The 3omdaz digest

Casestudy of Egyptian Shockvertising: Dice Underwear

Afternoon peeps,

In a country where the media scene is becoming more fragmented than ever before, New TV stations and websites are now spreading like wildfire; it is becoming extremely difficult and costly to reach out to your target audience. Because now they’re not where they used to be before, neither behaving in the same manner.

With that said (especially if you’re a startup/small brand with low awareness) you need a breakthrough strategy to literally “break-through” the advertising clutter and stand out as a brand with a unique character, attitude and values.

Last week, we all woke up to a set of commercials that shook some profound values and taboos that are not usually discussed publicly. A set of commercials belonging to an unheard-of brand that goes by the name; Dice Underwear.

Check below (Warning: explicit sexual references)

Taking an academic look at the matter, Dice Underwear is using a notorious marketing strategy that merges both shock and advertising; or as it is most commonly known; Shockvertising..

By definition; shockvertising is a type of advertising generally regarded as one that deliberately, rather than unintentionally startles and offends its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals....

Shockvertising is a strategy used by numerous brands globally; the most remarkable and recent would be Benetton's UnHate campaign in late 2011; showing world political and religious leaders kissing, in an attempt to bring their differences aside. This campaign caused massive dismay from the general public; that some took matters into their own hands and actually tore down its billboards. The Vatican issued an official statement requesting campaign cessation; just 48 hours after its launch.

Locally we've witnessed some milder examples of the same through in-your-face sexual innuendos in a couple of Melody Entertainment campaigns (Wadee3 & Hamzawy campaigns for example); A campaign that scored extremely well with the youth and even became part of everyday jargon of some.

Shockvertising is designed principally to break through the advertising “clutter” to capture attention and create buzz around a given brand/product or cause. Quite honestly, Dice Underwear did not fall short in delivering on any of the above.

Just 2 weeks ago, if we had done a quick dipstick to know if anyone has heard of a brand called Dice Underwear, I'm sure we would've gotten rather faint results... Today, I believe it is very difficult to know someone who hasn't seen, talked about or even heard of the new Dice Underwear commercial and was intrigued to take a look at it.

Likeability and brand affinity aside, I believe they overscored on their awareness KPIs

Dice Underwear became a household name overnight, due to a bold advertising tactic that the majority of the Egyptians took with a pinch of salt, so reactions varied from seeing it too offensive, rude or overboard; to just meeting it with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Samples of mixed reactions below

The beauty of this execution lies in the fact that this particular brand does not need to be “polite” per se, they actually do that and say what they said!
Meaning that the nature of the product makes it in itself a taboo, just because they’re in the underwear business. So law kda kda taboo, yb2a 3laya w 3ala a3da2i b2a… They took the bold route of executing it, went out there with clear sexual insinuations that their target audience would understand and appreciate; because this is how they talk and behave anyway.

From a positioning, product design and pricing standpoint; it would be safe to assume that the core target audience here would be 15-30 B/C Males; who are already more rampant than ever before (esp after Jan 25 which showed them they now matter), rebelling against anything and everything, they cuss, swear, make dirty jokes w bey3akso el banat fel share3..

It would be naïvely stupid to assume they don’t talk this way already; so the brand is simply talking to them in their language, which will help them score higher affinity with that audience cluster, thus reflecting in higher sales…

I don’t think we made the same fuss when French Connection launched their FCUK line in the early 2000s. We were all proud owners of their t-shirts that speak for a certain cult with a given set of values. This is just a local version of it.

Yemken 3o2det el khawaga b2a!

The only point here I blame them for, is that they should’ve made their media selection more specific, because at the end of the day, a TV ad is viewed by everyone, so is an outdoor sign.

As a consequence, children and conservative sects of society are naturally exposed to such messages; which would trigger negative feedback.

It would have been better if they had gone viral with minimum mass media usage, in order to avoid the headache of criticism the campaign is probably causing them already...So the problem is not with the message itself, the problem is that the wrong people saw it.

Looking at things from another angle, seeboohom yefra7o… It might be the last campaign of such caliber we see… With all what the country’s going through these days, you never know.. yemken yelgho el boxers w yragga3o el barbatoz tani! haha

Mel akher kda…

Shocking, check

Safla w mon7atta, check

Dammaha khafeef, check

Delivers the message, double check

Love it, HELL YEAH!

Final take on this, chapeau bas.. Excellent campaign, spot on.. Bravo!

Cheerio,

3omdaz

Vodafone - متخليش حاجة توقفك

Morning friends,

Its been quite some time since I've wrote anything, depressing times honestly.. I'm sure everyone would agree.
Writing about advertising didn't seem like the right thing to do these days, until I saw this; the new Vodafone copy of Mohamed Mounir..

Cynics would say the idea might actually seem pretty simple, an idea that is repeated a million and one times already, showing the life journey of some singer.. so what?

So to answer that point of view would be; yes. The idea is fairly simple and might be repeated a million and one times; but the fact of the matter is that the choice of celebrity here is different from any other; Mohamed Mounir is a revolutionary icon from a lot of angles; his choice of words, fusion of different music genres, on-stage performances and bizarre attire does not act in conformity with what the society said it should back when he started in the mid 1970s.

Mounir is an exemplary artist who set his own standards, created his own halo and outperformed himself every single time; beating every adversary on the way... till he reached the stature of being called "The King" by his loyal fanbase and later on by the general public as well.

The choice of such a decorated character accompanied with a strong connection with a brand as solid as Vodafone would probably make this ad one of the most powerful this year..

I'll go through some of the elements that helped me assemble the above opinion and pass such a verdict on the ad given that I usually take such pieces of work with a pinch of salt and scrutinize it to the core

1. Choice of character and brand connection:

Well, I believe we already dwelled into the history of Mohamed Mounir and who he is, so no need to reiterate these facts.. The strength here doesn't only lie in Vodafone's endorsement of Mohamed Mounir (and the bags of money behind that) but of how the creative agency; JWT, connected Mounir's journey to the Vodafone brand.
The ad shows the life of a world-class singer and how he managed to crawl out of a small village in Aswan onto the spotlight of the Egyptian singers hall of fame.. A journey that took a lot of effort, perseverance, innovation and assertiveness on what one wants for their destiny.
Mounir is an example of a zero-to-hero character, someone who had nothing and now has everything, he's obviously someone a lot would aspire to (forget about the A/Bs who would still look at things with the tips of their noses; we're talking mass here). So all this married beautifully with the new line of "Don't let anything stop you", falls bull's-eye under the "Power to You" umbrella which Vodafone has been globally adapting since mid 2009...
I've surveyed a dozen of fellow marketing/advertising professionals re this; and some of them think that Mounir's choice weakens Vodafone's stance since Mounir has already been used by a rival telco operator a couple of years ago.. I respectfully disagree; Etisalat used Mounir as a part of a bigger crew that glorified the Etisalat brand (and cost them a shitload of money of course) on its 3rd birthday in a festival-like environment (and worked beautifully with people), Vodafone however did the exact opposite; they glorified the endorsee and gave him the weight and airtime he deserves; with minimal presence of the brand that is only visible in the last 3 seconds of the ad. To me this this would make the idea sink better because I'm not advertising Vodafone here, I'm advertising the fact that there are people out there (such as Mounir) who went out there, followed their dreams and made something of themselves.. and at the end; hey, VF just wants to remind you that el qowa bein 2edeik and that u can take control of ur destiny, because we just saw an example of that.

So to counter that point once and for all; with the magnitude of this ad (copy duration and content), I even forgot Mounir ever did advertising for someone else before.

2. Casting

One of the core reasons why I think this ad will score very high on its communication KPIs is because its believable, its real..
As far as I'm concerned; the casting on this ad can easily win an Oscar for best casting/make up.. The 13 year old Saad Yassin is now a celebrity already as he resembles Mounir in his looks, walk, talk and singing style..
When you're watching the ad, you feel that is actual footage off Mounir's video library, not just some actors they got together to shoot an ad w shokran.

3. Cinematography & Music

The ad opens with Mohamed Mounir's close-up, so no further teaser of who we think the celebrity is (versus Adel Emam's ad where he appeared in the last 15 seconds in a 90 second copy).. Again this reiterates the fact the VF here is celebrating the Mounir phenomena, not the VF brand.

From my very humble film production knowledge and if I correctly remember my marketing textbooks; I believe cinematography of this ad is very good; as one of the guidelines of celebrity endorsements is to use a different camera lens than the one normally used for regular ads.. To give the viewer the feeling he's watching a movie rather than just another ad... They did that beautifully; coupled with some Instagram-like effects on the telescene, the ad really gives you the feeling it was shot in the 1970s.
Music is also excellent, builds up in the right time to the right scene to give you that epic ambience, that shiver down your spine that you can actually be the one that stage someday (whatever that stage of success means to you).

So to conclude, I was actually in an awe state upon seeing this... being a true believer that everyone has a potential-volcano willing to erupt with talent (targama 7arfeya shwaya, haha)..

With that said, I find no better line to close this than with Mounir's own words;
كل المفروض مرفوض... اثبت للعالم إنك موجود

Till we meet again,
3omdaz

Ramadan Week 3 Review - Part 1

Hello people,

First of all, sorry if I was a bit of a disappointment this year... its been a crazy, CRAZY Ramadan... with no time to do anything!!
Anyway, since I don't have much of active brain cells left in me; lets dig into the critique.. no intros..

Mobinil:

Youssef Dawood:

Hassan El Asmar:

A typical Leo Burnett ad with its striking colors... I really like the Youssef Dawood copy, great of choice of character; his laugh is extremely remarkable, specially that he's bantering at the poor guy...

Hassan El Asmar's copy is also quite good, and would definitely sink well with the target audience (pre paid customers, SEC C wenta nazel)... Tough luck for Mobinil, the copy will not see light anymore out of respect for the deceased singer whom this ad was his last piece of art... RIP

Grade: B+

Pepsi:

Sporty:

Welfare:

Smarty:

As expected in review dated August 1st, it was a charity campaign indeed with voting involved...
There are some mixed emotions I'm sensing from this campaign... some people like it, some dont... Personally I like the Education copy a lot..
Nevertheless, no one can deny that Donia Samir Ghanem's star is shining as she proves year on year that she is one of the biggest talents to scout for out there..

Pepsi is at fault at one point there; regardless of whether you liked the ad or not... You'll end up hating it anyway because it airs A LOTTTT pretty much everywhere.. Pepsi is adapting the local proverb of "الزن علي الودان أمر من السحر"
One of the reasons why brands produce more than one copy per campaign is because people get bored after a certain level of exposure to the copy... Afterwhich their perception of the copy becomes negative.. Its called "Copy Wearout" theory..

You may have also noticed a series of unorthodox outdoor street signage for this campaign, as if it is a real elections campaign with candidates running against one another..
Too bad Coke jumped the gun last year with the same idea for Fantaloup's campaign last year below.. But I have to say that Pepsi have been more visible this year..

Grade: B+

Vodafone:

Shokran:

A non entertaining ad + a redundant jingle blended with a long copy duration that airs about 5000 times a day is a definite recipe of failure, for me at least..
The campaign's idea is smart indeed, thanking whoever you want, someone you're grateful for... great idea.. execution sucks though...
Dull copy, horrible jingle and a low production daily TV show doesn't really cut it..

Vodafone may have won the share of voice battle this Ramadan as they're the one's who are most visibile and probably the ones with the biggest pockets this year...
But I'm not sure how they scored in terms of ad likeablity and positive perception...
So I don't think we should consider this a victory for VF as much as its a failure to deliver by the other 2 telco operators... So its like you won a race, but you've been the only one running against crippled competitors!

Grade: C

Vodafone Network Coverage Campaign:

1. زيارة مفاجأة

2. معلومات مهمة

3. معلومات مهمة بردو

4. هس السلعوة

I believe this ad marks a transformation in VF's communication history.. VF has always been very serious, functional and to the point.. typically British.. Even when they were "fun", they were never playful..
Now we see a fun ad that is completely different from what we're used to from VF..
See how similar how this ad is to Mobinil's ad around 4-5 years back (The Mercedes, The Monkey, Yasmine Abdel Aziz....etc)

I believe this paradigm shift is because the new creative team on the Vodafone account have been brought up in the Leo Burnett Cairo school.. It is evident in the color tone, telescene, black comedy and opening sequence (note how similar the first couple of frames in the copies below are similar)

Anyway, this one helped maintained the balance after Shokran's flop (for me at least).. Shokran Vodafone ennoko l7e2to nafsoko!

Grade: A

Dayem:

We now come to the most controversial ad this year...
Some people absolutely LOVE it and actually wait for it to come along on TV, and others utterly despise it and zap away whenever it comes along..

This ad embodies everything that is evil in the advertising world... a stolen jingle, a fake French accent, irrelevant political connotations (Gaddafi quotes, WTF??), people dancing for utterly no reason.. how relevant is any of this to ANYTHING that has to do with the brand...
Major flop by creative agency... from a professional angle..
However, for some weird reason, the ad is funny and shareable.. so its something people like to see again and are actually sharing with eacother (so I really don't know whether this is a plus point for the ad or a minus point from the viewers)..

Ya3ni men kotr ma howa we7esh, yes3ab 3aleik, fa t7ebbo.. its like these little bulldogs.... they're so ugly, drooly and disgusting you actually pity them, then eventually like them!

Grade: A or F....Confused, but more prone to be an F!

That pretty much wraps up things for today, stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2 with more ads and more scrutiny.. Buahahahaha (evil laugh)..
Ciao
3omdaz

Campaign gone bad - Vodafone Shokran

Its so frustrating when someone works on something so hard and thinks its the best fruit of all their efforts, they think its the best thing that ever happened or will happen to the world.. Unfortunately not everyone would agree.. exactly what happened to the Vodafone Shokran campaign..

Apart from the actual copy that personally didn't register much with me, and the smaller cutdown of just Nelly and Samir Ghanem playing funny with eachother, which was also a disaster.. VF extended their Shokran campaign onto a radio program and a TV program for everyone to thank everyone else.. and we all live happily everafter..

But what VF didn't think of is that the internet population behaves completely differently than consumers of any other media; if someone doesn't like your ad on the internet they will say it right in ur face.. w elli y7assalni ykassarni... and this is what exactly happened when they decided to roll out that campaign on Twitter.. Last night, VF started a hashtag to encourage people to thank whoever they think is worth thanking; #vodafoneshokran.. It started off peacefully with people thanking their friends and family for being so supportive...etc.. Looks perfectly normal and on track of what they thought would deliver best on their campaign..
Then the tables turned COMPLETELY, with people using the hashtag to remind Vodafone and all the other telcom operators that cut off communication on Jan 28th; and "thanking" them for that... Here's a sample of some of the Tweets..

#vodafoneshokran #mobinilshokran #etisalatshokran اقتلونا شكرا اتجسسوا علينا شكرا خربوتوا بيوتنا شكرا

متشكرين .. انكوا اعلنتوا ان ولائكوا لمن يحكم .. خلوا الحكام ينفعوكوا #VodafoneShokran

Shokran for putting my life on the line on Jan28. Shokran for the panic you've created in every single house @VodafoneEgypt #VodafoneShokran

#vodafoneshokran شكرا، من كل شهيد، ماعرفناش نجيبلة إسعاف أو دكاترة يوم28 يناير، عشان مافيش تيليفونات

Adding more fuel to the fire, renown cartoonist and activist Carlos Lattuf actually drew about it...

Other reactions included

Its very dangerous to think you can communicate normally at times of turbulence and major heat about your brand... We can bluntly say that Vodafone hasn't been a fan favorite this year.. So they should've thought a million times before telling people "HEEEEEEEEEEH E7na Geenaaaaaaaaa" :)))))
They should've been more careful about their communication message and how they'll approach it.. I'll quote a friend's status this morning that explains this beautfully: ‎#vodafoneshokran a typical example of " el may3rfsh yesref el gen may7daroosh"

Expected backlash quite honestly... Good luck to the PR team covering up for that!
fa ne2dar kda n2ool en this Ramadan.. Vodafone 2alet shokran!!!

Cheers
3omdaz

Ramadan 2011 - Day 1 Commercials Critique

أصدقائي صديقاتي..

رمضان كريم..

Its been some time since we've met; its been quite........ an eventful year to say the least..

Over the past 8 months we've seen a lot of peaks and troughs; a mix of emotions; ups and downs, hopes and disappointments..

But with festive seasons such as this one, wel "ayyam el moftaraga" di; comes hope of a better day and wishes that things would become better.. If they're not getting better; at least we'll wish they'd stay as they once were..

So I decided to let time stop here; put all the politics aside and keep the below as pure joy of watching a good piece of advertising.

Disclaimer:

Since last year; I've been gathering some opinions and "critiques of the critique" regarding this blog; and some people told me that they thought I was being too lenient sometimes because I knew the advertiser or the creative team who worked the ad...

With that being said, I'll be more critical this year and will take whatever comes along with a pinch of salt.. Just for the sake of making this industry better (well; doing my part at least)..

So fellow advertisers, clients and friends... its just business, nothing personal here :)

Lets take a look on who kicked off so far and how they've done..

Coca Cola:

Although this ad scored well with a lot of people thusfar; however the purpose of this blog is to evaluate and critique genuine art of Egyptian creative minds... With that being said, I will not evaluate nor grade this one as it is a copy-paste job from a global copy that aired earlier this year with Coke celebrating 125 years of launch..

I really pity both the Coke marketing team as well as the creative agency for not having the chance to shine nor the space to rocket-launch; especially after such an impressive track-record over the past 3-4 years.

Personally speaking; I'm an original ideas junkie, copycats are a complete turn-off to me; so I looked away after the first 5 seconds; once I saw it was adapted.. but I'll leave the judgement up to you..

The Global copy launched earlier this year

The localized copy launched this Ramadan in Egypt

Grade: N/A (but very VERY disappointed)

Since Coke does have a very impressive track-record and have proven time and time again that they're one of the most original advertisers out there in the market; I'll give them a bit of a break and showcase the below viral; a very inspirational video of the "Like" button... Although its been released about 2 months back; but it still shows that the above wasn't really the best fruit of their work and that they can do much much better!

Pepsi:

Obviously there's still a lot left for this one.. We'll be seeing more of this, meet the 3 different characters of Donia Samir Ghanem and get to know them better.. Probably there will be a voting bit involved too.

Maybe SMS voting proceedings will go to charity; note "w ya reitha kanet leya, di l 7aga ensaneyya".

We'll see...

So far.. an average copy.. nothing impressive there either..

Grade: B-

Vodafone:

My initial thoughts...... "hmmm, really? Thats all you got??"

A couple of quick thoughts on the same though..

1. Its smart to use Samir Ghanem and Nelly (as they're the ones who always used to bring us joy during Ramadan back in the day) and asking them to thank whoever they thought would deserve a thank you; their mentors/partners...etc... Aseela ya Vodafone, feeki el kheir..

2. Although the ad itself didn't make me feel as festive and happy as it should've; it would be very smart to roll it out on the ground by actual "Thank you" activities; real people doing real good; this would make people feel special, feel loved.. I believe this is what will be done in their CBC Program; "Shokran with Sherif Mounir" that will start broadcasting today at 10 pm.

We'll see how this one will unfold... but taking the copy separately; apart from any complements that might come later; I don't think too highly of it..

My feeling is that Vodafone wants to shove it up Etisalat's face for their copy last year.... lel asaf... lam tanga7!

One more thing... am I the only one getting extremely bothered with the jingle... shokran shokran shokran shokran shokran shokran shokran shokran.... ssshhhhhhhh BASSSSS!!!!

Grade: B-

Etisalat:

CSR copy... what can I say.... eshta!

Don't feel too intrigued to watch it again honestly.

I don't think this one will stop here... Probably a side-kick copy to THE corporate ad they'll probably release later on..

Grade: B-

Mobinil:

CSR:

Again another CSR copy by Mobinil, but I'd have to say.. Its very well thought, doesnt come short of what to expect from Leo Burnett..

The hands that cook, the hands that build....etc.. I like that!

One thing worth pondering though; they promised jobs for 200,000 hands? tab mat2oolo jobs for 100,000 people w khalas? lol

Grade: B+

Mobinil Business:

Although this one launched about 1 week before Ramadan, it can still be considered part of the same season.

This one is just great; colorful; choreography very nicely done by the Alissar Caracalla dance group (Choreography instructor at Star Academy).. Makes you feel real happy watching it

Grade: A-

Again I don't expect Mobinil to stop here... As the above were copies for CSR and Enterprise/Business, we did not see anything for Mobinil Corporate (ie: The BIG Mobinil ad of the year)..

The Leo Burnett team have quite a challenge on their hands since:

1. They need to make up for last year's disaster (Alf Leila w Leila copy with Edward and Aimee Samir Ghanem)

2. They need to cover up all the heat that is surrounding Sawiris and Mobinil for the past 3 months since the whole Twitter cartoons issue.

Anyways, thats just a quick round up of what's been released so far.. I'm sure after Iftar today there will be a lot of ad releases giving us plenty material we can start looking into... yummy :)

Have a great Ramadan everyone..

See u next time..

3omdaz

Pre-Ramadan warm-up act - Coke VS Pepsi

Hello friends,

Its been just a bit under a year since we've last met, there’s been quite a lot happening over these past couple of months, I believe advertising critiques wouldn’t be too relevant to what the country was going through since Jan 25… And since the ad season is coming up soon (Summer and Ramadan) w kol sana wento tayyebeen…. 2olt astafta7 b ta2too2a kda 3al khafeef.. haha!

Moving on; since the Revolution and the stepdown; we’ve seen all kinds of reform initiatives and positive patriotic messages from numerous brands (as if they suddenly remembered they were Egyptians). These ranged from pathetic attempts of commercializing the revolution with mobile ringtones, lame jingles and a commercial disaster such as لحاف الثورة (The Revolution Quilt) to respectable initiatives that relate to the brand and the current situation eg: Henkel’s El Balad Baladna campaign.

Here I’m just showcasing the 2 advertising giants in the country of the same category so we’d be comparing apples to apples, Pepsi VS CocaCola.

Before I begin, I just want to point out that a lot of people see both ads extremely similar, actually some think they’re both one-n-the-same, so I’ll attempt to scrutinize both to pin point the differentiators in each then give my judgment at the end of the post.

Pepsi:

The tone here is quite modern/upbeat.. The people in the ad are mostly tech-savvy youth dressed up in their fedoras and postmen bags, armed with I-Phones and FB posts.. Unfortunately, not all Pepsi users are of such profile.

Agreed that the revolution was a “digital revolution”, and the whole digital scene is becoming more “in” since Jan 25.. But the digital bit of the revolution was restricted to a certain group of people who were always connected with their instant FB/twitter updates and speak-to-tweet on-the-ground updates, the rest of the rebels just followed offline. So I believe it’s a bit too risky to generalize as there’s a major portion of the target audience left out here

Also the ad’s catchphrase is pretty genuine بكرة بدأ بفكرة – Tomorrow started with an idea.. But the execution was a bit over-complicated that it lost the essence of the idea… By a show of hands, how many of you related the brown bubble popping out the heads of people in the ad as the “Pepsi idea” that will make tomorrow better?? Did u even notice that people are walking around with brown bubbles over their heads? Seriously, how many of you, 30-50%? So this is us, the “sophisticated” chunk of society, when coming to show this to the rest of the Pepsi target group who are not so “sophisticated”, it’d be a bit naïve to think it’ll sink or register with a lot of them.

So generally I think there are 2 directions of why this ad came out the way it did:

1. Pepsi is moving into being a niche brand, thus they’re talking only to a certain target group that dress, behave and think the same way – Which means they’re shooting themselves in the foot as this group of people does not exceed 3% of the population, thus their revenues and marketshare would eventually take a dip.

2. They’re still targeting the same people, but unfortunately the way the ad is manifested missed out on the majority of their consumers.

So either way, I don’t think Pepsi did a great job here..

What I really like about their campaign though is how they’ve used the jingle to promote the whole campaign.. Generally I’m a fan of using music in promoting brands (specifically that one of Pepsi’s main communication platforms is music).

Pepsi used the “voice of the revolution”; Amir Eid to sing their jingle for the new ad, in order to capitalize on Sot El Horeyya’s popularity.. Then they capitalized further on the jingle by airing it as a normal full song on radio stations so it’d sink in more with the people..

One thing to note though; Amir Eid and his band Cairokee did the jingle for CocaCola’s thematic campaign in Summer 2009…. Bummer!

Coca-Cola:

This one is pretty straightforward, strictly focusing on its slogan: tomorrow will definitely be better!

The cinematography is extremely expressive and is a true reflection of what the country is going through at this time.. From a gloomy cloudy phase that evolves into a sunny and brighter tomorrow.

The magic word in this copy is simplicity.. It shows real Egyptians, real people; the average Jo you see on the street (well, the average 7anafi for that matter). It shows real places from Cairo; the more I watch the Coke ad, the more I think the Pepsi ad was shot abroad (although its not, if you take a closer look)

Plus it directly touches upon the “Egypt is now open for business” attitude.. So Coke says: Get up, dust urself off, work ur brains out to make this country better for you and your children.

We’re all in the same boat here, we’re all throwing hooked ropes in the sky, each and every one of us. That’s why this copy would score higher on affinity than others.

Verdict:

Coke definitely won this round (by knockout kaman).. Maybe because they had a longer copy duration to showcase their ideas (1 minute vs Pepsi’s 30 seconds), but even with a longer Pepsi copy I’d pick Coke as the idea is much clearer.

Anyways, it doesn’t matter if you think that tomorrow started with an idea or if you want to make tomorrow better.. Either way, keep on smiling, work harder, be better and make this country a better place.

That’s all this time folks,

Take care,

3omda

Is PS3/WII messing up our marital lives or is its intention just "misunderstood"? - إعترافات زوج "لعيب بلايستيشن"

Hi all,

Its becoming very common these days to walk into a living room or a café to find a table that is seggregated with an invisible line... Guys glued to an LCD fidgeting their fingers on a joystick/pad, girls either watching the game in utter boredom or just lost hope on the guys and decided to start a discussion... If you see this, then you have 2 couples infected with WES; Winning Eleven Syndrome...!!

In the next couple of paragraphs, i'll take you through the history of gaming, how do you know if you're a gaming addict and how to get back to track to the real world!
Its quite interesting how some statements come back to haunt you, after you thought you'd never hear them again... EVER!
Lets face it, back in the late 80s ands throughout the 90s we all grew up listening to moms/dads complaints, preaches and sometimes commands such as:

- Am locking the Supernintendo in my cupboard when school starts
- Etfi el zeft da w enzel el3ab ryada aw e3mellak ay 7aga mofeeda..
- Inshallah 7aygeelak takhallof men Mario bta3ak da
- Seeb el gameboy w o33od m3ana shwaya yabni..

And after endless attempts to try and convince our parents that video games are actually "beneifical".. (that Tetris makes u smarter for example), but yet our best efforts did not avail.. parents still hated them, kids can never quit playing them.
And when we thought all our troubles became over after we grew up, moved out/got married/branched from our parent's lives, the dilemma began again. This time however, with the wives, girlfriends and fiancées.

The statements we thought we'd never hear again (and were quite happy they vanished) got amended a bit but still kept the same motto.. Below are some statements that might sound too familiar:

- U've been playing since u got back from work.. mesh kefaya b2a?
- Ahmed (or whatever the name is)... Ahmed... AHMEDDDDDDDD... can't u hear me?????
- Khalli el PS tenfa3ak..
- Momken teseebo el PS w to33odo m3ana shwaya b2a (in case you have a fellow-couple over)

The evolution of a gaming generation:

Fact is: videogames have become an essential part of every 1970s-1990s born males in the country, since childhood till date.. The generation who've been fed "Mario Bros, Street Fighters, River Raid and Sonic The Hedgehog" to earn the name "Ninten-kids" have now evolved; passing through phases of "Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Pro Evolution Soccer and Winning Eleven" to rightfully own the name Ninten-dads.. Yes.. Nitendads!

According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the average gamer's age has been plotted at 10 years old in 1990... In 2009, these numbers have jumped to 23 years old in the UK and 39 years old in the US.. where the average gamer has been playing for the past 12-15 years.. I believe Egypt and the MENA region would be in-line with the UK at the early 20s.

Shocking figures?? I don't think so... These figures follow the same patterns of any natural evolution theory you can relate to (even Darwin's for that matter). Just like our passion for Football/Sports has stuck to us, and our love for holiday season/Ramadan has grown on us since childhood... So do our gaming habits!
What our beloved parents and partners do not understand is that gaming isn't just a phase that we passed through in our childhood and its stopped there. As they're non-gamers (or occasional gamers if you're too optimistic), thus they never understood why you were so excited after killing Bowser for the first time in 1993, just like they'll never understand why you're hooked infront of the LCD while playing the final of the Champion's League on PES (for them its just another match on the same dam green pitch)!!

Symptoms of an addict gamer and consequences:

You don't neccessarily have to be a gaming addict for life, but you definitely passed through some of the below symptoms at one point in time (at least one point in time):

Symptom:
- Playing 12-15 hours a day straight
- Utilizing a long weekend to just sit and play, nothing else (a personal experience: I once played 75 hours out of the 96 hours of the 4 day long weekend)

Consequence:

- Drowsiness and headache
- Introversion: Where you don't want to see, hear or meet anyone outside the game's context.. Even going out with your bestfriends is not fun anymore, as you'll always want to run home and play till the last day in your life (your REAL life, not game life)!
- Hallucinations: You'll start mixing between what's in the game and the real world, where you start thinking that your dad is Nico Bellek or that any visible projectile as a hand grenade coming at you (usually followed by ducking or rolling on the floor and shooting with a finger-gun)

Symptom:
- Sensual system shutdown: where you literally shutdown ALL your senses and only focus on seeing and hearing the LCD and feeling the pad in your hands.. thats IT!

Consequence:
Domestic disturbance: Whereby family members would get the impression they're being intentionally ignored/disrespected.. This is where statements such as "Cant you hear me??" arise.
Gamer's widow: This consequence is the latest stages of sensual shutdown, where the wife/girlfriend feels a loss of her partner although his heart is still beating... However, his mind and soul are completely owned by the gaming console.. this is where the lady decided to smash either the console or the LCD, resulting in the gamer awakening from his "trance" and realizing that he's actually a normal human being, not a car/vegetable/special forces squad member!
The results of the gamer's widow reactions cannot be predicted because either:
1. The males become very appreciative to their partners for getting them out of the trance.. and they live happily everafter!
2. A major fight erupts, causing discontent on either or both sides. (most common)

The solution:

1. Please be more considerate to your partners, 2 hours a day is quite enough... No need to spend the whole weekend playing (I know its a bliss... but just give it a shot.. in the name of love... lol)
2. When your partner calls you, just answer.. it makes them feel better.
3. Do NOT try to involve your partner in your gaming habits, because there's one of 2 consequences there:

- She'll like it in the beginning, then you'll assume she likes it so much until she confronts you with the fact that she's only playing just to share something with you... And that you do NOTHING together now except playing games... which will piss her off even more.
- If your partner is a sore loser.... Well, just watch the below

To sum up, we know gaming addiction is a bad thing, we know we shouldnt be doing it as often as we do... But hey, we're no angels; nor are you!!
We still accept your imperfections of endless best-friend phone chats, suffocating us with your nailpolish aroma in the car (with the windows closed) and constant chatter about anything and everything that happened throughout your day!!

No... we dont love our PSs as much as we love you.. its just that its a complete disconnect from all life's pressures and noise. We promise not to play as much as we do and to be more considerate.

And girls... give your men a break... you know they need it after working their asses off every hour on the hour to support you.. A romantic dinner for two is not always the kind of pampering he's looking for... Guys appreciate their "Me-time", in this instance "Wii-Time" (note the pun, lol).. so make sure you give them that!

I'll shut this one off on a happy note, watch the below, it'll definitely make you smile! :)

Adios amigos,
3omda

PS: Iman, thank you for being so patient and tolerant.. I love you! :)

How the Egyptian Advertising scene has made it to the press...

Good afternoon 3la "Ahl Cairo" :)

Its nearly end of Ramadan, most of the ads are released already so it can get kinda tough to dig out new ones...
I'll only include one review at the end of the article but I want to share something else.

Remember the first real post on this blog, talking about the status of the advertising industry in Egypt and how it grew over the past 3 decades.. Well it doesn't just stop there, because over the past 2-3 days, there's been some articles by renowned journalists about the same topic, but handling it from different angles..

A journalist in Al Dostoor newspaper shared an article about the strong performance of the Egyptian advertising scene and that the collective efforts of the different agencies have raised the bar to the extent the people now watch ads more than they watch TV serials (a bit of an exaggerated statement I'd say)..
Nevertheless, this shows that the scene is becoming stronger by the day, to the extent she urges movie and series producers to watch and learn from the ad industry professionals..
Check it out here

However, Renowned journalist and author Dr. Lamis Gaber takes this to another level in her article "هما الوزراء بيشتغلوا إيه؟" "What do the ministers do for a living?". In this article, she picks one particular ad "Fantaloup" and debates how this reflects the current political scene in Egypt, whereby ministers always have a poor "Misil7i" to dump all their sh*t on and get them fired to keep their seats in the cabinet.

So what does all this tell us??
In my view, I see the advertising scene as a pure reflection of what the country is going through, just like books, movies and music.. Its as art of its own, a passion, not just a dayjob that pays the bill wa shokran.. And thats what makes it so special... dedicated people who actually LOVE and ENJOY what they do!

Way to go for all professionals who helped such articles to be posted by doing their homework and research well...

Now for the ads

1. Mo2men Memories:

Although the ad is a bit too long (we didn't need to go through all these moments, for cost purposes at least), but i kinda like the ad... A lot of these memories are true indeed, especially the 1988 scene (brings back these times indeed, Mo2men Merryland, Chicken Kiev sauce dripping on my tshirt and the metal tray hanging from my uncle's VW Beatles window)

So the people who actually have memories as such would relate heavily to this ad (zayy 7alati), I'd reckon other people would find it funny too..

Grade: B+

2. Mansour Corporate:

Honestly, I don't think corporate campaigns for cars make any difference anymore.. Everyone knows they're all the same, what it boils down to is price, service and word of mouth (what they've heard of the car)...

I believe saving budgets of such campaigns for producing proper ads of new launched models (eg: Mazda 3's outstanding copies Part 1 and Part 2), that would be more beneficial.

Grade: B-

C'est tout..
See you when I see you..
Have a nice weekend,

3omda

Coke's 3rd Happiness Strike

By now we probably all saw Coke's first 2 "Happiness strikes" in the supermarket and cafe... Now Coke strikes in City Stars..

Check it out below....

Its an idea that would blow your mind when you see it while taking a stroll through the mall.. Great execution, and the fact that it also moves is awesome...
My only problem is that this is a miniature copycat of the US activation launched earlier this year (below)... They kicked off on a great pace, with original ideas and real buzz going around the activity.. but now, for me at least, they just did what their peers in the US did a year ago.. nothing exciting there.

But not everyone in Egypt saw that global casestudy... so for them the impact is HUGE..

One more thing, does it look fake or am I being too skeptical?
The guy in the blue cap is waving his smiley stressball and Coke cans to both cameras (in the fridge and on the side of it)...
What happened to the "candid camera" of genuine happiness??
This would make me reconsider the whole campaign's credibility..

I wont be grading this one since its not an original idea...
The original idea gets an A* though.

Ramadan 2010 - Day 20 Commercials Critique

Saba7 el kheir ya Masr..

Shwayet e3lanat kda 3al saree3...

1. LINKDSL NETwassel Campaign:

A timely retaliation move by the country's first ISP, as TE Data has been hitting right, left and center in the past period..

Link DSL comes back with a pretty decent corporate copy. Its simple, warm and informative.

Note the orange polo t-shirt of the guy in the ad, a clear reference to Mobinil's full acquisition of Link.net last month (after partially owning for a long time).

A simple yet nice ad that would make u smile every time you watch it..

Grade: B

2. 3 Chefs Half Chicken Campaign

A nice set of ads... Although they're a bit exaggerated and cliché (the whole family sobbing because of the mom cutting onions has been used ever since the Charlie Chaplin era), but I actually like the ads, they're funny, light and stamped with the "Leo Burnett Cairo" trademark, the cheerful telescene and tone of colors.

The little kid (the son) is just out of this world, outstanding performance, funny, cute, playful...EVERYTHING... he's just GREAT!

You got some talent, kid... and probably you also got some more acting contracts coming your way soon

Grade: B

3. Scib Radio - What are your colors?

This is the first time I ever review a radio ad, because honestly there weren't any radio ads worth even mentioning... Although we've been tremendously progressing on TVC production and ideation, however our radio copies are way below world-class standards (just reminders, constant musical reminders that you hear a 100 times a day, thats why you know them).. But this set of ads actually took a complete turn in Egyptian radio copies...

Steve Allen; US TV legend once said that "Radio is the theater of the mind, while TV is the theater of the mindless"..

I'll only use the 1st half of this quote in the above review... They indeed played along this line, I dare any of you to listen to this ad and not imagine what the voiceover says (the White dress, Red Sharbat...etc).. You might even close your eyes and go into a brief nostalgic trance reflecting a memory similar to that sound you just heard..

Thats is the beauty of this campaign, it takes you beyond just listening. It actually forces you to use more than the 1 sense you should be using.. It makes you think, imagine and maybe even SEE things.. This is something we haven't been used to do with the current ads on the radio.

Scib Paints and Leo Burnett Cairo have successfully managed to cut through the clutter of 1000 ads per minute on Nogoom FM to the extent that all the ads sound all the same!

Hope this would elevate radio production and ideation to a whole new level...

Grade: A

Thats all for this one folks.. Take it easy friends,

Cheers

3omdaz