Events News & PR

September 2007

The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain Hotel & Spa has bucked the generally downward occupancy trend for the summer months, advanced by a series of innovations across its food and beverage portfolio.

Executive chef Holger Jackisch has raised the property’s game in the competitive MICE sector by promoting private dinners at the property’s 23 luxury villas.

“For outdoor catering and events, the villas are now more modern and can be customised for clients, with our team of multinational chefs capable of preparing a number of cuisines, from Japanese and Arabic to Italian and Asian”, he said.

“We provide fine dining experiences for corporate groups, and provide all services at the villas from food to music, with any themes available for functions, and it has certainly bolstered business in the summer months.”

The 450m² villas, served by private lifestyle butlers, were built initially to accommodate the heads of state for the Arab Summit, and the design of the 90m terraces suit outdoor meetings with features including landscaped gardens, partially tented infinity pools, and views of the private beach and the Arabian Gulf.

The look of The Ritz-Carlton Jazz Brunch has also been stepped up; with a focus on live cooking stations, new table decorations, and experience-driven set-ups including its fresh pasta station.

High-end dining is also extended to the property’s other F&B concepts for MICE guests, including Plums steakhouse, Italian restaurant Primavera, and The Burlington Club, which serves fine aged beverages and premium cigars.

Jackisch also revealed plans to revamp Overlook Café, its poolside restaurant. The outlet currently serves healthy and fun spa cuisine.

“The interior and exterior will be refurbished, and once confirmed and developed, this will be the greatest concept of its kind I have ever seen in the Middle East,” Jackisch revealed.

February 2008

OgilvyAction have called for improvements to how retailers approach category management in the Middle East.

MemacOgilvy has launched the first company to specialise in the path along the decision to purchase in Dubai, and CEO Edmond Moutran has already predicted its latest business will reach 10 markets in the region over the next three years.

“We have brought OgilvyAction to the Middle East because we see a big need for these specialised Last Mile services and experts in consumer behaviour and activation,” he said.

Moutran predicted the company would grow from eight to 20 employees in the UAE by April, backed by the huge potential for such services.

“It is all about the ‘big’ brand idea that is communicated to consumers at various touch-points to steer consumer behaviour, whether it’s sampling, point-of-sale material, retail merchandising or experiential marketing,” he said.

The firm has responded to the growth of the GCC – with an escalating GDP of US $600 million in 2006, a 34 million-strong population, the world’s 17th largest economy and a Gross Leasable Area expected to exceed 130 million ft ² by 2010.

The team intends to support marketers with the transition from low-end grocer to high-tech, one-stop shops.

“The increase in market competitiveness has meant that brand owners must produce sophisticated marketing activity to be noticed. We have already started our shopper and field research in the region.”

Steve Harding, CEO, OgilvyAction, Europe, Middle East and Africa explained that the process begins by analysing the relationship between the brand, the shopper and the retailer, before using planning tools such as MarketAnalytics and ShopperAnalytics.

“These tools enable the measurement of not only the impact of messaging – clarity, quality, distribution and compliance of in-store communication, but also allow the importance of the various touch-points along the final path to purchase.”

The activation business is growing at an average of 10% per annum worldwide, Harding said, and he went to describe supermarkets as the “new media.”

“Customers are now hit by e-mails, fixtures, friends and blog sites, and there are brands that have grown without TV ads such as Starbucks Coffee and Virgin.”

The company has been developed to enable marketers to cut through the clutter and reach consumers at key moments of truth, and ultimately to influence their actions at the point of purchase, backed by its encouraging studies showing that between 40-70% of purchase decisions are made in-store.

The company’s practises have already achieved success for major businesses across the

globe.

It conducted a recent study on 2500 shoppers in Asia, and now plans to follow a similar month-long approach across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait with the initial findings to be released in eight weeks.

OgilvyAction worked in partnership with JWT to the US to create ‘Hairapy’ for Sunsilk, and connect with a fictional character known as Katie. The problem-solution brand targeted 18-24 year olds facing the ‘quarter life crisis’ via its traditional website and blogsites.

For out of the door channels, the company assembled its biggest sampling team in its history to promote Sunsilk in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

Freezer clings at ice cream stands in stores featured the Sunsilk brand, and the company engaged its audience at the fixture with free makeup bags and fridge magnets with purchases.

The campaign witnessed the distribution of 1,157,592 gift cards and 1,191,921 media impressions.

“Merchandising and category management needs to be improved in the Middle East, and ‘retailtainment’ is starting to come.”

“Brands should be looking at how they are using their marketing spend, and how they can add more theatre to retail after they get the basics right,” said Richard Woodward, business director, OgilvyAction Dubai.

The Last Mile is the company’s trademarked concept, which refers to the distance a consumer travels between an attitude and an action, from brand consideration to the final purchase decision.

The retailer’s power is increasing, according to Harding, for example multiple grocers can decide which brands to stock and where to place them on shelves.

The company develops communications to ensure that their clients’ brands are chosen, whether the purchase decision takes place in the street, at events, online or in-store.

“MarketAnalytics and ShopperAnalytics both allow reporting at a summary lever, various segments – channel, region, retail group, salesman or distributor territory – all the way down to the individual outlet, giving brands both visibility and insights on what is really happening at the point of purchase,” said Woodward.

“With the growth of retail in the region, there are huge opportunities. Yet per capita spending is still very low compared to the US, so this is a very exciting time to be in the market,” he added.