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Shaping awareness on breast cancer in Saudi – how a local firm won globally for its communications approach

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There’s nothing better than getting recognized for good work. What’s even better is to make a difference through your actions. We don’t often get to celebrate our local, Saudi-based public relations industry either because everything comes out of Dubai or our local agencies and companies believe that communications with the media and public begins and ends with a press release.

That doesn’t have to be the case any more in Saudi Arabia. One agency has been looking to change how communications is viewed in the Kingdom. That agency’s name is Adalid, and the founders are Saudi nationals who understand and know not only how the media works but also what communications is capable of.

They’ve notched up a series of impressive wins and campaigns locally since founding the agency two years ago. However, Yahya and Sohaib’s crowning glory is an event that has earned them global recognition. To quote directly from the piece in this summer’s edition of Gulf Marketing Review which can be found here.

“Saudi PR agency takes home two SABRE awards for breast cancer awareness campaign

Jeddah-based Adalid has beaten out 2,000 entries to become the first Saudi-managed and owned public relations firm to win a platinum and gold SABRE award for the one campaign. The much-coveted trophies, which were handed to Adalid’s top executives during the Holmes Group EMEA SABRE Awards ceremony in Prague this May, was in recognition for the success of A Woman’s Stand, a public relations campaign designed to raise awareness of breast cancer among females in Saudi Arabia.

The program, conducted by Adalid Public Relations on behalf of HRH Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud and the Zahra Breast Cancer Association was the unanimous first choice of the SABRE judges…

The campaign, which aimed at raising awareness of breast cancer among women in Saudi Arabia through attempting to create the world’s largest human pink ribbon, worked with traditional media channels such as MBC, women’s magazine Sayidati, and Saudi’s Al-Watan newspaper.

Adalid also utilized social media to both spread awareness of the event as well as mobilize supporters to attend the record-breaking attempt. Thousands of people subscribed to the campaign’s Facebook page and Twitter feeds.

“While this was a professional campaign, it is also one where the benefits reflect directly on my mother, sisters and every single woman, not only Saudi Arabia but across the world,” said Adalid PR’s Managing Director, Yahya Hamidaddin. “Now the Kingdom has demonstrated that there is enough concern to establish a world record and been recognised for its efforts to bring concern over breast cancer out into the open, I am sure we can move forward in the battle to overcome this deeply distressing affliction.”

Adalid was founded in 2009 in Jeddah by a number of Saudi nationals with experience in the public relations industry. The agency extended its geographic reach following the opening of an office in Riyadh last year.

SABRE awards are bestowed annually by The Holmes Group in recognition of a company’s superior achievement in branding and reputation. They are awarded to those public relations, reputation management and brand building campaigns that exemplify a strategic approach in research and planning, innovative thinking, integrity and effectiveness. Gold SABREs recognize the best programmes in specific brand-building and reputation management categories. Only one platinum SABRE is awarded by the judging panel for the best campaign in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. ”

Just for good measure the boys and their team of dedicated PR professionals not only won the European SABRE award in May, but topped it off with a global award for the best public stunt of 2011. Adalid’s A Woman’s Stand campaign also made the shortlist for the Holmes Report best global public relations campaign of 2011.

What’s amazing about this campaign is that it’s opened the doors for a comprehensive debate on breast cancer in Saudi. The disease, or more to the point discussion about the condition, is often considered a taboo in this conservative country. Since the campaign there have been calls for more initiatives from the public and private sector, and even an order for breast cancer to be a lead topic during Friday sermons (I still cannot imagine how most Muslim preachers would react to this, to discussing a topic that they’d most likely never thought about before, let alone preaching to their followers).

Thank you Yahya, Sohaib and the rest of the team for making this campaign possible, for promoting breast cancer awareness and for showing how good public relations can be in Saudi Arabia. You and the client have I believed made a huge difference to the women of the country and you’ve been awarded for that. Long may your success continue. I just hope the rest of the public relations industry in Saudi as well as Dubai takes note that we can do more than just send out a press release.

Adalid’s founder Yahya holding the SABRE awards in his hands

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Adalid's founder Yahya holding the SABRE awards in his hands

Let’s hope these awards are the first of many for Saudi-based communications agencies

The power of social media in Saudi – How consumers took on Almarai and won

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The past year has been one of transformation across the Middle East. What has happened on the ground has been mirrored online. Today fewer people out there across the Arab world would deny that the internet will make a difference.

The Arab Spring as it has been labeled by the media has affected the way that consumers interact with brands and their products/services. Arab consumers, particularly young consumers, are much more willing to voice their frustrations and concerns online. If pushed, they will also take on brands and coordinate their actions with others online in what could be dubbed concerted campaign-like actions.

We’ve seen a number of examples of consumer-led action in 2011. There’s been the widely publicized #Qtelfail campaign which highlighted how unhappy both foreigners and Qataris were with Qatar’s government-owned telecommunications firm Qtel. Then there was the #VodafoneShokran hashtag which was used by Egyptians to criticize the global telco for its decision to turn off its network during the Egyptian uprising.

Even Saudis have gotten into the habit of getting online to flex their consumer muscle. On July 3 the largest dairy producer in the Middle East Almarai raised the price of a two-liter bottle of fresh milk from seven to eight Saudi Riyals and reduced the size of its one Saudi Riyal laban from 200ml to 180ml. The company had justified the price hikes by pointing to increasing costs for raw materials, packaging and higher wages.

Saudi consumers went online to protest at the price rises. Those on Twitter used the hash tags #mara3i, #StopMara3i to voice their concerns, noting that other diary companies had not raised their prices. A Facebook page calling for a Gulf-wide boycott also attracted hundreds of followers.

Boycott-related images posted on Twitter internet included a photo of Almarai-branded laban bottles in a store overlaid with text reading “Let it rot.” Another picture, from a Saudi Twitter user, featured a bottle of Almarai laban with the caption “Go to Hell My Friend – Saudi Citizens.”

“Usually, companies raise their prices if it suffers losses,” said statement written on a Facebook page set up to boycott Almari’s products. “Well, this is absolutely not the case for Almarai, one of the biggest Saudi companies in terms of revenue. Why does it want to raise profits? Is it willing to form an economic empire at the expense of the crushed citizen?”

Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram published a few of the thousands of comments published online. “They exploit us by increasing prices and consumer protection doesn’t turn a hair,” Abdul Aziz Al Qobeishy said on “together to face the greedy Marai.”

Another Facebook user, Yasser El-Harbi, said “Go on people and AlMarai will remain an unforgotten lesson for vendors in different sectors.”

The outburst and consumer backlash was so pronounced that the Saudi Ministry of Commerce stepped in. The Minister himself issued a decree to force Almarai to revoke the price rises which the company duly did on the 11 July.
In a written statement Almarai defended its initial decision to raise the price of its products.

“In compliance with the resolution issued by the ministry … Almarai is taking the price of its two litre fresh milk and laban pack sizes in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the level that prevailed with immediate effect,” the company said on its website the day after complying with the ministry’s ruling.

“However, Almarai believes that the rationale and justification for the price increase is still valid. We will continue to work with the relevant government authorities to address this issue.”

What’s so striking about the Almarai incident is that it took less than eight days of anger to surface through sites such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs or discussion boards for the Saudi authorities to take action. Almarai is listed on the Saudi stock exchange and its founders/owners include the Saudi Royal family.

It’s even more remarkable when you consider than hardly any traditional media outlets had covered the story prior to the ministry’s decision. That the ministry took notice of the thousands of Saudi consumers who had vented their anger online is an indication of how powerful social media has become.

Contrast this to the decision by Coca Cola and Pepsi to raise the price of a can from one Riyal to one and a half Riyals several years back. Despite a consumer backlash which was led by traditional media outlets such as newspapers the Ministry of Commerce did not step in to rescind the price rise.

I feel in part that social media has become a much better barometer of consumers’ feelings than traditional media in countries like Saudi Arabi. The Almarai boycott is a simple example of this.

What Almarai also proved is how bad Saudi firms are at communications and public relations. Rather than reaching out to consumers the company acted as if it was immune to criticism. The company’s CEO talked to a business news channel, MBC Al Arabiya, rather than talking to his customers. Almarai issued statements to the Saudi stock market rather than getting people online to start a discussion with disgruntled consumers. The company failed to talk with Saudis who buy its products and was duly punished for ignoring them.

Following the boycott Almarai has set up a communications department, in part to tackle reputational management issues as well as crisis communications. However, I’m not optimistic that if Almarai does try for a second time to raise prices the company will be ready to tackle the backlash. For that to happen, the management needs to understand that they have to reach out to consumers, talk with them both online and offline, and understand their concerns. I hope I am proved wrong.

When actions speak louder than words – Gulf Air’s Straight From The Heart and several hundred sacked employees

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For over a month now Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air has been running a touching, powerful marketing campaign. Named ‘Straight From The Heart’, the campaign uses both print and multimedia to feature ordinary people who use and rely on Gulf Air, not just for their flights but also for hotels, cars and insurance. Basically, Gulf Air is saying it takes care of its customers and all of their holiday/travel needs.

The campaign is featured all over the island, on billboards and in print, at Bahrain’s cinemas and online and targets as many customer segments as possible in terms of the persons portrayed in the adverts themselves. There’s the Bahraini banker in his thob and guthra, the European male executive, the young female professional, a well-known Bahraini actor and comedian and a local footballer. In the print adverts they each describe a personal experience they’ve had with Gulf Air. It’s a powerful campaign.

There’s just one problem. You could say that Bahrain has been going through a rough patch of late. Ever since February, since protests broke out, the island has gone through a political and economic crisis. Gulf Air has not been spared. To quote from an article in today’s Sunday Times, several hundred employees have been fired from the airline for a variety of reasons.

“At Gulf Air, the national carrier, 250 employees were dismissed for posting comments about the demonstrations on their Facebook accounts and other minor signs of support for the protests. Despite repeated promises that they would be reinstated, including one by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, many have still not got their jobs back.”

As a government-controlled company it appears that Gulf Air has terminated people who objected to the government clampdown on protesters during February and March. From what I’ve been told by people at Gulf Air is that all of those who were fired were Shia Muslims (the government and the Royal Family are Sunni Muslims, while most of the protesters were Shia). Some seem to have been targeted for termination simply because they were Shia, rather than because they’d voiced their concerns about the political situation and crackdown in Bahrain. In total 250 out of a total of 2,000 ground staff were laid off.

As part of the reconciliation process initiated by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, all those who were fired due to reasons related to the protests were supposed to be rehired. Rather than being reinstated, they’ve been ignored by the airline. During a speech televised live on Bahrain TV during the first night of Eid, King Hamad promised all those who had been fired that they’d be taken back. Only after this speech did Gulf Air take action. Fifty people were reinstated, on the proviso that they could be fired at a moment’s notice without legal recourse.

Instead of reappointing the people they’ve gotten rid of, Gulf Air has apparently hired replacements. According to my sources they’re mainly Indian, Sunni Muslims who are earning half of what their Bahraini predecessors took home at the end of the month. Meanwhile the sacked employees and their families are taking legal action against Gulf Air.

The point of this blog is to talk about communications, about marketing and consumers. I’m not going to talk about the politics of what happened. However, I will ask this. In Bahrain, what’s your largest customer base? They’re probably Shia and Bahraini. The population isn’t large either – there’s less than a million Bahrainis. I’m guessing most Bahraini nationals will know someone who was fired during or after the protests.

If you’re looking to build brand equity, alienating your largest customer base by firing several hundred staff isn’t a smart idea. Running a brand building campaign based on emotional values and the tagline Straight From The Heart while all this is happening isn’t what I’d deem to be appropriate either. As always, actions speak louder than words. In the case of Gulf Air, their actions are deafening enough to lose them a good deal of customers as well as money. No advertising can undo the harm done, only common sense.

Empowering women in Saudi through Glowork

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Despite the size of the Kingdom and the importance of the country both in terms of its GDP and population, it’s not often that I get excited about anything online over here in Saudi. Recently, one initiative which I’ve been fully behind has proved that there are people out there who understand the power of the internet and who are determined to harness it for the good of progress in Saudi Arabia.

I was introduced to the team behind Glowork before its official launch. Put as simply as possible, Glowork is the first employment website dedicated to women looking for work in Saudi Arabia. Remarkably, there’s never been any similar initiative that I’ve been aware of in the country despite the millions of women over here both in employment and wanting to work. This is even more surprising considering that the majority of Saudi university graduates are females. There’s a wealth of talent out there that few companies have tapped into.

The team at Glowork have worked flat out to build awareness about the site among all the women out there online in Saudi as well as with employers. They’ve identified a niche and they are matching women with companies who they may not otherwise have been able to connect with. The likes of Panda, Microsoft and KPMG are today using Glowork to advertise positions for women in Saudi Arabia.

What is also striking is that Glowork’s marketing people are not using conventional advertising to promote themselves. Instead, they’ve gone online and are busy posting updates on Facebook and tweeting about new positions. This approach has allowed the site to build up a loyal following among thousands of women in the Kingdom as well as enable these women to interact with those behind the site and learn about the recruitment process.

We’re still a long way off having women being an integral part of the workforce in Saudi Arabia. However, sites such as Glowork will make a huge difference to all those women looking to start their careers in Jeddah, Riyadh and Al-Khobar. When you think that there’s over ten million women here, that’s a huge market to tap into.

Kudos to Glowork’s founders for being both the first into this space and for how they’re looking to reach out to women through social media. I hope others learn from your efforts. And if you haven’t checked out the Glowork site then go there, now!

How to defuse a crisis at a Gulf-based telco? Tell the journalist there’s no story.

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I love talking to journalists. They’re often witty, sometimes charming. One thing that journalists have an abundance of are stories and anecdotes. I’ve dealt with one Gulf-based telecommunications firm for a couple of reasons of late, and it’s a fascinating company due to internal issues and ambitions. However, this firm has faced accusations of poor customer service in its home market. Consumer anger recently came to a head with calls for a symbolic, hour-long boycott of the company’s products and services.

I’m not going to name the firm, but if you do a search on Google you won’t have to search long and hard for the story or its context.

While this in itself is an interesting development, the mark of a good communications team will be able to step in, work with journalists and bring out the positive of any negative story. This didn’t happen to one journalist colleague who inquired about the boycott. An experienced reporter on a global title, she emailed a PR executive at a public relations firm representing the telco asking about the boycott.

The response was abysmal. Rather than talking through the issue, explain the company’s attempts to improve its customer service and put right the company’s standing amongst its customers the PR executive pulled his face and told the journalist there was no story.

Telling a journalist those three words – there’s no story – is akin to holding up a red rag to a bull. Following on from this faux pas the executive then started to vent his belief (off the record) that the competition was behind the boycott.
Needless to say, despite his best efforts he failed to put over to the journalist anything remotely useful that would have conveyed how much his client were investing in time and money into their customer service.

What happened? An article in a global business title which prominently featured comments from those spearheading the boycott and a single quote from the company in question. That story was syndicated both regionally and globally. This company has operations in 17 countries and ambitions to operate telecommunications networks in many more locations.

The damage done to the firm’s reputation can’t be measured. However, there’s always time to put right what has been done. Get in touch with the journalist, show them that the company cares, that it aims to redouble its efforts. Even if the journalist doesn’t write a follow-up story you’ve left a positive impression.

To date has there been any follow-up? Unfortunately not. But then again, who needs good communications and media outreach when you’re a government-owned firm with a sizable marketing budget and only one competitor in your home market? Do you really want to have a frank and open dialogue with the media and your customers? Or are you happy with being subjected to boycott campaigns simply because you don’t want to listen and you think there’s no story? How you defuse the situation is your choice.

Washing your dirty laundry in public PR style

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As someone who’s been around the proverbial communications block, I’ve always been taught never to air any grievances in public. The thought of picking a fight with a journalist or a publication is always a no go, no matter who is right and who is wrong.

While few things seem shocking following events over the past six months, a couple of articles in the Bahrain media were eye openers in terms of how regional governments, media and public relations firms are communicating with each other in the public domain. The first was a stinging article in Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News related primarily to the decision by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile or FIA as it’s also known to cancel this year’s Bahrain race.

The author suggested that Bahrain’s loss of the race, which is estimated to bring in several hundred million dollars to the local economy, is partly due to a lack of action by lobbying firms hired by the Bahraini government. The below from the article on the 10th of June suggests that only companies with a vested interest should be hired to support and defend Bahrain. For those interested the fully story is hosted here.

“Certainly Bahrain should share part of the blame for innocently allowing both international media and human rights organisations to twist the truth. For years they have been fed a dubious diet of information. However, we have relied on individuals like Lord Gilford and public relations organisations such as Bell-Pottinger (whose staff deserted the kingdom en masse as soon as trouble started). They have milked the country’s financial resources for a long time, yet failed to deliver any positive result.

From now on we hope such tasks will be undertaken by organisations with true local links, knowledge and understanding, as well as a genuine love for Bahrain.

The defamation of Bahrain was started by so-called native opposition elements, therefore only local, loyal media and public relations companies with a vested interest in the future of this country can be relied upon. “

What is striking about the above paragraphs is how the author attacks those agencies hired by the government to lobby on its behalf. Gulf Daily News is a pro-government newspaper.
In response the founding partner of one of the agencies mentioned, Gardant Communication, replies to the article with a short but succinct letter published on the 15th of June and which can be read here.

Lord Clanwilliam argues that he’s on Bahrain’s side and that he’s been criticized for his support for and defense of Bahrain

“When I defended Bahrain on Al Jazeera news channel recently, calling it a beacon of democracy, I had no idea what events would follow, nor how much I would subsequently be attacked for my loyalty by the British gutter Press.

I am proud to defend a country I love, but it would be helpful to have the support of that country’s Press instead of unsubstantiated criticism.

Finally, Anwar, we have known each other 15 years, please learn how to spell my name correctly.
The riproste from the editor is carried below the letter. In summary, the editor attacks the Lord and his firm for a complete lack of action in relation to its lobbying contract for Bahrain (the firm is actually hired by the Embassy of Bahrain in London).

“However without in anyway wishing to be personal, we do not believe that you have represented Bahrain successfully and that you have given the opportunity to opposition elements to steal a march on us by allowing them to influence the international media virtually unopposed.”

To top it all off, the Lord is attacked again in the letters page on both personally and professionally the following day by a reader. The letter is still hosted on GDN’s site.

“This is to you, Lord Clanwilliam. Simply adding the word “Lord” before your name doesn’t make you one. You have to go a long way to achieve it.

In the report ‘Overtaken by lies?,’ the only inaccuracy was one letter missing from your name – for which GDN Chairman and Responsible Editor Anwar Abdulrahman apologised. Apart from that, all other matters were correct.
Abraham Samuel (bijji)

What is astounding about all of this for me is that these views are being aired in public at all. Having worked in the region for this amount of time I don’t believe that the initial piece and slight towards the agencies employed by Bahrain unless it was sanctioned by a government employee. Gulf Daily News is a pro-government newspaper.

What follows is a further tirade which is both personal and professional.

I don’t understand is how this benefits anyone. If the agency/ies have not done what they were hired to do then release them. Attacks on people who are supporting you will not encourage other agencies to flock to your support . If I am working on a client account it doesn’t do much for my motivation to be hammered. I can imagine that those agencies who were attacked in the article and particularly the founder of one of them is even less enthused about fulfilling their duties towards the country.

The loss of this year’s formula one to Bahrain is a major political and financial blow. The race was estimated to be worth up to 500 million dollars to the island’s economy. However, if you are unhappy with your agency my advice is to show it in the simplest and most effective of ways and change your agency. Don’t wash your dirty laundry in public.

Are you talking my language?

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Only recently I was reading over a media release released by a former company. The story was interesting, the news was relevant, and the magic financial numbers were included. It was a great news piece. There was only one problem; the press releases was in English and we are in Saudi Arabia.

It was frustrating. I’d spent two years trying to drum into the communications executives at the firm the importance of putting into the local language all external and media announcements. Why? Well, quite simply our aim as communicators is to reach out to ministries, customers, and the public to both build awareness of our products, successes and the brand in general.

By not releasing news in a country’s native language any company is missing the chance to communicate with consumers, businesses and governments. This is even more marked in a place like Saudi, where there’s few English language media outlets (I’m not counting the internet here).

What I’m saying here is the basics of communications, but let’s take a bigger look at how companies talk to their customers in the Gulf. While I’m not going to even attempt to try and dig out figures of how many firms don’t have any marketing material in Arabic, have a look at the websites of well-established multinationals in the Middle East. Too few of them have any material online in Arabic.

I’m going to hold my hands up here and say I’m just as guilty as everyone else. Trying to Arabize thousands of web pages is a daunting task which can take months if not years. However, we all have to start somewhere and a holding page in Arabic is a simple project for any comms executive to undertake.

There’s no better way to communicate with a customer than in their own language. We sometimes forget that. Put it this way, how do people reach to you when you’re on vacation and you talk their language as opposed to trying to converse in your own. Their eyes and facial expressions should say enough for you to see and understand the difference.

Communications executives at a Group level need to understand that they need to talk the same language as their target audience. Putting everything in English for a non-English audience is either ignorance or arrogance. I’m only sorry that my own advice didn’t seem to sink in with former colleagues.

Is your organization listening or talking to anyone?

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I attended a fascinating event this week in Riyadh (that’s not something I often say). The Saudi Brand and Communication Summit offered attendees a chance to discuss and share their own communications and marketing experiences. While there do seem to be companies out there who listen to their marcomms staff, the feeling I got was that companies need to do much more if they want to reach out both to their customers and employees.

A number of presentations were excellent. Possibly most impressive was Colin Hensley, Former General Manager of Corporate Affairs & Planning, Toyota Motor Europe, who talked about his experience of the recall crisis that affected Toyota last year. Equally impressive were Piers Schreiber, Vice President, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs of the Jumeirah Group who was discussing how to position a luxury brand across multiple markets, and Olaf Brinkmann, Group Communications Executive Manager at Saudi-based electrical manufacturer alfanar when talking on business to business comms. The irrepressible Saudi-based marketing consultant Said Aghil Baaghil shared his views of what Saudi companies think of marketing (this man certainly holds no punches when he describes the lack of understanding among Saudi business owners towards marketing as a discipline).

Each and every one of the speakers stressed on the basics, namely that a brand isn’t just a slogan or a logo. A brand is your company’s vision which has to be lived by every single employee in the firm. While the speakers were probably preaching to the converted what was striking was how all of them mentioned the same challenges: getting management on board; explaining to executives the benefits of effective communications; trying to find local talent.

Having worked in marcomms for a fair few years in the Kingdom I can relate to their frustrations. All too often companies, even multinationals, simply go out and sell. They’re rarely interested in educating customers, to create pull marketing that’ll result in the customer approaching them. Even on an individual basis, executives are unwilling to talk externally to the media. I was once told (only recently, I may add) that we don’t want to attract too much attention, it may get us noticed by the wrong people. It can be even more frustrating working with marcomms people outside of Saudi, who don’t understand the difficulties we go through in getting anything done over here.

Communications and marketing can and do do wonders for a company’s perception, positioning and profits. Some of the examples shared by the speakers were remarkable. Jason Ong, Area Director, Middle East & Africa at the Singapore Tourism Board explained that visitor numbers to Singapore increased by approximately fifty percent following the roll-out of their last marketing campaign. While it’s always a struggle to quantify return on investment for marcomms activities, a brand that sells products such as Apple, Nike, or Nokia is priceless.

As communicators the main problem we face is understanding. Why spend money on marketing or communications, I was often asked when I was on the agency. It’s simple. My job is to sell your firm, both internally and externally. As individuals we aim to make positive impressions on those we meet. We should do the same as companies. Communications and marketing are not wishy-washy undefined disciplines. They’re roles that are essential to the well-being and growth of any company.

I’m looking forward to next year’s Saudi Brand and Communications Summit in Riyadh. Why? Partly because of the insights of the speakers. Also because I enjoyed networking at the event. I’ll be most interested in hearing if we’re making any progress in getting our management to understand why marketing and communications are so important. Fingers crossed we’ll make headway here, but as cynical as I am I’m not holding my breath for any epiphanies between now and then.

About time…

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After years of saying that I’m going to blog, I’m putting up the first post in what seems to be an age or three. The aim of this blog is to talk about marketing, media communications, which is what I do for a living.

My blog will also look at life in Saudi Arabia in particular and the wider Gulf region in general. As someone who has deep roots in this part of the world through family, friends and work I sometimes feel that I should talk more about the positives and negatives of life in Arabia.

Enjoy the blog and feel free to post comments, send me emails or tweet. Yalla!