Saturday, January 30, 2010

Musical Fountain at Qanat Al Qasba

The Musical Fountain of Qanat Al Qasba is purely enchanting. The Qasba Musical Show is fun to watch as the water dances to the tunes. There are various sessions in the morning and evening with a gap of 1 hour between each show. This is the one similar to the Dubai Mall Fountain which is definitely much more dynamic and larger than life. The show is approximately for 8-10 minutes.




Kids have fun passing through the fountain and soak themselves into water. If you do get wet while having fun, then please suit yourself to use the drying machine, first of a kind I have ever seen in UAE at any leisure facility.Oh btw..you need to pay only AED 3 to use the machine.

You can also take a ride in the famous 'Eye of the Emirate' aka 'Sharjah Eye'. The ride is made of  42 fully air-conditioned passenger cabins, attached to its external rim, with each cabin accommodating 8 people at a time. Passengers will enjoy a exotic view of 25-30 miles, including breathtaking aerial views of Sharjah and Dubai. The Shajah Eye ride at Qanat Al Qasba costs AED 30 for adults and AED 15 for kids and lasts for 10 minutes.

Just in case you don’t know about Qanat Al Qasba. The facility has now evolved as a popular tourist destination in Sharjah. The venue offers families, residents and visitors a variety of entertainment options ranging from art, to restaurants to leisure. Check out the location below.

View Qanat Al Qasba Sharjah in a larger map

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Ibn Battuta has got a Bollywood Song

Hello UAEns...

Ibn Battuta has got a mention in a Bollywood song, infact an entire song dedicated to Ibn Battuta. Check out the song below which is from a forthcoming movie Ishqiya. Set in western Uttar Pradesh, the movie is a tale of romance between individuals caught in a web of crime, suspense, passion and deceit. The movie is expected to hit the theatres on January 29th.

Ibn Battuta (February 25, 1304 – 1368 or 1369) was a Moroccan Berber Muslim scholar and traveler who is known for the account of his travels and excursions called the Rihla (Voyage) in Arabic. His journeys lasted for a period of nearly thirty years and covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world and beyond. (via Wikipedia.com). We even have a mall dedicated to this famous personality - Ibn Battuta Mall located in Jebel Ali.




Just incase you wanna know the location of the Ibn Battuta Mall :-


Monday, January 18, 2010

Google Helps Predict Gender Differences

Google can help us predict what the sexes are looking out for in a relationship. Wow! That's a discovery. What are the needs of a man and what is a women looking out for. You don't need to look out for a relationship consultant. Just Google your thoughts :). A query on Google.ae gave the below results of what men and women may be frequently searching for in UAE. I used the phrase "How can I get my" replacing it with various variables. Check out the results : -



The above query show girl's may be always looking for security or attention from their boyfriend's.



The guys always seeking pleasure in various forms ;)


I tried seraching similar info by replacing 'girlfriend' with 'wife' and 'boyfriend' with 'husband'. Married people may think on the lines of a single person but with a little difference. Now see the difference below: -







The power of Google can help us understand the way our subconscious mind thinks. It is very interesting to know the gender differences in UAE. You may check out a similar post done by  Dan Ariely who had conducted similar queries on Google.com.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

What Color Was Your Bra

Caution – I am not trying to be a sexist or show that breast cancer issues don’t really matter. Just ridiculing the level to which Facebook platform was used to raise the Breast Cancer awareness

Last week did you update the color of your bra on Facebook? I am sure being a woman you wanted to show your support for the deadly Breast Cancer and make people aware of its affects. Well, some really smart person wanted all the women to update their status with the color of the bra they were wearing at that time. This would perhaps bring a revolution in creating breast cancer awareness

The effort taken by most of the women was ostensibly for a good cause. Now, I am wondering how you can bring awareness in the minds of men by updating your Facebook status with the color of your bra?

Men would be already fantasizing the size of the breasts and some perverts may have reached the climax as well. Some of them may be wondering if the bra was silk, satin, cotton etc…

Women may be wondering how can they fight the disease and create a revolution and awareness in the minds. Holy Shit! We need to fight it out with our Women Power…

Many groups were created on the website by so called Charity Organizations, who would donate some money to a breast cancer research if they would acquire 1000+ members. Another marketing gimmick!

Some groups had all the intentions to create soft porn by asking the members to send their photographs in a bra and the best pic would receive a 10$ gift certificate.
And to heighten the level of this futile campaign, some women actually updated their status with the color of panties they were wearing. This further diluted the breast cancer awareness message. May be they were trying to make a point about Ovarian Cancer. Confused!

Horrendous! Not sure if this is the right approach to create awareness for a deadly disease? C’mon! wake up people…such dim-witted ideas would help you identify the color of the bra but the thought would just stop there.

Every one may have updated the color of their bra but no one was speaking about breast cancer.

Personally I liked the approach of this particular group who asked women not to share the color of their bra, but by sharing their time or money to help people suffering with this disease. Splendid approach! Serves the purpose.

Let us all lend our support to create awareness about this illness which may have affected your mother, girlfriend, wife, sister, daughter etc in a more sensible manner. Social Media messages spread like fire so let us use this weapon in a wise way to create a difference.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Nexus One v/s iPhone - for UAE

Google has released its long awaited mobile gadget - The Nexus One, running on the Android OS. The best part about Nexus One is that you can purchase its unlocked version. This is good news for all the UAEns as you would be able to use it on either Etisalat or Du network. Google has smartly placed itself in the market by not signing up with a single telecom provider as previously done by iPhone.



Check out the below comparison table released by BillShrink.

Some other info that is missing in the below comparison sheet is the Nexus One has the Google Earth and Geo Location Feature that is missing in iPhone. Another point to be noted is that Google has signed up with T-Mobile to sell the device on a limited contractual basis.

For all the tech freaks check out the Processor Speed for each of these phones. This info is missing in the below comparison sheet.
iPhone 3GS
Palm Pre
Motorola Droid
Nexus One
600 + Mhz
600+ Mhz
550 Mhz
1 Ghz

The most important conclusion that one can derive from this launch is that Google has finally launched its own online store. The overly hyped Nexus One launch has over shadowed the launch of the online store or Google intentionally wanted to keep it low. This is definitely a potential threat to many online stores as the website remains the only place where you can purchase the device. You never know but Google may start selling its upcoming computers on a Dell based model from this particular site.

Just a point on the Multi-tasking bit - iPhone does perform multitasking, which has been erroneously reported as 'No' in the table.

Good news for people who are dying to get their hands on this device in UAE. You can buy the phone online via Souq.com. There are some people selling the device but at a much higher price...filling their pockets I guess ;)

Friday, January 8, 2010

User Generated Content Forecast 2008-2013

The marketing industry’s obsessions seem to change every two years or so. Few years back in the Digital Marketing world Web 2.0 was the buzz now “user-generated content.” which is an extended version of Web 2.0. Notable examples include the now world-famous Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit; YouTube, the world's most popular place to find web video; and social communities such as Facebook and MySpace and the latest buzz Twitter.

Each of these web destinations would be nothing without daily content contributions from the many active individuals in their respective communities. These are gold mines for user generated content.

According to eMarketer there were 123.5 million people alone in US who contributed content on the web in 2009. The table depicts that in 2010 around 87 million people would produce videos, 96 million would be engaged in social networking sites, 125 million would contribute through blogging and another 80 million would participate in the vitual world.

The above stats are only for US, let alone  the world statistics.

The only weak point in this user/generated marketing approach is whether people will find the challenge campaign in the first place. A good strategy would be to have groups formed in the social networking sites like Pepsi and Sony have youth groups on Facebook.

With the help of PR, Advertising, Product Development, Customer Service you can target specific segments.

Your target audience - Depending on what you're selling, you would want to track down your potential contributors and engage them on their own turf. Among the most active social media makers are the 18 - 30 demographic, and this group is also the easiest to locate online through the various social networking services.

Your product image - If you are trying to sell pension schemes or luxury villas, you might be better off taking a different approach by advertising on specific website with customized user content.

Promoting your campaign – It isn’t enough to create a flashy website and upload forms for user to fill them up. If you want to create a really successful campaign you are going to have to make sure that the right people know about it, whether they are bloggers or members of the social networks etc. What is your target segment, and how will you plan your customer journeys on the website is important part of the online campaign.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Burj Dubai or Burj Khalifa

Congratulations Dubains….you have once again made it. The launch of Burj Dubai with pomp and show makes this astonishing 828 metres building the highest man made structure in the world.

While a part of media may have criticized the launch, the tower was proudly holding its esteem in surpassing all the world records. Salute to the worker’s who have given their life in building this monster and when one stands on the top of the building you can only imagine the thousands who worked on it.

This is certainly Dubai’s quintessence: The Dubai Dream!

An observation deck on the 124th floor opens to the public Tuesday, with adult tickets starting at 100 dirhams. You may buy the tickets at Dubai Mall.

The most surprising element of the launch was the unexpected rebranding of the tower from Burj Dubai to Burj Khalifa. Some thoughts to dwell upon: -
  • Upon doing a quick research on the Internet it was found that burjkhalifa.com was just registered today - a last minute decision?
  • On entering the website it says “Under Constuction. (the website, not the tower)”
  • burjkhalifa.ae has also been registered today today sometime in the evening.
The next question that is being raised by many people: will the Burj Down Town be renamed to Khalifa Down Town?

What do you prefer to call the world’s tallest tower?

Friday, January 1, 2010

View from top of Burj Dubai

Check out this video which shows the amazing view of the city from the top most spot on Burj Dubai. The video depicts the top view of the statling skyline of Dubai and explains the various elements involved in developing the top most floor of the giant structutre. Burj Dubai is set to launch on January 04th, 2010. The Burj Dubai Metro Station will also be official inaugrated on the same day to coincide with the launch of the building. Please note the video source is at ebusdk


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