Middle East consumers are being targeted by stealth advertising

Buzz marketing is becoming all the rage in a bid to sell brands

Brands such as Panadol are employing ever more subtle, persuasive tactics designed to look like anything but explicit marketing.

If you live in the Middle East and have bought a brand of camera or box of pain killer, your decision is likely to have been influenced by covert marketing practices.

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For while traditional advertising is still the norm in this region, brands are employing ever more subtle, persuasive tactics designed to look like anything but explicit marketing.

Practices such as product placement, the use of branded content and seeding - giving free goods to celebrities or trendsetters to encourage them to talk about them - have blurred the boundaries between what is a marketing message and what is not.

Stealth marketing represents the extreme of this art. The practice, also called "undercover" or "buzz marketing", describes a campaign in which consumers do not realise they are being targeted.

For example, in 2002 the mobile-phone maker Sony Ericsson hired actors in 10 cities in the US, who were paid to approach strangers and ask them to take their picture. The actor then presented a Sony Ericsson camera-phone to take the snap, making positive remarks about the gadget.

The recent movie The Joneses, a dark comedy starring David Duchovny and Demi Moore, featured this topic. It told the story of a seemingly perfect family, which was actually made up of a team of marketing executives paid to push luxury products to their friends and neighbours. In the end, their targets did not have sufficient money to "keep up with The Joneses", and the marketing ruse fell apart.

Dabo & Co, a public relations and events company based in Dubai, has worked on seeding campaigns in the UAE for the video-camera brand Flip Video and the electronics manufacturer Canon.

Linsey Worgan, an account director at Dabo, said the company sent out free Flip Video handsets to a select band of trendsetters, targeting parents and event organisers in particular.

"We targeted Mummy bloggers, because Flip was all about families and capturing those special moments. They got to keep [the cameras] because we want to engage with them on a long-term basis. They become like brand ambassadors," says Ms Worgan.

"We know that seeding works. People trust word of mouth from their friends and family to a far greater extent. For every product seeded, four of their friends will go out and buy the product, based on US research."

In another campaign, Dabo sent a free Canon Ixus 1000 HS camera to five influential UAE personalities, including DJs.

"We seeded it with a select number of socialites," says Ms Worgan, adding the people were chosen partly because of their blogging activity or use of sites such as Facebook and Twitter. She declined to name the five people chosen. "I don't have their permission to tell you."

Ms Worgan says the seeding process is "very transparent", with those targeted informed about the purpose of the exercise.

"At no point had we tried to disguise the fact that we're seeding products. We've been very clear with the people we seed products to."

Still, Ms Worgan points out that those supplied with free products, who included unnamed "radio presenters", were not obliged to disclose that fact to their friends.

In certain circumstances, commentators say this lack of disclosure can pose a potential conflict, especially if those seeded with products work in the media.

Dr Matt Duffy, an assistant professor at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi who specialises in new media and journalism, says media workers should not be allowed to accept gifts or products from PR companies. "I definitely have a problem with that. There are codes of conduct for journalists and bloggers, and they include not taking gifts from PRs."

Iain Twine, the general manager for the PR company Edelman UAE, says the practice of sending out sample goods to bloggers is becoming more prevalent in the region. "Bloggers know that they have to disclose these things, because their online credibility is about disclosure," he says.

Other "covert" communication practices include the way advertising messages are subtly incorporated into TV broadcasts, such as branded content and product placement.

Branded content, for example, is where media editorial is sponsored by a particular brand, explicitly or otherwise. For example, the painkiller brand Panadol sponsored a segment called Life Without Pain on a show broadcast by the pan-Arab network MBC.

The brand name and logo were not used, but the set was designed in "Panadol blue", in an attempt to subtly push the product.

Commentators were divided over whether the Panadol example was misleading to viewers.

Dr Duffy says that while he does not object to product placement, the Panadol case "sounds like there's an intent to not be fully forthright with the audience".

Others disagree. Dr Lance de Masi, the president of the UAE chapter of the International Advertising Association, says he did not see a problem in either discreet branded content or the practice of seeding products in the market.

"What public good could come from consumers being informed that they are about to receive an advertising message? I do not see any ethical or moral issues here," says Dr de Masi.

"Consumers receive hundreds, even thousands of commercial messages every day. They are not able to screen them out. Why should advertising be any different?"

With little regulatory pressure on advertisers, it seems Middle East consumers are set to become less and less aware of why they desire a particular product - be it a video camera, handbag or even a box of painkillers.

And so, the pressure to "keep up with the Joneses" is likely to remain as strong as ever.