Whether you are selling a product or a service, you need to understand how best to promote it on today’s media channels. Experts also argue that even job-seekers are marketing themselves and skills when they apply for a job. What used to be a magical skill that only a select few understood has become an integral part of almost any role you play. And while you can find many resources on the internet, few have been tailored to the local market, speak our language, understand our specific needs or were even created by experts from the region.
Except, now there is. Nadeem Awad and Rimon Tawadros are changing all of that and in 3-minute chunks! The Marketing Whiz and digital geek of the dynamic duo is Nadeem. He is an accomplished marketer with over 15 years of experience in marketing in which he won more than five regional awards. Nadeem holds a B.E from Beirut Arab University and recently has been certified by BITA as a Trainer. He follows the latest trends in digital marketing, AI, and writes continuously on how to maximize ROI using the most up-to-date marketing trends and approaches.
Rimon on the other hand is the Marketing Sage and science geek. He is an award-winning marketer with over 12 years of marketing experience in world-class brands in the automotive business, consumer goods, and the entertainment industry. Rimon holds an MSc in Global Marketing from the University of Liverpool along with a BSc in Business Administration from AAST. Both presenters have many interests other than marketing like reading, photography, art and travel which adds to their depth and understanding of the world and how it works.
Already, five episodes of the first season are live on YouTube and Instagram and one more is on the way. Each season will be six episodes long and will focus on one topic within marketing. Season one starts with the basics of marketing while Season two will take a look at Consumer Behavior and season three will delve into digital marketing and the list goes on.
What inspired you to start Three Minutes Marketing? And why only 3 minutes?
Rimon: Lack of scientifically-backed content. So many people claim that they are marketers and end up leading people in the wrong direction. So we wanted to give back to the world by sharing the knowledge we gained through years of education and experience.
Nadeem: YouTube defines short videos as less than 4 minutes and long videos that are longer than 20 minutes. According to their latest statistics, for a video of 4 to 5 minutes fewer than 60% of viewers will still be with you against 75% for a 1 to 2 minutes video. Hence, we decided to go for 3 minutes to give our audience short yet rich content.
Rimon: That’s the scientific part behind it which we took into consideration. But we also thought from the audience perspective, people are no longer interested in long lectures and videos that take a long time to explain simple concepts. Hence, we decided on giving people “a marketing quickie”.
You are posting on YouTube and IG TV, why did you choose those two platforms?
Nadeem: YouTube is the second largest search engine next to Google, people upload more than 100 hours of video per minute to YT which makes it one of the best ways to communicate to a wide audience with specific interests such as marketing. As for IGTV, having another platform to share video content means another place to be seen. We can’t ignore the success of Instagram in general and its wide audience base.
Your videos are both English and Arabic, and are always subtitled, why did you make that choice?
Nadeem: This is what makes us unique, Three Minutes Marketing is the first and probably the only dual-language that caters to both English and Arabic speakers. We took this decision after hours of discussions and research, we found out that there are very few professional and scientific-based Arabic content about marketing and hence we wanted to create something for the Arabic-speaking community around the world and at the same time English is one of the most spoken languages in the world so by having both and keeping the subtitles on we are maximizing our potential of reaching a very wide audience base.
Is learning or understanding marketing accessible and important for everyone? Why?
Rimon: The answer is definitely yes, we all need to understand marketing in a way. Marketing is part of our daily lives; we are continuously exposed to some sort of marketing or trying to market something. It is accessible, there is a lot of free content across the different platforms, but the only problem is how reliable the information is. That’s why we use books, articles, and case studies when developing our content and not depend on our knowledge and experience only to guarantee that we share 100% reliable content as it’s a great responsibility.
Your videos are very professionally made, are you doing that yourself or are you outsourcing it?
Nadeem: Well that is flattering! We do everything from scratch. Rimon takes care of the videography and setup and I take care of the post-production. We did seek guidance on equipment and setup from one of Rimon’s dear friends who happens to be a director that recently graduated from New York Film Academy.
What has been your biggest challenge so far?
Nadeem: Time! We both have full-time jobs, families, and other commitments. Time has been our main challenge. Creating content for one episode can take up to 10 working hours, shooting takes 4 hours, and sometimes we have to reshoot if we don’t like the outcome, and then post-production takes 2 weeks.
What else do you hope to teach in future videos?
Rimon: Marketing, marketing and more marketing! Marketing is very dynamic and keeps on changing. Hence, there is always something new to talk about. We started from scratch and we will keep on digging deeper in marketing, I believe it will take us years before we run out of content.
What do you want people to learn the most from your videos?
Rimon: We were lucky in having the best education and extremely fortunate to work for world-class top-notch brands. This combination along with staying up-to-date with the latest trends in marketing gave us an advantage among marketers. Hence, we wanted to share that knowledge and simplify marketing for non-marketers. Although many of our viewers are marketers and are enjoying how simple and easy to understand the content we are sharing is. We try to give relatable examples wherever possible to make it even more simpler and memorable.
Who will benefit the most from your videos?
Nadeem: Everyone! Whether you are a non-marketer or a marketing professional or even have a PhD in marketing, there is something for you, be it a completely new piece of information, a refresher, or a simpler way for you to teach your students and get the information across.
How important do you think presentation is?
Rimon: Presentation is key; nowadays with the technological advancements people expect cinema-quality production from everyone. Would you watch a video where the sound quality is not good, or the image quality, the lighting, the editing, and the list goes on. I personally wouldn’t because there is an endless supply of content so why would I waste my time on something that is not that good.
Hence, we use the best equipment in terms of the camera, the mic, the lighting setup, and the editing soft-wares to guarantee that our audience will be impressed not only by the content but also by how it’s presented and the quality of the presentation.
You can find Three Minutes Marketing on YouTube: Three Minutes Marketing, @3minutesmarketing on Instagram, on LinkedIn and on the website threeminutesmarketing.com. You can also connect directly with the Rimon Tawadros on @rimontawadros on Instagram and with Nadim Awad @nadeemeddinawad. Photos by Fawaz Kraidees – Stduwi.
