As I am in Turkey I had to take advantage of this occasion and write something inspired by this visit. Exceptionally, I will not write an analysis but share with you some information I got to read in Turkish and that I guess is unreachable to you because of the linguistic barrier.

Turkey : 783.562 km², about 73 million inhabitants…

All kinds of phenomenons, people, art, architecture, cultures are living side by side on this vaste half island.

There, life can be an increadible party… as it can be a great chaos..

Istanbul… I won’t even dare try to make a description of this amazing city. It’s a bit of everything : drama, luxury, adventure, poetry, love, deception, surprise, suffering, dilemma, dreams, pleasure…

I unfortunately don’t know all about Turkey as I only lived there during my holidays and internships but I know enough to feel passionate about it.

Poetry and literature lovers ! If You only knew all the treasure that hasn’t been translated to you ! I actually dream of putting up together a group of people to make such translations into French and English… all the best works of great turkish writers…

But don’t worry, I will not make touristic advertisement on my blog, it’s not my purpose.

I guess I’m just happy being here for a few days.

So as I’m in Istanbul, I had to pay a visit to a library. It’s like an Eldorado of magazines in Turkish and other languages in all fields.

The person who helps you find what you’re looking for among the long shelves of magazines asks you : “Would you like to have Wired UK or Wired US? Fortune Turkey or Fortune Europe?”

“OMG I want them all !” is the correct answer but of course it’s not for free. Choice has a cost.

Anyway..

Among the Turkish magazines I bought, there was Digital Age Turkey.
Well yes, how is digital communication doing Turkey ?

I’ve been asked this question many times during interviews lately : “What does Turkish Market represent in terms of technologies of communication? How do Turkish consumers use media? How about social media ?”

I have approximative answers.

-          Well, yes they know Twitter much better than in France..

-          My cousins had Facebook before I did…

Clearly, Turkish are very keen on communicating and they are very curious of other people’s lives and about all kinds of new things, and especially about new technologies and services that may improve their life styles, their comfort and social reputation.

But of course we need some key figures and expert analysis to have a better understanding and I must say, I am as curious as my French interlocutors.

So this is why I will share with you a few interesting information I read in Digital Age Turkey.

Google Zeitgeist 2010

Here are some information that stand out in Google Zeitgeist 2010 concerning the turkish cybernauts searches :

-  The most typed key word in 2010 : Facebook

-  Number 1 searched word that increased the most : Chatroulette

- Number 1 key word that’s search frequency increased the most rapidly : Justin Bieber (arf… )

- The TV program that’s search increased the most : Spartacus (hum hum…)

- The question « what is Twitter » is at the 7th position among all typed questions.

All these results are surrounded by names of Turkish Web sites, TV programs, singers and all.. as local cultural production and creation is very dominant in every day life. The audiovisual sector is very developed. For instance, there are 2 to 3 shows per night and per channel and the audience is quite loyal. People are likely to stay at home instead of organizing any social activity, on their favorite programs days, although they are heavy catch up TV users.

Facebook , a particularly strategic advertising channel

Banu Barbarosoglu, coordinator of Group MedyaNet in Istanbul, explains that in Turkey there are today 24 million active Facebook users. This represents 30% of the global population of the country and 70% of all Turkish cybernauts !

Turkish cybernauts are reactive but also very active social media users. Therefore Facebook is a very strategic communication tool being used by brands as everywhere in the world in order to reach consumers in there every day lives.

The first effiscient Facebook campaign  in Turkey took place in 2009, says Banu :

-         It was a famous telecommunication brand, Avea’s campaign : through a Facebook Reach Block campaign (the targeted audience sees the advertising message at least 5 times in 24 hours and on the 3 main types of pages available on Facebook, the only ad that appears is yours during the campaign), the ad was seen 60 million times reaching 13,5 million unique visitors in 24 hours ! 350 000 people have interacted with the message and 330 000 cybernauts have watched the campaign videos. The frequentation of the official web site of the brand  increased of 400% and time spent on the site got doubled ! Let’s not even mention the increase of the number of FB likes.

Publicis Modem in Istanbul

Publicis Modem has recently bought the Turkish digital agency Litespell, with the purpose of also managing accounts for countries of the geographic circle around Turkey.

An interview with the Global Publicis Modem CEO, Jean-Philippe Maheu, gives us his opinon on the Turkish market :

« Turkish economy is constantly growing with an annual growth rate reaching 10 to 15%. We should also expect a strong growth in the digital field. Turkish consumers are very interested in digital communication and are very active social media users. They are very curious and are very likely to be early adopters.”

But it’s his thoughts about the future ideal communications agency structure that held my attention.

Jean-Philippe says the fastest growing agencies and those that win the most prices at international organizations such as Cannes Festival are the ones that develop their digital strategies the most. He expresses that tomorrow, each agency will have the digital at the center of their structure around which campaigns will be built up being adapted to each media, according to the brands stakes.

“The word “digital agency” won’t mean a thing in 3 to 5 years in some countries and in around ten years in others.”

J-P M.

In Turkey, traditional media still reach such a level of audience coverage that their strategic importance is not yet questioned as much as in France. But honestly, I’d be very surprised if we had to wait 10 more years to see digital strategies occupy the heart of Turkish campaigns.

Having said all this, I shall now close my laptop and enjoy, while I still can, the beautiful view of the Bosphorus and ask for a cup of black tea…  :)

Have a nice day where ever you are !