SUCCESS STORY OF

THE MEDIA HOUSE

 INTRODUCTION

The Media House (TMH)

TMH began operation in 1997 and had grown to become a leading
branding agency with offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and London. The Chief
Operating Officer is Ricky Sharma. He had a team of over 30 people. The
company builds Brand architecture for new brands and rejuvenates
existing brands.
In January 2009, after months of negotiation they came to a successful
conclusion with an agreement between ADACH ( The Abu Dhabi
authority for culture and Heritage) and WOMAD(World of Music, Arts
and Dance) to stage the first ever WOMAD event in the Middle East in
April 2009 and the contract for launching the festival was awarded to
TMH.
 TMH Objectives
 The Abu Dhabi government wanted to position this festival as a
gift to the people of Abu Dhabi and The UAE.
 The revenue was gained from sponsorships, concession and on-
site advertising and more about bringing the 200+ different
nationalities close together through an annual event.
 TMH was given a general target of achieving AED1m in PR
coverage.
 Optimum use of Budget.
 KEY CHALLENGES
 To bring in Diversity.
 Finding right balance in promotion.
 Communication Challenge
 Creating a unique brand identity
 Strategies of TMH
 Conducted Pre-campaign research.
 Comparison
 Communication strategy (Arabic and English)
 Developing a unique brand identity
The CAKE APPROACH:-
 Coverage and frequency (the base of the cake).
 Disrupting the media status quo with a innovative media
placements (cream of the cake).
 Several outstanding pieces of media activity including
some regional media first (cherry on top of the cake).
The approach was split into three key timing phases:
 To build awareness for what WOMAD was
 Piquing people’s interest in the festival.
 Securing attendance
THE BASE:-
 The base was made up of the delivery of a website
(www.womadabudhabi.ae), online banners on key websites and press
activity in daily newspaper and magazines.
THE CREAM:-
 TMH communication base included 60 seconds radio spots enhanced
online advertisement.
 Setup marketing partnership with Starbucks, Borders and virgin mega
stores (They used the instore screens in virgin megastores to play
digital screen content)
 Setup twitter account
CHERRY:-
 TMH used blip FM functionality on twitter to create jukebox
 Promoting in the English and Arabic newspapers
 Live press conference before the concert
 Creating Arabic ads
 Distribution of VIP invitations
 RESULT

 It was discovered that 7% of attendees were UAE nationals (target-

5%), 24% were westerners(target-20%), 23% were Asians(target-20%)
and 46% were Arabs(target-20%). Their exit interviews reveiled that
almost half of the attendees were over the age of 30 while the targets
being 33%.
 TMH was targeted with bringing 16,000 festival goers to WOMAD Abu
Dhabi.25,052 people came to corniche(23 April 2009), 27,399 on 24th
and a 4,372 at Al Jahili fort. On final night they achieved an
attendance figures of 25,000 in total almost 82,000 festival goers
were brought to WOMAD Abu Dhabi 5 times the original target.
 TMH forged a marketing partnership with ADMC(Abu Dhabi Media
Company) who gave TMH access to the UAE daily newspapers. The
National and AL Ittihad as well as ADTV(Abu Dhabi Tv) and EMARIT Fm
in exchange for sponsorships at the event. They also gave discounted
press and online advertising rates which amounted to approximately
AED 750,000
 Conclusion

 If they had just relied on traditional media, they would not have
created sufficient buzz and talkablity around the festival. It was only
through the integration of traditional media, social media and PR and
hence an integrated marketing communication campaign that they
turned a good festival into a great one.
THANK YOU