Consumer's Crown Their Favourite Brands

16th June 2011, Dubai, UAE: Zaman, a leading Arab branding company in the Middle East has unveiled the Top 10 Arab Brands in the region following a two month long online campaign. Zaman had launched the customer education drive to find the 100 Most Authentic Arab brands. It saw massive support from consumers via votes for their favourite brand. The campaign was launched on 15th April and concluded on 9th June 2011 with the unveiling of the campaign winners.

The competition had over 8000 visitors, from over 100 countries, to the site. Top visitors were from Lebanon, Egypt, UAE, UK, USA, KSA and Australia. The fully interactive campaign was developed in-house and reached customers through social media touch points, while using PR and event support. After 8 weeks of voting, and over 8,300 votes cast, the Top 10 Authentic Arab Brands winners were unveiled.  The Top 10 List represented a variety of business sectors ranging from media, hospitality, fashion and non-profit organizations, with Animals Lebanon securing the Number 1 spot with 1,356 votes.

100 Most Authentic Arab Brands - Top 10 Winners

1- Animals Lebanon (Votes - 1,356): Animals Lebanon works to protect animals through legislation, education, campaigns and rescue. 

2- Al Arabiya News Channel (Votes - 1,250):  Al Arabiya is a 24-hour Arabic-language news channel broadcasting across five continents to millions of viewers.

3- Soura (Votes - 684): The only photography magazine in the Middle East. Soura Magazine is a space where photography meets fine art. 

4- Azza Fahmy (Votes -517): She is an internationally recognized as the leading jewellery designer of the Arab world and Egypt's first designer label.

5- Forsight 32 (Votes -408): Foresight Art Center is dedicated to the message as an "Arab Art Gallery" and a "Bridge of creative communication with the world"

6- Nada Debs (Votes -265):  Blending the rich Middle Eastern craft with the Far Eastern ideals of purity of line, Nada Debs is the creator in 2000 of the "East&East" concept in furniture design.

7- Oasis Magazine (Votes -253): Oasis Magazine is the arts & culture magazine that continuously celebrates our cultural heritage and a modern, progressive and young MENA generation.

8- Al Qasba (Votes-239): At Al Qasba, you can enjoy culture, entertainment and leisure attractions representing the very best from the Arab world and beyond.

9- Desert fish Magazine (Votes -210): This magazine is known for its edgy, artistic sensibility.

10- Rotana hotels (Votes -191): The Leading Hospitality Management Company within the Middle East and Africa.

Commenting on this campaign, Grace Yacoub, Founder and CEO Zaman, "At the onset of this campaign, the intention was to celebrate the Arab brands with unique brand stories and authenticity in their conduct towards their primary stakeholders. We also wanted to give Arab consumers a chance voice their feedback on a streamlined platform available for viewing by all. I think the platform managed to deliver this, and some. We would like to extend congratulations to all the brands that participated, and thank our voters for supporting and celebrating these brands with us".

Adding further, Grace says, "This campaign helped us raise awareness about these Arab brands on a local and International level. Over the voting period, we received an overwhelming number of votes: the top voter contributions coming from the UAE (2,497), Lebanon (1,982) and the USA (996). Zaman's commitment to developing Authentic Arab Brands demonstrates Zaman's interest in promoting Authentic Branding in the region, further supporting the three values of our manifesto - Authenticity, Taste and Innovation. "

As the Middle East has been known to be a critical location for world renowned international brands, Zaman introduced this campaign to put a spotlight on Arab brands. The campaign aims to make the spirit of branding more accessible to consumers and communicate how consumer lives are enriched by home grown brands.

Canvas, Rajadano, and Edge of Arabia were on top at the beginning, then Animals Lebanon took over by a storm, and during the last 2 weeks Al Arabiya jumped into the competition. Even though UAE is globally known for its hospitality sector, only two hospitality brands made it to the top 10.  The campaign also had a few surprises, brands like Azza Fahmy and Nada Debs raced to the top 10 towards the second half of the campaign.

Four of the top 10 brands were media related. With the popularity of Al Arabiya News, it was surprising not to see Al Jazeera on the list, as it is a popular Arab brand, known worldwide. Al Jazeera was only able to gather a 117 votes. Also, brands like Etisalat and Al Marai weren't able to garner many votes even though they have very high brand exposure in U.A.E. This led us to believe exposure is not always considered "Authentic". However, with brands that are not so reliant on direct customer engagement, a survey like this would provide little to almost no input for their benefit as this is mainly a consumer driven survey. This campaign initiative gave Zaman insights on the thinking of the local demographic.

The Top 10 Brands can be viewed here - http://www.100authenticarabrands.com/

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About Zaman
Founded in 1996, Zaman has been known in the industry as a leader in 'branding'. Ever since its first steps, the company distinguished itself for its untraditional approach to branding and its commitment to Arab culture in design. Its first projects with the National Bank of Dubai and Etisalat laid the foundation for introducing experience led branding projects that transformed visions to brand stories which engaged with customers and stakeholders. Today, Zaman counts more than 100 hundred brand creations, including Abraaj Capital, Tejari, Al Naboodah, Dolphin Energy, Al Fahim Group, Al Bastakiya, QNB, Tabreed, Qtel, Abu Dhabi University, and Abu Dhabi Ports.

For more information, please contact:
Monica Tomar
Account Manager
Mob: 00971-55-5506131
Landline: +971-4-445 6848
Email: monica@mccollinsmedia.com

© Press Release 2011