If you work in the PR industry, you know that not one day is like the other. The ever-changing industry keeps moving and shaking things, creating new tools, and introducing new schemes to achieve the ultimate objective: to reach the target audience with the right set of messages and cause impact. And if you work in the PR industry in the UAE, you know you’re up for a very exciting journey. Not only the business keeps changing, but there are new industries that are continuously introduced to the market, thanks to the strong vision of the UAE to stay ahead of others in new areas and trends, and its strive to attract global initiatives and events to its land.
Around a year ago, Hattlan Media had the pleasure to start working with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, the home for the National Space Programme.
We are PRing Space. A whole new industry not only to the UAE but to the region. While it is a great honour to be the only Public Relations agency to ever announce the first Emirati Arab astronaut going to space in a grand press conference dubbed by some media as “the press conference of the year”, or the ones to PR the launch of the first 100% Emirati manufactured satellite, KhalifaSat, the task is huge ….there’s a lot of education that needed to take place internally within Hattlan Media before we can claim that we know what we are doing. You might think, the rules of PR are quite the same for all industries, with the slight change of tactics from one scheme to another…but for Space, the ballgame is different. The level of accuracy in information we work with throws away the “Spin Doctors” label. The industry is not new to us only, it is new to the media and to the larger audience. Our main role continues to be educating audience about the initiatives and programmes: what it means for the first Emirati- Arab astronaut to go to the International Space Station? And how it affects, not only the UAE and the region, but the whole world with new scientific findings expected to emerge from this mission. Same goes for launching a probe to Mars to study its atmospheric layers and provide new findings about the Red Planet. How launching a 100% Emirati Earth Observing (EO) satellite (KhalifaSat) is set to inspire generations of Emiratis who now know that they also can do it!
Speaking of PRing new “things” brings us to Dubai Expo 2020!
In 2013, the UAE won hosting Expo 2020! A great victory and a great moment for everyone. We all celebrated as we saw Dubai gain the majority of votes against its rival cities. Then came the question: But, what is Expo?! And what does it mean for the UAE, and for us, people living in Dubai. Our eyes were all hung on 2020, most plans and strategies revolved around this date. Recently, the answer to our question has started to unfold. We are seeing more of Expo branded content in the news. But it shouldn’t only be about Expo, it is about public and private sectors bringing in their best practices in communications, it is about innovation and foreseeing the future; it is about making history. PRing Expo, similar to PRing Space, involves educating others about facts and case studies more than promoting stories. Probably very few know that the Expo that will be hosted in Dubai in 2020 is a “registered Expo” which only happens every 5 years and is different than the one happening this year in Beijing China, for example.
Expo is a great platform to communicate not only Expo messages, but also the country’s vision to bring in an international dialogue between different countries from around the world to find innovation-based solutions for challenges human kind currently faces. If you are a government organisation, an FMCG brand, an NGO, or a start up company, Expo might be a good platform to connect with others and communicate your brand values. How to do so and guarantee a successful delivery of your communication strategy? Is the one million dirhams question, and you might want to contact us to find out how we can help you with your public relations for Expo 2020.