SCTDA organizes

The Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) recently collaborated with the TwoFour54/Tadreeb Training Academy to organize and present a training course on effective media campaign planning to its advertising and marketing departments – an initiative that forms part of the SCTDA’s strategy for human resource development.

The five-day course was held at the Millennium Sharjah Hotel, commencing on 10 January and concluding on 14 January 2010. The course was aimed at teaching the Authority’s advertising and marketing department staff how to deal with the media in order to deliver effective messages to the media and public and to educate employees on the various skills and techniques required to plan and launch successful media campaigns.

Speaking of the initiative, SCTDA Director General, Mohammed Ali Al Noman said, “Media relations skills are vital to any organization that deals with the media on a regular basis and every staff member of such an organization must be familiar with the rules of the media game. A balance between and integration of source and medium are paramount to the success of any media campaign and our purpose in presenting this training opportunity to our advertising and marketing staff is to equip them with the necessary skills to attain that balance. The SCTDA is passionate about delivering effective communication to its publics and ensuring that its members of staff are well equipped to perform the actions required in order to attain the desired results, which is why we teamed up with the TwoFour54 and the Thomson Foundation, one of the world’s premier media organizations, to organize and present this course.”

“The SCTDA’s media and marketing departments play a pivotal role in promoting the emirate both locally and internationally, by introducing the emirate’s various attractions through mass distribution of newsletters, brochures and other marketing materials throughout the year. In this manner, we have successfully attracted increasing numbers of tourists to Sharjah from the neighbouring emirates, other Arab countries and from all over the world from one year to the next.”

Each of the five days was spent covering a key topic in-depth, with these topics including The Golden Rules of Effective Communication, writing press releases, effective advertising strategies and tactics, creating advertising briefs and developing an overall campaign strategy.

The comprehensive workshop also included both theory and practical exercises relating to the customer/consumer proposition, branding and brand values, matching the message to the medium: TV, radio, internet, social media, newspapers, magazines, posters, creating advertising brief, understanding targeting, understanding slogans, copywriting, creative approaches, selecting and managing advertising agencies, using organisational strategy to achieve long term goals, developing integrated inter-department action plans and budgets, campaign management, setting goals and monitoring and evaluating results.

The SCTDA has always paid special attention to media activity and its media department has provided the tourism community with a range of 7 publications in 5 different languages. This department has played a vital role in the level of media exposure received by the Authority over the years. Its activities have ranged from arranging coverage of the Authority’s participation in local and international fairs and exhibitions to organizing promotional tours, drafting media releases on an array of topics relating to the emirate’s tourism sector, including facts and figures on tourist inflow, hotel occupancy rates and points of tourist attraction. It has also organized press conferences, TV and radio interviews and news reports for local, regional and international media.