ArabNet Community set for five days geekiness

As the word of digital technology gets more complicated, and even the geekiest of geeks start to get lost in all of it..it's at times like these that start-ups, innovators, global and regional ICT professionals need to get together as a community and share thoughts, visions, best practices and trends in the field of online business.

That's exactly what the ArabNet Digital Summit 2012 will be all about. I've got my ticket to Beirut and I can't wait. I'll be attending the two Forum Days (March 29th - 30th), but I wish I could stay the entire five days of the summit.

Over the five days, a dynamic line up of speakers will focus on fields such as commerce, that have witnessed major shifts to online and adopted new business models in order to keep up with the increasingly digital world.

Personally, I'm looking forward to learning a great deal from these speakers, to get their insight into topics such as entrepreneurship, investment, the future of media & advertising, interaction through social media platforms and more. The latter of course, is of most interest, as this is the business I'm in. How is digital technology changing marketing? A question as PR professionals have been asking for a number of years. And today we're still asking. Of course, some of us are still asking because we resisted the changed and called it a fad. Now we're trying to catch up. Another group is asking because even though we kept up with the change, it's moving a lot faster than we ever imagined. And merely keeping up is no longer good enough.

We've got be selective now. We can't just get on board every digital platform or application bandwagon that comes along the way. Marketers need to be smart about what works for them and what doesn't. And be very realistic about their resourcing. If you've not got a dedicated team, and if you're entire organisation isn't buying into the cultural change, then don't waste your time. You need to achieve that before you can even try to implement a powerful digital strategy.

Clearly, some of the top level executives speaking at ArabNet such as Hatem Dowidar, CEO of Vodafone Egypt are execs that have bought into digital and shifted their entire organisation's behaviour in that direction.

More CEOs need to be doing that  - and as Brian Solis once said - #AdaptorDie.

Trouble is, the CEOs coming to ArabNet already know that. Now the ArabNet community needs to collaborate not only to help its own members develop and grow, but also recruit new members and influence the region's adoption of digital technologies. 

ArabNet Case Study Challenge for Digital Marketing Campaigns

I believe one of the greatest digital marketing campaigns of all time is the Bing Decode Jay-Z campaign.  It was done last year, but I am yet to see something even close to its brilliance. Inspirational. 


Now the scope and scale of this campaign was huge. So not every single idea you come up with needs to be that big. But even really simple ideas can be taken to a whole new level if thought-through and executed so flawlessly, with a clear objective in mind. 


The ArabNet Digital Summit 2012 is seeking entries from the Arab world for the most innovative use of technology and new media for a marketing goal. The ArabNet Case Study Challenge  is open for applications until March 8th. With the surge of new media companies and digital campaigns in this region over the past year, I expect a tonne of entries. 


The interesting part will be whether the entries prove to be focused and objective-driven campaigns, rather than just a series of Facebook and Twitter posts / status updates that generated a really big number of "Likes" or Followers. Trouble is, many of these will have been responses to client requests of "I want a Facebook page...oh and some tweets."


Agencies react in one of two ways to this request. Either a) see $$$ at the prospect of selling more digital services or b) ask the client "Why"? The latter reaction will usually be met with either a) blank stares from the client or b) (in an ideal world) the client will say “well, because we know that 70% of our target audience is on Facebook and we’ve seen brands similar to ours have huge success as a result of engaging with their fans. We want to use Facebook to drive our marketing strategy, and we’re putting all our focus online this year.”

Think of your traditional PR channels. Do you blindly recommend using certain channels to the client without first evaluating if they reach the right audience? Do you ever just say “let’s pitch this to CNN” just because CNN is big? No. You evaluate the audience, the story, the pitch, the angle and then you choose your channel.

Social media platforms are exactly the same. You can’t just decide to add Facebook to the list of channels you communicate through. It’s got to be the right channel for the right message. And more importantly going 'digital' is a change in corporate culture.  Not just a marketing function. It needs to be integrated in the business direction as a whole. 

ArabNet is looking for the best campaigns from the Arab world that have truly captured the power of digital media. The case study entries have got to demonstrate clear objectives, strategies, implementation plan, results and the lessons learned. Six finalists will be chosen by ArabNet and its panel of judges, based on originality, effectiveness, impact and engagement. 

So to all the creative digital marketers out there, you have two weeks to put together your competition entry. Think long and hard about it, and let's get those outstanding digital campaigns from the Arab world out under the spotlight. 

Apply now.