Blackberry Banned in Bahrain & Middle East
No, its not yet banned in Bahrain ( as im writing this post ) but it looks like its coming up fast and sharp!
Below is an email received from Batelco:
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Dear Valued Business Customer Batelco?s Enterprise Division is working to minimize any inconvenience for our business customers if Batelco is directed to suspend some Blackberry services such as the popular messenger or email. Despite this being outside our control, we want to assure all our Blackberry customers that Batelco is working on alternative offers to minimise any inconvenience should some services be suspended. We appreciate the importance of Blackberry services such as push email for our Enterprise customers and accordingly we are finalising alternative offers which we hope to deliver as soon as possible, if necessary. We will address all our Blackberry customers? concerns as quickly as practicable. All updates on this matter will be posted on our website batelco.com/blackberryupdate
so once again ( i lost the count ) we are about to get banned from using something, rolling back on my blog posts I remember two banning occasions:
- The internet censorship in Bahrain ( Bye Bye Age of Engage )
- Mahmood Alyousif Blog ban
What i would like to know is again why? And why in GCC countries? Aren't we by doing so stepping a bit backwards?
Why us Arabs? is it because of the porn materials ( local editions ) being shared? sad But true
Is it because we have groups that alerts people about speed cams?
Is it because of scandal materials being shared at a speed of light?
Is it because of fast information flow? And the fact that you cant monitor it/us?
how about sharing our thoughts with you? You only make the world laugh at us...
A quick note on local permission marketing
"Beep Beep" an SMS alert, i pick up the phone to see the message and i go oh shoot, there ya go again, another zain message and without even reading the message i delete it with passion...
Seriously, how often do you get?interrupted?with such ads? ?whether you are checking your email or watching one of MBC's channel or probably receiving an SMS while driving, and how often do you delete that sms/email or switch to a different channel ... ?The important question is WHY?
Because you?haven't?opted-in for it at the first place, that means?interruption?marketing is not working for them nor on us anymore, it became another noise in the background...
Back to zain, i haven't asked for it, please keep it for yourself.
Batelco on the other hand got an opt-in driven sms "contest", but once you are in you can never get out ( you should probably dial 196 and click through the tree until you get a human to sort you out ) so even while you are roaming out of the country, they will spam you with their questions to death... there aren't any instructions on how to opt-out using sms!
Moral of the story #1
" Make sure to have a visible opt-in instructions and a visible opt-out instructions "
Moral of the story #2
" Even though you got an opt-in strategy it doesn't mean that you are not spamming "
Moral of the story #3
" DVRs were created to skip TV ads, not just record to record TV shows * MBC * "
Moral of the story #4
" We are witnessing the death of ?interruption?marketing, we live in a small island, be different switch to permission marketing, start by building your opt-in email lists or try viral perhaps?"
My next topic is going to be on email marketing best practices, hope the local big guys and their agencies are watching this space, it will really sort them out...
Online advertising in Bahrain
We've all noticed the appearance of online advertising in our country/region which leads to the conclusion that business owners are now realizing the power of the digital medium and the channels behind it.
This also means that they are budgeting for online ad spending, that is on its own an increase in online ad spending in this region.
Unfortunately companies like Zain and Batelco are applying it the wrong way, im hereby discarding the IAB guidelines and standards and just talking common-sense.
we all know What Zain & Batelco are at least locally we do, and most of us will find a way to reach their website when we require more information about a certain product or service (7elow?) Depending on what we are looking for most of us again apply the scan method in combination with the?baby duck syndrome, that is on its own frustrating if the Information architecture wasn't done properly,? now lets concentrate on ads bits, shall we?
If you are a facebook user you might have came across couple of ads from both companies which looks like this.
A part from its being a "misleading ad" oh well the usual Zain, when you click the ad it takes you to the index of their website "BOOM" there you are infront of 7 or more navigation links to choose from and you have been there before.
So basically they have generated a generic traffic ( a part from awareness ) to their website, but what are they doing with that traffic?
i bet a bounce rate of 80% or more occurs on daily basis because they smack users with the same website, which is not directly related to the ad itself.
Here we notice the absence of microsites or and expendable banners were they can collect user information from the ad itself without the need to navigate away from ad location, or simply link the ad to the related product on the site itself ( worst case scenario ).
you can find out more on ad-format variations on eye-blaster website.
There are more issues related to their online presence if you look further into new trends such as RSS, opt-in email newsletters/marketing and proper social media optimization/engagement, did i mention that they are also using tables instead of divs ?oh well its all about time me thinks, what do you think?
My ex-boyfriend - Zain ( by an angry friend )
I honestly cant understand how a company can spend millions on re-branding and stating that "ITS A WONDERFUL WORLD", when they cant invest in the basic infrastructure that makes it a wonderful world, its customer care department.
Customer who? Yes customer care. Oh the beautiful world of customer care. This is the make or break department of each company and with Zain, it breaks, it breaks so bad like you have come out of a divorce or lost a loved one.
My story goes back on Feb 25th, by the way it was my birthday, a happy birthday to me, I went on the bbk website and paid my dues. However a day later, a got an SMS from my boyfriend called Zain "Dear girlfriend, our friendship will be disconnected by 2pm"
Zain is leaving me, so I went on a frenzy. How could Zain leave me? I paid my dues and was loyal to him the whole time. (Oh by the way, Zain is a female name in the Arab world, but I guess my Zain is a confused character).
So I called Zain.
"Good morning Zain, how can I help you." The happy go lucky Customer CARE picked up, and I asked her, why are you leaving me, I paid my dues."
Apparently Zain and BBK had a divorce as well, outside of courts, so when I pay via BBK, Zain doesn't accept transactions from their old girlfriend. (Sorry BBK you have to be a female in this story)
I was then told by Zain that me, Yes me, the customer has to call BBK and get BBK to send an email that I have paid! There goes my day.. so I did that!
However the next day, my phone gets disconnected once again!
So I call Zain. ?Sorry we don?t love you anymore,? they told me. But how come I paid. ?No, we don?t love you or BBK?. However after promising them a wild night, they reconnected my phone with a promise to open a new page
Today, I get another message ?Dear girlfriend, we are not happy with you so we will kick you out once again. Panadol isn?t making any money due to the crisis and we thought we could help.?
So I call Zain again. (I feel abused here- emotionally- I need to break up with this Zain). And again with their annoying welcome ?Sabahak Zain?. I told them, I paid, BBK emailed and I am left in the dark, why?
?We never got the email or the payment,? was their reply.
Oh my! Here we go again. Another fight with my boyfriend.
Basically Zain wants me to call BBK again and get them to send the email again! Oh and the person who checks the emails in Zain (yes its one person) goes home at 1pm. So much for technology
So anyways I am back to square one, my phone will be disconnected by 2pm today and why? Cause of this love and hate relationship between the couple (who is one person extra) me, Zain and BBK
The problem is, I cant even disconnect my line, cause they will sue me for not paying. But hey the Bahraini courts are on my side, you know why, cause they don?t care about anyone. Yay for democracy
Zain?s ex-girlfriend