Word on the street is that ITP has suddenly pulled the plug on its successful advertising weekly Campaign ME. I tried to check the magazine's website, but it redirected me to Arabian Business magazine's website. There is no trace of any Campaign ME content, not even its blog.
To be honest, when i first heard the news, I thought it was a marketing stunt or something. But it seems to be for real and I also heard the whole thing has something to do with a licencing issue between ITP's management and the London-based Campaign.
Does anyone know what exactly is going on? Do share..
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3 days ago
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As an advertiser there for the coming weeks - that gets me rather worried.
I heard that the Campaign Awards have also been cancelled....
The annoying thing is that we won't be able to read about it in the Spin! Darn!
Allegedly a bust up over revenue sharing.
But the rumour is that Campaign is going to Motivate, which has a five magazine deal with Haymarket.
For now we'll still have Communicate, which is funnier anyway. Just a pity that it is only monthly. Campaign will definitely be a loss to the media industry here, at least if it doesn't start up again soon.
An article about this in today's Gulf News:
http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Media/10102883.html
How weird. This was one of the few mags that was worth reading.
Also they were active in the wider marketing arena, sponsering events and the like.
If it has gone, I'll miss this for sure.
Hey dubai sunshine... well said. The Spin was the best part.
Just received my 'last' copy and it's sort of tragic. But if the people are all there - they could start off something new.
Had blogged about it on my advertising, marketing and creativity blog last night - I thought it was a bad dream.
Their blog is gone too :-(
of the topic though something I think Campaign ME would have lapped up.....I'll miss them for this!
Read this and make up your own mind
http://www.godubai.com/gulftoday/article.asp?AID=25&Section=Home
@ a. : thanks for that link - interesting story. Not so sure whether the paper has the right to that exclusivity. They seem to be acting as agents on behalf of this pseudo-celeb.
also not being racist, but i think it's highly unlikely that this insurance-less businessman would have been helped if his name were Rangarajan and not Dieter.....
Am I the only person who thought that Campaign wallowed in some kind of delusion of self-importance and acted as a sycophant in chief to a whole bunch of overpaid, and self-important ad types?
It also pulled lots of punches in terms of reporting of the press.
The most entertaining part of the whole magazine was the series of 'look at me, I'm mean and I mean business' poses that the campaign-whores struck as they got their weekly fix of narcisism. Kind of like the 'Not 100'
As for the Gulf News bashing piece...would Campaign really have gone to town on Gulf Snooze for doing what every newspaper in the world would have done in the same situation? I doubt they had a contract with this Dieter guy...they probably just said 'look buddy, we helped you out when no-one else was interested, don't talk to anyone else'
Tim Addington attitude must have fallen off a cliff..
anon @ 11 February, 2007 09:09
No you are not the only one. Then again, the same goes for just about everyone in the media industry. You must feel really important right now, blowing off steam on Campaign, don't you?
Campaign played a key role in providing a playground for the industry to throw punches at either in. It also delivered the news. Yes they are mean. I'm not so sure they are overpaid, but they never hid the fact that they were well-paid.
It is a true loss to the industry, regardless of what you think about Campaign.
Fellow Atheist...not at all. I don't feel important because I'm airing my views about Campaign. What an illogical conclusion to come to.
Campaign has closed, I give my opinion on 'the magazine and the same old crowd who appear week in, week out sporting their best - moody but edgy - poses'
Hardly makes me feel self important.
If you want, you can ask me my views on various geopolitical matters, that would make me feel important.
On another note - I'm pretty sure it will resurface in the mext month or so.
i've heard the same that it's crossing over to Motivate...the plot thickens!
But isn't Motivate already publishing Communicate? Surely a clash of interest?
MediaLeader publishes Communicate (they also do Arabies Trends). Word is Tim Addington is off to Australia to work with former Campaign editor, Tim Burrowes. And that ITP threw its toys out the pram over some slight and cancelled deal with Campaign UK. The mag wasn't making enough money (no consumer advertising) and I'm not sure the industry was big enough to keep covering the same old faces.
To be honest, I think Campaign didn't need to be 'Campaign'. In other words, I don't care for the glossy paper and the UK connection. What I want is a magazine that covered the industry for the region. Campaign, although very Dubai-centric, still was the only media publication that covered our news.
We advertised with Campaign. Not because we thought it would reach our target audience only (it wasn't the most effective tool -- we got our money's worth, but it wasn't a killer investment). However, we advertised with them because we wanted to support it.
I don't care for ITP, neither do I care what people think of the guys behind Campaign. Tim Burrowes, Addington, Steve, Richard, etc. These guys were simply doing their job. While they did do and say some questionable things, they still went out and did their job.
As far as I know, Burrowes is back in London and Addington is off to Australia. I don't think either are doing anything with Campaign (UK or otherwise).hmr
For the record, after a break in London I’m now in Australia working for Reed Business Information on a group of media titles which serve a similar role in the market to that played by Campaign in the Middle East.
As I’m no longer involved with ITP I have no inside story on what became of Campaign, although I’m sad to hear what has happened. Also for the record, Dances is correct: Tim Addington is coming out to work with me here in Sydney – a move that was planned some time before last week’s events.
Latest news from Campaign front is that ITP is launching a similar magazine, with a diff name and no connection to Haymarket and that should hit the maket in the upcoming months.
Let'em call it what you want, For I careth not ;) But I hope they keep 'spin'ning!
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