It is widely known that Qatar is a booming hub for many industries such as Oil and Gas, Construction, Real Estate, and Education. Qatar also has a sincere desire to be the host of a number of future international events from the world of business and sports. In fact, increasing foreign direct investment and government regulations are set to encourage as much as 17% economic growth in 2010!

These goals, and the fact that the market is open to new and innovative ideas with a need for fresh talent, has inspired O2 Network to build a new office inthe capital city of Doha, Qatar! Qatar already ranks high in advertising spending by which it grew by 12% over the past year, bringing the total ad spending to $402 million. The growth of the public relations industry has also been exceptional, which in 2009 grew nearly 25% despite Qatar maintaining its ranking as fourth in the GCC for most advertising expenditures.

O2 Qatar is a representative office for O2 Bahrain and is working closely with the creative teams, administration and HR departments in Dubai and Bahrain. O2 Qatar will also be working in association with offices in Abu Dhabi in the production of creative designs for the agency’s latest clientele. A number of major projects are already in the pipeline, andin just a few weeks of operations the future appears bright for O2’s latest regional expansion!

Continuously launching festivals and celebrations throughout the year, Abu Dhabi Municipality engages individuals of all ages and backgrounds in the capital. In an effort to target the youth segment of the society, the Abu Dhabi Municipality initiated the Ajial program to encourage individuals to enhance their physical as well as their mental wellbeing. A strong program with a positive message, O2 Marketing Communications was really excited to learn more about the project and was selected to work on the Ajial campaign in January 2010.

The first major cooperation was in Khalifa Park in the city of Abu Dhabi from the January 31sttill the February 13th. The event offered participants a variety of activities and gave them an opportunity to engage with others to learn something new. The activities were divided into five zones that consisted of games, arts and crafts, music, sports and a fun fair. Some of the activities include wall climbing, music bands on stage, face painting, karaoke, magic and clown shows, to name a few. All in all it was a fantastic collaboration that saw hundreds from around the Emirate come together in the spirit of fun and learning! If you didn’t get to see the action at Khalifa Park, keep an eye out for future events from Abu Dhabi Municipality.

Interactive. Entertaining. Information.

This is our inspiration for launching the newsletter version of PR2Live, a monthly review of the most exciting stories to hit the world of marketing communications! Unlike other publications which focus strictly on business gains and commercial news, PR2Live highlights the cultural trends shaping the content of the Middle East’s mass media environment. From new technologies to seasonal holidays, regional festivals to industry exhibitions, it’s all about sharing your world at PR2Live.

O2MC Dubai recently partnered with the Department of Economic Development in the advertising and branding of the group’s Consumer Rights Campaign. Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment(DEPE), as an agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED), works to ensure quality shopping experiences for UAE customers and encourage the retail sector to comply with the consumer protection law to build overall customer satisfaction.

The position of Dubai as a shopping hub in the region has been well known for the last 15 years when the Dubai government and the retail sector came together to launch the first edition of Dubai Shopping Festival. This year, the emphasis was clearly on consumer feedback and making sure that retailers and consumers were living up to their full responsibilities. According to a recent DEPE interview with Khaleej Times, the organization said it should be very clear that by protecting the consumers, the DEPE is in fact protecting the retail industry as a whole.

As part of the Consumer Rights Campaign, O2 supported the DEPE in communicate the group’s messages to public audiences throughout a variety of creative designs for the campaign, including logos and outdoor advertisements.

With a background in retail promotion campaigns, Nariman Najjar, GM of the O2MC team, said that the Consumer Rights Campaign was a great chance to reinforce social values and the Government’s commitment to excellence in the retail sector, which it succeeded in doing during DSF 2010.

It was an extraordinary year for DSF as the festival celebrated its 15th anniversary in elegant fashion. Millions of dirhams were given away. Thousands attended events throughout the Emirate. Hundreds of events were going on during the festival, and O2 was the agency standing proudly behind several of the largest festivals of the season.

The DSF Jumeirah Beach Residence ads were a huge success, and thousands of onlookers also saw the advertisements used for the campaign in Al Rigga. O2 was also a part of the weekly Carnival series including the incredibly popular ‘Creations’ fashion event, which this year was rebranded at Dubai Mall by O2. Getting back to our childhood roots, the Ben 10 “Power of the Omnitrix Show” brought out the inner cartoon within us all, and additional advertisements were done for the Khor Dubai events. Rounding things out with the Little Big Club concert, it was a whirlwind season of events for O2MC. See everyone next year!

The O2PR Dubai team has had plenty of experience working with healthcare clients in the past. From industry exhibitions to product releases, the agency has a solid understanding of the healthcare market and the challenges faced by customers and operators alike. Al Rahba Hospital is not a new player in the healthcare market, although having never had a marketing plan or PR strategy, the organization realized that a lot of work needed to be done to elevate the facility to its fullest potential.

Enter in O2PR. Through a series of proposals and pitches, O2PR was identified as the agency best suited to build the Al Rahba brand from the ground up. The agency will serve as a close consultant to the hospital as it develops a short, mid and long-term marketing plan, bringing out the exceptional characteristics of Al Rahba that until this point have gone largely unnoticed by the Abu Dhabi community. With a final contract put in place this March, the team is excited to be Al Rahba’s new partner in health.

Consider the amount of juice you drink in an average week. Think about what you like about that juice specifically. Is it the taste, the price, the brand…maybe all three? Whether you’re loyal to a particular product or just pick whatever is on sale, fruit juices are one of the most competitive products in the FMCG sector, which is why O2MC was commissioned by Al Ain Dairy to showcase why the company is in fact a leader in the market.

This February, O2MC worked with Al Ain Dairy to activate a Natural Juice campaign to highlight the variety of delicious and healthy products offered straight from the source. Creatives got to work immediately identifying the common and not so common visuals associated with the juice “experience”, putting together one central campaign for print ads and video promotions. After photo shoots and countless sketches, everything came together in February as the campaign was launched throughout the UAE.

Operating under the Executive Affairs Authority in Abu Dhabi, the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) was developed as an independent federal agency located in the UAE that is charged with the regulation and licensing of all the nuclear energy activities happening in the country. With its participation in the development of a peaceful civil nuclear power program, FANR has public safety as its primary objective. Since the beginning of its launch several months ago, FANR chose O2 Branding as its first and official branding agency to create the corporate identity for the agency.

In the last quarter of 2009, the O2 Branding team started its collaboration with FANR and began its first set of brand audits, outlining a comprehensive brand activation strategy. The O2 Branding team created the corporate identity and the entire stationary design of the authority including the logo, letter head, envelopes, brochures, and additional brand material. The cooperation between O2 Branding and FANR has so far proven very successful, and the agency looks forward to working with FANR as the authority gains momentum locally and in the wider GCC region.

GACA (General Authority of Civil Aviation) has selected O2 KSA to develop the brand identity of the Saudi Domestic Airports and O2 has worked closely with the client to identify the branding challenge and new brand positioning. O2 has conducted several ‘Oxygen’ session workshops after which we found the right direction for the logo. After designing the logo, we could then start on activating the brand by creating the collaterals, from gates branding to uniforms to the airport signage. The collection of these materials was the biggest challenge for us, and so far the client has been very pleased with the creative direction of KSA’s domestic airports, which will continue to be developed in the coming months by the O2 team in Jeddah.

It’s the dawn of a new day in Qatar’s energy market as O2 Network help Energy City Qatar (ECQ) take off in 2010! The project was initiated in 2006 and they started construction early 2009, although it’s still not clear when the project will be finalized (possibly by the end of 2010).

Energy City Qatar is a fully integrated business cluster that will be the Gulf’s first oil and gas industry hub. ECQ will be a single point of access to the Middle East and global Oil & Gas players in the hydrocarbon value chain. The $2.6 billion project will consist of low-rise office & residential areas offering world class offices for 20,000 people and luxury residences for 10,000.

Envisioned by Gulf Energy, ECQ forms part of the major new city development, Lusail, which in addition to major business and entertainment districts will be home to up to 200,000 residents. Qatar is touted as the most progressive, business-friendly and the fastest growing economy in the Middle East. Home to the world’s third largest natural gas reserves, Qatar has a stable and maturing political environment, a free press, and internationally recognized regulatory environment.