You're trying to promote a fairly obscure industry conference. You need your press release to stand out from the gaggle of events getting ready to hit the UAE. You need a press release that will get attention, but have nothing headline-worthy to declare. What do you do?
The organisers of the Next Generation Telecom Summit, happening next month in Fujairah, have the answer. Mention the iPhone. In fact don't just mention it - scoop every newspaper, gadget blog, tech website and iPhone lover in the region by announcing that not only have du secured a deal to launch the iPhone, but that their CEO will announce the deal officially at your conference.
Take it away, boys:
Osman Sultan, CEO at DU Telecommunications has confirmed attendance at the Next Generation Telecom Summit next month. The summit, which will be held from May 11th - 13th at Le Meridien Al Aqah Beach Resort, has been organised for the Telecom industry's thought-leaders to combat the current economic crisis and unite in this unreliable climate.
Mr Sultan, set to talk about DU's potential multi-million deal with Apple iPhone, will also be joined by Ali Al Ahmed, Group Chief Strategy Officer at Etisalat and Mohammed Rafi, Group CIO at Zain
Zing! And the headlines start rolling in!
Only problem is, it isn't true (although the part about Mr Sultan confirming attendance probably is). After I mailed the du people to check this out - it didn't seem like the most effective way to announce an iPhone deal - here's the reply we got from their head of communications:
While du will be participating at the Next Generation Telecom Summit, no such announcement from du is intended to be made.
We would like to clarify and place on record - du and Apple are currently undertaking discussions with regard to potential collaborations, but no further information is available for release at this stage."
The moral of the story? Never mess with ficticious press releases, particularly when the iPhone is involved. The release also said we can expect the announcement of a "five billion dollar acquisition spend" by Zain; I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.
