INFLUENCERS
For this event, we decided to invite four influencers that affect our decision-making process. We selected the influencers from different fields: beauty, make-up and food.
@saif_motivation
Saif Ali Abdulla (Instagram handle: @saif_motivation) is a motivational speaker as well as a radio host and MC for UAE’s only radio station for both children and families, Pearl 102 FM. He is often invited to various public and corporate events to give motivational talks.
Saif’s main purpose behind becoming a radio jockey is to bring happiness to people, and more importantly, making a positive difference in their lives through his inspirational and motivational talks around topics such as self-improvement, positivity, happiness, and success. His main role-model and inspiration is Will Smith, and it inspires much of the motivational content that he puts out as a radio jockey as well as a social media influencer.
Saif has a respectable 16,000 followers on Instagram, and many of them often leave a lot of positive comments on his Instagram posts due to the impact of his motivational talks on people’s lives (Fridaymagazine.ae, 2019) (The National, 2019).
@shesaidshesaid_dxb
Namrata & Nancy (Instagram handle: @shesaidshesaid_dxb) are friends who are Dubai based lifestyle bloggers who run a blog website. Namrata is an Academic Affairs professional who is described as being a fan of song lyrics, ramen, coffee, fantasy novels, John Mayer and superheroes. On the other hand, Nancy is a PR professional with a wanderlust and a genuine love for hotel rooms, cookbooks, “wandering around foreign cities in search of local food”, and paleo desserts Their Instagram and website blog content is primarily focused on food & travel.
A look through their Instagram feeds shows that their personal brand leans more heavily towards food, with them reviewing their favorite places to eat (as well as favorite dishes) in Dubai and from cities around the world such as Istanbul, Mumbai, New York, etc. Meanwhile, their travel content serves to add some variety to their social media content, differentiating them from many of the other food bloggers in Dubai. Their blog website not only covers their favorite foods or places to eat from around the world, but also provides detailed reviews of them as well as some of their favorite cooking recipes.
Their website also has a lot more detailed travel content, but as with their Instagram, the travel content serves to add some creative variety to their primary focus on food blog content.
Leanne Forbes Everett (Instagram handle: @leanneeverett) is a Dubai based Canadian fashion model with a primary focus on beauty and fashion content. A look through her Instagram content shows that she has a balanced approach between the amount of beauty content and fashion content. Her Instagram content also features some of her videos from her content on TikTok. Being a fashion-model, she also has a secondary Instagram channel that is more specifically focused on fashion events and runways. Occasionally her Instagram also features sponsored content from various beauty & fashion brands. Her main account has 138,000 followers; whereas her fashion runway account (Instagram handle: @fashionbyleanne) has 117,000 followers.
@leanneeverett
@layansalem
Layan Salem (Instagram handle: @layansalem) is an Arab makeup artist based in Abu Dhabi. Her Instagram content is focused on lifestyle and beauty, with a few undertones of fashion and travel, and like a lot of fashion bloggers in the UAE, her content does not deviate from her main brand focus (beauty & makeup). She also has a YouTube channel where she posts travel & beauty content such as advice on how to apply make-up. Aside from this, she has a Snapchat account where she posts similar content as her Instagram profile. Being an Arab makeup artist, her content is primarily in Arabic, including her Instagram Live Stories and her Instagram post captions. Her Instagram account has around 108,000 followers.
SPONSORS
For any public event that takes place, one of the most important aspects is to choose the right sponsor that can help support the event and simultaneously represent it. While the sponsors do not have to always directly be related to what the event is about, there has to be at least a common theme or interest. In the case of our event, 4 main sponsors were chosen: “WOW! Sweets”, “Nice.ae”, “Bliss Flowers” and “Riribeauty”.
Wow! Sweets
“Wow Sweets” is a popular local desert parlor/desserts bakery chain in the UAE with branches in Jumeriah, Mirdif, Ras Al Khaimah, Abu Dhabi, and Al Ain. They are primarily specialized in desserts & bakes, but they offer a wide variety of products such as muffins, cupcakes, tarts, puddings, ice creams, baked loafs, sandwiches, salads, and so on. However, what really sets them apart from other dessert bakeries in the UAE is their exceptional skill in making custom designed cakes. A look through their Instagram account shows just how diverse their cake designs are with themes ranging from weddings to birthdays, parties, events, and corporate events. The main reason as to why we chose ‘Wow Sweets’ as a sponsor is to benefit from their cake design expertise and get a high quality custom designed cake for the event.
For this event, they will be offering 300 pieces of mini sandwiches and other type of traditional Arabic food.
“Nice.ae” is an online Instagram-based business that sells homemade desserts & bites with the purpose of encouraging kindness and being nice. They only sell one dessert/sweet product in 2 different forms; ‘classic’ and ‘peanut butter & chocolate’. For these 2 products, the business offers 2 portion sizes; small and large. Being a homemade business, its delivery timings are limited to only 2 days a week (Tuesday and Thursday) from evening to night. The reason as to why we chose ‘Nice.ae’ as a sponsor is to firstly promote a homemade local business venture while giving the event a more homely feel, and secondly to promote the message of niceness & kindness that it represents. They supply to one shop only which is located in Mirdif.
For the event, they will be offering 9 big boxes containing 30 pieces each and 6 small boxes containing 10 pieces each, for a total of 330 pieces.
Nice.ae
“Bliss Flower Boutique” is a popular UAE based flower business in the UAE that has branches in Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Towers, DIFC, Jumeirah Beach Road, Fairmont Bab Al Bahr (Abu Dhabi) and WTC Mall Abu Dhabi. The business delivers flower bouquets alongside chocolates, candles, fragrances, and Dumye dolls for special occasions like weddings, ceremonies, and corporate events. A look on their Instagram page shows that Bliss Flowers UAE specialty is more towards weddings, ceremonies, and professional events, with many of their flower bouquets having contrasting colors of high-quality fresh flowers. The reason we chose Bliss Flowers as a sponsor is because we want our event to have professional decorated flower arrangements for the venue, and this is something that Bliss Flowers UAE specializes in. For the event, they will be offering six bouquets of flowers for the influencers and three arrangements for the tables located in the theatre.
Bliss Flower Boutique
Riribeauty
Riham Omar, known professionally as Riribeauty, is a self-taught MUA specialized in SFX and Glam make-up who has been in the beauty industry for 10 years and ongoing. She is very passionate about it and believe that make-up is the beauty and art within. Riham is a Canadian University Dubai alumna who graduated in April 2019 and decided to come back to CUD in order to offer a make-up session.
Sponsors during the Event
