October 30th, 2008 elitani
By Mohammad Itani
I had the opportunity, and for the second year, to participate as a judge in the 2008 Ibdaa Awards which was organized by the local UAE chapter of the IAA.
Along with me was Yousef Tuqan, the CEO of Flip Media (A Neo Digital sister company). I was impressed by the level of production (video and animation) students are having nowadays and especially from emerging markets such as India and Iran.
One thing i thought it was worth the attention is that the level of creativity wasn’t up to the standards. Most video advertisements discussed four main topics which are Child Abuse, Smoking, Drinking, and Global Warming. A hint to all participants is that there are much more topics to shed light on that i shall leave to your imagination.
Some pictures of the event to follow and i am looking forward to have a look at the shortlisted entries.
Posted in Introduction | No Comments »
June 7th, 2008 elitani
Finding a new advertising agency is not an easy process. It is more than looking up names in the Yellow Pages and calling for prices. To really achieve the heftier ROIs management expects, marketers have to take the time to find the right partner. Done properly, more than 850 hours (a half-year of person-hours) can be spent managing this process. Hours of research, evaluation design, project assignment, and a myriad of details associated with scheduling meetings and presentations can tax the limits of even the largest of firms. At a minimum, these are the questions that you should ask:
- Size. Are they big enough to handle an account your size demands and small enough to know your importance to them?
- People. Do they have the people on staff – account, creative, media – who can give you the services and leadership you deserve?
- Thinking. Are they real marketeers who want to truly understand your business so that they can assist in your growth plans or are they just ad makers?
- Creative. Do they have a disciplined process of creating their advertising and is it close to, or better than, what you have been used to?
- Media. Do they have a department and database resources for analyzing the best possible expenditure of your dollars?
- Experience. Do they really know how to position a product or company? Do they have experience with products/services and organizations as complicated as yours? Do they understand the selling process?
- Organization. Is your culture compatible to theirs?
- Attitude. Do they want your business and are they willing to invest time and effort to learn more about your distribution/issues and markets? Do they want to have fun doing business with you? Will they say what is on their mind?
Posted in Introduction | No Comments »
May 23rd, 2008 elitani
Flip Holding Ltd is delighted to announce the promotion of Yousef Tuqan Tuqan and Mohammad Itani as CEOs for Flip Media and Neo Digital.
Yousef Tuqan Tuqan has been promoted to CEO of Flip Media, with overall responsibility for the development and growth of the largest interactive agency in the Middle East.
An industry veteran with over 11 years of regional experience, Yousef has served as Account Director at Flip Media since 2005, and has been responsible for business development and client servicing for the agency.
“Yousef has been one of our most vocal ambassadors, and has played a leading role in growing our agency into a global network of 150 dedicated Internet professionals.
His passion and experience have been invaluable in maintaining our leadership position, and this promotion is a vote of confidence in his ability to lead Flip Media into its next phase of growth,”
said Managing Partner Dinesh Lalvani, Flip’s cofounder.
Mohammad Itani has been promoted to CEO of Neo Digital, Flip’s sister agency and the first dedicated online media agency in the Middle East. Mohammad has served as Head of Media since 2005, and has been instrumental in the growth of the agency and its reach beyond Dubai.
He has also been involved in the development of Neo Digital’s Search Engine Marketing team, which boasts 4 full-time specialists and one of the largest booking volumes in the region.
According to Flip Holdings’ Group CEO Martin Diessner,
“Mohammad has shown great leadership in times of ongoing change in the industry, and has earned the respect and admiration of his clients, his team and his partners across the online media landscape.
I am confident that Neo Digital can continue to maintain its position as the fastest-growing and most innovative independent online media agency in the region.”
Managing Partners Dinesh Lalvani and Martin Diessner will continue their daily involvement in the group’s operation from Dubai, with a greater focus on the development of Brand Central, the most powerful enterprise-class advertising management and serving solution in the Middle East; and Chameleon, Flip Media’s complete website content management solution.
According to Dinesh “these key promotions represent a vote of confidence in Yousef and Mohammad to continue to lead their agencies into their next stage of development.
Both have been the faces of Flip Media and Neo Digital since their appointment in 2005, and we are proud to work alongside them as we continue to offer the best and most comprehensive digital marketing solutions in the region.”
Posted in Flip Media/Neo Digital News, Introduction | No Comments »