Social networking sites purport to offer free services but that's just marketing hype. Those sites own the data their members provide. They analyze it and use it for their own purposes, often to earn marketing revenue. Keek (keek.com) is a site that offers its members the ability to publicly or privately share a 36-second video and 111 characters of accompanying text via webcam, iPhone, Android, Blackberry or Windows Phone. Through Keek, create and watch fast, short video updates with a smartphone, tablet or laptop and share them with friends. According to Keek, their social network is, “Simple to use, extremely fast and 100 percent free” - except of course for the dose of advertising now intermixed with members' keeks.
Saudi Telecom (STC) has signed on with Keek as its first advertising client in the Middle East. On August 19, STC launched the world's first Keek social video campaign integrating video across multiple devices, mobile display advertising and native branded Keeks. The goal of the ad campaign is to reach young Saudis. “Keek is quickly developing monetization capabilities and the Telecom category is a great fit for Keek and is an industry that drives significant share of advertising dollars in general,” said Keek CEO Alexandra Cameron. “Saudi Telecom recognized the popularity and dominance of the Keek platform among a hard to reach audience and built a campaign that integrated very well.” Amjad Shacker, GM Corporate communication at STC added, “There are clear synergies between STC and Keek. Both deliver quick and relevant content and services to end users, and with STC being a Digital Society Enabler, a collaboration with Keek to launch its advertising together with STC is a natural step in the digital realm.” Keek has 69 million registered users globally, with some of its highest engagement levels in the Middle East. Keek's audience in the Kingdom consumes over 1 billion page views on average per month. “In a time when video consumption is soaring, user-generated content (UGC) and connected communities have gained superior weight in the consumer/brand relationship,” remarked Ibrahim Jabri, Lead Digital Planner, STC, at marketing firm Starcom MediaVest Group. “Subsequently, brands in Saudi Arabia have been consistently challenged to strengthen their influence, particularly on the younger crowd, who dominate online video streaming. Keek's newly released advertising platform is irrefutably a huge opportunity for brands in Saudi Arabia, giving them new heights to build on their influence and further expand their conversation with the Saudi Youth in a fresh new way.” Building influence and expanding conversation is acceptable for advertisers as long as it's very clear that the ads are exactly that - advertisements. On Sunday, the New York Post quoted Keek's CEO as stating that the social network “has been testing ad units including so-called ‘native ads' - advertiser-generated content that is hard to distinguish from other kinds.” These native ads are part of STC's new advertising campaign. So is that advertising or deception?
