The Minority Ethnic Communities – Are We Still Not Getting It?

It’s the same old story. Article after article telling advertisers and marketers about the minority ethnic communities and their spending power.

Did it make a difference? A little, but way too slowly.

During this economic downturn, you would think that everyone would be clambering about looking for new opportunities, with clients demanding for more effective, intelligent and cost efficient solutions that deliver results like never before. And yet, the industry continues to respond towards this growing niche by assuming that generic solutions are communicating to all.

In the past twelve months, I have had briefs thrust at me, requesting for support for an ‘
all-inclusive’ strategy. ‘How is this all-inclusive?’ I would ask, to which I would receive a confident ‘Look at this!’ with a finger pointing at a token ethnic guy standing at the far right corner of the page. ‘Of course, this will be in the respective language’.

This is how diversity is still portrayed. An ethnic face here and there, coupled with some foreign language.  Needless to say, they failed miserably during creative testing.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that ALL all-inclusive strategies don’t work. But just taking into account that targeting ethnic minorities go beyond a token character would mean the difference between failure and profitable success.

Ethnic marketing and media is as important as mainstream marketing and media and in some ways can be more important. It’s got nothing to do with tokenism but has everything to do with customer segmentation and understanding your audience.  It’s a point that’s not very well understood by many public relations and marketing professionals. Yet ethnic marketing is growing in importance for many mainstream brand owners.

Census 2001 estimated that there were about 4.6 million ethnic people in the UK but further reports claimed that there was significant under-enumeration and the numbers were far higher.  Eight years later, with mass exodus of Eastern Europeans into the country and the ethnic population growing at 20 times the rate of White population, UK’s consumer profile has changed drastically. The ethnic population numbers are bigger than the population of Scotland and Wales together.

Research has shown that not only are ethnic minorities hardworking and inspirational, they are also economically powerful. In 2003, IPA research stated that the disposable income for ethnic minorities was valued at £32billion, but recent estimates have put the figure closer to £100billion.

Ethnic minorities are brand conscious and loyal and are willing to fork out a lot of money for it. They are 3 times more likely to buy a BMW and 2 times more likely for a Mercedes. They are early adopters and keen purchasers of high-tech products. One in three Black and Asian respondents (33% & 32% respectively) identify Nike as one of the brands they buy most often, compared to only 20% of White respondents. Black women spend 6 times more on hair care products than white women. And don’t even get me started on Asian women and fashion.

So why is it then, that advertising on ethnic media still dominated by ethnic companies, money transfers, cheap international calls and government messages?

No doubt that ethnic minorities do consume mainstream media, but they are increasingly tuning in to ethnic media, which speak to them within familiar cultural context. The ethnic media have grown dramatically from 8 titles 20 years ago to more than 56 TV stations, 24 radio channels and more than 180 titles targeting both younger generations as well as the gate keepers and influencers. These media are a stable diet for most of these groups who pay more than £200 million to subscribe to the specialist channels on top of the £200 million paid in licence fees. While mainstream media channels are losing audiences, the ethnic channels are growing and developing new audiences and attracting more advertising pounds mainly from the ethnic businesses. Advertising in the ethnic media builds brand presence and loyalty and if done correctly can generate revenue and ROI.
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The multicultural communities are now more than ever more visible and influential as they rise up the ladder in businesses and corporations. There is a surge of young ethnic entrepreneurs who have different language skills, social networks, education levels and other attributes, which means that their business behaviours differ from that of their parent’s generation. Just in London alone, there are 66,000 ethnic minority owned businesses employing 560,000 people and generating combined sales turnover of £90 billion compared to the turnover of all London businesses of £800 billion. These figures do not even include approximately 93,000 self-employed ethnic minority people.

With all this in mind, doesn’t this seem like a lucrative opportunity? Sadly, many marketers are still reluctant to take the next step. And for those who did, they either took the ‘touch-and-go’ approach – one successful campaign, and never to be seen or heard again – or the ‘world for a pound’ approach – all groups, all languages, all media on a bargain budget. Testing the waters is one thing, but to expect a legion of loyal followers after a brief stint targeting them is another.

The UK is now truly a multicultural country, and will continue to flourish in the face of diversity. If we don’t recognise that people are different we are not going to get anywhere. Businesses is about engaging people and more so in the current financial downturn. We’ve got too many products and too few customers. When people have a choice and prices are falling, that’s when marketing mavericks look at segmentation and precision marketing. The industry needs to quicken its pace to catch up with the changing face of the new society, or risk getting left behind. Not only do we need to accept it, we need to understand and embrace it. Otherwise, it’ll be the same old story again. Article after article telling advertisers and marketers about the minority ethnic communities and their spending power.

Saad Al-Saraf
CEO
Media Reach Advertising
www.mediareach.co.uk

10 Steps you need to take before choosing an effective ethnic & multicultural advertising and communications agency.

1. Professional Competence
The agency must demonstrate high levels of professional competence in the eyes of their peers, clients and suppliers.

2. Professional Development
The agency is committed to the development of outstanding staff talent through qualifications, craft skills training and Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

3. Market Leaders
The agency should be a proven leaders and have comprehensive knowledge in the ethnic and multicultural market. Check the history of the agency and the campaign work they have done

4. Information and Intelligence
The agency should have access to data, statistics and case studies to share with the client. Look at their case studies and check the quality of their work

5. Accreditation
Check if agency is accredited by any professional advertising bodies. Accredited agencies receive expert advice to ensure their work is legally and regulatory compliant.

6. Research the Agency
Read about the agency and ask their clients for references

7. Proven Effectiveness
As a client you must insist on evaluation, ROI and value for money and check if agency have won any awards.

8. Chemistry
Meet the teams and look at the staff and agency capabilities

9. Financial Stability
The agency must demonstrate financial stability and it is the client duty to check their financial situation to ascertain their strength

10. ISBA Recommended
ISBA, the voice of British advertisers,recommends IPA member agencies

Saad Saraf
CEO
Media Reach Advertising
www.mediareach.co.uk

An insight into the ethnic and multicultural market in the UKcu

It’s interesting how mosaics work – each piece contributes to the whole image but a piece on its own is difficult to understand. To be able to realise what they represent we have to see the full picture. I view the population map of the UK in the same way as a mosaic: a culturally and religiously diverse environment with a long history and a promising future in.

A multicultural community constitutes several cultural or ethnic groups within a society – this includes the wider ‘mainstream/ white’ population. We in the UK are fortunate that we are rich in multicultural communities, a fact that most overlook either out of fear or ignorance.

The Olympics is a key example of what can be achieved when you embrace multiculturalism and put our best foot forward. London’s multiculturalism was one of key deciding factors for the Olympics committee when they named London as the host city for the Games in 2012. We all celebrated the news when the announcement was made, how much… Multiculturalism in the UK, especially London, is not a new phenomenon – we all have reasons to be celebrating this fact for decades. This is actually what we, at Media Reach, have been doing for over 21 years. With this publication our aim is to show you this picture in its fullness through the description of the creating elements. By understanding the pieces with variety of shapes, colours and textures you will be able to see the whole image.

According to the Census 2001, which found that 4,635,296 people, almost 8 % of the UK population belonged to a non-white ethnic group. This percentage varied for the four UK countries – while 9 % of the population of England were nonwhite, the percentages for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were much lower (2 %, 2 % and 0.7 % respectively).  South Asians, make up the half of the Ethnic population, followed by Black, Mixed, Chinese and other.

The categories can be broken down as follows: White Asian Black Mixed White British Indian Caribbean White/Black Caribbean White Irish Pakistani African White/Asian White other Bangladeshi Other Black Other mixed Other Asian Other ethnicities Chinese Other ethnic groups Categories of Minority Ethnic Groups in Census 2001 Migrants from Eastern Europe in the UK 796,000.

This is the number of workers registered in the UK from Eastern Europe, according to Home Office (February, 2008). This figures does not include dependents, the self-employed and people who refused to register as not everyone has to in order to work. 1 million This is the estimated number of Polish people in the country. However, there is a belief that the number is between 1.5m-2m. Despite the number of Eastern Europeans returning to their country of origin there are others still coming. Whilst Ethnic minorities make up 8% of the UK’s total population, (Census, 2001), this percentage varied for the four UK countries. England is home to the largest number equating to 9% of the population. In Wales and Scotland they amount to 2% of the total population and Northern Island is home to .07%.

London is home to the largest number of Ethnic Minorities (including Eastern Europeans) than another city in the UK. London is the most cosmopolitan city home to representatives of 189 countries from the total 192 countries as recognised by UN.

71% The London borough with the largest proportion of ethnic minorities was Brent where 71 per cent of the population is from an ethnic minority group (including White minorities), followed by Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Ealing.

1 in 3 Londoners Ethnic One in three Londoners claims to belong to an ethnic group. Not surprising as Minorities have tended to moved to urban areas where job prospects are better. Demographics The age profile of Ethnic minority communities is generally a lot younger. The overwhelming majority of Eastern Europeans tend to be aged 20-39 years as they come to the UK primarily in search of work. This is stark contrast to the white population, where almost 50% of them are over the age of 40, whereas only 19% of the Bangladeshi community is over the age of 40.

Ethnic community households are larger in number and often have multi-generations living under one roof. Asian households are larger than households of any other ethnic group. Those homes headed by a Bangladeshi person were the largest of all with an average size of 4.5 people in April 2001, followed by Pakistani households (4.1 people) and Indian households (3.3 people). The smallest households were found among the White Irish (average size 2.1 people). Black Caribbean and White British households were the next smallest, both with an average size of 2.3 people. All these groups have an older age structure than other ethnic groups, and contain a higher proportion of oneperson households. 38 per cent of Black Caribbean households, 37 per cent of White Irish households and 31 per cent of White British households contained only one person. Only 9 per cent of Bangladeshi households contained just one person. Language English remains overwhelmingly the most common first language. However, communities migrating to the UK in recent decades have brought many languages to the country.

The Annual Schools Census carried out by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) asks schools to report on the number of children with a first language other than English. The latest data for 2008 shows: • 14.4% of all primary school children have a first language known to or believed to be a language other than English • 10.8% of all secondary school children have a first language known to or believed to be a language other than English.

Identity tends to vary across generations. Older generations (often referred to as 1st generation) and new migrants attach a great deal of importance to their backgrounds. They often have very strong ties with their hometowns and may regard themselves as temporary residents despite having lived in the UK for many years.

The younger generations are generally much more integrated into British culture. They tend to describe themselves in hyphenated identities, and they may feel they have more in common with other British young people than with their parents’ culture. However, most still feel that they are unable to fit in comfortably in either. Education EM more likely to have a degree According to the January 2003 pupil census, at least three in four primary pupils, and four in five secondary pupils, still fit the description “white British”. Asians from the Indian subcontinent form the second largest ethnic group in schools. They account for more than 7% of primary children and 6% of secondary pupils. Children of Pakistani origin are the biggest Asian group in primaries, but Indians outnumber Pakistanis in secondary’s. Primary schools now have more black African pupils than black Caribbean children, however, there are similar numbers from both ethnic groups at secondary level (ONS, 2004).

Labour Market 3.26 million of Ethnic Minorities of working age Due to the high birth rate and net migration the ethnic minority population has been growing strongly. With a younger age profile, the median age for Ethnic minorities is 27 compared with 40 years for white people according to the Labour Force Survey (2005). Therefore it is not surprising that the ethnic minority share of the working age population is increasing – reaching 3.26 million or 9.3% of the 35.2 million people of working age in 2004. The Chinese and Other grouping shows the lowest economic activity and employment rates, 60% and 53% respectively. The other three ethnic groupings, Black, Asian and Mixed, have similar economic activity and employment rates. However, within the Asian grouping the economic activity and employment rates for Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are noticeably lower than for Indians and Other Asians. In all ethnic groups, employment rates are higher for men than for women. Low rates of female employment are likely to be related to the differing roles of women in the home, particularly among the Asian group. (33) In 2002/03 Pakistani and Chinese groups are more likely to be self-employed, as it is shown on Table 11. (14) Lots of Chinese work in catering and operate takeaway food outlets. High proportions of Pakistanis work in wholesale and retail trade.

Many Bangladeshis work in catering and hotel industry and operate the majority of so-called ‘Indian’ restaurants. Famous locations are Brick Lane, Green Street and Southall Broadway; both are famous for its South Asian business success. Brick Lane is known as the “curry capital” of the UK, while Green Street and Southall Broadway is renowned (at least to south Asians resident in the UK) for the multitude of fashion, jewellery and other shops along the length of its high street.

Consumer Insights In a recent report by Ofcom (2007) on Ethnic Minority groups and communication services revealed: • People from Ethnic groups are slightly more likely to own a mobile phone (83 per cent compared to 80 per cent of all adults). This may reflect the younger age profile of these groups, as research shows younger people are more likely to have mobile phones than older people. Among mobile phone users, for Ethnic groups the most popular network is T-mobile, as opposed to O2 for all UK adults. Also a greater proportion of these groups have a contract phone rather than pre-pay than the general population. • Ethnic groups claim to spend more on fixed-line and on mobile telecoms services that all UK adults •

Ethnic groups are more likely to take up new technologies, as those Ethnic groups who have Internet access, have broadband services. • When considering the reasons for having Internet connection at home, a greater proportion of Ethnic groups say it is for their children’s education than the overall UK population. 60% Ethnic groups more likely to have cable/ satellite television services that the average UK population. The main reason for this is that certain (Asians, Chinese and Middle Eastern) groups have particular needs to view programming that feature culture, heritage, news and language associated with their ethnic background that is not being met in the mainstream. 63.8% of viewing by Ethnic groups in multichannel households is of nonterrestrial channels, compared to 42.3% of viewing among all individuals.

Ethnic minority groups are three times more likely to own a BMW and twice as likely to own a Mercedes Benz than the population as a whole. Furthermore, 60% of these BMW’s and 66% of Mercedes Benz’s were bought as brand new cars (Starfish, 2006). Eastern Europeans Research conducted in 2007 reveals some interesting insights into Eastern European migrant in the UK in terms of their mobile phone usage (STMC Consulting, 2007). • One of the first things that Eastern Europeans do upon arrival to the UK is to buy a pre-paid mobile SIM card. They spend, on average, £34 per month on top-ups, which is 74 per cent more that the average UK pre-pay customer. • Currently mobile network provider O2 is getting the largest share (33.2 per cent) of this attractive market segment. T-mobile is the second largest with 20.6 per cent). • Eastern Europeans migrant workers are very loyal mobile customer. The research sampled showed that the average lifetime with a mobile network was 22 months) Some other general insights can be found below: • Eastern Europeans are tech savvy, spending any spare time on their community specific portals. •

Business There are 300,000 Ethnic minority run small businesses in the UK that contribute an estimated £20 billion to the UK economy (BERR, 2007). Research finding from a report by Barclays Bank (2005) on BME run businesses in the UK revealed that BME business start-ups grew a third reaching record levels from 32,000 in 2000 to 50,000 in 2004. The research went onto state that BME businesses are three times more likely to have a turnover between £250K and £1M and to employ staff. There business performance also outstrips that of their white counterparts.

In London, there are 66,000 Ethnic-owned businesses, employing 560,000 and generating combined sales turnover of £90 billion compared to the turnover of all London businesses of £800 billion. These figures do not include approximately 93,000 self-employed Minority Ethnic people (LDA 2005). The British Polish Chamber of Commerce estimates that Polish entrepreneurs have set up some 40,000 businesses in the UK, creating thousands of jobs. . According to LFS and IPPR (IPPR, 2008) calculations, three in every four (74 per cent) self-employed workers are located in the London. Facts:

CONCLUSIONS: The multicultural communities are going to be more visible and influential as they rise up the ladder in business and corporations. They will have more say and targeting the diverse groups and communities is going to be a must for all serious brands and marketers in the UK. In London and around the UK there are a number of cities and towns with more than 35% of the population of a multicultural background. These diverse groups have different cultures and needs and to communicate to them effectively we need to be aware of these differences. Post enlargement we are going to see an on-going inflow of Europeans coming to the UK for jobs and opportunities. While some of the A8/A2 members will go back to their countries, it is estimated that around 40% will stay in the UK with their families and children. The migrants tend to be young, hardworking, highly mobile and can travel to areas of skills shortages very quickly. They generally do not access public services such as hospitals, doctors, benefits and housing. The impact of the A8/A2 migration to the UK has so far been a positive one and we forecast that this trend will be happening in the UK quite frequently in the next decade.

Saad Saraf

CEO

www.mediareach.co.uk

Ethnic and Multicultural Advertising Agency

The state of Iraq’s economy and the oil sector

Since the overthrow of Saddam Iraq has seen quite a dramatical improvement in the state of its economic conditions and that of the oil sector as well.
The new administration inherited a debt-laden country with high unemployment, ailing trade sector and almost paralysed state owned industries and a service sector, which is almost non-existence.
Over the past years Iraq went through a huge challenge with constantly quarrelling politicians with opposing agendas, terrorism was at its highest point in the Middle East, disgruntled neighbouring countries bent on keeping Iraq unstable and turbulent, added to that crime levels unseen before in the country.
The government and US authority realised that before you start kick starting the economic regeneration security must be the number one issue to tackle and any sign of lawlessness and militia controls must be eliminated in Iraq if we to have a civil country.
In today’s Iraq the security situation has led to flourishing businesses; a boom in building and reconstruction, more confidence and can forecasted that a growth in Iraq will continue for the next 10-15 years. Iraq has seen 10% growth in 2008 compared with 1.5% in 2007.
Unemployment has gone down from 50% to 15.5% and Iraq is on target to bring it down to less than 5% by end of 2009. Already employers have reported some shortages of workers and skilled staff.
Iraq inflation figures stands at 7.6% which is lower than that in regional countries such as Iran, Turkey, UAE, Egypt & Syria, which averages 10%.
Iraq’s bank reserve on the other hand stood at $40 billion dollars cash surplus, which was not affected by the world financial turbulence due the bank chiefs policy which is not in favour of investing in foreign financial markets.
Average oil outputs in Iraq has gone up from 2 Million barrels a day to 2.4 Million barrels in 2008 (generating 65 Billion Dollars) out of which 1.8 Million barrels are exported and 600 thousands barrels are refined through Iraq refineries.
Iraq is also boosting its refining capacity based on European standards and will be producing unleaded petrol and adding 140,000 barrels a day in Doura refinery and 70,000 in Shouaiba Refinery with new refineries planned in Nasiria (300,000 and Karbala 150,000, Karkuk 150,000 and Emara 150,000).
Iraq decision to increase its Gasoline products prices in line with regional countries has resulted in the government reducing its imports of white oil from neighbouring countries from a massive $3.5 Billion dollars in 2005/06 to $300 million Dollars in 2008. The smuggling of Iraqi refined products to Kuwait, UAE, Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Iran has virtually ceased.
The Oil ministry has been working on developing Iraq production capacity and entering in Service Agreements with International Oil companies to maintain the level of productions and offering them an incentive for increasing the output.
In the second round in December 2008, 35 companies were shortlisted for licensing agreements to work on the world largest oil reserves in Iraq.
Iraq Oil drilling company have bought 20 drilling machines and put orders for more to come on line. Iraq is working to achieve 5 Million barrels a day by 2011.
The future for Iraq new generation will be brighter and more promising.

www.arabialine.com

www.mediareach.co.uk

The Rise of the Arab Empire

Arabs are proud and a confident race.  They are enterprising and had perfected trade and their love for poetry and art unmatched by any other civilisations.

The Arab conquest of the ancient world in the 7th and 8th centuries saw them launched as an imperial system with rapidity unmatched in history. In a matter of a century they held sway from the border of France to Central Asia, Spain, North Africa, The Byzantine territory and the Persian Empire.

The new realm embraced a great diversity of regions and people. Arab conquerors were able to hold their subjects lands together. They then let the local rule their territory.

The Arab empire of the first conquests was transformed into the Muslim world of the middle Ages. As the Arab monopoly of power declined, people became rulers of their own segments of a multiracial Muslim world.

It was within the Muslim setting that a new culture, as a result of Arab conquest, was created. Arabs did not impose their culture by invasion (not the same as what Western civilisation did to the East during the European colonialism). Arabs came with impressive military strength with a simple desert culture and tradition.

The development of distinctive Islamic culture reached full stride at the time that Arab leadership of the empire began to wane. First the conquerors were absorbed with consolidating their rule (establishing new state, maintaining public order, strengthening the military and collection of taxes).

Arab elite tended to live apart from their subjects in garrison cities. When the conquest settled into an accepted and permanent order and its monopoly of power given way to broader rules, did the new culture develop?

During the Abbasid dynasty of 750, convert Muslims and client peoples moved from the fringes of the new society to the centre bringing with them their heritage, culture and civilisation. In this way outstanding achievement of Muslim culture appeared. Arab literature reached its peak; the great code of Canon Law was formulated; philosophy, science and medicine were given new dimension and content. Muslim civilisation – rich, sophisticated, varied symbolised societies of the Islamic world and took its place among the great cultural achievements of human history. Arab conquest brought with it constructive forces that set the stage for a civilisation to emerge (unlike other Mongol conquest which left ruins and destruction).

The Arabs explained that their conquest was in the path of God, which meant a new social order was to be established. The empire that resulted from invasion was conceived as permanent and self-perpetuating.

The vision of empire created the need of setting for new social and cultural order. The new world state paved the way for the emergence for an imperial culture. Within this new empire of diverse cultures of ancient world were shaken out of their regionalism and forced into new and fruited interaction.

Once Arab conquerors relaxed their conquest, they sat as pupils at the feet of the people they subdued and proved to be very acquisitive. Arab classical works were translated into Arabic, impressive buildings inspired by classical designs were built, and Arab scholarship in grammar and literature influenced by Greek patterns began to flourish. At the same time, the diverse people absorbed one another’s cultures; barriers to travel through the empire were broken down so people can travel. Contacts with Arabs produced Muslim converts; intermarriages and the emerging Islamic order became multicultural and intercultural.

Islam

Arab conquerors brought with them the faith of Islam. And Islam was a decisive factor in the process of cultural creation. Many invaders such as the Mongols ruled but then they were absorbed by the culture they conquered.

The Arab conquest was Islamic as well as military which meant when a territory has been conquered, it became part of (Dar Al-Islam), a society under Muslim rule in which Muslims could practice their faith without hindrance. This did not mean that all the subject people became Muslims. However, it meant the Islamic way was to be accepted institutions, state and society.

Islam vision of God, man and society was definitive and rested upon divine authority.

The Language

The language of conquering tribesmen of the desert seemed both alien and primitive. Arabs had a tradition of oral poetry; their grammar was yet to be explored. The vocabulary of Arabic reflected simple and limited experience of the desert. Yet Arabic overcame these handicaps and quickly became the dominant language of culture and scholarship in the rising Muslim world. Those who did business with the Arabs learnt Arabic. The Qur’an, source of all belief and piety was in Arabic and could not be translated into other tongues. Prayers were in Arabic and the fact that God had chosen Arabic as the language of revelation made the study of its grammar a religious necessity.

Arabic displayed a remarkable potential as a medium of sophisticated and complex communication. It had strongly marked structure of Semitic languages, in which the parts of speech are closely and clearly related. It could create new words out of existing verbal forms and its ability to compress shades of meaning into a single dramatic expression made it a vivid and exact language.

Arabic is the new state over arched local languages and literature to create a new and universal intellectual realm where Persian philosophers, Arab theologians, Jewish and Christian physicians and Indian mathematicians could speak a common language and have a sense of sharing in a common intellectual order.

www.arabialine.com

www.mediareach.co.uk

Media Development In Iraq

Historically, Iraqi’s have been the innovators of branding and marketing techniques, with the silk route, Baghdadi merchants, carpets sellers, perfume retailers and pottery and handicrafts to name but few trades.

If we add another exciting country in neighbouring Iran who Between them there are nearly 100 million people with an ever growing disposable income and the desire to spend on luxury products and international brands.

Most of the brands that are marketed in the Gulf countries appeals to 2-4 million people and the majority of buyers tend to be the foreign workers, and for decades the bulk of brands marketed in those regions being smuggled to both the Iraqi and Iranian markets.

Since the liberation of Iraq, the country has seen a massive demand for products and brands and a buying spree by the public as the income of Iraqi families increased from $20 dollars per month during Saddam era to some $400 per month now.

Multi-national brands have taken advantage of this sudden boom in a relatively quiet market locally by aggressively driving products sales in Iraq through their distributors in the Gulf or through Iraq neighbouring countries.
Iraq has certainly led the economic growth in the Middle East and will continue to do so for the next 2 decades.

International brands have been quick to act with distribution deals, partnership agent agreements and establishing offices in Baghdad.

Brands which had developed a presence in Iraq include such brands as Nokia, Siemens, LG, Phillips, Daewoo, Kia, Coca Cola, Pepsi, BMW, Ford, Vauxhall, Panasonic, Sanyo, Canon, Dell, BAT, Dunhill, Kraft, Nestle, P&G, Unilever, Toyota, Caterpillar, Cummins and a host of banks.

Cars were imported through the Ministry of Trade during the previous regime which has since with more than 1.3 million cars imported into Iraq some car brands have done better than others with the German car Opel taking the largest share with 300,000 cars sold into Iraq.

With the openness of the market and the liberation of the media came an increasing phenomenon, the advertising and media development.
In Iraq today there are 20 Independent television networks with a further 25 licences waiting to be approved.

The main stations leading this on slaught are led by Al-Iraqia, which part of the Iraqi Media Network consisting of FM & AM radio stations dotted in different regions and the main TV station based in Baghdad.

The Iraqi media commission an equivalent to Ofcom was established to legislate and develop some guidelines to broadcasters.

The commercial radio stations have some 32 FM & AM radio stations beaming news, chat, discussions, light entertainment and music 24 hours a day.

Most of the religious and political parties have their own media networks & establishments.

Other stations taken advantage of the only truly open and free media outlets in the region with the state department funded media joints Al-Hurra TV Iraq , Sawa radio and the BBC Arabic which is beaming on an FM transmitter in Baghdad.

The press was the first medium to take advantage of the liberation from 46 titles during Saddam regime to more than 165 newspapers now, dailies, weeklies both tabloid and broadsheet. The largest and most prominent titles being Al-Sabah (part of the Iraqi Media Network), Al-Zaman, Al-Mada (which appeals to the intellectual classes and was behind the leaking of oil for food UN scandals) and Al-Taakhi.

Iraqi’s seem to be delighted with the new freedoms they have got, and the craze over satellite channels never seem to slow down, with Iraq seeing the largest growth of satellite dish purchase (7.5 million satellite dishes have been installed over the past 10 months), even poor people in shacks have access to satellite TV as Iraqis want to compensate for the isolation from the outside world they have endured under Saddam.

The other major development is the outdoor poster sites which are dotted all over Iraq (in High Streets, top of buildings, public squares) and is developing at a faster pace with different sizes and last month saw the introduction of the mobile poster trucks and bus advertising mediums being launched.

Despite all the opportunities this market offers, its advertising and marketing business is relatively new ad weak, there are lack of good quality production facilities, postproduction equipments, models, promotional gifts concept.etc.

In the past year our agency have been developing a number of scheme to improve the marketing of brands entering the market or those who wish to enhance their market share in a crowded market.

We have introduced field teams, which access religious, sports and cultural festivals and interact with the masses and offer gifts.
The teams are from different cultures, so the Kurdish speaking team will cover the Kurdish northern areas as most of the people speak Kurdish Sorani while the Arab team will cover other parts of Iraq and a mix of Turkoman/Arabic/Kurdish will cover Kirkuk.

We also developed a relationship building team that interact with the retail trade to improve and cement the relationship between brands and retailer, which ultimately leads to top of mind and help increase sales.

Our public relation staffs has ensured that client merchandising and products are featured in prominent positions and get maximum coverage in the national and regional Iraqi media.
The press releases and the creative artworks will have to be adapted to different languages and cultures to reflect Iraq’s diverse cultures.

Camera crews are available but work on slightly older formats and need training in new media skills and techniques to catch up with what the west has to offer.

Above all it is important for any brand to get to bed with the right agency, which is able to deliver quality solutions and respond to the clients evolving needs.

It is also worth mentioning that some major brands (based in the Gulf) are placing some campaigns in Iraq through intermediaries who have no knowledge and understanding of the advertising market in Iraq and the rules governing the advertising scene in Iraq.

In fact while some advertisers are under the impression that their campaigns are being advertised prominently, they are in fact being brought down by Baghdad municipality.

Arab Star has devised a professional model, which ensures that clients approve the advertising solutions and clients are kept informed of the progress of the campaign, which is evaluated, and a weekly monitoring report is sent to the clients.

Campaigns should be planned well and partnership with well-established agencies must be formed to ensure that major brands get a strong presence and an increased market share in an ever-expanding market.

Saad Al-Saraf
CEO
Media Reach Advertising
www.mediareach.co.u

Can the UAE be a world leading creative industries hub?

The UAE in general and both Dubai & Abu Dhabi are making an attempt to create a centre for the creative industries but the question to ask is whether the emirates have what it takes to encourage creativity and creative talents and excellence.
Pumping money into large scale projects of creative nature will obviously help in this quest but is enough being done to lay the foundation for all the support services and infrastructure that will ensure that the UAE creative industries can last for the next 2-3 decades.
Commissioners for television, theatres, galleries, film producers and advertising and media industries must be predominantly Arab and from the region or who have taken home in the region. This will ensure that the industry will be here long after the expats pack up their bags and go home.
There is a need for a strategy group tasked to draw plans for the development and sustenance of this important sector. This group needs to look at plans to draft more Arab talents into the industry as a matter of urgency.
The creative industries can generate more than 22% of the UAE GDP and the growth will be comparable to the financial services or the property boom that is sweeping the region in general and the UAE in particular. Taking a look at the UK you can see that they have the largest creative sector in the EU and accounts for 7.9% of the economy comparable to the financial services industries. The industry employs 1.8 million people who depend on this sector continual growth.
In the past decade there has been a major shift and emphasis on creativity and the creative industries has been equal to the task. As a result hundreds of companies are active in this field and are contributing to the growth of products and services.
The overlap between creativity and innovation has led to successful exploitation of new ideas, which has led to the emergence of new products and services such as the iPOD etc.
Today the UK has and still is in a strong position but faces strong challenges from overseas.
Knowledge and creativity have played a key role in the economy. High tech manufacturing plays a vital element in the success. The consumer is well educated, well informed, and affluent and demands better quality products.
The relationship between consumer and producer ensures the knowledge offering is constantly being improved and changed b input from the consumer.
While incomes and productivity increased over the past decade, the price of manufactured goods has fallen in price. Moreover increasingly affluent consumers have not needed to spend a much on food, transport, clothing as it becomes cheaper to acquire brown and white goods.
An indicator of the growth of the knowledge economy has been the investment in R&D, computer software, design, brand organisational system, which is equivalent in size to investments in plants.
The creative industries have benefited from the growth of affluence along with the growth of creative and cultural tastes. People have a tendency to express their emotional feelings in whatever cultural form, such as music, art, and theatre. There are 5 million active musicians in the UK, 250 thousands play in bands. There are thousands of live events around the UK. Musicians are some of the early exploiters of interactive websites to express themselves and gain international fame and recognition. Ethnic minorities have contributed a lot in this field with talents in music, entertainment and the digital fields.
The UAE can grow substantially due to the freedom, diversity and pluralism it enjoys over other Arab countries, English language being spoken by most of the people as well as Arabic and Hindi.
Dubai society developed the value of openness, tolerance that distinguishes it from other Arab societies.
In my experience working in the creative industries for the past 20 years I have found a lack of initiative and a coherent strategy to address these issues within the government and the creative industries. There are just a handful of small initiatives, which happens as an afterthought.
Saad Saraf (CEO)
Media Reach Advertising
www.mediareach.co.uk

UK Creative Industries – a white wash!

I went to Iraq for the opportunity of winning a communications contract. I knew there had been uproar that American companies had won majority of the construction contracts in Iraq following the war. Out of those that lost out, I did wonder, how many of them stopped to realise the real reason for this. What I observed was that the American government had recognised the need to have key personal that were representative of the Iraqi market. They sent over American Iraqis, who understood not only the work that needed to be carried out but also the culture. They realised the need and the advantage of having representatives with localised understanding in a global market place and have benefited from the strength of having a diverse workforce.

The same cannot be said for creative industries in the UK. The Creative Industries are a significant contributor to the UK economy – accounting for 7.9% of GDP, and growing significantly faster than the economy as a whole. UK creative industries deservedly enjoy a global reputation for excellence, creativity and innovation. British design, advertising, music and interactive leisure software companies are considered to be world-class. The question is, will it last?

Many people have spoken about how broadcasting is “hideously white, male and middle class”. This statement is also true for other sectors that fall under the creative industries banner. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising’s report on Ethnic Diversity in the UK revealed, unsurprisingly, that ethnic minorities make up 4% of the advertising workforce – with most being positions of support services, such as IT and finance.

The UK creative industries workforce does not reflect the Ethnic diversity of the market they are targeting, largely due to the lack of realisation of the benefits diversity brings. There have been half-hearted attempts relating to recruiting a more ethnically diverse workforce, which can be summed up as reactive, knee-jerk reactions. It therefore comes as no surprise that the UK creative industries are facing a challenge from overseas. Countries such as America, India & China  are continuing to enter this market and are meeting the needs of British consumers & businesses which UK based companies are overlooking. There needs to be a more strategic approach, which is not even existent on a government level.

So what should creative industries do to remain world class?
•    WAKE UP
•    Embrace multiculturalism by recruiting from a wider talent pool
•    Engage, harness and train talent in the UK from Ethnic communities be that Indian or Polish
•    Enjoy multiculturalism and highlight key role models from ethnic backgrounds

Today Bollywood is a multi-billion-pound industry outstripping Hollywood in ticket sales. Bollywood realised the marketing potential for their movies to both the British Asians and the wider UK community and stepped up their activity here in the UK. That’s not all, they have taken British born talent like, Upen Patel from Wembley and made him one of the top Bollywood stars and a household name in most Asian homes in the UK. Why then, can we not do the same? Why can’t we embrace, engage and enjoy the great pool of talent we have here, to achieve success both locally and globally!

And for those of you who are wondering what happened to the contract that my company went for in Iraq. Well I can tell you that, yes we won the account for our knowledge and experience but also for the fact that as a British Iraqi I had cultural understanding.

Saad Saraf, CEO, Media Reach Advertising
www.mediareach.co.uk

MRA Sets up a new eastern European Division

The multicultural communications specialist agency MRA has added anther feather in their cap by launching a new Eastern European section to target the growing population of people arriving in the UK from the A8 accession states.
The agency, which has been targeting Britain’s diverse multicultural groups for the past 21 years as, been involved in targeting this new wave of migrants who are changing the UK’s landscape forever.
(MRA’s CEO Saad Saraf said)
The agency has run 4 campaigns so far aimed at audiences from Poland, Lithuania, Hungry, Slovakia and Russian.
MRA has adopted an integrated approach in their campaigns deploying non-conventional mediums to reach diverse audiences.
The campaigns involved Press, Radio, Posters, Outdoor, Online marketing and specialist cultural teams visiting churches, bars, catchment areas and events and interact with the audiences attending these venues each week.
The media scene is witnessing a boom and has developed very quickly across all the Eastern European groups and is reflective f the need for language specialist mediums to reach a hard to reach communities.
Online marketing innovation has been adopted by MRA sister agency mradigital which has brought in a number of ne media techniques to target these diverse groups with SMS campaigns, mobile marketing
The campaigns proved a great success for the clients and the take up of services has gone up gradually.
Amongst the Eastern European population in the UK, Polish are the by far the largest group numbering some 2 million people and the total Eastern European universe is estimated to be 3.5 million and increasing.
The majority of Eastern Europeans tend to be of younger age profile (24-45 years old), and for many of them the UK is becoming their second home or they are choosing to live and work in London permanently
The Eastern European communities have access to mother tongue schools, community centres in various regions and churches and they are ideal channel of communications.
The disposable spending power is estimated to be worth 7 billion pounds, financial research suggests that the Polish community in the UK transfers some £2Billion pounds back to their families in Poland.
A number of companies have waken up to the disposable spending power these migrants are bringing and have started tailor made campaigns t attract them as clients.
www.mediareach.co.uk

Ethnicity and Media in the UK

Well basically, before we speak about the subject, I just wanted us to have an insight of the ethnic communities in the UK. Do we understand who the ethnic communities are? Where do they come from? Where do they live? What diversity do we have? I think if we do not understand, then we are unable to communicate effectively and that’s probably, for me, the main issue. People talk about, you know – millions of people are here; there’s, you know, been more than 1.4m Eastern Europeans come in so far, and more than 1.2m Bulgarians and Romanians and other Eastern Europeans are expected within the next year and a half. Do we know where these people – I mean, what makes them tick, do we know the triggers? And hence, you know, we need to understand the
diversity and the issues we have here. And that’s where I’m amazed at the lack of understanding that broadcasters have; agencies, where I come from, have. In fact, I’m amazed that for example, if you look at London, where it’s said 36% to 40% of the people are of difference diverse background, yet advertisers either choose to ignore, or choose to spend 100% of their budgets targeting 60% of the audience, which is amazing by any standards. I think if I work in a company and I waste 40% I’ll be booted out straight away, but there are lots of people doing some mediocre jobs out there, but I think there needs to be some re-think there, you know; we need to be a bit more
radical and that’s the commercial aspect here.
Are we represented and how well are we represented? Let’s look at film, drama, game shows, the output that comes out every day – how are we represented there? And I think, rightly so, the ethnic communities always see themselves in a secondary role, they’re not a part of the plot and it always feels like the token faith in there and that ought to change. I think the numbers are there and if we really need to make an impact, we need to effect some change there and that’s where the representation fails. I mean, in sport and music, we are represented well, because we do quite well in there, but in other subjects, we don’t seem to feature at all, or hardly. And the representation
tends to be bad news – we are well represented in terms of bad news, you know, if it comes to issues, and even the issues I’ve discussed are one-sided as well, if you look at the issues of niqab, and stop and search, and terrorism, immigration, faith schools, Islam, fundamentalism and this will go on and on. I think there needs to be a balance in there between bad news and good news, because lack of understanding creates a disconnect, as we have seen up in Oldham and Bradford. And I think editors who in the whole – I mean, apart from Aaqil – tend to be white, middle class and people in the newsroom ought to promote some people into senior positions who come from
16 different ethnic backgrounds, so that those issues such as terrorism or fundamentalism, or whatever issues that are boiling beneath the surface at least are on the radar and then we can discuss them and we can deal with them. And so these big issues don’t suddenly come out, you know. And broadcasters need to be sensitive to people’s feeling and I don’t need to say those two words, Big Brother, but that actually showed, you know, a mild manner; as we were told, the Indian community coming up in arms to re-address that imbalance.
What do we need to do in the future? I think we need to obviously employ more people in senior positions in the newsrooms and in ad agencies as well. We need to listen, we need to understand, we need to make an effort to understand. It’s okay to make mistakes while we’re trying to do something about it, people wouldn’t mind that, but sitting on our hands and doing nothing, it’s not a solution. And then programmes and ad campaigns need to move away from tokenism, you know, we don’t want just a black face and brown face in the ad, we need to have sort of radical solutions there and people ought to be part of that process, part of the script. And I guess – and maybe this is a bit more radical – but we should have, we should insist on maybe 15% of the output coming from, I don’t know, minority ethnic businesses, or it should have some diverse
people in the plot and this will conclude my four minutes.

Saad Saraf
CEO and Head of New Business
Media Reach Advertising

www.mediareach.co.uk