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Pirelli


Pirelli Radio Show on Mega FM 92.7 and TURBO show on Nogoum FM 100.6 – Two of the worst radio shows ever!

It is no secret that the Egyptian automotive media sector is one of the worst motoring media sectors worldwide. This ‘specialized’ media sector is full of unprofessional and incompetent writers and presenters and 95% of those working in this sector are nothing more than disguised advertising sales representatives or crime-scene reporters working at their newspaper, radio station or TV station.

Among the worst and most unprofessional ‘automotive’ publications is the weekly state-owned Al Ahram Automotive Supplement published every Friday, which is full of paid advertorial and misleading editorials of its crime-scene reporters and advertising reps. The most misleading editorial and articles are written by a crime-scene reporter called Hesham El Zeiny, who is the whole time writing in the favor for the local automotive assembly industry in general and General Motors Egypt & Mansour Chevrolet Opel in specific.

So, it is no wonder that General Motors Egypt & Mansour Chevrolet Opel is the only sponsor for his other unprofessional and misleading TV show (called Aksa Sur3a) on the state-owned Al Oula TV as well as for his silly and also misleading radio show (also named Aksa Sur3a) on the also state-owned Radio 108.0 FM.

The weekly Akhbar El Sayarat Automotive Supplement published every Saturday in the state-owned Akhbar El Youm newspaper is not much better. Not only does it include the same paid-advertorials like the ones published by the automotive and tire clients one day earlier in the Al Ahram newspaper, but in many cases the ‘test-drives’ published there describe how good some options and features are although they are not fitted in that specific test-car.

This is what happened when a certain Helal Ewaiss was describing in his Mercedes GLK 250 ‘test-drive’ how great the rear-view camera is functioning, although this Mercedes GLK 250 is not offered with a rear-view camera in the first place!

So, you thought Aksa Sur3a TV show is the worst on the Egyptian television channels? Well, not really. There is another very unprofessional and silly TV program called Doos Banzine running on the private satellite channel Mehwar TV, which is owned by a certain businessman called Hassan Rateb.

Not only is the Doos Banzine TV program lacking any professional content but also the presenter Tamer Bashir seems to lack any understanding of motorsport issues or up-to-date automotive and safety-related topics. This despite the fact that he always claims to be a ‘professional racing driver’ although his name never appeared on any drivers-list at any professional racing event. The mistakes and wrong information aired in his program are frightening and shocking to say the least.

His latest episode (31.08.2014) when he compared using normal air vs. nitrogen in the tires was extremely misleading and full of fundamental misjudgment and lacked any scientific prove for what he said.

The silly automotive series Tamer Basher presented during the month of Ramadan 2013 and 2012 with B-, C- and D-celebrities was surely among the silliest and most ridiculous ‘auto shows’ ever aired in Egypt and the Middle East. Probably that was the reason why Me7war TV was not ready to air such a silly Ramadan Auto Show again during the last Ramadan 2014.

But what is more surprising is the fact that the decision-makers at the Arabic radio station Nogoum FM 100.6, which is part of the Nile Radio Production company operating also the English radio station Nile FM 104.2, allowed themselves to have Tamer Bashir presenting a so-called ‘automotive’ show called TURBO with the same low quality, the same ignorant automotive content and the same mistakes like on his TV show broadcasted on Mehwar TV. If the decision-makers at Nogoum FM 100.6 would do their homework right and listen to one of the episodes or read the comment about this show on the different social media platforms, I am sure they would stop this silly and comical radio show immediately in order to save their reputation and professionalism.

Another radio show which is also considered one of the worst ‘automotive’ radio shows ever in Egypt, is the Pirelli radio show on Mega FM 92.7 on one of the radio stations in Egypt.

It is no big surprise that this Pirelli-sponsored radio show is among the 95% of unprofessional and misleading motoring media in Egypt. But the fact that a renowned brand like Pirelli allowed itself to launch a radio show in Egypt and work with completely unprofessional and ignorant radio presenters who have no clue whatsoever about cars or tires, as well as with misleading and incompetent so-called ‘tire & automotive’ experts (which are obviously on the pay-roll of Pirelli Egypt and its dealers), this is actually something which would have never crossed my mind and was really shocking!

I think that the decision-makers at Pirelli Egypt and at its marketing department did a big mistake by maintaining such an unprofessional and bad-quality radio show for more than nine months unitl now, which is not only full of inadequate street-language, but most important, even full of wrong and misleading safety and service tips which are too many to list here.

The fact that after nine long months the Facebook group of this Pirelli Radio Show, which is being mentioned and promoted throughout every single weekly radio episode over the past nine months, has only 1545 ( one thousand five hundred forty five !!!) likes proves that this lousy radio show not only is highly unsuccessful but was also a highly incompetent decision from the marketing department of Pirelli Egypt. And of course it was a huge waste of money!

(Link to the Pirelli Radio Show Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%84%D9%8A-fel-3agla-el-salma-ma3-pirelli/613206042080346?ref=ts&fref=ts )

The fact that this weekly Pirelli Radio Show did not improve one bit over the past few months and keeps on repeating the wrong information during the weekly episodes, shows that there is no close follow-up from the sponsor and initiator of this radio show, namely Pirelli Egypt.

I strongly suggest the Pirelli headquarter in Italy would stop this lousy program immediately, get a copy of those radio shows and translate them in Italy in order to see what nonsense, silly, false and misleading information have been associated with this renowned tire brand.

A thorough investigation by the Pirelli headquarter on this highly unprofessional radio show is a must in order to avoid such business- and reputation-harming marketing activities through any of their regional importers and distribution partners in the future.

Many of our readers as well as some decision-makers at the headquarters will ask themselves how could such lousy publications, TV show and radio shows survive for such a long time although they have obviously such a bad quality and have hardly any followers, readers, listeners or viewers?

Well, the answer is very easy: it seems that there is still huge portion of corruption inside most of the private and state-owned media institutions in addition to an obvious ‘corruption-relation’ between some companies and those media institutions, and in some cases between the companies and those crime-scene reporters and advertising sales reps.

What worries me most is that most of those lousy newspaper supplement, radio shows and TV shows mentioned above, have all one factor in common: Pirelli Egypt and its marketing department is always connected to them in one way or another!

Whenever there is an important Pirelli event outside Egypt we find Pirelli Egypt inviting some of the most incompetent and ignorant crime-scene reporters from Al Ahram or advertising sales reps from Akhbar El yom, (who do not speak one word English or any other foreign language and thereby not understanding one word at the press conferences or press event), to those events.

And whenever there is an important and high-ranking Pirelli manager visiting Egypt, Pirelli Egypt only invites the most unprofessional and misleading crime-scene reporters and advertising sales reps from the local newspaper, who do not speak one word English, in order to meet and interview this manager. Ahmed Bahaa from El Shorouk newspaper was surely the only professional and exception among those newspaper journalists invited to this interview session. It seems to me that Mr. Mohamed Magdy, the marketing manager of Pirelli Egypt, was afraid that the manager from the Pirelli headquarter would hear things he would not like him to hear about the Egyptian market and the different unsuccessful media activities of Pirelli Egypt.

Unfortunately Pirelli Egypt is not the only company in Egypt relying on and inviting crime-scene reporters and advertising sales reps from Al Ahram and Al Akhbar EL Youm newspaper as well as from other newspapers and magazines to their local and international ‘media’ events, as many other companies such as Opel Egypt Mansour and Skoda Egypt Artoc also do the same on a regular basis.

Even the marketing department of BMW Egypt Bavarian Auto Group sometimes does this mistake. But more to that later.

In any case, I think that Pirelli Egypt and its marketing team headed by Mr. Mohamed Magdy has been extremely unlucky und unsuccessful over the past years in choosing the right media partners and the correct media to work with in order to promote and the renowned Pirelli brand.

Over the past years there has been hardly any media or public awareness about the role of Pirelli in Formula 1. Over the past few year most of the public lack any awareness about the success of the Pirelli tires in the different motorsport series as well as in the many comparison tests in Europe and the USA. Over the past few year most of the fleet managers, professionals and stake-holders are not aware of the achievements of Pirelli in terms of Road Safety and commercial truck tires.

I think it is very important that Pirelli headquarter in Italy would get translated scripts of all the Pirelli Radio Show episodes as well as of all Pirelli-related editorials and advertorials published and aired recently in Egypt, in order to understand the dimension and magnitude of Pirelli’s lost credibility and reputation in the Egyptian market.

Of course many so-called ‘fellow-journalists’ have not been amused by what we have written and uncovered in our articles about the ‘unhealthy’ and shaddy relations between some car or tire companies on one hand and the crime-scene reporters and advertising sales reps on the other hand.

But I can assure you that we will continue on following and unveiling those incidents and mistakes of those unprofessional marketing managers and those incompetent and ignorant crime-scene reporters and advertising reps until we have a clean and professional motoring media scene in Egypt.

Stay tuned with us as we keep on following all the marketing and media activities of all the well-known car and tire brands in Egypt and the Middle East. To be updated soon!

MS
01.09.2014
Cairo – Dubai – Berlin

(updated 09.10.2014)


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