New jobs in advertising and media agencies. So, where's the downturn?

New job openings announced, so where's the bad news?

Most everyone in our industry is talking about a downturn for 2016. Yes, there are bland numbers coming out of agencies in advertising and media, but really, it's not that dire. There's a slowdown in growth, but I don't see a downturn – unless of course another 2009-like global economic meltdown happens. Oil seems to have hit the lowest possible, and recovery seems to be on the horizon because production may be slowing down on that front. Which means, there is hope yet. Or thereabouts.

MCN – the group that employs my services – the Middle East Communications Network, one of the largest advertising, marketing, media and PR agency groups in the Middle East region, yesterday announced a whole bunch of new job openings on their website. The jobs are across the region, the positions are in advertising, media, PR and digital spacializations, and they're a bit more than a handful. So, that is a good sign then. Here they are, as of March 2016...

Business Director - Media - Dubai

Looking for candidate with 10+ years’ experience in both offline and digital media, MBA educated, able to strategize, challenge, mentor and lead a team.

Branded Content Director – Media - Dubai

Looking for candidate with 8 + years experience in developing communication strategy on international, regional and local clients.

Regional Strategy Director – Media - Dubai

Looking for candidate with experience in managing the entire strategy process development, also responsible for fronting the strategy side of new business pitches as well as on-going clients.

Associate Media Director - Dubai

8+ years of experience in media planning and buying, preferably for a Media agency within the region, but international experience also valued. Knows how to develop objectives, strategies and plans for clients and also able to develop the skills and knowledge base of the team.

Digital Media Planner – Cairo

Bachelor degree completed ideally in marketing, business or related subject with expertise in digital and social media. 1-2 years of experience in media department or media company.

Senior Media Planner – Dubai

4 – 5 years of experience in media planning and buying. Understand marketing objectives and strategies for all the team’s clients and ensure objectives are on target.

Media Manager – Dubai & Jeddah ( 2 roles )

5-6 years of experience in media planning and buying, preferably for a Media agency within the region, but international experience also valued. Knows how to develop objectives, strategies and plans for clients and also able to develop the skills and knowledge base of the team.

Media Operations Executive – Dubai

Bachelor degree completed ideally in marketing, business or related subjects. 12-18 months in media department or Media Company.

Social Media Executive - Jeddah

1 year of experience in social media advertising including Facebook, Twitter, Quora, YouTube, etc. Prefer experience within the region.

Online Community Manager - Dubai

2+ years of experience in social media advertising including Facebook, Twitter, Quora, YouTube, etc. Prefer experience within the region. Up to date and knowledgeable on social media best practices.

PR Group Director- Dubai

7+ years of experience in corporate communication, managing people, PR agency handling FMCG clients.

Creative Operations Manager - Dubai

5+ years of experience in effective management and control of the creative output of client and internal projects from a traffic context.

English Copywriter – Dubai – Mid & Junior (2 roles)

Copywriter who is looking for their next step, wants to join a global creative agency, able to work seamlessly online and offline, lives and breathes advertising and is of course talented. Send your CV and portfolio link.  

Senior Art Director - Dubai

8+ years in being the working wheel within the Creative groups in the department with award winning experience. Is currently working as a Senior Art Director and is looking for their next step. Wants to join a global creative agency, able to work seamlessly online and offline, lives and breathes advertising and is of course talented. Send your CV and portfolio link.

Digital Designer - Dubai
3+ years of digital design experience, with a passion for excellent design skills and digital. The work demands creative flair, up-to-date knowledge of industry software and a professional approach to time, costs and deadlines.

Multimedia Designer – Dubai

Looking for a graduate or up to 2 years’ experience, design oriented bachelor’s degree, must have photography skills, typography and art illustration skills. Must be based in Dubai.

Digital Analyst – Dubai

3+ years experience in Web, Mobile, Search, Marketing, Campaign, Competitive, Social   Consumer Analytics. Also well versed with Omniture, Adobe Site Catalyst, Discover, Report Builder and Google Analytics for executing analytics projects.

Account Executive - Dubai

1-2 years experience in Advertising/Marketing. Strong facilitation and presentation skills, both in preparing materials required and in delivery. Fresh graduate with advertising degree can also apply.

Studio Operator – Dubai

Looking for someone with quite diverse skills – finished art (online and offline), re-touching, as well as some design skills.

Graphic Designer – Dubai

 2+ years’ experience working on solid graphic design projects that incorporate new technology. Have a passion for design and a good portfolio.

Creative Conceptualizer – Dubai

 3+ years of experience in developing holistic creative retail campaigns across ATL, BTL and Digital and also responsible for creating the work, presenting it to a client and producing it.

Graduates

Whether you're starting a career in Media, Advertising or PR, there’s an opportunity for you at MCN. You need to be creative, articulate, comfortable in analyzing data and highly organized. In addition to this you will need to have a strong team spirit and a ‘can-do’ approach. From time to time, job opportunities open up at MCN.

There are no opportunities available at this time, however, we courage you to share your profile for our future reference.

Please apply to the jobs above and more on the MCN Careers page link here

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Accidental Click: Display Advertising's Pitfall

Whether its click fraud, or the accidental click, media agencies and their clients are yet to come to grips with these pitfalls in display advertising. Besides, click fraud (usually, clicks appearing on impressions that were actually never even seen), the accidental click is something that seems unavoidable at the moment – happening typically on mobile and tablet, and sometimes on gaming content sites. The problem with the accidental click is that there is never any intent there towards conversion – and no matter what Click Through Rates say, it is conversion that really counts.

One quick giveaway for the accidental click is the high CTR (Click Through Rates), but low conversion. Typically, a good agency will spot this, domain by domain, and try and block that domain from campaigns or raise the issue with the publisher/SSP where this happens. One way to tackle this is also design. One cannot but blame the incredibly small size of the mobile ad and the even smaller call to action button for this – so at design stage this might be worth considering.

The accidental clicker will not convert – you simply need to accept that. In act, typically, the accidental clicker absolutely hates the way he or she was drawn into that accidental action – and they end up with a pretty negative impression of the brand in question. Brands must be more accepting of higher CPC rates because often agencies will not pursue their goal of helping avoid the accidental (or the fraudulent unseen click) if they are chasing low CPC rates. 

With today's programmatic options, you need to recognize display advertising for what it is: that display actually works well (often in multiple impressions) along the customer journey path – and you can track that. There's this concept of 'view-through' conversions – which means that the actual conversion (the Zero Moment of Truth per Google) actually may happen on another channel because the user has seen several display reminders before arriving at a decision. Search is usually one of those final decision moment channels – but it happens (that coveted final click to convert) because of the sowing of the display seeds.

Forbes published a piece on this and how Google were handling this "Google found most of the accidental clicks on app image ads happened at the outer edges of the ad, no doubt because people were trying to scroll up or click on adjacent content. So now, Google has added a prompt to “Visit site” whenever people click on the outskirts of the ad. It’s an extra click, but it also ensures that’s really what the person wanted to do."

In summary, the accidental click cannot simply be attributed to 'fat finger syndrome' on a small screen and wished away. The brand, the media agency, the publisher, and often the design agency ned to work closely together to avoid this pitfall.

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2016: Where is Content Marketing Headed?

While three out of four marketing professionals claim to be 'using' content marketing, way less than half of that number can vouch for the actual effectiveness of what it does for them. I suspect that one of the main reasons why content marketing does not work for quite a number of folks out there is because they really don't know where its headed and they don't have a strategy. And, add to that, they have no clue about their real target audience – and content audience is not always the same as a marketing/advertising target audience. First things first, though, one needs to know where content marketing stands today, and what we could or should expect to see in 2016.



The role of the brand as content generator or creator is a given. But how does that content stand out amongst the huge amount of content that is out there. With technology today, any one and every one is capable of creating broadcast quality content (at least technically, if not creatively). Apps and hardware-software combinations now lets the girl next door create tv or cinema quality content. So, brand created content needs to be top quality from a production point of view, first and foremost. More importantly, its vital that the storytelling – the real value of content – is one that is top notch. Not every one can tell a good story, and that's exactly where content in 2016 will need to excel – a good great story (one that resonates with the audience), told well (creative quality, production excellence) and delivered in context.

Add to this a new role for brands that want to stand out: brand as curator or aggregator, facilitator, connector of all stories great and small – around the brand, the customer, the context. 2016 will see audiences connect and engage with brands that not only tell their own beautiful stories, create their own great content, but also ones that curate and bring them the best out there from various sources. Call this what you will, but it's like the big move we've seen in music – from the pure artist to the dj, the producer. Imagine that then for 2016: the brand as mixer.

I've said this in 2014. And in 2015. And I am saying this again: this will be the year of visual content. And in that reference: video. Brands will be in video like never before, weaving in better video, higher quality streaming, video apps, and interactivity within video. But video. Cue in then: attention from both audio and moving images. Good old theory.  Cisco have already predicted that video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic by 2017.  And, I'm betting you'll see interesting video formats as well, the standard, the 16:9, the vertical, the square 640x640 and more.

Next big 2016 content buzzword? Mobile. It's almost repeat time again, just like video. But honestly, we'll really see a lot more focus on mobile content – not just mobile friendly, but mobile specific content. Brands and marketers are quietly slipping out of their 'digital first' corner towards the 'mobile first' one. And we'll see a lot of conversion driven mobile content being created to improve mobile engagement, and persuasion mechanics.

Because good content is inherently endearing, it somehow really glues itself to a concept of following, and in extension loyalty. I don't necessarily mean great loyalty to brand or product purchase, but more a sort of affinity towards the brand that brings good, relevant, useful, entertaining and sharable content.

Finally, 2016 will not just see an exponential increase in the volume and velocity of content, but also in a scale of variety. Yes, we'll see video, but we'll see video being brought to you across different platforms, different delivery mechanisms. You'll see clever content being built via video into apps. That's like content within content. Who would have thought of that?

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A quick intro to Programmatic

It is not new, yet, there are so many marketers out there (and well as agency folks), who have no real idea on what ‘Programmatic’ really means in media.

Let’s start with the wikipedia explanation: Programmatic media (also known as programmatic marketing or programmatic advertising) is technology that automates the buying, placement, and optimisation of media inventory, replacing human-based methods. In this process, supply and demand partners utilize automated systems and business rules to place advertisements in electronically targeted media inventory. It has been suggested that programmatic media is a fast-growing phenomenon in the global media and advertising industry.

Programmatic platforms are coming into their own these days, and there are quite a few around. The number keeps going up. And, there’s a lot of jargon that comes with it:  RTB, SSP, DSP, DMP, and more… A 2014 Forrester study found that only 23% of marketers properly understood programmatic buying.

Changes are happening every week, and the whole concept is going through rapid evolution. Today, programmatic is being used to transact video inventory, marketers are being challenged to learn the nuances between buying display inventory and video inventory programmatically.

You have to remember that data is essential to the idea of programmatic. Access to a range of good quality data cis essential to programmatic efforts and data comes from a variety of sources. “Second and third-party data can be very useful, but for many marketers, collecting and putting to good use first party data – the data they gather from their own websites and online platforms – is absolutely critical to taking advantage of the programmatic opportunity.”

Because data is critical, , data management platforms (DMPs) are taking on an increasingly important role. Most media professionals agree that DMPs are key to future of programmatic marketing.

The way programmatic works with “inventory” is also evolving. While most programmatic inventory was remnant display inventory in the early days, this is now no longer valid in the singular.  There are so many new of private exchanges, select marketers can programmatically purchase publishers’ best inventory. And, programmatic is now in video territory, meaning, it has gone beyond just display ad front.

Many media agencies leverage technology partners with access to ad exchanges, while others have chosen to develop their own trading desks that allow them to directly transact in media programmatically.

Programmatic media buying allows the use of audience insights and technology to tailor messages to a particular individual, at a particular moment, in a specific context, ultimately enabling an additional layer of value.

Programmatic media is transacted across a wide and diverse array of mediums including digital media (desktop, mobile and social media), TV), Print, Radio and some OOH.

Technological innovation, an abundance of data, and liquidity in the media has given way to a more democratised process, which has changed the mechanics of transacting media in a manner that has never been possible before. The industry is going through something akin to the automation of the financial markets in the 1980s, allowing much more precision and personalisation.

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Specialization and Integration in Advertising and Marketing

Is our world of advertising and marketing headed towards super specialization? Or, in a weird, wonderful, roundabout way, are we headed towards a more collaborative, integrated environment?

Advertising was an art form. A creative beauty. Then, somewhere along the way, it evolved into both a n art and science. With accountability, with data, with technology and its immense enabling power, today advertising per se does not exist apparently. Today it is engagement, today it is conversation, it is dialog. And it is fast becoming a collective of specializations. Skill sets are no longer broad spectrum, they are now highly honed areas of zoomed in qualities and knowledge.

Cesar Hidalgo, a physicist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Why Information Grows, coins the word “personbyte” to describe the amount of knowledge that one person can reasonably know. The personbyte isn’t getting any smaller but — relative to the knowledge that needs to be mustered to produce a modern scientific paper, or a computer, or a car — the personbyte looks ever more inadequate.

In our context, this 'personbyte' is becoming highly demanding, and thus asking for head spaces that are guardians of specifics rather than wide spectrum. You cannot be an expert in SEO and SEM at the same time. You cannot really write great copy and also edit film. You cannot be the one who translates data into insight and then photoshop it into a beautiful instagram. Or can you?

Here, team work is becoming important. This seems to be the only way to break free from the limits of 'personbyte' in our world. Thus, within an agency environment, integration and working together is becoming key. One person cannot hold all the necessary know-how in her head, so she must work together with others. One agency, in theory, has the same constraints. Thus it is becoming important, and imperative for a specialized creative agency to work with a highly skilled data agency. A media planning agency with a highly tech driven buying agency that say, specializes, in Real Time Bidding.

And were increasingly seeing this model succeed with large groups of agencies who have multiple specializations within their umbrella shade, going in together and offering 1+1=11 solutions. Offering integrated thinking and integrated doing. Like the old world of through-the-line. But this time a bit different. The sum of the parts being greater than the whole. Gestalt.

Today's pitch teams in the agency world are huge. At least in the planning and prep stage. Several specialist skills now input where usually a creative team would 'crack the pitch deck' in the early days. This is a natural step in the evolution process of our world of consumer engagement, because there are so many channels, so many voices, so many ways to connect, that one needs so many guides to bring it all together. And large agency groups are going in, armed with better insights, better data to back up their claims, better creative (born out of better inputs) and result driven marketing solutions that can be analyzed, measured and revised as needed. All by specialists. All working together.

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5 Factors of Display Ad Viewability

There is a lot of debate around display ad viewability. Many of the ads that brands pay for never really appear on the display screen. Advertisers are ken to shift towards paying for viewable instead of served impressions and thanks to advancements in technology and better standards in tracking we are now able to measure which digital ads are actually viewed.

The industry standard of a viewed ad is simple: A display ad is considered viewable when 50% of an ad’s pixels are in view on the screen for a minimum as defined by the of one second, Media Rating Council. Out of this we get what is called a 'Viewability Rate' … Percentage of ads determined viewable out of the total number of ads measured.

Here are five key factors to consider regarding ad viewability:

1. Page position is key. The most viewed ads are right above the fold – not on top of page.

This goes against what most marketers believe. Age old wisdom (actually, how old is age old in the interweb?) suggests that the horizontal banner on top of the page is the win-win. Well, not according to studies from Google. Ads that appear just about above the fold are the winners. 

2. Ad size does matter! Google reminds us that the most viewable ad sizes are vertical units. Not a surprise, since they stay on screen longer as users move around a page. The highest scoring ad size is the 120x240 format placed just around above the fold. Other good sizes are the 240x400, the 160x600 and the 120x600 (width first in all size references). All of them score above 50%.

3. Above the fold does NOT guarantee viewability. Surprised? While average viewability rates are better when ads are above the fold, but page position isn’t always the best indicator of viewability. Not all above-the-fold impressions are viewable, while many below-the-fold impressions are. Around 68% of above the fold ads are viewed. And around 40% of ads below the fold are viewed. 

4. Viewability rates vary with industry or content verticals. While it ranges across content verticals, or industries, content that holds a user’s attention has the highest viewability. So this takes us back to the importance of both content and context. 

Online reference and communities fare the best while internet and telecom and hobbies and leisure driven verticals are at the bottom of the chart. Here again, it is important to remember pull vs push content and context. If I am looking for something and you are showing me an ad in that context with relevant content, you score higher. 

5. The publisher is important. A small number of publishers are serving most of the non-viewable impressions; 56.1% of all impressions are not seen, but the average publisher viewability is 50.2%. When planning your media distribution, it's probably best to ask for the publishers viewability standards and their average rates.

Note: All intelligence in this article is from Google data.

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Back pain, osteopathy, and best doctors in Dubai

This post is about something that plagues a lot of residents in Dubai – back pain. I’ve looked through many referral and recommendation websites, and tried to find a solution, having suffered for years with back pain. Over the last few months the condition really went from bad to worse,  and the pain started to radiate down my buttocks and thighs  all the way to my calves. The pain was really severe, and I went and saw a string of doctors to no real improvement.

I’ve gone to see a sports specialized orthopedic surgeon, who did x-rays and said I had a slipped disc which was in the L4/L5 region (lower back) and recommended physiotherapy. I went for 10 sessions of physio, and while this helped temporarily, it just went back to pain-state soon after.

Next, I saw a chiropractor, and went for two sessions, but was told I would really need at least 10 quick sessions before any improvement. My whole structure was apparently out of whack, I had one leg longer etc etc. With zero improvement after  two special sessions, I gave up.

Then a friend recommended I see a specialist Osteopath – Dr Malcom Gregory at the Osteopathic Health Centre on Al Wasl Road in Umm Sequim. He is an experienced Osteopath, who listened to my problems and did some manipulations and really helped me. I had two sessions with him – and did see a lot of improvement. Unfortunately, he was traveling, when suddenly my pain absolutely got the best of me.

Every morning I would start the day, bent over forward, because I could not stand up stand up straight. Through the day, I had occasions of shooting pain down my butt and upper thighs, and sometimes down my leg. It felt like severe sciatic pain, or if you read up, it could have been a piriformis syndrome problem. I would often just freeze, unable to move. Sitting was a problem, walking was a problem, driving…

Someone at work recommended I see Dr Stephen Richardson, an Osteopath at GMC Clinics in Tecom. I went and saw him last week, and he, after patiently listening to my history and examining me, did some manipulations, helping with movement and basically helping to loosen up my tightness (in lay terms). He also used kineseo taping on my lower back, and I must admit, after weeks of intense pain, I felt immediate relief that day onwards.  He also suggested I ice my lower back a couple of times a day, which also helped a lot.

My body felt more balanced, I did not feel restricted, I could stand up straight, and overall,the pain really went down. I kept the tape on for three days, until I knew I would see him again, and took off the tape. Things changed immediately, and the pain came back like it was before. I was suddenly stooped forward again, having surges of pain down my thighs. Luckily, I had an appointment with him, early this morning, and he listened to how it had improved, checked out my back again, and taped me up.

I felt immediate relief. It is early days yet, it has just been a few hours since I saw him, but I feel compelled to post this, because it is important that back pain sufferers in Dubai know that there is a solution. Osteopathy works, and both osteopaths have helped me, specially Dr Richardson. Thank you Steve.

Notes:
Osteopathy is a type of alternative medicine that emphasizes the physical manipulation of the body's muscle tissue and bones. Uniquely for the United States, osteopathic medicine there constitutes a branch of the medical profession. Practitioners of that branch of medicine are called osteopathic physicians, and are trained and certified to practice the entire scope of the modern medicine.

Kineseo taping (as used by Dr Richardson: Elastic therapeutic tape is an elastic cotton strip with an acrylic adhesive that is used with the intent of treating pain and disability from athletic injuries and a variety of other physical disorders.

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