| Kippreport.com

Just Falafel. Just Digital. Just works.

November 8, 2012 6:13 by M. Aldalou

The potential of Social Media, particularly in the Middle East region, is a never-ending conversation full of inspirational stories but a lot of bitter doubt as well. Many brands want to have a social media presence but genuinely doubt its potential when it comes to Return on Investment.

“I think those that have doubts about the ability of social media platforms were probably the same [kind of] people that had doubts about Facebook becoming a multi-billion dollar company in just a few years. At Just Falafel, we realised that if we are to compete with our neighbours in the food court that have billion-dollar budgets, we needed to find more effective and affordable tools for communication. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to compete.”

Kipp agreed that a social platform like Facebook is not only unimaginably influential; with the ability to provide success for almost every business on the planet, but we did touch on the topic of privacy and invasion. The social media giant has been subjected to years of heavy and frequent scrutiny because of the perceived invasive nature of its targeted advertising.

“I think it’s much more invasive when you’re watching your favourite tv show and it’s been interrupted by something you’re not interested in, or looking at a billboard when you should be keeping your eyes on the road. On social media, at best you can just scroll down if you’re not interested. For me, I think digital media is the safest form of advertising and least disturbing, offensive or disruptive,” he says.

Finally, another conversation that has been dragged on for many years is how long traditional methods of advertising and marketing will hold up against digital media and strategies of the future. Many analysts have made their predictions about the already feeble state of the ‘traditional era’ and how social media is undoubtedly replacing it. Luckily for Malas, he doesn’t give it a second thought.

“There is an advantage of not being from an advertising background. We don’t look at traditional media because it doesn’t exist to us. Had I been in traditional marketing for 30 years then I would have found it very challenging to migrate to digital media. We all feel at JF that digital media is the way forward, it’s the only way forward,” he concludes confidently.

“These platforms are where people’s eyeballs are and I think that’s where we should be.”

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Tags: Digital media, Facebook, Facebook advertising, Fadi Malas, Just Falafel, JustFalafel, social media dubai, social media for business, traditional advertising