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

UAE advertising - Dubai advertising and Qatar advertising

Advertising is not in itself going to improve a business's revenue, done badly it will simple be a cost that is a negative on the bottom line. Advertising has to be effective in delivering increased revenue, and it can be by engaging with the right type of audience and helping them make the decision to purchase. Driving Growth in the UAE advertising has developed a successful approach to advertising which is helping their clients achieve the return on advertising investment they need.

Poor ROI
As mentioned above, not all advertising is effective at delivering a ROI. Even the most expensive and high-profile advertising can culminate in a very poor ROI.  

Match.com
UK online dating company Match.com came under fire in 2016 for their London Underground billboard campaign.  The billboard featured a red-haired and heavily-freckled female with a caption along the lines of even people with imperfections can find their perfect date.  It wasn't long before the company was heavily criticized for suggesting freckles and ginger hair were imperfections.

Bic

Bic South Africa released an advertisement on World Women's Day in 2016 that was immediately branded as being very sexist.  The ad suggested that whilst women were great at looking good, when it comes to thinking they should leave that to the men.

Starbucks

The release of the Starbucks Christmas cup is always eagerly awaited. The effort for 2016 was underwhelming according to most customers, a simple design with a red cup and the green Starbucks logo.  However, due to the amount of publicity this received, it's hard to say that Starbucks were negatively affected.  No such thing as bad publicity as they say.

McDonald's

In 2102, McDonald's launched a social media campaign which was meant to encourage people to share their inspirational stories with the world. Unfortunately, the campaign was hijacked and instead many provided their horror stories of visits to McDonald's restaurants.

Heinz

Heinz foods suffered an embarrassing situation recently, they had a QR code registered to them as part of an advertising campaign.  The campaign ended in 2014 and Heinz didn't renew the code subscription.  With a long shelf-life, some Heinz products remained on the shelves of supermarkets beyond the date of the campaign. The QR code had been reassigned to another company, an adult entertainment company.  Heinz customers scanning the code received a nasty surprise.

The above examples serve to show that even the biggest companies can have an advertising fail.  If you would like to know how Driving Growth can help your company deliver an effective advertising campaign.

Tags: Dubai advertising, UAE advertising, Qatar advertising 

UAE Advertising - Qatar Advertising and Dubai Advertising

Development  

Advertising in business has been around for almost as long as business itself has.  In its most basic form, it can be traced back to ancient civilizations but the more sophisticated type we see now can probably be traced back to the 19th Century, when newspapers and magazines were the media of choice.  In the 20th Century the advent of TV, radio and the internet have been something of a revolution for Dubai advertising .  In the UAE, Driving Growth are a company with expertise in the field of advertising, able to help clients develop their advertising campaigns to enhance their businesses.

Innovative Ads - Bou Khalil 

There were some successful advertising campaigns in 2016 in the UAE, each using innovative or unique means to appeal to their target audiences. Bou Khalil, the supermarket chain, were aware of the trend towards not giving money to beggars because many believed the money was not being spent wisely by the recipients.  They introduced a scheme whereby would-be donors could buy a voucher to give to the beggars - the voucher could then be exchanged for food and other essentials.

Nestle 

As part of a campaign to encourage children to drink more water, Nestle developed an app that allowed kids to see what was going on in their stomachs.  It's theme was a storybook with a fish character, Tummyfish.

HSBC 

HSBC bank had a great idea to welcome in the new year, and to encourage people to follow their dreams and aspirations.  They placed gifts at various places in Dubai (including a bicycle, surfboard and headphones) and the first person to find them had a great start to the year.

ADTCA 

The Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority developed a diverse media campaign to highlight the Emirates as a great place to visit for cultural experience and natural resources.  It had press, TV, radio and digital exposure.

Daman 

Daman, the insurance group, developed an innovative advertisement in two regional magazines to promote the health benefits of Vitamin D.  The advertisements only became visible when exposed to sunlight.

Emirates 

Emirates Airlines, based in Dubai, developed a social media campaign where seven of their employees were seen travelling around the world in a series of 90 videos.  These seven were known as "Globalistas."

K9 

Dubai dog shelter K9 had an interesting ad aimed at raising funds for their shelters.  They portrayed their dogs as models, with each dog having a portfolio and being available for hire as a model.

Samsung

Samsung developed an ad in response to the problem of short-sightedness caused by holding device screens too close to the eyes.  The screen app - Safety Screen - would warn users when the screen was too close.

Lipton 

Lipton shopping trolleys were modified to incorporate fitness trackers into their handles. The trackers would show steps taken, distance covered and calories burnt in an effort to promote general health improvement.

The above are just a selection of innovative advertising campaigns seen across the UAE in 2016.

For further information on how Driving Growth can help companies develop advertising campaigns, or the other services they can provide.

Tags: Qatar advertising, Dubai advertising, UAE advertising 

Dubai Web Design, Abu Dhabi Web Design and Qatar Web Design

Developments
In order to see how web design has changed and developed over the years, it is worth taking a look at a website from 15 years, 10 years and 5 years ago and comparing them with what we have today.  You will see some significant differences.  This is true across the globe, including Dubai web design, Abu Dhabi web design and Qatar web design. In 2017, we can expect to see some further developments in web design based on current trends.

Composition
More open composition is being seen more and more.  In the past, the screen was static and the elements stayed where they were, these days things are moving around, and even moving on and off screen.

Asymmetry
Previously, symmetry was the standard, with everything being balanced vertically and horizontally.  This changed in 2016, with many designers choosing to go for the asymmetric look.

Chaos
If you were to compare the websites of yesteryear with today, you could be forgiven for thinking things are chaotic now.  They are only apparently chaotic, with the traditional themes such as texture, colour, size etc still being followed, just less obviously.

Richness
The trend is also towards richer patterns, backgrounds and designs.  Dashes, stripes, dots, grid patterns and less boxy buttons are becoming the norm. The general theme is moving away from standard towards variety.

Animation
Animation has always been around in web design, but now it is a much bigger feature.  The smooth scrolling between elements, content appearing and disappearing on the screen are amongst the popular animation effects we are seeing much more of.

Typeface
The actual typeface used now is also different from before.  The tendency in the past was towards simple block typefaces, with perhaps headers using something a little different.  These days, we are seeing more contrast between different typefaces on the same page.  The size of typeface is also changing, with the move towards bigger is better.

Colour
In terms of colour, there is often a connection between the colours used and the website owner, resulting in a somewhat fixed range of colours which can be used.  That said, wherever possible, designers are tending to incorporate more darker and dimmer shades and tones in their designs.

Trend
If we wanted to draw a theme around the developments, we could say the trend is moving away from minimalism, but that's not to say minimalist websites don't have their place.

If you would like to utilize the expertise of Driving Growth to help you develop your companies website design, visit them.

Tags: Dubai web design, Abu Dhabi web design, Qatar web design