UAE PR

Public Relations, including UAE PR, is a key element of any business's marketing strategy, with the recent high-profile negative PR incidents bringing the field of PR to the forefront of people's minds again.  Driving Growth, a UAE consultancy based in Dubai, can help its clients manage their PR activities to ensure a positive effect on their business, and their bottom line.  

Trends

The PR space is like any other part of business, it doesn't stand still and is continually evolving and developing as business itself is. PR experts in the UAE, including both Abu Dhabi PR and Dubai PR professionals, have noted a number of trends within the region in the recent past.

Visual Content

One noticeable trend is the increasing use of visual content in PR, including both static images and video images.  In fact, the most noticeable trend is towards the use of video.  A 2016 survey indicated that 51% of professionals said they would be increasing their video budgets in the future.  Another trend is towards using ads as more of an educational tool than directly as selling tools.

Mobile

Another trend which is beginning to materialise in the UAE is that of utilising mobiles for PR.  With more than 16 million mobile subscriptions, and 78% penetration, it's clear that mobile technology offers huge opportunity for those in the PR profession.  PR experts will need to consider how to optimise campaigns for mobiles, and what the most cost-effective mobile marketing channels are to ensure they can deliver their messages to the right audience in the most efficient way.

Two-Way Communication

The traditional concept of PR and marketing was that the industry pushed messages to consumers, who then proceeded to consume.  This has all changed, with the advent of social media a major catalyst. The communication is now much more two-way, with the PR industry and the consumers communicating with each other, rather then to each other. This development opens up an opportunity for real-time marketing and PR, with up-to-the-minute exchanges possible.

Paying for Reach

Another trend worth mentioning includes the fact that more and more businesses are willing to pay for reach on the various platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. With around 40% of the UAE population having Facebook, and about 30% having Twitter, it's perhaps a worthwhile investment to reach such a large audience.

The PR space in the UAE continues to develop apace, with more and more sophisticated campaigns appearing in the region.  If you would like to know how Driving Growth can help your business develop an effective PR strategy, please contact them at!

Tags: Abu Dhabi PR, UAE PR, Dubai PR 

Trends in UAE Mobile Apps

The continuing spread of mobile apps into the business field has opened up a whole new range of opportunities for companies wishing to develop their business.  Driving Growth, a Dubai-based consultancy, have a wealth of experience in the use of such technology to help businesses.

Make Extra Money With 53% of respondents in a recent survey in the UAE saying they did not have sufficient income to save any money, the possibility of using mobile apps to supplement income is attractive.  There are apps out now which can help people do just that.

Taskspotting One such app is Taskspotting.  This Dubai mobile app is a Dubai-based tech app which pays people in exchange for feedback.  People can give feedback on the places they visit regularly, including shopping malls, restaurants and stores. The feedback can take the form of mystery shoppers or retails audits, and pays upwards of $3 per article.

Groupon
Groupon is another app which can be used to make money - actually, indirectly to make money because it works by saving you money on purchases.  Users are connected to global retailers and can make significant savings on their purchases.  The system incorporates discounts after certain spending levels have been achieved.

The Entertainer The Entertainer is another app that helps you make money by saving you money.  Users can obtain two-for-one vouchers and deals from a range of companies in the entertainment sector, including restaurants, spas and hotels.

Swagbucks Swagbucks awards points which can be exchanged for gift cards at a range of places. Users can answer surveys, promote certain online materials to friends and similar to earn the points, or SB points as they are known.

Instant Rewards Instant Rewards is a system whereby users can earn rewards by allowing advertisers to market their products directly at them.  As users complete more surveys, check-in locations and view video offers, they earn more and more rewards.  Rewards can be paid into a PayPal account or in Starbucks and Amazon vouchers. Users can earn upwards of $10 per day.  

Opinion App Opinion App, as the name suggests, pays people for giving their opinion on a wide range of topics from a menu of surveys available.  It extends to more than 65 countries, with in excess of 34 languages covered.

Growing Opportunities The above are but a few of the Qatar mobile app available which can help people earn extra income, or at least save money on their purchases.  The opportunities to earn more and more money in more and more different ways are developing almost as fast as the app market itself.

If you would like to find out more about how Driving Growth can help your business develop by the use of the internet or mobile apps.

Tags: Dubai mobile app, UAE mobile apps, Qatar mobile app 

Driving Growth: UAE PR (Public Relations)

Public Relations - PR done well can boost an individual's image or a business's revenue immeasurably; done badly it can have the opposite effect.  Driving Growth  based in the UAE PR, can help businesses use PR to it's maximum effect to ensure the required positive impact is created.

Making a Bad Situation Worse
Whilst PR in itself doesn't directly undo any damage done by a business, it can negate the effects of the damage, or at least minimise them.  Again though, it has to be said that done badly it can actually make the original issue much worse.  The following are examples of just such a scenario.

United Airlines
It would be difficult not to include United Airlines in this.  The background is that the airline faced having to eject a number of passengers from a flight due to them needing the seats for staff, that's already starting to look less than great.  It got much, much worse when one of the passengers chosen to be de-planed refused to leave, and was subsequently manhandled off the plane, suffering injury in the process.  The PR disaster that followed made a bad situation worse, with the airline's CEO not doing the best job of making the situation better thanks to some unfortunate wordings in statements.  The airline has since settled legal claims with the passenger, for an undisclosed amount. For sure, it will be less than the upwards of $250 million wiped off of its share price.

Uber
Uber, the taxi company, similarly did themselves no favours by trying to take advantage of a strike by a taxi drivers' union who were protesting at Donald Trump's travel ban earlier this year. Uber announced it was reducing the price of fares by dropping the JFK airport surcharge.  The online community saw this as effectively crossing the picket line, and many deleted the app from their phones in protest.

Pepsi
Pepsi, the soft drinks giant, ran an advert in April 2017, using model Kendall Jenner.  The ad showed Jenner deciding to join a protest movement, and taking a can of the soft drink to a policeman at the demonstration.  She handed him the can and he drank, smiling with thanks.  The ad did not go down so well with protest groups, claiming it belittled their efforts and portrayed the relationship between police and protesters in the wrong light.  The ads was swiftly dropped by Pepsi.

These are three very current examples of how good intentions can be misinterpreted and result in negative PR for a company and, for sure in the case of United Airlines, cause huge financial loss.

If you wish to find out how Driving Growth can help your company with its Public Relations activities, visit them.

Tags: Abu Dhabi PR, UAE PR, Dubai PR 

Digital Marketing - Qatar Digital Marketing and Dubai Digital Marketing

The era of digital marketing in the UAE is truly upon as, and relatively recent innovations such as Dubai social media marketing are helping drive the trend forward at pace. Driving Growth, based in Dubai, are very well positioned to help their clients take advantage of the newest trends to drive their businesses forward.

Online Population
To try to understand better why digital marketing is so popular, and much more importantly necessary, it's worth looking at the numbers - 1 billion people online by 2005, 2 billion by 2010, 3 billion by 2014 and the numbers are increasing.  Simply put, if over half of the world are online then that's where businesses need to be too.

Mr. Clean
Whilst 2017 is still relatively young, there have already been some highly successful and innovative campaigns to look at.  Proctor and Noble, with their Mr Clean product, decided to try to take advantage of the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day to sexy up their household cleaning product, and with great success.  A Facebook, Twitter and You Tube campaign drew more than 17 million viewers. The secret was to use two major events to stir up interest.

"Know Your Lemons"
The Worldwide Breast Cancer charity used Facebook to help women to check for signs of breast cancer in their "Know Your Lemons" campaign. With a catchy name and a light-hearted approach to a very serious subject, the charity was able to raise awareness levels significantly.

Mothers's Day
Event organisers Red Letter Days were another company to use an annual event - in this case Mother's Day - to promote themselves. The Twitter campaign was to write about why your mother deserves a day off, and had a great response which put the company firmly in consumers sights.

Eggo
Eggo, a waffle product of Kellog's, used another technique to get itself talked about on social media, it was partnered with Netflix, the entertainment app, to great success.  The product was place into a hugely successful Netflix original series, Stranger Things, with the stars of the show seen eating Eggos on screen.

The above campaigns show that different strategies can be applied using social media to market different types of product to great success.

If you would like to know how Driving Growth can help your company with its digital and social media marketing, visit for further information.

Tags: Qatar Digital Marketing, Dubai Digital Marketing, Dubai Media Social Marketing