Page 21 - AIB | The Chanel | Issue 2 2011

THE CHANNEL | ISSUE 2 2011 | 21
ww
w.twofour54.com
IN CONVERSATION | THE CHANNEL
industry. Most importantly we have
come from many of these
organisations, so we have an
appreciation of their needs and
what they are trying to achieve. If
you bring all this together, we
present a compelling value
proposition and are well positioned
to leverage the market opportunity
the region presents.
What does this mean for Dubai
Media City?
The majority of companies that
have come to twofour54 are new to
the region, or are consolidating
their activities in the region. So as
far as we are concerned, Dubai MC
and twofour54 are very much
complementary and our individual
success will lead to broader mutual
success.
What can you offer a news
organisation or major channel?
First and foremost, we offer access
to the opportunity the region
represents with its vast, youthful
population. We provide a creative
working environment and state of
the art facilities second to none in
the region and can provide an end‑
to‑end onboarding and operational
service, configured pretty much to
widely spoken language today, yet
less than 1% of content online is
Arabic. Children's content is a huge
area of opportunity, also
contemporary digital content online
that targets under‑25 year‑olds,
particularly comedy as a genre and
also gaming – we are focusing a lot
of our energy on the gaming sector.
What are the most important
issues in media in your region?
If you look at the TV sector, it's
about transparency in advertising.
People meters will be arriving here
in the UAE soon and that'll be a
tremendous boost to building
transparency through a robust and
rigorous measurement system that
will give advertisers confidence
regarding audiences.
And looking ahead?
It is really about being that creative
hub in the region and making sure
we've got all the components and
continue to see it flourish as we
have experienced at this early stage.
That's our focus – to bring to life
this ambition of becoming the
centre of excellence for Arabic
content creation in the region.
Wayne Borg, thank you.
the bespoke needs of any
individual organisation, that allows
the industry to concentrate on what
they do best ‑ producing quality
content across all media platforms.
Once companies are here, our
business facilitation team works
closely with them to understand
their business, provide regional
knowledge and insight to help
them become successful and thus
contributing further to our media
ecosystem through jobs creation,
talent development and skills
transfer.
Our integrated approach also
allows us to add value across all
areas of that business. One example
could see us help a partner
company with a creative or
commercial challenge ‑ we could
put that into a situational learning
exercise in our training academy
giving the workshops genuine
context. If it is cracked we can then
feed that into back into the
company. That's just one example
of how the integrated approach
might work.
What type of content are people
looking for in your region?
It's certainly regional and local
content. Arabic is the fifth most
“
”
Arabic is
the fifth
most
widely
spoken
language
today, yet
less than
1%of
content
online is
Arabic