We’ve been working on a PR Campaign with BP Middle East and British HR consultancy with offices in Oxford and Dubai. Our primary brief was to increase the profile of both companies in major Middle Eastern newspapers, websites and to cement the HR consultancy’s reputation as research experts across the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). The countries we needed to reach in our press coverage were: The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait.
Clearly this was not a small task, and we would be lying if we said we knew exactly how to handle this brief when we were first approached. Being Brits and only having worked with UK and European press before, we knew we had to do some research before we could commit to the brief. The cultural differences alone had to be carefully considered – were there any major political and social issues involved?
After looking at major media outlets in the region, we decided to focus on small countries with individual campaigns, and tailoring releases for local interest. Our initial goal was to focus on the UAE, as that is where the client is based in the Middle East. We also had to take the Sultantate of Oman into account, as both companies wanted to promote a major new research study on young Omanis and Emiratis.
We’re pretty pleased to say that, after working with the clients to implement a focused and bespoke PR campaign, we won a huge amount of quality press coverage from the biggest media organisations in the Middle East. This includes the front pages of national newspapers, the most-read stories on major media websites and all-day news coverage on national radio stations. We’re sure that our unique skills as qualified British journalists is the magic ingredient in these results. We use the years of experience we’ve gained working in UK newsrooms to hunt down the story that we know will interest news editors. These are some of the results we gained in just 10 weeks:
- The National UAE: Front page news & online
- The National UAE: Editorial
- The National UAE: Major Interview on P5
- Gulf News Radio 1: All-day News Bulletins, Second Story
- Gulf News Radio 2: All day News Bulletins, Second Story
- Gulf News: Major Interview on P6 & online
- Gulf News: Major Interview in print & online
- Saudi Gazette: News on P13 and online
- 7 Days UAE: Major Interview on P14 and online
- The Gulf Times: Major Article on P6 & online
- The Arab Times: Front page of Business Section & online
- Oman Daily Observer: Major Interview on P4 & online
- Times of Oman: Articles in print and online
Even we’re impressed, and that’s not something that happens very often. We were engaged to continue working with the clients, thanks to the results we got. You can read our full case study of the pr and marketing campaign here. We’re always intrigued by a challenge, and we loved this campaign precisely because it was an almighty challenge and completely different to anything we have done before. If you’re looking for a quality PR consultant to raise your company’s profile in the UK or internationally, why not get in touch? We’d love to hear from you.
