We grew up watching Egyptians movies on TV, before the rise of the internet and the distractions in our everyday lives now, they stuck with us and there isn’t a conversation that doesn’t include a quote or two from movies.
Are you tired of gaining your knowledge from books and videos? It’s time to go back to the movies! Egyptian movies are filled with rich content, they are a source of great inspiration, not just drama or action. Here is a list of 7 Egyptian movies recommended for marketing students to watch for understanding the world of business deeply.
1- Wahda b Wahda (1984):
Wahda b Wahda or the famously known as “El Fankoush”. Yep, it’s a romantic drama. But marketers and salesmen will learn an important lesson from this movie by Adel Emam and Mervat Amin, as two Advertising agencies competitors, when Salah Fouad (Adel Emam) start an advertisement campaign to promote an elusive, vague product. He starts a buzz and the product’s name spread like wildfire, because of the secretive “teasing” nature of its marketing tactic.
It illustrates the powerful effect a good marketing strategy and the effect of advertising on people and other competitors, as the competitor agency, took the bait and got hooked right into it and decided to send Maisa (Mervat Amin) to investigate the product’s owner and pitch her agency to the client by unorthodox ways to gain the client in her own advertisement agency rather than Salah Fouad’s. she was in for a surprise later on regarding the truth of the man she faultily thought was the product’s owner.
The movie epitomizes the different tactics and strategies each marketer can follow, for instant; some would research the company they plan to pitch their agency to, and another research the person behind the company, which works better and why? Watch the movie to know more.
2- El Keif (1985):
El Keif is a great movie for a marketing or sales student to watch. It is a sarcastic movie with great dialogues that talk about the hypocrisies of marketing and it might make you think that all marketers are liars.
The movie is known to people as a tragic, shocking and bold movie discussing the taboo of hash consumption and addictions, however, we see it from a marketers’ point of view as an inspirational example of marketing strategy, and the power of persuasion techniques. It has countless iconic quotes which applies perfectly to the marketing world.
Gamal ‘Mazagangy’ Abo-El-Azm (Mahmoud Abdel Aziz) is a beginner singer who wants to get to the top in a hurry. His brother Salah Abo-El-Azm (Yehia El-Fakharany) a chemist deceive his punk brother with a nonnarcotic drug that he created to prove that it’s all delusional. But the punk Mazagangy (Mahmoud Abdel Aziz) tries to convince him to produce the substance for a greedy drug lord.
El Bahz Beh has a lot of consumer insights into the marketing world and Gamal abou El Azm, is a master persuader who non-stop creating slogans and taglines throughout the movie.
Give it a watch with a marketer mindset and let us know what you think!
3- Al Nemr Al Aswad (1984):
Al Nemr Al Aswad (The Black Tiger) is one of the most motivational movies ever made in the history of the Egyptian cinema. The movie is very motivational and focuses on the power of belief and purpose.
The movie illustrates how to utilize your skills by investing more time and efforts in lucrative markets while never losing sight of your brand’s mission and end-goal by focusing solely on your competitors or obstacles.
It is a story of a bankrupt worker who turns his life around to become a famous rich businessman. The story-line starts with an Egyptian young-man Mohamed Hassan (Ahmed Zaki), when he decided to travel to Europe seeking a new opportunity to work in German factory but he ended up playing boxing.
Mohamed Hassan (Ahmed Zaki) had to start from scratch in order to be able to practice new knowledge & experience the new society and German culture. He also forgot about machines and started to learn new boxing techniques in attack and maneuver from his mentor Kosta (Ahmed Mazhar) to fit in the new competition level.
The movie also would be a great lesson for entrepreneurs to be inspired by the journey of Mohamed Hassan (Ahmed Zaki) re-creating his life from the inside out as he faced a lot of struggles to succeed in his mission.
Mohamed Hassan (Ahmed Zaki) manages to overcome his fear and learns new tactics to win. He never forget his roots or where he come from. This will learn you how to always keep your values and never abandon your brand’s core qualities just to fit in a new market.
Al Nemr Al Aswad is a wonderful movie about the importance of perseverance and having faith in yourself. In this insightful movie, you will realize that the bold approach always results in better outcome than staying stuck in the old ways due to fear of the unknown.
4- El Ataba’a El Khadra (1959):
This old movie will show you the art of persuasion in action. You would want to manage this skill to use in your sales and marketing career. The Legendary movie about a man who was convinced by a fraud schemer, to invest his money in buying a piece of land (that belonged to the government) and the return on investment should come from renting stores and anyone using the land “El Ataba’a El Ghadra”.
Although, Marketers can learn a thing or two from gaining insights into what your audience want from this movie, the way this fraud knew the wants and needs of this innocent man, as well as, how he persuaded the young singer Mona and involved her in his fraud scheme. Don’t get us wrong, we are pointing out this movie to use this power for good 😉
5- Esha’et Hob (1959):
When advertising your product or launching your brand, it all comes down to consumers perspective, and this is exactly what this movie focused on.
When businessman Abd El Kader El-Nashashgy faced the dilemma of his daughter Sameeha (Soad Hosny), coming home with her cousin Lucy, while knowing that his nephew Hussein (Omar Sharif) loves her and plans on marring her, which under the new circumstances, all his planning has been stomped on because of how Sameeha previewed Hussein as not trendy, cool fellow, unlike Lucy.
Recommended➤ MENA Region Professionals: Why Develop A Personal Brand?
So right away, Mr. Abd El Kader comes up with a plan to change his daughter and everyone else perspective of Hussein, He mixes personal branding and public relation techniques to re-introduce his nephew Hussein (Omar Sharif) as a bad boy and emphasizes this by organizing and spreading of a rumor that he was in a relationship once with the famous actress Hend Rostom -the great icons in the golden era of Egyptian cinema- also known as “Marilyn Monroe of Arabia”.
Mr. Abd El Kader started teaching his nephew Hussein (Omar Sharif) proper etiquette and flirting techniques to make him fit the image he just created.
Marketers can learn many things from this movie, like how to create a brand image that suites your targeted audience and how your brand should match your advertisement tactic and align with the brand’s voice and message should meet what your audience awaits from you.
We are not talking about abandoning your main brand’s identity to be previewed as something you are not. But more of obtaining insights from your audience about your strengths and weaknesses and focus on sending the right message based on this insight.
6- Sagheera Ala El Hob (1966):
In this comedy, entertaining package of a movie, brands can learn something from Sameeha (Soad Hosney), she succeeded not only in delivering her message the way the producer (audience) wanted it, she awed and played the role to the T.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8Jc8BoDdts
She did not get disappointed when faced with a hurdle when pursuing what she loves, she found a solution.
Marketer should adapt this mindset, think of what you can get out of an unfortunate situation, how you can turn it around to your favor.
7- El Jezeera (2007):
Aside from the amazing role Ahmed El Saa’a played in this movie and the bold topic this movie discussed. It is a great example of thinking outside the box and that knowledge is more important that experience.
Ignorance of the right and wrong ways that experience and mentor-ship dictates in you, will open up your mind to finding your own way of dealing with things. Ignorance of the rules sometimes can save your brand or life in this case.
When you don’t know the way, you have got to improvise to find it. Which is showcased in this movie in more than one occasion of how Mansour el Hefny (Ahmed el Saa’a) was not entrenched and found a way out of various situations that his uncle who has been mentored and lived his whole life in this situations wouldn’t have thought of. Beginners have a fresh perspective, and are more open to new ideas, so make the most of this mindset.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxBuOfIay4g
When you see your competitors innovating and evolving to keep up with the newest techniques and machinery in this case, don’t try to stop them in fear of surpassing you. (this was from the movie that was replaced, if you still see it applying here, change the placement to here)
El Jezeera is an important movie for any marketing or management student who is entering the world of business and possibly dreams of making big in a short time.
We think the list of movies every marketer should watch is more than seven. Share more marketing lessons from Egyptian movies in the comments below as we wish you an enlightening movie night!
