Natalie's World: The IAA - Box Basics Conference (Je sors de la boîte!)

The IAA-Box Basics Conference:

The IAA-Box Basics conference I attended on the 6^th and 7^th of November was in my opinion, a huge success! The event was very well organized and the variety of speakers was tremendous. Although there weren’t any presentations concerning online media I still enjoyed it very much.

The first presentation was done by Anthony Lawrence the Group Director of Marketing, Jumeirah, UAE. He explained how they sustain the strong brand they have created in the hotel and luxury industry. Some of their many techniques included "Big Talk: where they bring in the customers and brainstorm new ideas and discover how to deliver to them" as well as "Team Talk: where they brainstorm with the team and reward them for any good ideas they might bring up." They built the Jumeirah brand using:

1. Visual Connection (attractive advertisements)

2. Creating an emotional connection between their services and their clientele.

3. Stimulating and entertaining the clientele.

The Jumeirah positioned their brand by connecting it to the phrase "Stay Different" and the formula they used to achieve that was "Expectation + 1 = Stay Different"

The second presentation was done by Ian Ewart, the Head of Global Advertising, Barclays Wealth, UK. Their main marketing tactics at Barclays Wealth were:

1. Identify your customers.

2. Interact with your customers.

3. Customize your behavior.

To be quite honest, in comparison to the Jumeirah presentation, his was quite boring!

The third presentation was done by Chris Savage, the Chief Executive, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Australia. He talked about how companies should protect their brands (crisis management) in case they were attacked by an individual or a group. He also explained how a company should face such problems and what strategies they should use.

The fourth and very exciting presentation was done by Andy Owen, Andy Owen & Associates, UK. It was about copy writing (using the write words). He stressed the point that advertisers are now talking to individuals not machines or corporations. He advised to never send out a brochure without a covering letter because words are a very powerful tool. He also stated that "great letters read aloud feel like a friend is talking to you." He also said that some words that should be avoided in any letters or brochures include: quality, value, service, caring and, integrity." Words, according to him, should stir the emotion of the receiver because emotions are the strongest driver in any human being.

The fifth, and very interesting presentation was done by Philippe Vogeleer, Chief Strategy Officer and Secretary General, Jordan Telecom Group / Orange Jordan. He talked about the re-branding challenges Orange faced when they first started out in Jordan. They had to perform 3 different bran transitions over a period of four months through nine different messages while linking the entire process as a single story. He also stated that the key to successful branding was:
education ------> Transformation -------> Proof

The sixth presentation I can assume was every one's favorite; it was done by Chris Staples, Co-Founder & Creative Director, Rethink, Canada. And he focused on low budget advertising, his motto was actually "How to break through the clutter without breaking your budget". He also gave advice on how to stretch an advertising budget by using the following steps:

1. Keeping the advertisement simple.

2. Making it creative aspect of it great.

3. Harness the power of the press.

All the advertisements that were created by his company were on a ridiculously low budget but they were the best I'd ever seen!

The seventh and to be honest, quite boring presentation was done by Tim Keiningham, Senior Vice President, Ipsos Loyalty, Canada & Lerzan Aksoy Assistant Professor of Marketing, Koç University, Turkey. I'm sure that about 99% of the audience had no idea what they were talking about! It was about analyzing the market and about loyalty myths. They used big words like: correlation, standard deviation and so on… it really would've taken a specialist in their field to actually both enjoy and understand their presentation! The first day ended with and I am sure everyone was looking forward to the next day after what they had just been through!

The second day came along and we started off with a presentation done by Mohammad Alayyan, Publisher & CEO - Al Ghad Newspaper, Jordan. He discussed "Media and entrepreneurship – Al Ghad, the success story". He discussed their key words and principles in Al-Ghad newspaper. Their commercial principles included the following key words: personal, engaging, innovative, relevant, value added and corporate social responsibility. One thing he said, that I as a Jeeran employee actually found ridiculous was the following statement he said about blogs… and I quote!: " blogs have lost their hype, people want to hear the news from professionals, if you want to know the news, you go to people who know the news!". To me, that sounded quite silly and it showed me that he actually wasn’t well educated about blogs!

The second presentation on the day was done by Elliot Polak, Founder & CEO, Text Appeal, UK. It was entitled "emotional rescue". He too, stressed the fact the advertising should always be done with pure emotion not by just using the hallow effect on customers!

The third and most amusing presentation of the day was done by Philippe Guyon, Group Brand Director – Zain Group, Jordan. He began by jumping up on and stage and using the Zain add campaign theme as his opening statement, he said pointing and the podium he was on "this is my presentation (and while pointing at the audience) and those are my friends!" His choice of clothing was also quite interesting since he was wearing a black shirt with a bright purple tie and a bright green handkerchief in his pocket; he looked exactly like Zain's Logo! Moving on, he talked about Zain's efforts in reaching the Jordanian and middle-eastern audiences and how they did it which to me was really interesting, I absolutely loved him and I even got the chance to talk to him during one of the coffee breaks!

Unfortunately, the fourth presentation was another disaster! It was done by Amir Zweil, Regional Category Director, Unilever, AMET (Africa Middle East & Turkey). It was entitled "Inside the box". In my opinion it could have been a really interesting presentation but he was too rigid and the way he spoke actually made people feel like they were about to fall asleep! His main concept was that it is not always good to think outside the box but instead thinking inside the box and having some restraints actually enhances creativity!

The fifth presentation was done by Steve McCart, General Manager - Emaar Properties PJSC, Jordan. It was about real estate marketing and how Emaar actually markets their properties to their potential buyers. I enjoyed it and it was nice to see how the Jordanian market responds!

The sixth, and also one of my favorite presentations was done by Ed Jones, Regional Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi, UAE. It was entitled "what's love got to do with it?" like all the other media and advertising agencies, he stressed the fact that emotions must be used in advertising. He stated that 'love' changes everything and the emotions are CRUCIAL. Their main principle at Saatchi & Saatchi is creating 'love marks' and this is done by:

1. Mystery (in the advertisement)

2. Sensuality

3. Intimacy

He then should us numerous advertisements created by Saatchi & Saatchi which I thought were absolutely brilliant!

The seventh and final presentation was done by Herve de Clerck, Dream Leader, AdForum. And he showed the audience a run through the best advertisements of 2007. It was really interesting and fun to watch. The winning advertisements included ads from Adidas, Honda, Amnesty International, Sony and Cadbury.

All in all I can say that I had a wonderful time at the conference, I learnt a lot of new ideas and concepts and I am very glad I had the chance to attend!