly no V8 growl. Nonetheless I loved the campaign, jus’ because it’s the first time ever some works have gone on an online campaign apart from an online test-drive form in Duabi. What is obvious is that the “copy” has won over the rest of the elements of the campaign and the dominant one way duke-style dialogue kills the multimedia purpose of the website. If there was only a little bit of Outdoor n’ off-studio shooting to compliment the campaign, only if there was…

Campaign fail, Challenger made a wuss.

Badges, check, Social accounts and handles, check

Saleh Esmaeili — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:12:22 +0000

Facebook group, check. Twitter account, check. Youtube channel, check.

Slapping badges from the above sites on the Website, check. Ads on Facebook, check. Ads on Youtube, check. Ads on other sites, check. Now what?

Engage!

Using all the social networks, bloging n’ microbloging is not meant to be for showing the face, but to have a sort of dialogue and conversation with people(you can’t take them as customers).

Observing some of the campaigns lately I was excited to see all sort of badges on one of the campaigns for an event. So out of my excitement I started following event’s Twitter account, became a Fan on their Facebook page, subscribed to their YouTube channel and waited for the fun to start. Ten days before the event I started seeing Ad Banners on various websites and mainly on Google Network. Okay, no fun. No updates. So I moved my expectations to the day of the event. I’m at the event, checking Tweets, none, oh they post a link to a press release. Facebook fan page full of fans’ questions and answered by other fans. Youtube channel showing videos of last year’s event.

The event was such a success. But was the campaign? Worth noting that the so-called “Social Media Campaign” was ran by what they call “an emerging top-notch Social Media House”. So it’s all about badges? And tossing some names n’ buzzwords?

Everyone knows it, but do we really engage? Or what is engagement really? (check @jassim’s some two years old article on it)

Yes, it’s all about experimenting with the new toys n’ mediums. Yes, outcomes do not come fast but fact is a brief sarcastic tweet of mine from yesterday: I noticed something of rather high value, whoever can spell “social media” is a field expert from day 1 of its existence. hah?

4Ω part I

Saleh Esmaeili — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:06:21 +0000

In Arabia it’s often mentioned that users are Forum oriented. And that Arabic readers tend to engage in online Forums or Bulletin Boards activities rather than other types of online activities.

So then came Online Advertising to the Arabia and everyone started searching for media spaces to monopolize on or just to serve some ads on. The shocking story was awaiting; Not enough Arabic websites. Better put, not enough Arabic content. The further Media buyers looked at it, they found only Forums.

Then came Maktoob to the rescue, bought a number of Forums and the Forum advertising went mainstream in Arabia.

Forums in the Arabia = Many to Many Mass Social Media

What amazes me is that once everyone heard companies should have some party to control/monitor twitter and facebook accounts just because they saw that happening elsewhere everyone started shouting for the same. Wait, why didn’t you engage in the Forums? Wasn’t there where your consumers were?

GCC’s online culture is a many to many when it comes to communication. Content dictatorship is not something they want to have in their daily online interactions. Blogs are hardly the way to go with content. Unless you’re a well known and established name odds are you’ll be lucky to have readers that follow you. So if you’re not “a somebody” users would prefer you reading their posts too. So drill down to that Forum topic and post along. It’s a many to many conversation and not someone’s discussion, it’s everyone’s!

And the obvious, anonymity. No real name needed. It’s funny how the Facebook users in GCC use odd Avatars and even hide their Real names. It’s Facebook and it’s a closed network, so if you don’t know someone you wouldn’t add or connect to them. But, the same anonymous culture is brought to every system they shift. So what does that tell you? That we in GCC are retarded? That’s the easy answer every agency carries around and spits every where. Culture is the answer.

Forums. So because every website used to be made by Forum applications just like how most of the websites use Blogs as their content management systems(CMS) one report stated that around 80% of Saudi Internet users visit Forums the most. Hah? So in that case are 90% of the websites in the Arabia Blogs?

Another misconception

Forums have a great number of Pageview and that’s because every topic is talked about and discussed by many. It’s awkward when you see banner ads between every “reply”. Ads served on Forums might exceed the number of Ads on some of the top portals in the region, but what is the return really? Less than a basic e-mail shot! (e-mail me for my data comparison). Forums n’ communities are all about interaction and engagement, the same reason why Traditional web banners in Facebook are not the best for Action-based campaigns.

Example, the widely topic back in May in one of the Forums was the high prices of cars at GCC dealers and everyone was signing a petition in a topic in Cars Forum. People were running a campaign themselves, trying to tell everyone not to buy Toyotas or Nissans and wait until they reduce prices. Between each two posts you’d find a Toyota Banner. So much for targeting? Not really, based on keywords n’ topic, they’re in the right place, but? This is not where you dictate content, it’s a Forum where everyone needs to talk! Instead engagement and replies were needed.

Call us on 800# before you click or just don’t click

Saleh Esmaeili — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:09:23 +0000

You read Newspapers so you’re a telephony. You don’t want to click and read and then fill up a form or take down an e-mail address to subscribe.

The National's Ad Banner

Brilliant. The National has medium square banners served on YouTube(and perhaps elsewhere) with the title “Subscribe to The National”, picture of an issue folded and an 800 number. Because if you’re an analogue being you’ll probably be calling to subscribe.

Continued, if you happen to be an impatient user who clicked on the banner all you get is a page with more details in the same style. Call to subscribe. Amazingly integrated. I’d like to think this is a campaign that was internally planned with a maximum of a consultant help and that’s it. Not an ad-agency work, I’d like to think so.

The National's Campaign Landing Page

Doesn’t it feel original with a taste of Mont Blanc too? Great match.

Campaign fail, Challenger made a wuss.

Saleh Esmaeili — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:10:50 +0000

Some Agency got this campaign really bad. An epic FAIL for Dodge Challenger not by car’s Design or Engine, by an Ad Agency. A car with such a long history treated that way. Fail!

I’m not a fan of Muscle cars, nor dodges but I love their V8 growl and the scary body design. I’ve driven many of them. I know many challenger owners and I’ve raced a good number of’em on the track. It’s a car with history.

I was browsing 7days.ae earlier this morning to see a banner on top of the page for Dodge Challenger. The Banner is not clickable. Too much for a test-drive campaign?

Below are snapshots taken from 7days.ae.

I don’t know where to start with this one. It’s wrong, it’s all over the place.

It’s a SPORTS COUPE, V8. It’s a muscle car. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. No! When it comes to such audiences, what “we’ve built” ain’t important if you say it. Show something? On spot! Don’t say it!
Sunset? Beach. It’s a Beasty Coupe, not a luxury family car. It’s an aggressive car, the beautiful angles and corners of this ride could easily be noticed! Close up!
It’s a Muscle car, show me some V8 action, some Engine bay, Exhaust. Let me hear that Exhaust note.
Show me the wheels. Show me those strips that slice the car.
Make the banner clickable, at least!

So how could such a campaign go that much wrong?

What I wonder is, how could a campaign for such a car that has been resurrected go out that bad with no care. It’s a resurrected lineup. The above banner has nothin’ to do with the Car whatsoever. It’s just one of those let’s-jus’-get-this-done kindda’ work. No research. No physical contact with the car, and for sure no respect for the target market and audience.

FAIL.