Carlos Tibi, CEO and founder of icflix.
“Our productions don’t go after famous actors, we went the other way around and took the Hollywood approach. Every movie will have fresh faces with excellent acting.” Indeed, icflix runs a Jazwood academy in Cairo, where they cast new talent in collaboration with local universities and acting institutions. At the same time, the company is gearing up for their biggest announcement yet – 1001 nights (Alf Leila we Leila) – to be released in Ramadan and shown exclusively on icflix, with subtitles in English and French. “It’s going to be the Game of Thrones of Arabic content – that level of production,” remarks Tibi. “We worked with Synergy Group in Egypt, one of the region’s top production houses, and it’s being shot in four countries, including Ireland, Greece, and
Egypt. It’s an epic; we’ve had people asking us about the show from Eastern Europe.” Unconventional marketing Spreading the word has seen some unusual efforts being made by icflix. From a Pizza Hut campaign that gave away a 24-hour access code with each delivery, to special offers to VisaCard holders and du customers, clever marketing channels always pay off. “Pizza Hut was a great campaign and we’ve done lots of work with Samsung. Du is also a great promotion and we have multiple deals with other telecom operators in the region. We try to think outside the box rather than focusing only on traditional marketing.” User trends are quickly changing, however, which requires adaptability. In Janu-
ary 2014, for example, 60% of icflix’s content was consumed on PCs and a mere 6% on smart TVs. Now that the latter’s cost is declining, PC usage recently dropped to 48% and smart TVs are capturing around 15%. Thus, to broaden their accessibility further, icflix will soon be available on PS4, allowing users to access the service through their gaming platform. “I believe 2015 will be a big year for us because we’re going to have many strategic partnerships, whether with telecom operators, content providers or our own original productions. “It will also be an important year as internet speeds improve across the region and more people become more aware of our service. Today, people have heard of icflix but may not know exactly what it is, as our objective last year was to raise awareness of the brand, which we have now achieved. This year, we will be closing that gap.”
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