Lev holds a Degree in Marketing from the University of Stirling and has a strong multinational background, both personally and professionally. His work has taken him to Germany, England, Scotland, Singapore and the Middle East. From each of these stations he has picked up best practices and an understanding on differences in approach and mentality - at least that’s what he told us.

We’re sure you will meet Lev soon, but here’s a tip - unless you have a couple of spare hours and you are serious about social media marketing, don’t ask him about Twitter!

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I sometimes get a strange idea into my head and then feel compelled to follow through with it. Yesterday was such a day. In fact, I had had this idea for a while now and my wife had already given up on me. Then yesterday morning I decided to do it – to walk the length of Dubai, from Dubai Media City to my favourite Dubai restaurant – Ravi’s.

For those not familiar with Dubai’s geography, this walk (which is not really a typical “walk” but instead just follows Jumeirah Beach Road from one end to the other) is about 12 or 15 miles long. On top of that, Dubai temperatures currently reach about 43C.

Let’s discuss whether I am quite right in the head another day, but let’s just say I made it (in 4 hours 55 minutes, if you must know).

During those 4 hours 55 minutes I had a lot of time to think, which carried on after I returned home in a taxi in a depressingly fast 20 minutes and was nursing the blisters on my feet.

The one thought that kept popping in my head as I walked past expensive malls and plastic surgery clinics was this: “Why am I doing this? I better get something out of this, because it’s starting to get rather painful.”

One might argue that a nice curry from Ravi’s would have been my reward, but seeing as the restaurant was shut, it appears the only reward I got was this blog post. Looks like you – the reader – are getting more out of it that me with my blisters!

Anyway, I started to think that these thoughts seemed rather familiar and then it hit me. My DMC to Ravi’s walk was much like what many of us are going through at the moment.

We’ve all embarked on a journey that seemed a good idea some time ago when we first thought about it. And while the first couple of miles were rather pleasant, all of a sudden something outside of our control (in my case the sun after 10am – in the case of this illustration the global financial crisis, just in case you hadn’t got that yet) started beating us down.

The next thought is to just get a taxi and go home, but then what was the point of doing this in the first place? I would just be sitting at home thinking “What if?” Let’s just try and get a little further and see how far we can go. Then you get to the point where it’s not only incredibly hot, but you can feel the first blisters – now it’s physical, not just a mental strain.

But, luckily there are some petrol stations along the way where you can replenish your bottles of water and even the odd pharmacy to get some plasters for those blisters. And you venture on, but know full well that you’re not even half way there yet. It’s been a while since you’ve done this, but some of us have never been in this situation before. If I had been walking with someone, I would have given them a pep-talk at this point, especially if they had never walked this ‘walk’ before. Everyone needs a bit of motivation every now and again.

All of a sudden, you see a landmark that you recognize and you know that you are doing well, but only five minutes down the road you witness a horrendous car crash. It only just happened a few minutes earlier and you don’t know the driver, but you realize that he was traveling in the same direction, in the fast lane – and now he’s crashed.

And you keep thinking: “Why am I doing this?” and “I better be getting something out of this!” After all, you don’t want to end up in a crash. So you venture on.

Shortly after this point I was walking past Lime Tree Café, which is probably the place with the most wonderful foods in Dubai. What a temptation to just stop and spend my taxi money and call it a day – worry about what happens after that delicious piece of Carrot Cake later!

But no! You must walk on, you will make it to Ravi’s! You will make the full length of the walk, especially as it is only one or two more miles from where we are now! Come on!

And I walked, almost delirious (ok, I exaggerate!), but definitely on auto-pilot to the end of this journey. And you know what? I arrive just as the temperature peaks at 43C. It’s 1.15pm and the sun is at its highest. But the taxi with the aircon on full blast is waiting and the rest of the trip of the way is much more pleasant.

You and I are walking the same walk, we’ve both been affected by the global financial crisis – after all who hasn’t!? And because you are walking the same walk, I will give you this pep-talk. It’s ok, we just have to venture on a bit more and try not to give in to the temptations of giving up too early. When the temperature is at its hottest you are closest to finishing your long walk – just remember that and venture on.

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As humans we are creatures of habit, even writing that phrase ‘creatures of habit’ is… well… habit. We are used to being in our zones of comfort. We use clichés and repeat pep-talks, like “It has too end some time!” or “We’ll all be stronger for it afterwards!”. We are happy in our comfort zones and unless we really (really!) have to, we’d prefer not to leave them.

Even now, with much of the financial sector worth less than the paper it is written on and the real estate sector on its knees, and the automotive industry in never-seen-before troubles we think and hope that there is some magic turn-around. Maybe next week, when trading starts on Wall Street, Tokio, Frankfurt or Dubai – maybe then there will be better news. Surely it is just a matter of time until some bright spark has the idea that saves the world and we can continue driving our car and we can continue living in that expensive apartment. Sorry, but this is not Hollywood.

Here’s the truth – it will not happen like that. Even if it were to happen like that, it would fall down as fast as it rose up again, unless something changes. It is widely documented that marketing budgets have been slashed and activity reduced. And that is a wise move – to some degree. But not in isolation.

Mind-sets have changed

It doesn’t help to merely reduce budgets and continue spend it on the same activities as before. We wouldn’t be in this mess, if what we were doing before had worked. That is the truth. Even if you spent twice the money you were spending before and spent it on the same things – it wouldn’t make it any more effective.

The reason for this is that people’s mind-set and outlook on life and business have changed. That is true both for consumers as well as businesses. What does that mean for businesses?

You have got to change what you are doing, even if that takes you out of your comfort zone.

Some thoughts you might be having right now:

1. “I don’t want to stick my neck out, only to be the scapegoat if it goes wrong”
2. “If I keep quiet I will just try and weather the storm and things will pick up later in the year”
3. “I would love to do something different, but the budget just isn’t available at the moment”

If you are thinking any of these at the moment – and it is only natural if you do – then please consider these thoughts as well:

1. “If you don’t stick your neck out you and your company will not get ahead or stand out from the crowd. It has never been easier to stand out from the crowd as now. Somebody else will actually do what you are only thinking of doing and that company will take your market share, because you are staying quiet.”
2. “If you keep quiet now, you may not weather the storm. Businesses are looking to natural leaders to get them out of the crisis. Leader act.”
3. “Budgets are available – maybe they are reduced, but they are available. They are just being spent on the same as before because of the concerns in points 1. and 2.

Change your marketing spend

At the latest in point 3 is where things will start to fall down. Spending your marketing budget the way you did before simply will now work anymore. What does that mean? You have to start thinking differently about your marketing spend. Marketing exists to facilitate Sales. If your marketing spend is not achieving that then you have to change it.

The only way you can, and should, change it is by knowing what it will achieve ahead of time, instead of finding out what it can achieve after you have spent it. In other words – what ever you get out of it has to be tangible and measurable.

Make your marketing a profit center, make it work for your sales guys. Ask them what it is they need to make sales – don’t be led by what the company has done and spent its marketing budget on for the last 5 years. Go back to basics and ask your front-line guys what their challenges are.

Make the first move

This may well mean that you need to knock on the door of your Director or CEO. And that in itself may give you shivers down your spine… Maybe you are the CEO or Director… Here’s one last truth for today – nobody’s been fired for making pro-active and good suggestions.

We can help, as we have done for a wide variety of our clients. We design programs around your challenges and make them work for you. We are results driven and we will challenge your status-quo. Give us a call and we’ll come and see you for a chat.

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As you may have noticed, we have recently added a number of small symbols at the bottom of each of our blog posts. One of these is for Digg.com, but there are also others for del.icio.us, furl, reddit, technorati, stumbleupon, bloglines, slashdot, facebook and twitter. In true social marketing and web 2.0 style, these all allow you to share, bookmark or re-post our blog posts, if you feel like doing something nice for us (it’s cheaper than buying us flowers anyway).

And this is where are getting into etiquette and do’s and don’ts. Why? Well, we think a lot of ourselves and our blog articles and we wanted to digg one or two of them. But the question is, can you self-post (or should it be self-digg)? Sounds like a social stigma, doesn’t it: “Excuse me, do you self-post?” (imagine this said in a very posh english accent)

So we did a bit of research on the matter and found what Daniel Miessler and SEO Smarty said quite encouraging. So we will be digging our own article here and there. And if you happen to come across it and like it, we invite you to also digg it. Alternatively, if you are not a registered digger, or you use a different platform, please feel free to submit our articles to the ones of your preference. If it is not listed in the row of small icons below the relevant artcle, please email us and we will add the right one for you.

So, you have heard it here first: “Gorgeous self-diggs!”

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“90% of your sales will come from word of mouth or digital promotion by 2011.’

And he continues by asking “How do you change what you’re doing today to be ready for that?”

We would like to congratulate him on this prediction, because we share this view. We would also like to ask you, our clients (if you are not yet our client please give us a call), the same question. And consider this, change needs time - so waiting until late 2010 to be ready for 2011 is not going to work. What have you done recently that is worth spreading by word of mouth? And how was that underpinned by digital promotion?

Let’s have a chat about that. We can help.

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There is always the option of sticking our head in the sand (especially if you’re in Dubai), or you could wake up and smell the coffee. Ignoring issues is never a good idea and if the ‘issue’ is big enough to be felt around the world it definitely requires our immediate attention.

But we have to be clever about how we handle this ‘issue’. Money is tight – with everyone – which means spending is down. Equally, there is nothing to be gained by curling up into a ball and remaining like that until 2011. Of course, you could do that if you are blessed with enough financial backing to stay in that position.

OR – you could do the opposite and actually get noticed while your peers remain in the hedgehog position. “That requires big budgets!” we hear you scream… and you would be correct if you hadn’t learnt from other people’s mistakes. But if you still think that only big budgets can create memorable marketing you are badly mistaken. You just need a bit of clever brainpower and some guts to take the leap of faith in times like these. But let’s face it…. what is the alternative?

Whether you are a one-market company, a multinational or a marketing individual, the fact remains: Anyone who is more active than you will pass you by. And come the end of the downturn you’ll be left standing in their wake. I read somewhere the other day that if you stop moving you’re actually going backwards. In other words, Hedgehogs in their instinct will be left behind. Do yourself a favour and don’t be a Hedgehog!

So what can you do about it? Well, start using those brain cells that got you where you are in the first place. If you can’t actively come up with a solution yourself, don’t be afraid to ask someone for help. Act. Move. Forward preferably.

Admitting that you need help is the first step to success. Nobody can do everything by themselves and guess what – if you don’t ask for help, somebody else will. And that somebody could and probably will be your competitor. Then what?!

Especially in Dubai companies have had the pleasure and advantage that they could be reactive. There was so much business to go round you could just react and pick the business you wanted. Well, no longer is that the case. So get more creative with your marketing and sales campaign. How?

1.    Understand and get to know your customers – that may mean talking to them!
2.    Engage with them on a personal level and on their grounds – customers can choose to be picky now, so you have to meet them where they are, not where you are!
3.    Stand out and be genuine. Be honest with yourself – no really!
4.    Offer an incentive for customers to engage with you, don’t just rely on your image, popularity and market share – after all, the customer still is and always will be – King! Sitting on pedestal also means that you can fall off it!
5.    Don’t devalue your brand in the process of trying to secure more business, there are cleverer ways to drive sales in a recession.

Now answer this question – are you doing all of the above 5 points? We’re guessing not, but that’s fine – as long as you start doing them soon. And ask for help if you need it…

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Due to his upcoming appearance as one of the speakers at Event 360, we have chosen our Gorgeous Managing Director Mark Gunner (he prefers to be called “Creative Director” - but let’s call a spade, a spade - to go first. So here we go:

Mark cut his teeth in the field of music, sport and entertainment and was an integral member of the team responsible for a series of award-winning charity “Concerts Of Hope” for the late Diana, Princess Of Wales.  Now with over 14 years industry experience, Mark has worked in the GCC region for nearly 4 years and in establishing ‘gorgeous‘ continues to fulfill a niche in the UAE market.

Mark’s vision for ‘gorgeous’ is to build a communications company that specializes in creative and theatrical live-events offering best-in-class creative, sustainable channels for measurement and tangible rock-solid ROI. Setting international standards Mark endeavors to establish innovative ‘never-been-seen-before’ design with each and every event.

In mid 2008 Mark was voted President Elect for The International Special Events Society, MENA chapter (5500 members in 42 different countries). Once established the chapter will provide a leading education and information sharing forum for the industry here in the MENA region.

In the GCC alone Mark has worked with General Motors, Toyota, Ford, TAQA, Royal Bank Of Scotland, Shuaa Capital, Wella and Mastercard to name a few.

Now, keep your eyes on this blog for more introductions! Speak soon.

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There will be presentation of case studies and other initiatives from international and domestic companies across the industries, such as Europcar (Ashley Jurberg, Group Marketing Manager), Fosters Group (Craig Maclean, Brand Manager Cascade), Fuji Xerox (Amanda Keogh, Manager Environment & Sustainability Corporate Affairs) and Ogilvy Earth (Stephen Hale, Director), to name but a few.

The conference will show best practices from initiatives in Australia, while outlining the legal requirements for a green marketing initiatives. Other than the keynote speakers, there will be panel discussions covering topics such as, how to avoid Greenwash and how to develop frameworks for your green marketing initiatives. Of course all attendees will benefit from being able to network not only with other guests, but the key-note speakers.

Conference timings are daily from 9am till approximately 5pm and you can find out more about the daily speakers and activities on the Marketing and Communicating Green Initiatives 2009 website

If you have any thoughts on Green initiatives, or if you are planning to attend this conference, please leave a comment and tell us more!

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Below are five aspects of ‘how to hold a green event’ and we have taken the liberty of adding some additional thoughts to it. Try to find an angle to align your event, company or brand with these aspects and make it part of your marketing strategy and you will soon find that it is rewarding, not only for yourself, your company and your brand, but obviously the environment as well.

On top of all of these points you should always consider the carbon offset programs offered around the world, such as the one by the carbonfund.org – they will help you calculate your carbon emissions and will show you ways of offsetting them to become carbon-neutral. Becoming carbon neutral should also be something you can offer to your event attendees. Many hotels and airlines already offer this to their guests, why not offer your guests and clients to do the same by making a donation the a carbon-offset program.

We would love to hear your thoughts and experiences on this – so please do comment on this post. Have you had some good experiences? Have you attended a green event? Are you carbon neutral? Do you think we’ve missed something important in this post? Please let us know – comment below (ohh that rhymes…)!

Venue selection

The emphasis for the venue selection is on accessibility and the possible use of natural resources within the event.

For example, is the venue easily accessible by public transport? This is obviously even more important for large public events, but the impact of any form of shared transport is beneficial to the environment and will increase the ‘green factor’ of your event.

Equally, what are the opportunities of making use of natural resources, ie natural light instead of artificial light; can air-conditioning be controlled for your specific requirements; does the venue implement energy saving strategies, such as water recycling, eco light bulbs, organic/fairtrade food options etc?

Travel / Transport

Picking up on this particular aspect from the ‘Venue Selection’ point, your event will have an increased eco-friendliness, if you encourage the use of the public or shared transport to and from the venue.

You may wish to provide shuttle busses (or even large capacity limousines) for your guests. You might consider the use of hybrid or electric vehicles, or in the case of flights to your event you can encourage the use of airlines with a dedicated green or carbon-offset policy.

There is also an opportunity to avoid transport and international travel to a large degree, while aligning your event with digital age opportunities. We’ll cover more n this point under “Marketing and Communication Materials”

Waste management

By making this aspect a key consideration from the start, you will be able to make it work in your (and of course the environment’s) advantage.

If any aspect of your event set-up can be re-used again (for example in a show room, office or for another event of the same kind) ensure that you ask for a modular build of your event set-up. This way, a variety of aspects (backdrops, stalls, stands, staging etc) can be re-used instead of being disposed of immediately after the event.
Carefully manage the RSVPs so that you know exactly what amount of guests you are welcoming and therefore avoiding waste on the day.

If you are handing out products, samples, gifts of anything else ensure that the packaging material is either kept to a minimum, or that is made from recycled material.
Finally, check with the venue that during the clean-up recycling is at the forefront of their minds, as well as making use of non-toxic cleaning materials.

Marketing & Communications

Technology will make your life easier, make you appear state-of-the-art with your communications and increase the sustainability of your event from an environmental perspective.

Instead of printing vast amounts of brochures, flyers and other paper and laminated documents, try using web, email, sms or other forms of communication. The energy used for these is lower than the energy used to produce and destroy/recycle physical materials.

Instead of physically traveling to your event, guests can participate in your event by online networking, podcasts, skypecasts, blogs, twitter or even by virtual interaction through SecondLife.com. Providing a well-designed and structured online presence for international participants will reduce costs and increase the green-factor of your event – all while you are aligning your brand with some of the most advanced forms of communication.

Caterer selection

When choosing the menu, try and go for food that is locally produced and ‘in-season’. Choosing foods from far-away places and that are out of season, you will contribute to the carbon emissions of having to transport the Salmon from Scotland, the Steak from Argentina, or the Caviar from Russia.

Where ever possible try to use re-usable crockery and cutlery, but if you do provide disposable cups, plates etc (for example at festivals, concerts or other larger public events) ensure that they are made form recycled materials.

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