With all the new satellite channels, radio stations, print magazines and newspapers coming out every day, in addition to the emergence of new media and technologies for advertising, it’s becoming difficult to follow and analyze all the messages sent out to the public. It is becoming equally challenging for a particular campaign to stand out of the crowd and grab the consumer’s attention.According to Dr Ahmed Taher, professor of marketing and managing director of Integrated Marketing Solutions, the most significant campaign not only this year, but probably in the history of Egyptian advertising, was the one launched by the Egyptian Income Tax Authority to combat tax evasion last year.Shortly after the Tax Authority issued a new tax law that cut income taxes by as much as 50 percent, an aggressive three-year campaign was launched in order to change the attitude of the tax payer towards the Egyptian Tax Authority by building wide reaching national awareness.Last October, Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali said during an interview with Al-Beit Beitak TV program that tax reform resulted in an increase in the overall income tax revenue this year – both that of corporate and personal income – from 7 percent of GDP to 9 percent in just one year of enforcing the new law and launching its campaign.The campaign, which was executed by Tarek Nour Communications Group, led to a dramatic increase in tax reports, with three million people submitting their tax return documents this year. Even though the campaign started the year before, it was in 2007 that the results of the campaign materialized. There are several reasons why Taher nominated this campaign as the “campaign of the year. The first is that it opened a new category in advertising in Egypt: public education campaigns. “Previous campaigns in the same category were never as successful, except for the 57357 campaign which was not government-funded. The [tax] campaign is by far the most successful and can be considered as a paradigm shift in public education campaigns, he said. The second reason for the success of this campaign, according to Taher, was the universality of the message. “It targeted all sizes of tax payers and even consumers, who were urged to ask for receipts, he said. “Even though they used the example of the small textile merchant, the message was suitable for tax payers of all sizes. “The third reason was the aggression of the campaign and the use of all media outlets, including TV, radio, print and outdoor, thus applying an integrated marketing communication strategy at its best, a concept that is rarely understood in this country, he added.Other campaigns in the same category, however, were not as successful. The Federation of Industries’ campaign failed to convince university graduates that accepting jobs they could be overqualified for was better than unemployment.”The campaign did have positive results as 75,000 resumes were received and 30,000 vacancies were filled since the it kicked out in Ramadan, Taher added. “The campaign was criticized because some thought the government was sending youth a message that their degrees and years of higher education do not count anymore. Advertising campaigns can change deeply rooted beliefs if they are done the right way, according to Taher, who believes that the success of the tax campaign will open the door to more under the same category.
The Telecom element
Another highlight for this year’s advertising campaigns was the long-awaited launch of Etisalat, the third mobile phone service provider in Egypt. “Even though the launch campaign was very aggressive, the positioning was actually quite confusing, Taher said.”They had different positioning messages for different segments, so the consumers did not have a clear perception about the brand, unlike Mobinil, for instance, which is perceived as the prime local brand, which is merely a perception. [But] advertising is all about managing perceptions.
The rise of PR
This year was the golden year for public relations (PR) campaigns, according to Taher, who believes we will see more of these campaigns in the next few years after companies here started understanding their importance and effectiveness.One example is that of Ezz Steel, which aimed to raise awareness about the company and improve its image through messages targeting both blue collar and white collar workers. “There were the IPO campaigns such as Talaat Mostafa Group’s, which tremendously increased the public confidence in the group, and consequently the share value, Taher said.El Swedy was no different, as their campaign was not targeted at consumers as much as it was addressing investors. “The campaign we did for El Swedy led to an increase in the value of their shares, which went from LE 30 up to LE 43 towards the end of the year, said Deputy General Manager of Strategies Advertising Mariem Maggar. Taher had a different opinion about the campaign, though. “The campaign positioned El Swedy solely as a cable manufacturer and ignored all the other sectors the company is working on, so it did achieve good results, but it could have done better, he added.
Word on the street
This year also featured several campaigns that stirred public opinion, like the notorious “All English All the time advertisements for Melody Hits TV station. While many found them hilarious and uploaded every single ad on public video sharing websites such as YouTube and Metacafe, others were not thrilled about the depiction of Egyptians as a bunch of low class citizens struggling with basic English phrases. Another campaign that was received with a big round of applause was Dove’s campaign for real beauty, which emphasized natural beauty over artificial methods. The campaign was a relief to many that were annoyed by the constant portrayal of white women as more successful than their dark-skinned counterparts in commercials for complexion whitening creams.
