Following our previous article about experts’ expectations for 2022, we have discussed with the famous creative director Alaa ElSheikh his expectations for 2022 on adverts and podcasts.
Alaa is not only a creative director and worked on many successful campaigns but also a standup
comedian and he’s known for his character ‘Al Mowaten Al Masry’ and ‘Om Israa’. Alaa has his podcast under the name of ‘Kefaya ba2a’ that criticizes certain types of people and activities in society.
Let’s see what he had to say about the advertisement field first.
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1- What are the factors that adverts will depend on in 2022?
I think it will depend on smart ideas with strong insights and lower budgets, also seeking content creators and influencers will have a great opportunity too.
2- What are the expected trends to be used in adverts in 2022? For example, the Rap genre became a trend in Egypt so it was used in jingle-based adverts.
I believe that jingles no matter how good they are; they’re extremely overdone and there’s a huge jingle clutter, so to stand out the jingle has to be outstanding and lucky too, or get back to scripted copies.
3- When it comes to the creative field, what are the learned lessons from 2021 that will be applied in 2022?
Smart insightful ideas always win, not the big-budget jingles anymore.
4- Grabbing the viewer’s attention to a certain advert gets harder every year, what are the factors that will grab the attention in 2022?
Strong insights, smart executions have been always the heroes not just for 2022.
5- What is your favorite campaign in 2021?
Mother’s day by Vodafone cash, and Hohos “mafeesh a7la men keda”
6- A global and a local client you want to work with?
Locally I would defiantly love to work with Edita, and internationally GEIKO.
Podcast
What are the expectations for the Podcast field in Egypt especially in 2022?
In 2021 I think it was the decent take-off for podcasts in Egypt, people are now more aware of podcasts, and although people are getting busy every day they want to spend their free time like driving, doing dishes, even at work they like to make use of their ears so they are drifting to podcasts.
2- What are the expected challenges that will face the field and hosts in 2022?
Can’t expect something specific but, the main challenge would be how to be unique and present interesting content that will make his/her podcast stand out.
3- How do you measure the success of your podcast?
In numbers for sure, but numbers are not everything, I also like to listen and read feedback either in my DMs and comments or face-to-face, and “7amdlelah” the feedback is really good.
4- What do you think the podcast field needs to gain more recognition in Egypt?
It needs more listeners and supporters, sponsors, and good Egyptian hosts and content, also celebrities need to have their podcasts too, this will lead to more listeners thus more recognition.
5- What other podcasts do you listen to?
Business wars, I think it’s the best thing ever created.
6- Who is your favorite podcast host?
Ironically I’m not a podcast listener, the only podcast I listen to is business wars so defiantly it would be David Brown.
Adverts Alaa ElSheikh Worked On
Here are some famous adverts Alaa worked on.
You can also listen to Alaa ElSheikh’s Podcast from here
We loved having this discussion with Alaa and wait for more thoughts from more experts soon.