Getting the Best Out of Local and Regional Online Advertising

Helping Marketers Get the Best Out of Local and Regional Online Advertising

The attached document was presented October 4th, 2008 in the Media and Marketing Show (MMS) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by Ayna's CEO, Mr. Adonis El Fakih.

The presentation investigates effective techniques for local and regional marketing in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) using a 360 degrees view of marketing tools available to maximize advertiser’s exposure to the customer throughout the buying cycles stages of: interest, search and purchase.

The presentation highlights a case study of Faces ME, a cosmetics company in the MENA region that is seeking to attract new female customers to one of its 31 store locations, and how Ayna created a combined marketing strategy that includes creating interest through banners and online map ads, combined with indexing of site, adding store locators to Ayna maps and faces-me site, using branded and non-branded keywords to attract new customers, and enabling customers to easily find the faces products online along with directions to their stores.

The presentation also discussed that brands and sales are not built overnight and a recommended approach to take an active role in making sure that message, editorials and content are crawled and indexed. Store locations made public and accessible on Ayna maps, and be creative using a multi-pronged campaign combining contextual and banner ads create awareness and deliver the best results, It was also recommended that contextual campaigns not to be time limited to capture the attention of customers when they show interest in your products.

The second case study looked at Land Rover HSE campaign which relied on banner advertising, and by not having a combined contextual, and map campaign missed on an opportunities to attract users to their store locations. The study showcased how the banner campaign created a lot of attention for the keyword "HSE" ranking it number 6 on Ayna’s search engine for the month the campaign ran, and how the interest gradually went away to pre campaign status. When searching for the word "HSE" on Ayna, the official site of Land Rover was returned, while the "missed opportunity" described in the presentation was about the buying behavior and how customers compare and research cars, and how beneficial it would have been to have showcased advertiser selected comparative reports showing HSE versus cars in the segment, and include dealership locations of Land Rover in the region with a "schedule a test drive" option in the maps and search results.

The presentation finished by describing a possible scenario for Real Estate companies seeking to attract new buyers to the region, with a combined marketing strategy taking into account all the methodologies described in the presentation and customizing it to the real estate market, including search features like "nearby search", showing nearby schools, hospitals, etc.. Allowing interested customers to easily compare and research locations from the map interface available at Ayna.

Download Presentation: http://www.aynacorp.com/files/ayna/Ayna-Media-Marketing.ppsx