Well I got few messages on my mobile yesterday wishing me a blessed Ramadan and I expect few more today as people were confused if Ramadan is today or tomorrow, some people decided to praise others yesterday, others decided to wait until it is officially announced, and yet Fastlink’s network was screwed up yesterday, what would happen if Ramadan was today and we all decided to send SMS?
I was in Starbuck – Abdoun yesterday with Ibrahim who is a Fastlink subscriber also, both our mobiles were dead, then we moved to Abdoun circle and spent sometime there but mobiles are still dead, all the way back to my home in Mecca Street still no coverage, just when I passed by Xpress at Mecca Street I got few messages then the coverage went away. After more than 2 hours coverage is back.
This is a complete failure, 2 mobiles in more than one location and there were no coverage, it wasn’t a mobile phone problem or some tower failure, it’s a failure of the whole operator due to some messages that couldn’t be handled probably. I wonder what is the size of the crisis would be if Ramadan was today and all subscribers were swapping SMS????
Screw all telecom operators in Jordan.
As the online advertising spends going up in the whole world, Yahoo! predicted a slowdown in online advertising growth in Q3 compared with Q1 & Q2 this year. Yahoo!’s CEO Terry Semel described Automotive and Financial services as particularity weak growth sectors even that Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance reported that financial-services companies were the largest online advertisers last month, accounting for 28% of online display ads.
According to eMarketer, an e-commerce-analysis firm, online advertising spending in USA reached 12.5 billion US$ last year and is expected to reach 16.7 billion US$ this year. Yahoo! expectations for this year’s third-quarter sales is the hit 1.11 to 1.22 billion US$. The internet’s share of global online-advertising budgets is expected to rise to 8.3% in 2012 from 3.7% in 2005, Merrill Lynch & Co. Analyst Justin Post wrote in a Sept. 12 report.
Client: Levi’s.
Creative Agency: Percept Gulf, Dubai.
Earlier this week a new magazine was launched in Jordan entitled “Family Flavours”, a magazine that focuses on parenting related subjects and issues with a Middle Eastern approach, the magazine is in English to offer an orientation to Non-Arab readers of culture, traditions and religion in Middle East and mainly in Jordan.
The interesting thing is that the launching session was like a labor, since the idea began last December - 9 months ago. The more interesting is that the team of the magazine has a total of 30 children, which reflects the personal interest in developing this parenting guide and in my opinion gives credibility to subjects discussed in the magazine.
The magazine is so neat and well designed; colors & fonts are proper for reading. Their website is well developed and will be a reflection of the printed magazine, Blogs and votes are among the main features that will be introduced on the website.
Family Flavours is a magazine with a family essence due to the concentration on home and family related topics. The magazine tackles relation between parents and their kids offering guidelines about dealing with them in different stages from inception, to birth and up to 12 years of age. Health is one of the main topics discussed in the magazine, diet, exercise and children & food are among the issues observed by experts of the magazine.
Among other aspects men & women stuff, fashion, home design tips and much more.
In the first issue the magazine will be focusing on Ramadan and going back to schools. According to one of the founders this magazine is a short-cut, it is a platform where experts in all fields of child development and parenting in the Middle East come together and give tips, advice and guidance.
An interesting way to evaluate advertisers, Campaign ME, a Dubai based Marketing magazine is evaluating companies in UAE through telephone calls. Hertz Rent A Car has been promoting itself aggressively in the UAE in recent months, but is it customer’s service as driven?
Hertz: Good afternoon, Hertz rent a car.
Campaign: Is this customer service?
Hertz: Yes sir, good afternoon.
Campaign: I am looking at driving to Oman for the weekend, can you recommend a car for me to take?
Hertz: Sir, I would suggest a bigger car like Honda Accord or a Camry, something like that.
Campaign: Is assurance included in the price?
Hertz: No sir, in the UAE only. If you wish to go to Oman 100 Dirhams per day, not per 24 hours.
Campaign: Do you have cars that are modified for disabled use?
Hertz: We don’t have sir.
Campaign: What driving licence do I need if I am on a visit visa?
Hertz: Do you have an international licence with you?
Campaign: No I don’t, but I have a UK licence.
Hertz: Get a temporary UAW licence at the traffic department. They are just giving you six months temporary licence UAE. It will cost, I believe, 100 Dirhams, two photographs and then present your visit visa and the UK licence and then you can rent a car.
Campaign: What is the most expensive car I can hire?
Hertz: The most expensive car is luxury, which is 1000 plus, 1000 something.
Campaign: What is that?
Hertz: A Lexus 430.
Campaign: And what is the cheapest car?
Hertz: The cheapest car is a manual car, which is a Corolla manual – 120 per day, dirhams.
Campaign: How old do you have to be to hire a car?
Hertz: It depends, sir. From a small car from A category to D group, which is a saloon car, you should be above 21. If it is a luxury more than 30 years old.
Verdit:
The call handler answered all the questions knowledgeably, but lacked detailed information on some of the car prices. No explanation was offered as to what the difference between a day a 24 hours was for the insurance to Oman, and campaign was surprised to hear that an international company such as hertz does not offer cars that are modified for the disabled.
Score: 7/10
Client: Rapala.
Creative agency: Carmichael Lynch.
