First weekend

I'd like to share how did I spend my first weekend after work.
 Thursday I finished work by 5 pm, my brother drove me home and the traffic was horrible I arrived home in an hour and half.
Thursday night was supposed to be special but the traffic screwed it and I spent the night instead watching Celebrity Apprentice, reading magazines and chatting with friends. And I slept by 4 am as I missed sleeping lately since the two days I started work.

  Friday I had loads of plans! all of them were screwed by spending three hours at the hairdresser though I didn't want to straighten my hair and I don't really know how did I survive those three hours, they were playing loudly a sick arabic movie and I waited for a kid who had long hair reached to under her waist.
Then I went to my cousin's wedding and it was horrible! the bride wore tons of makeup on her face that she looked like a clown and had dirty yellow highlights. I couldn't bear to stay more than an hour and I went home. I watched telly of course Celebrity Apprentice and then I headed to bed just because I wanted to experience sleeping early to wake up late.

Saturday morning: I woke up at 9:00 am on nosiy rings of the telephone, I don't really know who was calling in such early hour.
Achievements of the day:
Watched first episode of Vampire Diaries' second season
Cleaned Brownie's litterbox
Baked m&m, chocolate chip & plain coffee cookies.

Tylenol 1982 Case Study

Yesterday at my Advertising class, We were discussing the Product Loyalty issue. And how consumers are loyal to their products. Loyalty is basically due to three reasons. First: Habit, most of consumers buy that brand as a result of habit, they got used to buying that brand and they are too lazy to change it.
Second: Performance, consumers are loyal to their brands because they perform well.
Third: Prestige, consumers stick to buy a $90 normal cotton tshirt due to it provides them with the required prestige they want. It makes them feel better.
A case study that shows consumers loyalty, Tylenol crisis.
In the fall of 1982, McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, was confronted with a crisis when seven people on Chicago's West Side died mysteriously. They found out that The Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules were each found to contain 65 milligrams of cyanide.
 Surprisingly, The sales volume didn't fall down, The Public relations team was really successful. First thing they did, they announced through the media for people to stop using Tylenol if they already purchased it. And for those who didn't purchase it, they shouldn't buy it. Then they recalled all Tylenol capsules from the market.
By that move they gained consumers' trust and people didn't stop using Tylenol as they distributed new one through the shelves.
The question is... If that actually happened in Egypt, do you think that the sales volume won't drop? even if Johnson and Johnson removed all the products from the shelves and warned people not to use it?

First Day Work

Believe it or not! Today was my first day work... I'm excited. I work as an advertising sales executive in What Women Want magazine.
I woke up at 7:30 am had a quick breakfast watching Terminator Salvation, then dressed in smart casual.
Took a white cap and I spent 45 minutes in traffic heading to Maadi.
I arrived late by 15 minutes, I won't describe how much I liked my coworkers, they are friendly, cooperative& funny.
I loved the spirit of the work place. I sat with my coworker Mona, she's pretty tall girl with brown curly hair. She explained to me briefly how work goes. then I spent the time chatting with my sales team breaking the ice to get to know them more. The time had passed fixing my internet connection. I've a simple oragnized desk.... as simply it has nothing but a pc screen and a Siemens telephone (yea Siemens is there wherever I go).

I ordered a Chipsy from the supermarket... I think that will be a problem in the near future to get use to eat junk food (where's Siemens? They had their own restuarant providing us with healthy meals)
I loved my work nature so far from hearing the sales calls before even applying it. I've always loved magazines and publishing.
I left work by 5 pm and God the traffic was horrible, my dear brother drived me home in half an hour and I had only 15 minutes to change clothes and pray to catch up with my friend to go to our Advertising class. I didn't have lunch though I wasn't exhausted or sleepy (Thank God).

In the Advertising Class I've an assignment to prepare a questionnaire for marketing research for H&M clothing store *exhaling* let's see what we can do!

Media Class Oct 25th

Yesterday's Media class we talked about Media Campaigns. I've learned that Media Campaigns can be through different media channels, using TV, Radio and Press together. But there's a Newspapaer campaign, a Radio campaign specified for certain media channels carrying a specific message.

It is more effective to use different media channels in the same time delivering same message more than using different media channels on long term, launched in different time spams( TV this month and radio next month)
A lot of companies launch at first a media campaign and then they vary the media type on long term for the same message.

The instructor asked us what do we think about Magdi Yaakoub heart care center commercials? I said that I think that Magdi yaakoub doesn't need Yousra or Naguib Sewiras to advertise for his heart care center, he's well known enough. The argument went as follows, Magdi Yaakoub is not well known for a lot of Egyptians and they don't know how he looks like. I said that it is enough to display his name in the commercial.
But another important point made me more convinced is that some people love Yousra so that will play on their emotions to like the cardio care center. Others believe that Magdi Yaakoub is christian so he is promoting his care center for christians only, when they find Ali Gomaa speaking passionatly about the center and its achievements they will get convinced that it is promoted for all people regardless what are their beliefs.



Then we moved into an important definition PSAs or Public Service Announcements and they are the kind of advertisements that sells ideas or awareness campaigns such as Breast Cancer, Tax new law, the new campaign of 'Wa2fa Masria'.
For TV commercials, I've learned that in Egypt, prime time on TV is from 9pm untill 12 am, it is the most time that can be effective for broadcasting commercials. However media planners pick the time to broadcast their commercials based on Talkshows like El 3ashera and 90 minutes or arabic TV series.

Commercials that shift you from its basic message

Some commercials are very successful and their brilliance makes you forget about the original message carried behind the commercial. Mobinil Ramadan 2009 commercials was really successful, people loved the jingles and sang it everywhere. But after a few months I wonder what was the commercial message carried? some say there was nothing just a nice jingle greeting us for Ramadan. Others said there was an offer for less charged calls... again by how much? well they don't know or they forgot.



A successful commercial is not boring, makes you remember the brand and get the message carried behind it. I find that commercial for El Rasheedy El Mizan Jam is truly successful, it was made based upon a famous song that was very trendy in the summer. It helped people recall the brand very well El Rashidy El mizan. Where the real message behind that commercial was to make people get to eat more Jam.



As El Rasheedy El Mizan, some other brands played on the music smartly that attracted the audience attention such as Etisalat commercial for Ramadan 2010 or another one was a jingle by Mohamed Mounir



Also Fayrouz is very smart in picking songs for its commercials, their songs are catchy and grabs attention quickly and in the same time reflects the identity of the brand..''refreshment''

Mixed appeals commercials

Today in my Media class, I've learned that there is a lot of commercials that are a mix of both emotional and rational appeals. They start with emotional appeal and then ends with a rational one.
Check that Mercedes commercial, it started with an emotional appeal with a humor.. then ends with a rational one telling us about the message.



I've learned as well that Safety is one from emotional appeals as it always play on the viewer emotions and it will never be a rational appeal as it isn't about benefits or performance.

Another one for Ally Bank, it started with a short ironic funny story that ends up with stating the benefit of being a customer at Ally Bank


Ant there's the Egyptian new Tax law grapped the audience attention through its sense of humor then ended up with a strong message of the urge to obey the new Tax Law.

End of October

I won't describe how happy I am, By the end of October, the weather starts to be chill& cold.
Streets are strangely calm by 10 pm! aint't no much of people around in the streets. Students are crawling in front of TV doing their homework. Family is gathered around their dining table having dinner. A single guy/girl having a hot drink in front of the laptop screen. Whatever people are doing, it can be descriped in one word 'Calm'.
What I feel now is that I wanna sleep the whole night under bed sheets, enjoying that cold breeze. By today's interview I should be working after tomorrow. So I'm missing free life of watching TV, reading novels, downloading movies and watching it the whole day. going morning to the cinema in the middle of the week.
In the same time I'm excited! finally I'm gonna work in advertising, I'm gonna learn how will the market go and how advertising works. It will be one hell of experience. A chance to get over my weakness& my fear, to prove myself.
Will I be missing Brownie? leaving him alone the whole day I hope my parents to treat him well and not to go crazy and decide to sell him. God how I love that cat! he's such adorable innocent creature, he's like my baby. I envy him a lot for living a simple life highly dependent on food!
Will I be able to concentrate on my diploma and be active in the session?
Will I be active in blogging and write my thoughts day by day?
Oh my Twitter movie recommendations page... I don't wanna miss it.
Definitly I'll be missing sleeping lately by 4:00 am!
But come on, most of my friends started to work and soon they will be busy too! So I won't find someone to chat with late at night.
Too many questions and the answers soon will be answered insha Allah

Seventh Interview

Alright... alright don't push me, It's me Seventh interview...
My interview was in a magazine called What Women Want
Place: Maadi
Time: 12:00 pm
Position: Advertising Sales executive

I jumped into a black and white taxi, didn't get lost this time, it was easy to find the building, I arrived earlier by half an hour, following the rule of 'being early better than being late'. I entered an apartment with massive reception, about 6 desks with pc screens and girls typing on keyboards and only a guy in his thirties sitting in a far corner.
I didn't wait for too long, only ten minutes, then I entered the editing manager's office, a young girl in late twenties greeted me and we started our interview. She asked me what I'm doing in my life?
And I said that I spend my life after graduation busy in blogging, attending my Marketing Communications
diploma classes and working on my fundraising activity in AUC.
Then she asked me what made you think that you will be the right person for advertising sales?
I said that I believe that I've a convincing power, I believe in that job so I think I'll do well. And I told her about my work in fundraising that seemed pretty convincing.

She asked me what do I blog about? I told her about the name of the blog and that I write about my unemployment diaries, with a short smile she told me 'But it is a short lapse of time since you have been graduated to complain from unemployment' I told her that my life is full of stories that worth writing.

Then she started to tell me more about the vacancy, for fresh graduates she provide them a whole month training, if they did good, they'd give them a one year contract, because a lot of fresh grads have a wrong perception about their career, and when they collide with reality they find themselves don't fit.

I actually liked the work atmosphere, I felt a relief and I was excited about that vacancy. So I didn't hesitate and decided to give it a shot. She gave me a day to think about it, and she awaits a reply from me.

Fashion brands' new trend in advertising

Fashion brands are following a new trend in advertising, They started to display a short story in their commercials in stead of showing a one minute of hiphop music or hot models.
Jack& Jones commercial is carrying a short story, delivering a message that women are pigs, well that's very offensive. So men should be buying Jack &Jones jeans because they believe that women are pigs and all that they think about is Sex!


Only's commercial produced by students of the University of Siegenis, it is really simple but what I liked is that they are showing normal fat girls and not a hot model, well this is reality!



That French connection commercial is funny, but what I didn't undersand if french aren't that good in english, why storytelling in english when they have an aweful english accent, I don't get what he's saying here


Another one from H&M, I admire the old B&W vague style

McDonald's: Beef CV

A Question for all vegeterians, are you convinced by that print ? will you go& eat from Macdonald's?

Celebrity Apprentice: Dial Yogurt case

Today's Celebrity apprentice was amazing, I wish for the first time to be a member of one of those teams.
Dial Yogurt shower gel wanted to advertise a 4 pages printed campaign in Red Book magazine. Each team is assigned to come up with ideas for the campaign and they were given a photographer and a whole studio.
Redbook editors sat with both teams clarifying that the shampoo is targeting women aged from 20 till 50 years old but specifying age 37. The shampoo is made of Yogurt and its main focus was health and family.

Hydra team thought of the campaign as to represent women's toughest moments in her life, Starting with work, dealing with her baby and ends up with sex. After brainstorming, they settled on a two flip printed ads, first flip showed a mid thirties woman having a bath using the shampoo, writing details on the product on the other page. The second flip showed the importance of the product including photos of making of the printed ad and a photo of a woman carrying her child and the other page included the model happily in bed with her husband with a mouth gesture as if he is eating her because of the delicious smell of Yogurt.

Empresario team thought more of the magazine than the product, they thought that the magazine is mainly targeting middle american women, so they brought a country music singer wearing cowboy hat with a guitar, in a desert atmosphere, clarifying that the desert is causing dry skin that women are in deep need for that shower gel. They also made two flips, first flip showing a beautiful middle american girl in 20s with glowing skin holding Dial Yogurt, and the other page showing three hot cowboys standing with their guitars. The second flip shows a cowboy playing a guitar for a young girl sitting in a bath tub.

In my opinion I deeply admired Empresario's ad campaign because it was new, the cowboy photos will attract my attention. I'll sit there staring at the topless hot guys along with the country music atmosphere especially when the magazine is targeting the middle american housewives. Their problem is that they didn't consider the product main feature which is 'family' and that the product description font was tiny.

Hydra's campaign was pretty boring, the idea of showing a hot model holding a shower gel in a bath tub has been repeated thousands of times. But they showed it in a professional attractive way and what was good about the campaign is that they showed the main importance of the product and their font was pretty clear. Will the campaign touch women? indeed it will but I don't think for a big portion of women.

Both campaigns had used sex appeal in their ads, the topless cowboys photo and the two models in bed ads. But I'll still go for Empresario with their cowboy campaign if only they consider the font and clarifying the product importance in their ads.

Ray-Ban Viral Campaigns

Ray-Ban new viral campaign, like seriously? I stared at my laptop screen for minutes, A video on YouTube showing a cow giving birh to a man wearing a Ray-Ban sunglasses, it is the most disgusting thing even seen. I understand the concept of their campaign, is that glasses don't hide your real character, but it is considered to be the window to your character, so when wearing a Ray-Ban sunglasses you 'Never Hide' who you really are.
Whatever they are aiming to, not in that disgusting mean. They want to make people love Ray Ban and the campaign? or alienate them from the brand?



On the contrary for the other viral video campaigns, I find the Chameleon one is extremely entertaining.





What I truly admire about their viral campaign, is simplified in one word ''realism'' as when I watch those videos randomly on YouTube, I'll think that they were recorded by amateurs. But of course their campaigns were busted by bloggers & active YouTube users.

Shopping day

I know that article will frustrate a lot of guys& girls who hate shopping, First Question when I hear word ''Shopping'' how much pounds do we girls lose when we do shopping?
Really? How much? We spent more than 3 hours, invading more than 10 stores, changing seven items per store.

Today I went out with mom with an aim to have a decent walk round the stores, then the devilish side of me said 'mom, I wanna buy something for Autumn, its getting colder', And mom is too kind that she almost agreed with me.

City stars or ''shitty stars'' as most of people call, The first and last place to go shopping. First store was Only followed by Vero Moda, Zara, H&M, Jennyfer& Promod.

I spent 15 minutes in Only changing two items I was hesitant between Medium and large. In Vero Moda, I picked seven items! 2 pants, 2 grey dresses, blue blouse, white dress and Navy blue jacket. Nothing matched me, the pants were tight, dresses were too short, I looked like a clown wearing the blue blouse, White dress was exposed and the Navy blue jacket was GREAT! didn't buy it of course till I dig other 2 or 3 stores.

In Zara, I spent an hour there changing between 2 pants, I was hesitant between size 42 and 44 ! I ended up buying size 44.

I went to Jennyfer, H&M and Promod just to find a good white chemise and nothing appealed me! I ended up buying a good beige, mid-season blouse.

Of course mom was too mad, or she wouldn't be a normal person, she got bored, tired waiting for me in fitting rooms, I tricked her I've to admit, I used her to go shopping with me, well she sweared by the end of the shopping trip that she 'll never go shopping with me again, I think we are even now huh?

But c'mon think of how do us shoppers feel? we are exhausted like hell, changing clothes, hesitating between cloth items, worry if the two items don't match or people won't like it.

Was a good day except for the last part...

First Advertising class

  Today was my first Advertising class. I truly admire our instructor, an elegant half Egyptian half Argentinean, She is very experienced, she worked in both the Agency and the client so I guess I'll be having loads of fun.

 The class started by asking as a question, Do you think Creativity is a talent or learned? My opinion was that All of us were born creative but we lose creativity because of education& culture. Creativity can be refreshed through practicing. Her opinion was that Creativity is a talent and that it can be learned but it won't be as much as those guys who was born creative.

Then she asked us what is the difference between a product and a brand? a lot of answers some were wrong and some were right, some of the answers were that blue jeans is a product, Calvin Klein is a brand. And that not all of products has a brand.

Then we moved to basic guidelines for Advertising, First is that there is no good or bad advertisement, but there's an effective or memorable or a persuasive advertisement.

Second Who is the responsible of the ineffective ad? well It is the client, because the client is the one who plans for the whole marketing campaign, he is the one who explains his strategy and his product and what kind of message he wants to deliver to the ad agency and he's the one who approves on the execution of the advertisement.

Third point, is that there's no rules in Advertising except the science, when I think about this point I see that there's basic rules to follow or to consider when designing for example the logo should be clear on the printed ad or that there shouldn’t be much of information on the billboard.

Fourth point is that don't be BORING or ordinary which in my point of view it is a mistake most of companies fall into, such as detergents commercials are always dividing the screen into a white glowing shirt using their detergent while a yellow shirt using the competitor's detergent.

Fifth point is that advertisements are not measurable and that financial managers are always opposing the cost of the ads but when the ad is not effective they aren't the main reasons to blame.

Sixth point which is extremely important is to have objective, objective in what is the message conveying the ad and what are the expected outputs from that advertisement (increasing sales or responding to a special offer)

Seventh point is about Testing your ad, testing is extremely costing from selecting your focus group and applying testing procedures itself but it is important to do another problem is that people tend to be not honest for most of the time. A case study she told us about, They set a group of people, put the tested ads in the middle of a magazine and they kept observing whether the tested act will attract their attention or not and for how long will they stay to stare at the printed ad and after a week they asked them which ad they remembered the most from the magazine.
Another case study of product testing and researching, they carried two photos in the street one for a hot Blondie wearing fashion trending clothes and the other was for a fat woman and they asked people what do you expect the Blondie is shopping from and where from the fat woman is shopping? Most of the answers for the latest question went for a certain brand whom they were testing for. So they included that brand’s weakness that it isn't fashionable and people wear from it because it sells big sizes.

Eighth point is extremely important is that people tend to mix between familiarity and quality, that as long as the products are familiar, they are of a good quality. There’s a lot of food with good quality but aren’t familiar. For example when it comes to food quality is measured by a taste, me myself love a certain type of Tuna called ‘Boustany’ it isn’t familiar and a lot of people don’t like it but I think that it is delicious and underrated.

El Rasheedy El mizan case study: El Rasheedy Elmizan has a low market share measured 10%, their targent was not to increase their market share but to increase Jam’s consumers as people tend not to eat a lot of Jam. So they launched their famous jingle in Ramadan. It was very successful campaign that people recognized the name of the brand.

By the end of that fruitful session, The instructor gave us an assignment which is supposed to be the whole course project, we should pick up a product and do researches, design a press ad and to prepare a report with the ad.

The Wild Animal Rescue Foundation of Thailand

I've stumbled upon that printed ad and I truly loved it, very touching with high credibility

A Rejection Email

Two hours ago, I've checked my email and I found 4 new emails inbox; With a big eager smile I opened them to find three of them are notifications and one silly irrelevant one titled 'Thank You Letter'.
I opened that last one, to find it from the bookstore that I had been interviewed for the customer rep/Data-entry position. And the email was as follows:

Dear Nourhan,

It was a pleasure meeting you and having the opportunity to discuss your education and your career goals.

We appreciate the time you dedicated to go through our selection process. Your qualifications match our requirements to a big extent, but we are unable to offer you a position at this time.

We will keep your resume in our current file for consideration at a later date should a suitable vacancy arise.

We are certain that you will find a position which suits you soon and we believe that you have a great deal to contribute.

Please accept our best wishes for your future

Thanks and regards

   I wasn't sad, I didn't want to work there anyway because the place was too far and the other position was customer service not the kind of job to be suitable for my qualifications.

   I actually liked that email, it gave hope by mentioning that I have good qualifications which can be enough for the vacancies & by mentioning that they are gonna keep my resume for a later suitable vacancy in the future.

  In my life I've recieved three rejection emails, first was from Unilever and the second was from PepsiCo and the last was from that bookstore.

  Comparing all of the three, the bookstore's rejection email is the best. Pepsico's rejection email was just telling me in the face 'You are rejected' while Unilever's wasn't motivating enough 'We believe that you have a good qualifications but they don't match our internship program requirements' or maybe because Unilever's interview went really bad that I'm carrying a bad image for Unilever.

Any other upcoming rejection emails?

Two hours in Cilantro

 Today I went to Cilantro, I stayed for two hours waiting for my friend. In these two hours I ordered a plain tea with strawberry flavour (you should try it someday). I started to read in my novel, finished a chapter and then I moved to Cilantro central magazine. My eyes stumbled upon a couple of interesting articles.

  First one was about The Middle East Entrepreneur Training given to successful promising youth who wanted to learn how to be a successful entrepreneur, Participants are from different countries. Two Egyptian females had participated in that program with more than seven years of experience in media field.

  One of them was a fashion editor in Enigma and Cleo magazine also worked as a lifestyle producer in OTV, she is graduated from Faculty of Arts english dept. and has studied fashion design in London. She started her own fashion line selling Bohemian Oriental inspired clothes.
  And the Other holds a BA degree in Arts, faculty of Al Alsun and an MBA from Maastricht school of management, She has seven years of experience in PR field, now she is opening her PR company.

  I don't need to mention how I love to read about career profiles. Those two girls are inspiring, they are successful, working in what they love& believe in and reached to their goal (without envy).

 Second article was about a girl who is a graduate from AAST majoring Business Adminstration and she is now a business development manager in a famous Ad agency. How She had started her own career?
 She started working since high school and even after joining college she has never stopped working and participating in different activities and now she has her own PR company.

After finishing both articles I shouted to myself  ''Eh da! ana 3awza ab2a 7aga ba2a'' and that comment remained hung up in the air... let's see What will happen in the next 5 years, maybe when I read that post again I might Cry OR Laugh!

A bad dream

Yesterday I had a real bad dream, I've dreamt that my brother had a female kitten colored purple with green eyes! it was very beautiful that I adopted it out of three other female kittens with different colors, I found the color purple is rare in kittens that it can be a beautiful bride for Brownie (my cat).

I raised it along with Brownie but it was fierce, it kept scratching & biting me whenever I carry her.Then it grew older its color had changed into white &blue with black spots, it became prettier & more wild.
That Cat was creepy, I feared it, it was a cold creature that brought goosebumps and uncomfort to the place.

I woke up horrified, I hurried to the laptop and surfed the meaning behind that dream, I found the explanation of dreaming of female cats in dreams is as follows:

It means bad luck if I didn't get rid of it.
If I got attacked by a cat it means that I've enemies that are trying to distort my reputation.
If the cat was meowing it means that a friend is trying to hurt me.
If I was carrying a cat it means that I'll fall a victim as a result of others' betrayal

Well It means that some bad friend or a bad person that I know, is trying to hurt me, which brings to me bad luck and I'll fall as a victim to his/her betrayal and my reputation will be distorted.

B-E-R-fect

One Movement Campaign in Egypt

A couple of months ago, I've only knew about the One Movement, What is it?

   It is an awareness campaign for people to stop throwing trash in the street; Before knowing it, I didn't like the idea of throwing trash in egyptian streets but I didn't pay much of attention whether to throw it or not.
  After knowing it, I've paid attention not to throw any kind of trash and I've met a lot of situations that I tend to stuck where I should be throwing that 'tissue' but I throw it instead in my purse.

  I see that it is a little problem for guys, that they don't carry bags to throw trash. Especially when they smoke, the shortest and easiest mean is to throw it in the street or to the nearest pile of trash. I think they can keep it in their hands untill they find the nearest trash box and for those who drive, they can keep a special small plastic bag for trash in their car.

  I notice a lot of car drivers, driving fancy cars and they throw a piece of can, seeing that it won't reflect a bad image... well it does...to a lot of people that believe in keeping egyptian streets clean.

  I've admired so much The Campaign, the idea is simple but it became easy to be spread (thanks to social media), The founder thought about promoting it through photos. Each one who carried the promise not to throw a trash in the street is taken a photograph of himself making the One Movement hand gesture and then their photos are posted on the facebook group.

  Photos in my opinion is a smart idea as people on facebook are tagged in hundreds of photos each day, when I see on my newsfeed that a lot of my friends tagged in the same hand gesture I'll start to question myself what is behind those photos and then get to know about this awareness campaign.

 No doubt that the Campaign had gained a lot of success, a proof for its success that I've met people I barely knew who knows about the One Movement, and we shared a common belief :)

How to Join the One Movement ?
Through Spreading the word if you truly believe in the cause, and include yourself in the oath by uploading your own “One Movement Hand Gesture” photo on the Facebook group.

Here's The One Movement group page
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=403852430300&v=info

And a short documentry about the campaign

Reportorial Vs.Access Media

  Today's Media class was quiet fruitful, I've gained a lot of knowledge. Today I knew two new terms which are Reportorial & Access Media.

Reportorial Media: is any kind of Media which delivers news straightly and in a serious manner.

• News channels (CNN, BBC & El Jazeera)
• Newspapers (El Masry el yoom or El Ahram)
• News trailer in any channel like CNN or Egyptian local NTN channels are considered to be reportorial.
• News section in lifestyle, business and sport magazines.
• News section in Masrawy, BBC websites.

But talkshows aren't considered to be from reportorial media but from access media.

  Access Media: Is any media that plays on the emotions of the public, it is interested in entertainment and sensation.
News is considered to be a pure source for Access Media which is based on it, it is converted into debates, opinions & arguments.

• Talkshows: 90 minutes, El3ashera, Oprah Winfery, Jon Stewart..etc
• Blogs &forums
• All kinds of magazines (Ad week, Enigma, Teenstuff..etc)

 The Trend now is going to Access Media, people got bored of watching strict news channels& news programs; They started to watch talkshows and rely on it as a primary source of information. Why? Because it is entertaining and provides more than one opinion for the news' story, also it offers them an opportunity to participate and share their opinions on air.

Commercials which were banned on Egyptian TV

In my last Media class, I’ve learned that some commercials are banned to be broadcasted on TV, and those banned commercials are launched through YouTube instead, which is welcomed and gained a lot of success.

In my opinion, those commercials were banned mostly for moral reasons, Such as Coca Cola African Cup Campaign in Egypt. A lot of commercials were launched on YouTube and they gained much success as those who were broadcasted on TV (me personally knew about the campaign through Facebook before watching it on TV)

That commercial showing sarcasm to Egyptian actor, That even guys who have Karam Motawe3’s haircut are supporting Egypt. Of course such kind of commercials won’t be banned in American or European channels even if they were showing sarcasm to Elvis Presely haircut.

That commercial in my opinion is very offensive to Kaka’s merchants

Same has happened to another campaign for Juhayna.

I think that commercial was banned because it had mentioned another brand—Louis Vuitton.

We can conclude that Egypt as a country pays a due attention to morality& offensive issues on TV, which I’m actually surprised when we compare it to Melody Hits commercials.

The question is, will YouTube be a substitute for TV for commercials in the future?  Melody Hits had announced in its TV commercials to watch its other commercials on their YouTube channel, which can be a good start…

Connect to disconnect

I will let that video speak of itself



Though the concept that smart phones, scoial media& internet had withdrawn us away from our social life and made us blind to experience happy moments with our family and friends. Here it was expressed in a simple yet creative commercial.

When Social Media is used to make a difference (YouTube) -- Part II

Another Campaign in NY city, this one was for AIDS/HIV, the idea was simple but full of credibility. On World AIDS last year, a campaign was launched through YouTube under the name of 'I speak because..'
Bringing different people to talk about AIDS in a minute, Some of them suffered AIDS and some others not.



Rosie Perez Talks About HIV/AIDS Because...



B.D. Wong Talks About HIV/AIDS Because...



Wendy Williams Talks About HIV/AIDS Because...

When Social Media is used to make a difference (YouTube) -- Part I

  Read an article about youtube videos that made a difference and one video attracted me, when Shawn Ahmed started to post videos on YouTube under the name of 'The uncultured project' to raise awareness around the world about Global Poverty, those videos were in different places such as Bangladesh focusing on poverty, child labor and education. Those videos had turned into a mean for charity.
People watched those videos and started to make donations. What I liked that He posted Twitpics for donators to show them how their donations made a difference for kids.



After watching that video, I'm amazed by the success of those videos that brought happiness to those kids, they are learning in neat, clean place with a ceiling. They painted the school with their fave paint color 'Blue' and they are now drinking clean water. That was a pure example of how Social Media was used as a mean for Charity.

A typical day spent indoor

Today I wanna talk about how's an ordinary day spent indoor is like..I wake up at 1 pm, after midday of course as I've slept the day before by 5 am!
And why should I sleep early, when I have nothing to do the next day? Anyway I wait for half an hour drinking water and staring at my cat untill my tummy calls for food, I go prepare my fave meal of cereal, add honey and milk and then into the fridge for 3 minutes (a trick to make the cereals soft &not dry). If there's no cereals I go for eggs & melted cheese and then watch telly while having my breakfast.

After filling my tummy, I open my laptop *sighing* first thing to do, check my email inbox hoping to find a reply from any company that I've sent my cv to (like Siemens, they sent me an email and they never called) As usual I see my inbox EMPTY

Moving to Facebook, I check recent messages to see updates from recruitement groups for recent job posts, and most of them are engineering positions or for underground companies (as I said before won't ever work in an underground co.), Finding FB boring from the engagement and in a relationship news feeds I move to Twitter... my beloved social media form. I read recent seven posts and check @ & Direct messages, seeing nothing new, I open my MSN, any offline messages? yes recieving 2 or 3 from my dear friend telling me about the movie she had been watching, describing it as B-O-RING, encouraging enough as I've just downloaded it and was planning to watch it the next day.

Then I check my Blog and stare at my posts proudly, An hour has passed now wasted in switching between websites. I go feed Brownie (my cat) and he refuses to eat prefering to sleep...my cat is luckily living a peacful life based on food and deep sleep, wishing us humans to be blessed by such life.

4:00 pm now... time to have lunch, Here's my dear friend signing in and we chat, opening different controversial topics basically Creation, beliefs, Islam, Career shit, complaining from unemployment and time moves so fast...

Other days I play Zumba dance video classes on Youtube, and dance for 10 minutes, some other times I play workouts like 'Get a Bikini body in 10 days' or 'How to have a sexy butt in a week' following that nonsense I play maximum 3 days in a row.

8:00 pm is mostly Movie Time, I play any kind of movie on my laptop, in the past 7 days I watched 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' ..'Two Lovers' ..'22 Bullets' & 'Hot Fuzz'

10:00 pm is the Coffee &Tea time, I try to drink as much caffeine as I can to keep me awake for the next 5 hours, I want to read, I want to start job hunting, I want to look for good ideas to write in my blog.

What I've discovered is that I spend a lot of time staring at the rug thinking & daydreaming, planning most of the time... Thinking now what my day will be like when I have my full time job?

And I've learned that time is moving so fast that I should move my ass and do something useful...Later guys

The Break Up ( Advertiser &Consumer)

  Well I loved the idea of that video, that shows the relationship between the advertiser and the consumer.
The advertiser (bf) here assures that he totally understands consumer's (gf) needs, while the consumer on the other hand complains from the advertisers misunderstand to his needs.

   For example when the girl said 'you talk a lot' meaning that the advertiser delivers a lot of irrelevant messages in their tv commercials that keep bugging the consumer.
  When the advertiser asked her 'What about the print campaign?' The consumer finds that the advertiser's ads lack credibility and she doesn' believe or feel their message.
  My fave part when the girl complains to her BF that he doesn't know her well & He told her 'Sweetheart I know everything about you, you are 28-34, your main interests include music, movies..'

  I think that short funny video declares basic problem when the advertisers tend to be bureaucrats & follow certain rules and lack creativity, for example when advertisers obey the rule of making funny ads, while consumers don't feel that they are funny because they lacked credibility, or they felt that the advertiser is giving less weight/value to consumer's mind. Advertisers should really feel their consumers and pay close attention to their changing wants and not to throw them into sex age groups according to their needs.

Missed job opportunities

Well I had uptill now 4 phone calls for good Job offers:

Magazine
Insurance company
Yahoo
Call center
 
    First I remember applying for a tele-sales position for a magazine called Leadership, I never heard of it before! They called me for a job interview, unfortunately that day I had another interview, and it'd have been exhausting to go both interviews in one day, So I went for the other one and I didn't go for the magazine.

   Second, An Insurance company called me for a sales position, I didn't even apply for them, I asked the guy 'Is it outdoor or indoor?' He told me that it is Outdoor, I apologized that I won't be able to work outdoor.

   Third was Yahoo....yeah Yahoo called me for my dream job! an operation advertising executive! imagine!
They asked me first if I was good in french..which brought disappointment as I told them honestly that I forgot my french but I can re-attend french classes, But seems that it was urgent to fill that vacancy.

  Fourth was a call center, I found an american sweet accent coming through my mobile phone telling me that my friend recommended me for a job vacancy, they were a call center called Stream, and the vacancy was for a foreign account, start up salary: 2300 LE wow! night shifts 8 hrs. She asked me whether I'll be flexible for night shifts and I told her that it will be hard especially that I've my diploma from 6 pm till 9 pm! She told me If I were you I won't go for it and that she has my contact and will call me later and of course that means 'I'm deleting your number'

Porn Tech Support

That video is hilarious, A call center job for Porn Tech Support!....what can I say?

Sixth Interview

Hooray Today was my Sixth Interview..
Place: Bookstore- New Cairo
Position: Data Entry or Customer Service.

  OF course the place (New Cairo) was way too far from home so I picked a White taxi. We were lost for fifteen minutes looking for '401'..a small building of two floors.
   A messy apartement, 20 minutes early, waited inside a room of 3 desks. Untill my interviewer finished the previous interview and started mine. He kept asking me for random questions like 'When you go to a restaurant, what's the most thing you 'd notice?' OR 'What do your friends call you?' of course for the last one I didn't hesitate to answer ''FUNNY''. I didn't much like my interviewr though.
  The problem is that I didn't know on which vacany I was being interviewed for Data-entry ot Customer Service. He managed to give me a book and asked me to sell it for him...
  I said 'That book is about travelling, if you are a businessman and wishes to expand your business, you should read that book to gain knowledge about other cultures, what kinds of business strenth found in those countries...''
  Amused by my answer, he told me then why don't you want to work in sales?, I explained briefly that it will be far from my dream career and won't add much to my knowledge.
  Finally the interview was ended by 'We will call you within a week' and I was like 'Sorry for what vacancy?' He told me that will depend on the next interview. Anyway I won't go to that place ever again because of the long distance and the fact tha I don't have a car. And the good position is in the head office while the customer service/Sales representative thing will be in the book branches and the idea to work in customer care is strongly rejected.

A day when I regretted that I've graduated

   Today, I had a chitchat with my cousin who is still a senior in college, majoring Business. She told me about Unilever's program Idea Trophy. That program is organized for college students to work in teams on a real life Case Study about preparing new ideas to help Oral Care products to penetrate rural market.
  The winner teams will be moved to phase Two, Which they are gonna prepare an account Business Plan for Oral Care products.
  Reading about that program made me excited & started to think about how to develop a creative idea and then for a second I remembered that I'm a graduate and I can't participate in such program, cursing the circumstances and my destiny that I hadn't had such program during college. Only P&G came to our college giving us stupid sessions where we sat there listening & some others were sleeping& snoring, Which clearly P&G was marketing itself, so we didn't get much of benefit.

Here's Idea Trophy website http://www.ideatrophy-name.com/

Social Media's role in Advertising (case studies)

  No one could deny that Social Media is playing an important role in our lives, In fact studies have showed that people use social media even more than checking their daily emails which I'm not surprised I even suggest to make 'check your email' a feature in your Facebook page.

 I can see Social Media to be the future in advertising, why? Because people spend half of their lives using social media more than watching tv. News are spreading fastly through sharing or retweeting. I even sometimes watch a tv commercial through youtube without watching it on TV, like The CoCa Cola Happiness campaign, I've stumbled upon it through a random youtube recommended video.

About CocaCola Happiness Campaign:
The marketing team of Coca Cola decided to go viral and post their happiness campaign through social media first. They published a video through CocaCola account on YouTube, and the Magic happened when thousands of users shared the video through FB and the number of views gew dramatically.



Another Case Study for Social Media: It is considered to be of Social Advertising type, promoting for 'Stop Domestic Violence' cause. When Jenny created an account on Twitter following massive number of followers and hiring other people to recommend Jenny to be followed. Jenny kept tweeting about actual events happening in her life. Such as 'I had my first date today with Adam'..'Adam brought me lillies for my Birthday, how cool is that?'..'I had a fight with Adam today on the subway, he slapped me in public'..'Now I'm crying at home' Of course when people read those tweets they interacted strongly with Jenny, feeling sorrow for her.
People didn't know that Jenny is a fake account when at last that Social Agency tweeted 'Stop Domestic Violence'. I consider that move from one of the creative campaigns I had ever met.

Another Creative campaign when IKEA furniture had used Facebook photo tagging feature. When it posted several showroom photos on a FB account, Announcing that whoever will tag himself first on the desired piece of furniture in the photo, will take it for free. People kept tagging themselves and of course the picture appeards on newsfeed letting millions of FB users to to know more about the Campaign.



When Mountain Dew had used Facebook to let her fans and customers participate in launching new flavour.Participants were chosen to record their reaction on Mountain Dew tested flavours. Three Flavours were chosen and the testers were divided into several teams according their flavour preference. Each team was tasked with the responsibility of naming its flavor, designing a label, selecting an agency and supervising the marketing and advertising plans for flavor launch (how cool is that?)
The three new flavors — Distortion, Typhoon and White Out — hit retail shelves, at which point the teams were tasked with using their social capital to solicit votes for their flavor. More than 2 million votes later, White Out is now a permanent part of the Mountain Dew product line.

I should mention that StarBucks is the most active brand on social media, having 7,418,108 Facebook fans and 901,925 Twitter followers. Starbucks is always interacting with its followers, asking them about their feedback of their products. Also it is considered to be an intense user for Twitter promoted tweets.

There's a case study for a café that I don't recall its name when The Owner found himself losing his business. He created a Twitter account making tweets about his cafe's products and new offers. One day it started by a Twitter follower making an @ tweet asking whether he can order a latté as he was stuck at work. And The Owner welcomed the order. And since then people started making orders through Twitter. Imagine when Social Media is used for making food/drink orders.

My Interview Experience ( A story of 5 interviews)

 Well It would be a shame If I didn't write about my interview experience; especially when the blog is about unemployment. Untill now I had five crappy interviews.

 First One was for a small ad agency, a small apartement in Heliopolis, I went to that interview while I was working in Siemens and It took me by surprise to work in a small apartement in a so called 'underground agency' while in the same time I was working in a multinational with two huge buildings, Anyway I didn't give due care for the interview it was a small chit chat with the owner of the agency. He ended the interview by asking if I want to ask him any questions, in fact I had two in my mind but wasn't motivated enough to know more about his agency so I shocked my head with a small smile and he told me 'We will call you after scanning other candidates' cvs' .... Of course didn't get a single phone call.

According to my experience I'm telling you, If the interview is with the owner of the company it means that either The Agency is small one or fresh in the business. OR The Owner of the company is worried about his own money so he/she interviews you personally.

Second interview was in a Big company called ARTOC it has massive investements in real estate, cars (Skoda), sports & publishing. I was excited and motivated for that one as I've applied for my dream job. A sales position in their magazine (Cleo) which will handle the advertisements and organize its quantity and attract clients to advertise. I went there, made IQ & english test then sat with the HR manager, They told me that they want someone with experience to work in the magazine (which I lack) but they need me in their Sports departement, I didn't mind as long as it was sales indoors and I'll be taking that job temporary anyway. Then I had my second interview with the Sports dept chairman he told me that the only available vacancies are an adminastration assistant or outdoor sales which welcomed by rejection as those two vacancies will drift me away from my dream career.

Third interview was in a big Ad Agency 'Media Hatem Salem' the interview was in holy Ramadan month. I was excited about this one. as It involves the Ad industry. My interview was at 11 am. I arrived early (you know being early better than being late) at 10:30 am. My interview was supposed to be with the owner of the company (Hatem Salem) himself. He arrived at 12:30 pm ! YES I waited for 2 hrs smiling and nodding at anyway passing by. When I entered his massive luxurious office, He didn't apologize for being late, He looked at my cv and the conversation went as follows;
Him: You are 25 years old?
Me: Nop, 20
Him: And you are a fresh graduate, You were Commerce ?
Me: Yes english section.
Him: And what are you doing here? I only hire above 30 or Mass communications graduates.
Me: (ask your f* HR) Well because I love advertising and it is my dream career.
Him: You don't fit in here.. you won't add any kind of benefit.
Me: No one works with his major, and I've participated during college in a workshop that design ads which made me love advertising...
Interrupting..Him: I don't see the use of what you are saying, you are a girl after all and after 2 years you are gonna tell me that you'll get married and leave job for the sake of pregnancy or travelling abroad.
Me: I'm sorry but you are stereotyping not all of girls leave their Jobs for Marriage they can work beside marriage, Also girls marry nowadays by the age of 30.
Him: Well I don' love your generation, you had sick low quality education, egyptian citizens are useless Our Country sucks.
ME: I'm sorry but I disagree Our generation isn't bad after all, and Egypt is such a beautiful country by its citizens.
Him: Well my condition to hire you in the position you had applies for is to pay me a 10,000 LE as a penality if you quit your job and I'll provide you a good offer for 3 years.

After hearing his attractive offer & after repeating his words to make sure that I've listened right I stood up and told him thanks for your interview and I'm gonna call you (with fake smile)
That interview had affected me deeply it made me lose hope in working in a decent job and it made me feel that I'm disqualified and I should be working in anything as a start so my thoughts went for Sales.

Fourth interview: This one was in an ad agency (underground one) didn't know that untill I've arrived,The position was Account executive, found it a small apartement in Mohandessin, with shabby furnitures yet a guy with suspicious look led me to a room with a man sitting on a sofa and a woman (mid 30s) with wild blond hair sitting on desk & opened laptop screen in front of her. She welcomed me, Started the interview by introducing myself. Then she talked right straight about the job offer. She told me that before hiring me, They are gonna leave me a week, that week I should get them work amounted to 10,000 LE I told her fine, Is there a specific client's list? She told me that they are testing my network! so I should get them a client from my own network...
I didn't like that Agency, I was damn sure that they lack clients and it isn't safe to work with them.

Fifth interview: A well known ad agency called Online advertising. I loved that one, their work is of good quality. The interviewer was decent guy. The position was sales. That Job offer was tempting they were going to give us a training for a week before starting the job and the contract was for a year & I can leave in the first three months. But what wasn't good is that ain't no fixed salary and my salary is based on the amount of profit I'm going to accomplish also Most of the Job will be outdoors. and it will be hard for someone like me who doesn't drive. I prayed a lot and I kept asking God for a sign as I was planning to work for only 2 months and then leave job, better than staying home. And The Sign was that I discovered that I had Hepatitis A and I should be staying home for 3 weeks.

After those 5 interviews, Decisions that I've reached;
1- Never ever apply for a local egyptian company.
2- Do not apply for Sales vacancies as most of them are outdoors.
3-Give up to work in ad agency their jobs are mainly sales.

Professional Photographers advice

Here's some advices from Professional Photographers for young amateurs:

Kim Høltermand: I say always believe in what you do. Stay true to your talent. It is your gift – believe in it. Even though some people won’t like your work, there will be some others that will like your work. Experiment. Don’t be sorry if you won’t succeed the first time you submit your work to some forum or competition – maybe the success awaits the second time you submit. Keep your creative juices flowing. And even if this may sound cliché this quote from Mr. Walt Disney has followed me since my childhood – «if you can dream it, you can do it».

Eric Lafforgue: My advice is double: do what you like, as photography, if you want to become a pro, requires a lot of work: legend, tags, keywords, stories etc… It’s a full time job: so do what you like to enjoy.
And also: do not think just art if you wan to earn your life, but try to find something new in the way of shooting, places unknown… think also marketing, as there is no choice in a world competition!

Arielle Nadel: Be confident and learn to take charge. When you’re behind the camera, your subjects want you to give orders because they want YOU to lead them as much as they want to obey your directions to please you, the photographer. Get that and you earn respect.

Inspiring Professional Photographers' Stories

   Stumbled upon some interviews with professional photographers which is very inspiring for those amateurs (like me) who are breathing photography Day n' Nighty. What had interested me the most is How they have started their professional Career in Photography.

   First Photographer was Kim Høltermand, he is specialized in architectual photography, When he was asked how did he start his career he said :
 '' I bought my first DSLR about 3-4 years ago. I always loved photography and thought I’d try getting more serious than just shooting with a pocket camera. That’s when I first met my 350D from Canon. It was instant love. And the story evolved from there very fast. I have also always loved the clean lines and aesthetics of architecture. The balance and awesomeness of clean lines. It has drawn me for years. Besides that the former owners of our house had forgotten to terminate their subscription of several awesome architectural magazines – which I started reading. And I fell instantly in love. And started shooting architecture.''

  Second Photographer was Eric Lafforgue, he is professional in Travel Photography & he works for BBC, NatGeo & CNN. He had started his photography career 5 years ago & when he was asked how Travelling had affected his views, He said:
      ''I’m not really a social photographer, so when I go into a country, I do not have a special idea of what I want to show to the audience. But once I have discovered some interesting things, I try to show them.
As I had the chance to travel and live abroad with my parents since I’m a child, I’m not surprised by most of the things I meet: poverty, illness, etc. I was in Yemen in 1973, surrounded by people with Kalachnikov when I was 9!
The more I travel, the more pessimistic my views on the world’s cultures and  traditions get. I’m also part of this destruction, as when I show wonderful cultures, many people want to see them too!''

Third Photographer was Arielle Nadel, She's 18 years old. In her senior year at school & Her story with photography started as follows:
      ''My interest in photography started when my Mom bought me my first little camera and I took many pictures with it. When my Mom realized how much I loved taking photos, she got me my first DSLR. Currently I am in the photography club at my school and I am taking advanced photography classes. I use the Canon 7D & Canon 5D Mark II. The lenses I use are 50mm, 70-200mm. 24-70mm, 17-55mm, 10mm macro, and 15mm fisheye. I would love to get a tilt-shift lens.''

Source: http://photointerview.ru/category/english/