The knowledge cafés at the Nielsen Consumer 360 Conference

I am very excited about the Nielsen Consumer 360 Conference, and specifically the knowledge cafés component.

From my experience with clients over the last year, be it with agencies or companies, the number one reaction is: "We did not know that was possible". So I believe the role of sales in this new medium is mainly to inform not sell.

Advertising industry is growing at a shocking rate, with international brands leading the market. My job has been showing the range of possibilities and how to take advantage of them. We plan to do exactly that at the Nielsen Consumer 360 knowledge cafés.

We will take the knowledge cafés on the road for any company who books us over the week following the event.

We’ll also have guest speakers from the following areas of expertise: advertising optimization, social media & viral, Mobile Internet.

Hope to see you all on November 23-24 at the Nielsen Consumer 360 Conference. Make sure to book in advance.

Ashraf Maklad - Commercial Director, Sarmady

 

 

Happy Birthday, Digital Advertising!

Oct. 27 marks the 15th anniversary of the industry's first banner display ads, which appeared on Hotwired.com - the first commercial digital magazine on the web and the offshoot of Wired magazine.

The banner campaign started a $24 billion business, and got a 78% click-through rate. The world's first banner (pictured below) was quite ugly and clicking it lead nowhere:

- AdvertisingAge

 

Egypt Mobile Advertising Spend

It's estimated that worldwide spending on mobile advertising will reach a total of $19 billion in 2012. – eMarketer, March 2008

The total Egypt market for mobile advertising spend is forecasted to reach $60 million by that time.– Sarmady

 

Egyptian mobile subscribers exceed 51 million– AMEinfo.com

What's driving the growth? New phones, rate data plans and better content such as mail, news, weather, instant messenger and sports - which in turn is attracting new mobile publishers and services.

The Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre has said that Egyptian mobile phone subscribers growth continued in August, with 1.4 million new accounts added, bringing the total number to 51.477 million.

 

 

What's next in marketing, by Phillip Kotler

Sarmady sponsored the "What’s Next in Marketing" on November 15-16, launching a rather big digital campaign for the organizers to attract a wide audience . There was an impressive turnout of more than 1000 delegates.

Most people in this business know Philip Kotler and have read his book, "Marketing management". We share here two key learning points of the sessions, because although most people know them, we still make these same mistakes every day.

1. The perception that marketing and advertising are one and the same. While there may be overlaps, Kotler warns that you should not advertise something you have not marketed properly. He went on to advise marketers to find a niche through which to differentiate and decommoditize a product or service from those of their competition.
2. Marketing changes, it’s not geometry; geometry theories don’t change for thousands of years. Whereas in marketing, what worked in the 90’s will most probably not work today.

 

 

ContactCars.com - number one site for marketing specialists in automotive industry to promote their brands

The number of used cars for sale posted on ContactCars.com recently hit 5,000, making it the number one platform for selling and buying used cars in the Egyptian market.

 

FlashCamp Egypt and Sarmady

Flash Camp Egypt is the most prestigious event organized by Adobe User Group in Egypt.

Sarmady was one of the gold sponsors for the event, always on the lookout for new technology and talent especially creative and interactive ones.

Flash Platform created a breakthrough into the digital market, by migrating the end-user practices to a whole new level of rich-internet experiences, which delivers the most compelling applications, content, and video to the widest possible audience.

We use Flash Platform interactive features for all our digital advertising campaigns, also we have developed special reporting services like Dwell Time, Leading Actions, and there are many more to come .

 

The Number One Digital Network in Egypt adds two new affiliates

A unique advertising platform for the medical industry has been created with the new affiliate added to Sarmady's network: FluOrSwineFlu.com. The web-site is the 1st Arabic health education portal specialized in Swine Flu pandemic disease.

Aiming to satisfy all market needs, Sarmady signed e3050.com, which is Egypt’s first online retailer offering its customers a chance to buy IT products online and have them delivered to their door step.

Some of the biggest brands in entertainment, finance, automotives, consumer technology and packaged goods have already taken advantage of Sarmady's advertising solutions

"The Ugly Truth" Digital Campaign

Client Need

Communicate the presence of a new movie in Egypt and engage consumers in going to the cinema

Campaign Goal

• Engage consumers into a competition to win free tickets by registration;
• Drive traffic to the cinema;

 

Tactics

• WEB: Expandable banner containing registration form for competition, movie trailer, and cinema locator ;
• Mobile Internet: mobile portal containing registration to win 25 tickets, movie trailer, cinema locator;
• SMS shots to A and B classes in Cairo and Alexandria, containing link to the mobile portal;

 

Results

• 31,000 SMS impressions;
• 1,350,000 impresions served on WEB;
• 1.81% Click Through Rate on the Mobile Internet banners;
• 1344 registrations for the competition.

 

 

 

 

Use targeting where possible ... Don’t simply spam

Studies have shown that highly targeted advertising produces an average of four times the industry standard clickthrough rate. Make your digital campaign effective by addressing your message to the audience that is the most appropriate for your business. Target accurately by social class, location (region, city or district), age group, gender, marital status and life style (business or friends)