The Ramadan rush and Saudi-owned Twitter

It’s Interesting to read about how a proposed radio campaign aimed at building support for a Saudi-backed Middle East peace plan was discussed from a leading PR Agency, Qorvis Communications:

I took the top 25 markets with the following exceptions: NYC — too expensive and too Jewish. LA too expensive because English speaking listeners are at a premium here. DETROIT — has the largest Arab-Muslim population in the U.S. and they are always fighting among themselves. MIAMI — very Jewish and if the discussion doesn’t include Cuba, nobody else really cares.

The campaign was funded by the Saudi Government, and run under the name Alliance for Peace and Justice. I guess political correctness didn’t matter here.

The same PR firm was recently hired by Bahrain (with its awful human rights record and history of torturing its own citizens), and the firm also worked for Saudi Arabia after the 9/11 terrorist attack.

The biggest growth market in the world for Twitter is Saudi Arabia, with 3,000 percent growth last month according to Twitter’s CEO. Of course digital media has seen rapid growth throughout the Arab world with all of the political demonstrations, and a recent report by Deloitte indicates that 87% of the public believe that social media sites, such as Facebook, played an important role in inciting events during the political issues. The growth statistics are simply amazing.

Less well known is that Prince Walid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia (one of the world’s wealthiest billionaires) has invested $300 million in Twitter. The Deloitte new study indicates that digital media will more than double its share of the Arab world’s advertising market by 2015, and digital will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35 percent over the next three years, generating about $580m by 2015. Using Twitter will make Saudi Arabia wealthier.

I spent time this summer with my family in the paradise otherwise known as The French Riveria, and it’s a place where one cannot miss the extreme overwhelming Arab wealth. It’s been referred to as the “Ramadan Rush,” where the world’s wealthiest Arabs flock to Cannes in the weeks leading up to Ramadan the Muslim month of fasting. The flaunting of Arab wealth in a public, audacious manner is something I had never seen before – Sitting outside of the luxury hotels, one cannot miss seeing countless Bugattis, Lamborginis,  Ferraris, Rolls Royce.

Nearly all of them have license plates from Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait and other Arab countries – and their uber-wealthy owners spend the days shopping and nights partying.  Truly a sight to behold where one sees wealth being flaunted in such a public manner. Even when no one is in the cars, you see the streets lined with people taking pictures.