Media in the Middle East is rarely dull, and the past few days have proved that there’s some hilarity as well as serious questions about what people in our region do and then tell to the media.
Let’s start with the real estate brand that is developing a reputation for foot-in-mouth disease. Speaking to the Sunday Times, Damac’s Managing Director Ziad El Chaar said he would “go on TV naked and resign” if the worst market projections were realized. Aside from the fact that any naked executive dance on television would be illegal in the UAE (at least without a VPN), his comment hasn’t been taken too well judging by the reaction on Arabian Business’ online portal . Maybe there’s some fans of naked real estate executives out there. If so, please do show yourselves so we can get you help.
Another bizarre piece from last week that wasn’t picked up widely: Speaking to an audience of entrepreneurs last week, the founder of discounting site Cobone Paul Kenny admitted that he used a PR stunt to kick-start his business. Shortly after founding the site, Kenny put out a press release claiming that 1,000 vouchers for a discounted pizza had been sold to Cobone consumers. That release, Kenny now claims, was a fake. Let’s quote Kenny from the Arabian Business story :
So I went to at Vapiano, which is an Italian restaurant, and bought a thousand pizzas at a huge discount and they sold out by 12pm. I put a big sold out sticker on the site and an hour later I released a press release saying ‘Cobone.com breaks e-commerce record in the Middle East.’
And the truth is that everyone started reading and asking ‘Who is this company Cobone.com?’ ‘What is e-commerce?’ ‘What’s a record?’ You know it created a lot of interest in the business and instantly people started recognising us as a different business.
There’s a popular saying about the luck of the Irish. And there’s another saying about making one’s own luck. Luckily for Kenny, no one asked if the news was real (or checked with the restaurant). If they had, his deception might not have worked so well.
And finally, another follow-on story about the New Year’s Eve fire at The Address, from The National in which one owner of property at the hotel lost 1.3 million dirhams worth of art in the blaze.
Ramin Salsali spoke out this week urging The Address' owner Emaar Properties to quickly process residents’ compensation claims as well as repair the property. To quote from the story.
“Until now, they [Emaar] have been very fair and have quickly reacted to accommodate people, put them in hotels, give them the first basic possibilities just to start to recover.”
He expected “a very unbureaucratic and pragmatic approach” from the developer in terms of how claims were handled – especially since a police report last week indicated that an electrical short-circuit from a spotlight caused the blaze.
“The whole world is now watching. The effect on real estate is unbelievable. People have pulled out of contracts where they don’t know about the fire safety of the cladding. It’s not good for Dubai.”
One of the greatest challenges any organization can face is not just the crisis itself, but the post-crisis reflection and learning. Emaar isn’t there yet in terms of dealing with any major grievances from those who lost property and items during the fire (and there’s been remarkably little negativity from any of the hotel’s residents so far), but the communication with this group of people needs to be both clear and quick to get these issues resolved. Otherwise, Salsali’s point about blow-back for the Emirate’s real estate sector may become true. Let’s hope not.
Enjoy our weekly installment from Alex of Arabia, a blog featuring commentary on the media and marketing industry in the Middle East. Read older posts here .