Converting Old Telephone

Question: Discuss about the Converting Old Telephone Booths into Advertising Boards in the UAE. Answer: Introduction A telephone booth simply a small structure containing a pay phone found at various corners within a city or a town. The structure has a door for users privacy and a small window that allows other users outside to know that the booth is in use. In most cases, the booth comes with a directory that provides users with local or foreign telephone addresses. Telephone booths may be indoor or outdoor. Outdoor booths are made of hard metallic or plastic casing to withstand wear and tear that comes with the harsh weather. Indoor booths, on the other hand, are found near hotels and are more furnished. In Dubai, most telephone booths found within the city allies and streets have been rendered useless as advancement in technology has moved phone users to mobile phones. Use of mobile phones has turned telephone booths into monuments reminding phone users of how first technology has transformed their lives. However, the absence of payphone users and the lack of use of these booths has offered another great opportunity for marketers and firms to transform these old telephone booths into advertising boards. Old Telephone Booth Vs. new Advertising board in UAE Old telephone booths in UAE are considered irrelevant as most of them have been carted off and torn down since no one is using them. Most of these structures have been converted into payphones which are also rapidly losing their importance as the society in rapidly embracing the use of cell phones. Few that are remaining are being misused for other purposes such as smoking zones and pit stops for those waiting for transport to their homes. In extreme cases, the phone booths have been used as a pickup and drop point for drug dealers within major streets and cities within the region (Rehman, 2008). Whatever is happening in UAE is in tandem with a recent study concerning the place of Telephones booths and payphones in the current digital world. The research notes that this older forms of communication no longer have a place in the techno-savvy society which is characterized with the rapid growth in technology and mobile phone usage. There exist many telephone boxes in major cities and streets within UAE. This provides an incredible opportunity for advertisers who are seeking to reach a large audience within the streets and cities since this booth are conspicuous and can be spotted by anybody. Marketers and advertisers will only need to add value to these already existing structures. For instance running advertisements for service providers on the booths by erecting banners and posters may go a long way in selling a firms products in the middle of the city center with little investment (Marinov, 2010). Value of the advertisement idea Converting the old telephone booths into advertising boards is a lucrative idea for any advertising firm or organization in UAE willing to expand its market base while using little or no resources to do the same. Moreover, these are already set-up structures spread across major city streets and towns. Thus reaching a wider audience will be easier. As mentioned above most Old telephone booths have been rendered useless. As a result acquiring this structures from the owners will cost less compared to current rate of acquiring signage boards for advertisement (Hackey, 2010). Eventually, this will turn out to be a more cost effective form of advertising making it more lucrative. Converting old booths into advertisement board is also easy and takes less of human labor as these structures offer the flexibility of being standalone advertisement boards. Branding the converted booths takes less time and this also makes these structures suitable for this project Promoting designed thinking for the stakeholders in the UAEs Stakeholders in UAE will love the design of this advertising board because of one thing; ease of coming up with the advertising board (Dorst Lawson, 2009). Once the stakeholders have decided on which design method to choose, the rest of the project becomes easier. Converting the booth into a digital signage advertisement board through the use of LED lights may be one of the emerging trends that the stakeholders may go for (Porcu, Del Baario-Garcia, Kitchen, 2012). However, the cost to sustain such an advertisement board may be higher as compared to the traditional advertisement boards where the canvas is used (Tellis, 2009). Use of canvas may be the best choice for this form of advertising where the booth is rebranded using the companys details then a canvas detailing the message the advertiser wants to pass across is erected either on top or adjacent sides (Bereiter Scardamalia, 1993). Apart from the ease of using canvas this method is also relatively and can be spread across all the converted booths at a sustainable cost. This means you will be able to reach a wider audience at minimum cost. Doing digital signage may also be cumbersome especially in areas where electricity may not be available thus the owners may incur extra cost in purchasing a generator to power up the digital signage for it to work. Commercializing the advertising idea in UAE The advertisement idea can be commercialized in UAE since it is viable and offers a great opportunity to firms to market their products cost effectively (Hawkins, Bulmer, Eagle, 2011). Approaching major advertising firms within UAE with this idea requires the entrepreneur to have his figures right regarding operational cost and the number of booths that will eventually be converted into advertising boards. The strong point to this idea is adding value to an already existing structure thus most advertising firms will pick it up due to its cost effectiveness (Schn, 1983). The idea of converting these booths into ultra-modern advertising board through use of Neon lights and digital signage may also attract more advertisers to come on board and support this idea Once the Old booths have been converted into ultra-modern advertising boards, then the next step would be approaching firms and organizations willing to advertise their products on this platform (Saravanakumar SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). Multinational companies like Coca-cola would be more than willing to pick up such an advertising board since it is available on the streets and main allies within the city. Samsung and other phone companies within the cities are other organizations when approached will be more than willing to use this platform to advertise their products (Fletcher, 2008). Conclusion In conclusion, it is evident that the idea of converting old telephone booth into advertising billboards in UAE is achievable. An entrepreneur, therefore, will need to do is research keenly and project how sustainable this project might be. Pitching this idea to advertising firms once the idea has been put into a business plan will go a long way into convincing potential stakeholders that this idea is not only achievable but can turn out to be a lucrative business References Bereiter, C. Scardamalia, M. (1993). Expert knowledge and how it comes about, In Surpassing ourselves: An enquiry into the nature and implications of expertise, (pp. 43-75) Chicago, IL: Open Court Publishing. Dorst, K. Lawson, B. (2009). Expertise in Design, In Design expertise, (pp. 81-112). Oxford: Architectural Press. 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