(Click to enlarge pic)

(Click to enlarge pic)

Msg from Sender:
“…The same ad concept is done in Beirut and Kuwait for the same product category and promotional offer”.

Thx Ralph

A lot of people in the market, from both the agency side as well as the client side, seem to be frustrated by The Avenues mall. Many are complaining about how The Avenues always recreates rules and regulations in regards to the space rented for booths. The rules can vary from things such as how the booth has to change location on a monthly basis, or what the height of your booth can be, what the design of your booth should be limited to, where you can place your booth according to your industry, and the list just goes on.

Many companies are also frustrated by the fact that some companies seem to have priority to others or are exempted from the rules.

Many questions come to mind here to The Avenues:

1. What are these ever-changing rules based on?
2. Has The Avenues considered consulting professionals to assist them to regulate the situation?
3. Is The Avenues aware that they will not always be the #1 shopping mall in Kuwait?
4. Is it part of the IAA’s job to study and monitor such things and then act upon it?

Posted by “The Editor”

 a2b Editor:

“A friend told me that the European Film Festival starts today. I was surprised I had not heard of it and ecstatic since I wait for such events to take place! I wanted details but I was told I had to go to Shaab Park in person and get the schedule from there. I did.

I look at the pamphlet and see the International Advertising Association and Cinescape logos on it. This makes me really wonder why I have not heard of this event.

I look at the films that are being showed and their timings and I get furious! Who times movies at 10am, 5pm, and 8pm??? I take a sneak peek inside the movie theater to see if anyone was inside watching the movie Moliere, and saw only 2 people sitting!

Today is the first day and it is ongoing until Thursday.

Such a sad ass attempt to organize a something in Kuwait. I would like to thank everyone behind this great organization.”

Posted by Mystro

As you grow up in the Arab world, you are bounded to tradition & norms. Such pattern refrain you as well as your children from achieving and limits your visions in life. So you end up living in the dark as the draft horse of narrow sight.

Whereby in reality, there is nothing called “the only right way of doing things” as in life probabilities tend to infinity. Truth are relative with exception of the creator existence is an absolute (personal belief).

In the west, it was demonstrated through a series of IQ test conducted on children age 2-4 years old, 95% of them were found to be highly creative with curious, questioning minds and ability for abstract thinking.

When the same group was tested again at age 7, only 5% still demonstrated high levels of creativity. By time they have learned to conform; “If you want to get along, you had better go along” is what they had discovered.

In conclusion: Free your mind & soul and live & let live.

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 Posted by Joe

A few days ago, I ran a [recruitment ad] on ads2blog. To tell you the truth, my frustration with the feedback was only equaled with the wave of hilarious comments it triggered.

I expected people to criticize the ad, and they did. I expected people to criticize me, and they did. I expected people to criticize other people’s comments, and they did. I expected people to fall in the trap of counting the number of mistakes… and they did.

My frustration came as I expected at least one candidate to come back with the unexpected, but no one did. The objective behind this ad was to find “solution-oriented people”, rebellious people who can take the initiative and make a change without being asked to make that change, people who think different, “enemies of the ordinary” (courtesy of DDB).

Seeing the cup as half empty, is one more reason why this industry is going nowhere in Kuwait. Some bloggers came very close when they said “this ad is the mistake”, but the missing link was the other half of the equation: “how can I make it better”.

So here’s the bad news, I just failed to find solution-oriented people. The good news? We sure have brilliant people who can count mistakes

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Posted by Wakim Zeidan

“I’ve always been trying to be a person with an “Earthan” identity. I believe I was born on this planet and I have the right to live anywhere I want.

Last June I traveled to Cannes and attended the “Latin Spots” workshop at the advertising festival; and there was my awakening. The lecturer pointed out a very simple yet important insight that was right in front of me the whole time but couldn’t see because of my obsession to win a Lions award. The insight was and I quote ” … we always tried in Brazil to do european kind of ads but they were never popular neither in our country nor at Cannes, until we started doing ads relevant to our culture and market. It is then when we started being recognized…” He’s right damn it, he’s absolutely right. How blind was I the whole time trying to do ads that europeans understand and not my market / culture. I’m an arab speaker communicating to an arabian community. The worse part of this is that I’m writing this article in english so you can read it, whereas if I’ve written it in Arabic you would have probably disregarded.

Why have we downgraded our means of communication, our language, our culture. I mean it’s true that Cannes Lions festival is international but its jury doesn’t have one single arab. Is it because they don’t like us or is it because they never felt the need to have an arab jury member!? Well basically it is our fault. We’ve never sent them ads that speak about our culture, about our way of thinking, about what makes us and our creativity unique.

You would say, well several agencies from Dubai were shortlisted. Well of course! dah! Do you really think that the ads in Dubai are for arabs or for the multi-cultural community residing there.

Living on the same planet doesn’t necessarily mean that we all have to speak the same language. Awards given to english copy will never have an arabic copy winner. We have to stay genuine to ourselves and to our culture, and it’s only then that International committees and organizations will adapt to our genuineness and it’s then when we start getting recognized.”

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Mssg from Sender: “I couldn’t but notice today how newspaper advertising is becoming more and more aggressive to an extent that it’s eating from the front page header space. Hope with time, this invasion would not turn the publication name size into an ear panel size”.

Thx to sender 

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I got this shot on my way back home the other day.. it’s funny how this Mupi looks with all these small A4 personal printout ads sticked all over the board (selling a computer, buying a sofa, need a roommate?) , but i guess this will be the case now until the new outdoor supplier start rolling his business and replace them.

Until then, enjoy the new Mupi style. Afterall, isn’t it all advertising? :) 

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[By by Laura Ries]

“First of all. What is a brand? A brand is a name that stands for something in the mind of the customer. Volvo stands for “safety”. BMW stands for “driving”. Red Bull stands for “energy.” FedEx stands for “overnight.” You’re a brand. But what do you stand for? Not an easy question for most people to answer.

It’s important to note that just because a name is well-known, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a powerful brand. What’s a Chevrolet? A Chevrolet is a large/small, cheap/expensive car. Consequently, Chevrolet is a weak brand. It’s no surprise that Chevrolet has lost its brand leadership to Ford.

The most successful business people consider themselves a brand and market themselves according. And like product brands, it’s not enough to just be well-known. Continue reading ‘How Do U Turn Urself From an Ordinary Person Into a Powerful Brand?’…

 Sender/Mandy: is this merely a coincidence or a copy cat?

Thx Mandy. 

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Doing my every morning newspapers tour check, i noticed a number of ads that goes from a full to a killer page size, bad quality images, hardcore price oriented tags and sooooo many cluttered elements combined in a way that u really donno what ur looking at, what’s the product and what is it talking about.

Those ads were released today in almost every daily newspaper! the frequency was high, and i guess it will get higher very soon… Why?

Coz here’s the thing:

these kind of ads + released in most of the daily newspapers = frequency

frequency + advertiser attention for such artwork/mssg = exposer/visual contact/habit

exposer/visual contact/habit + advertiser budget = more released ads/higher frequency

more released ads/higher frequency + pre-mature market=

NEW TREND OF ADVERTISING ADS!

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Today morning on my way to work my attention was caught by an outdoor sign launching a new institute for computer sciences. The message was in Arabic, still i understood the headline. Now i was asking myself – have my Arabic reading skills improved (being a non-Arab expatriate) that drastically or is it simply the fact that advertising in Kuwait has become that predictable?

Have the world at your fingertips with faster-than-speed-of-light-internet connections, indulge yourself, make it happen with tailor made solutions for your banking needs shop till you drop so you don’t miss any chance to win dream cars, fabulous vacations, dazzling jewellery sets.

The same messages would go for any product and i would not consider it as a prevailing trend in advertising language. Is it that copywriters working in this country are out words and language has reached its limits? Or are agencies and product managers afraid that the message does not get through if it is not communicated in the usual way?

Language is an amazing tool to express creativity and many times it is a word which gets stuck in our mind. So lets’ just do it and dare for more…

posted by: Rotgold

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