twofour54 ibtikar launches creative lab for funding young creative Arabs October 19, 2009
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at www.copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , 1 comment so far
Money follows ideas, it’s often said. So, if you’re a cool, talented Arab with a big idea for an online, TV, or film project, Abu Dhabi’s a great place to be.
You get the idea, and we’ll get you the funds and support. That seems to be the motto for ‘creative lab‘ launched today by twofour54 ibtikar, the media industry funding and support pillar of twofour54 Abu Dhabi.
twofour54 ibtikar: creative lab offers grant funding and business support to talented Arab individuals from the UAE and across the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region. If all you’ve got is an idea, you can now benefit from seed funding, development guidance and planning by creative lab to get your dream project off the ground.
Unlimited Power Online in Dubai – How to Make Money on the Internet October 12, 2009
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at www.copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , 6 commentsUnlimited Power Online (UPO) is back in Dubai for the second time. You read about Unlimited Power Online I on my blog when some of the world’s hottest internet marketing gurus arrived last year to share their success secrets in the UAE.
The 2008 Unlimited Power Online event which I attended was packed to capacity
Participants at UPO 2008 listen with rapt attention on cool ways to succeed online
For internet strategists like me, it was a dream come true to personally meet online experts like Michael Koenigs of Traffic Geyser, John Carlton – the copywriting legend, Mike Filsaime known for his Butterfly Marketing techniques, Russell Brunson, Barry Dunlop, Andrew Lock, Reg Athwal and more who presented at the first UPO event last year in Dubai.
Ram and Gautam Ganglani of Right Selection, and Ernesto Verdugo, the world-travelled ‘entertrainer’ whose events almost always get overbooked in Dubai, made it possible for people in the UAE to meet and learn from some of the world’s best minds in the online industry.
Last year, Ernesto had promised me at the first event that he will aim to bring even bigger names to Dubai and UAE soon – on my wish list were Frank Kern and John Reese. And he’s coming closer to that promise this year with the 2009 Unlimited Power Online conference.
Choosing a corporate blogging platform? 10 reasons why WordPress is better for business than Blogger June 18, 2009
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at www.copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , 10 commentsSo many businesses are ready to enter the blogging world. The first question is where to blog? Should it be Blogger (owned by Google) or WordPress (open source CMS as well as free blogging service)? What’s the difference? What’s good from a marketing and advertising person’s point of view?
I blog on Blogger as well as WordPress. And here’s why WordPress gets my vote. 10 solid reasons:
Say hello to my blog’s new look – the SEO-optimised Copyblogger theme for WordPress May 12, 2009
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at www.copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , 4 commentsUpdate 20 June 2009: It was getting very time consuming tweaking the Copyblogger theme’s style sheet – the fonts were too big to enable two or three columns easily. Now I’m using Prosumer theme. It’s 3 columns by default – working better in Firefox than Internet Explorer. Almost everything does, anyway.
Warning: Geeky post ahead. If you’re an out-and-out ad person with no interest in blogs, templates and themes, go have a coffee instead. This post is pure blog-talk.
Something recently went terribly wrong with my blog’s Google indexing. All the posts were showing up with the same blog title, not the post title. So, every result from my blog showing up in Google would say “Journalist and copywriter….etc.” with the post content relevant to the search showing up only in the result description.
Readers who are into SEO can understand my utter shock. For someone who’s Google’s first result for his targeted keywords, this is the worst nightmare ever. Many sleepless nights were subsequently spent tweaking code, deactivating plugins, rebuilding and resubmitting sitemaps. Nothing seemed to work to get my post titles back on Google.
After twaeking bits and bobs, I finally took the big step and changed the theme to the SEO-friendly Copyblogger theme. That worked!
I got all my posts titles showing up very well – which means good news for relevance in search engine indexing. I like the font and type size of the posts – easy on the eye. And, as opposed to my previous theme, Copyblogger’s ‘Comment’ link on posts is better placed for readers who want to comment. Cool!
Two trade-offs though.
I lost all the comments on my bio page – more than 180 of them. And the theme’s side bar only seems to allow run-on text even if I put line spaces, it’s a narrow bar. Will have to spend more time tweaking the template now. One more thing to add to my skills – CSS coding here I come!
Anyone else facing this problem – with Google replacing their post titles with their blog title, even though the relevant posts shows up in search results?
Jobs in advertising and IT vacancy in Abu Dhabi based advertising agency in UAE May 6, 2009
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at www.copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , 21 commentsAt a time when redundancies are rife in Dubai and around the world, it’s always a good feeling to let people know of job openings.
Many friends have lost their jobs in advertising in Dubai in recent months. Abu Dhabi is less affected and I met a young and ambitious Abu Dhabi based agency currently building up their team from traditional creative people to digital specialists.
Here are the job vacancies available in this new advertising agency in Abu Dhabi – if you feel you have what it takes, email me your CV at farrukh_copywriter(at)yahoo.com
If you can write words, does it make you a copywriter? May 2, 2009
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at www.copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , 8 commentsCopywriting is not about stringing together fancy words. It’s about establishing and staying true to a brand’s personality that resonates with its target audience. It’s about persuading prospects with words. It’s ‘salesmanship in print’, not greeting-card poetry.
Copywriting is hard work. Being a good communicator is a basic minimum skill a good copywriter must have. Being able to convey his point across in words, powerfully and memorably, should come easily to him. Researching companies, getting inside the mind of prospects, talking the talk of the consumer should be part of the ace writer’s arsenal.
A copywriter’s words become the brand’s voice, and every brand deserves its own distinct voice – a great copywriter knows how to make that happen. A good copywriter knows his products and brands as well as he knows his readers. And of course, he knows how to spell.
This post is dedicated to my readers, regulars and newcomers, who have their own ideas about what makes one a copywriter. And it was prompted by this ‘long copy’ I received as a comment completely unrelated to the post.
No doubt you are looking for some one who is trained in writing copies.
My training comes out of the hands of masters —members of American Writers and Artists Institutef—located in florida,Marina Del Ray.
Most of the copies I provided are flaw less. I am very grateful for the informatuion and efforts I recieved from this institution.
Those masters— Kieran Daugherthy,Bob Bly,Michael Masterson,—are unique in the whole world.
The AWAI is the only place in the world that offers such course.
I believe by my heart that you will not be disappointed having me assigned writing you copies or any other forms of writing.
If I recieve necessary and related information—to whom I am writing, purpose of writing, how long it should be,etc.— you will get the prompotion earlier than you expect so there will be enough time for revision, if revision needed.
If you happened to be interested to give me a try,do not hesitate to call me or writing email.“It matters not how streight the gate
How charged with punishment the scroll
I am the capitain of my soul
I am the master of my fate”
What advice would you like to give to the writer of the comment quoted below? You’re welcome to post your feedback in the comments section for the benefit of this writer?
YouTube launches 48-hour ad contest with Cannes Young Lions April 30, 2009
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at www.copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , 1 comment so farYouTube and Cannes Lions are offering young creative people under 28 a chance to win a trip to this year’s festival, and participate in the Cannes Young Lions film competition.
YouTube will release the contest brief on 15 May to make a 60 second ad for a prominent charity and post it on the contest’s dedicated channel on YouTube at:
www.youtube.com/canneslions
You’ll have 48 hours to make a video and submit it to the YouTube contest channel. Then comes the more challenging part…
You’ll have two more weeks after submittiung your video to make it go viral. Blog it. Tweet it. Spread it through Facebook. Make it go round the world.
At the end of the two weeks, judges will pick two winners who’ll get an ALL EXPENSES PAID trip to Cannes.
As any young creative who’s passionate enough about advertising knows, the chance to visit Cannes, see the world’s best ads, say Hi to the hottest CDs in business, comes rarely for cubs who’re just starting out.
Making a YouTube video, that too for a charity, I think is really a cool way to win a ticket to the event, specially if you’re got the knack for video. You’ve got nothing to lose. And maybe this is the shot in the arm you need to make that YouTube video you’ve always wanted.
It’s time to get your mobile cameras, handycams, anycams rollin’…
Dubai Lynx strips FP7 off the Agency of the Year Award April 1, 2009
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at www.copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , add a commentDubai Lynx organisers have withdrawn Agency of the Year Award from FP7 Doha. The trophy will not be awarded this year. And you were wondering why the copywriter in uae hasn’t been so eager to post lists and pictures of Dubai Lynx winners this year. It just didn’t feel right. Now you know – there was something rotten in the desperate quest for awards this season.
When a creative idea looks very similar to another one that has previously been awarded, creatives can always plead innocent on grounds that creative minds could think alike for similar briefs. But online and offline, the accusations and investigations and exposes about FP7 Doha’s award-winning ads are mounting. We’re talking depiction of Jesus, showing a pig in a region where it’s ‘haraam’, running ads without the client’s permission, ads showing product lines which do not exist in the region… and more.
“Investigations after this year’s award show have revealed numerous examples of work from FP7 Doha that did not meet the Dubai Lynx entry criteria and subsequently these 18 submissions and the associated seven awards have been withdrawn,” stated an official statement by the Dubai Lynx organisers today.
Awards that have been withdrawn include 1 Gold Print campaign, 1 Gold TV/Cinema campaign, 3 Silver Print campaigns, 1 Silver Outdoor campaign and 1 Bronze TV/Cinema campaign. Ten shortlisted pieces in the Print and Outdoor sections have also been disqualified.
“The Dubai Lynx Awards exist to celebrate and raise the creative bar of genuine work of the region. Activities like this show a disregard not only for the Awards but more importantly for the juries who work so hard judging the event.”
Philip Thomas, Dubai Lynx CEO
I was one of the first bloggers to be accredited by the organisers of Dubai Lynx. In the very first year of its launch, this blog arguably had the most extensive coverage by a local blogger with agencies from all over the world visiting to view the winners pictures and entries. The second year was great too.
But this year, the third year of the Lynx, it just didn’t feel right. I salute and respect all the creatives who put in their blood, sweat and tears to do great work for their clients and target audience, and all due respect for the organisers and jury who spent countless hours making this event happen. But the entries that have now spoilt all that honest effort that went into the event and given us all creatives a bad name – that’s what is NOT cool at all.
Interestingly, in all the years, this must have been the most reported and blogged about Lynx event. I met friends from the traditional media – Communicate, Campaign, GMR, Media Week as well as so many online friends from AdNationMe to AdBlog Arabia to AdBasha and Jazarah. Anubis blog had a field day this time, as he’s been exposing copy-cat ads in the region for quite some time now. And most of them are not going to let this news pass:
1. Campaign ME blogs about the investigation
2. Anubis visualises the Lions’ reaction to the fiasco
3. And this expose from Anubis really takes the cake – see it to believe it!
4. AdNationMe on Samsung slamming the scam ads
5. AdBasha blogs about the art work of an American artists that brought about an easy victory
It all started with a blogger it’s being said – what I’m curious about is why all these publications are shy about crediting the scoop-blogger with a link at least. But we can be sure that this will be one of the most discussed awards in the region this year – too bad for those who’re in the news for the wrong reasons.
With all this around me, I really hope that tough measures are taken to eliminate such practices from awards in the future. I hope that creatives start being evaluated on the basis of how much their work worked for clients and their business. Not just how many scam and ghost ads they made to win awards at any cost. I hope people whose copy-paste tactics bring a bad name to the industry and us creatives are named and shamed publicly.
I wouldn’t say that an entire agency or network could be blamed for what has happened but rather individuals, and I believe FP7 is conducting its own investigation and has promised to take tough action.
To save you the heart-ache of seeing undeserving people lifting an industry award, again and again and again, I will NOT be posting ANY winners lists, pictures or entries this time – as you must have figured out by now anyway. Of course, these are things you can now get anyway from www.dubailynx.com
However, if you are patient enough, I am planning to share what I learnt at the workshops and seminars that the organisers too great pains to put together for us ad people at Dubai Lynx this year. Maybe even video too.
In the meantime, a previous posts of mine that you might want to revisit is:
Plagiarism in advertising – how fake and scam ads are destroying originality
When the going gets tough, advertise! The curious case of the redundant Porsche man in Dubai. February 3, 2009
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at www.copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , 2 commentsThese are trying times for employed expats in Dubai. Because everything depends on a resident visa. Which depends on a job. And jobs in Dubai don’t seem to be very secure right now.
As world economies reel under the recession, the impact is being felt in the UAE too. In more than 10 years I’ve been in the advertising industry, I have never had so many friends in advertising lose their jobs as during the past one month. It seems like not many days pass befores someone is out with their portfolio looking for a job again.
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Twitter power – how social media can make or break you in minutes. February 2, 2009
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at www.copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , 4 commentsSometimes, the best case studies for advertising, marketing and PR are in day to day events. In recent days, I noticed two excellent examples of the power of social media, Twitter in particular. Read on to see how one Twitter entry made a 23-year old famous around the world in minutes. And led to global embarrassment for a very senior person in the field of PR. Just one little ‘tweet’ is all it takes!
First, for the positive impact that a post on Twitter can have. The story that will make you feel good…
