Woman have been shining all over the region in multiple lights, each with their own special spark. Perihan Abou-Zeid is one of the most inspirational women to hit the social entrepreneurship scene with Qabila TV. We sat down with her and delved in to the the what’s, why’s and how this fantastic venture came about.
What inspired you to start Qabila TV and how did it all start?
The idea of Qabila came about in 2010, when a group of my friends sat together and discussed how the media content at the time didn’t add any value to the audience (especially young people), and was mostly biased. We wanted to produce content that educates the young people and other that develops their sense of pride for being Arabs and Egyptians. A few months later, the revolution took place, and it couldn’t be a better inspiration. Not only that people needed such content, but they were hungry for it. It felt more like a responsibility we had towards our society, so we started put our thoughts into real action and produced our first set of videos.
Why did you choose the name Qabila? What message are you aiming to deliver from this campaign?
When mankind had not yet conquered the earth and turned it into colonies of megacities, people lived in tribal communities. Tribe members were special to one another because they had common values and interests. They shared resources, ideas, pain, and happiness. Their source of power was their collective united will. Then, man decided to isolate himself from the world around him and pursued happiness independently. We know that no one can succeed alone and must resource to teamwork to reach his/her aspirations. Famous author Seth Godin wrote a book “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us”. The book explains that people around the world have more in common despite their isolation than they could have ever imagined. Everyone reading this must have had an interest about a certain topic and thought that hardly anyone else shares that interest. Right then, a great idea has been lost. The boom in communication and social networking today helps us connect with well over 6.7 billion people around the world. Surely among them many have the same interest. If you share the same interest with a number of people and managed to connect, you are a tribe. The best thing about modern tribes is that everyone can be a member in many tribes at once.
Inspired by this concept, in 2010, a GROUP of people CONNECTED, SHARED their interest in healthy BENEFICIAL media production, adopted a set of VALUES, identified the importance of tribal INTERACTION, named themselves “QABILA”, and sprang into ACTION
As a young woman, how do you manage your time between your work and your personal life?
I have to admit I sometimes have to give up on my personal life to get the work done. But I love my job and my team; it’s just fun to be at work. And in all cases, I make sure I get a couple of weekends away from the city for an unwinding vacation 🙂
Has Qabila become your 9-5? What do you do when you are not promoting the concept. Any hobbies?
Yes, it’s my 80-hours a week job actually. In another world, I am a travel junkie, but if I am not traveling, I play basketball, read, write short stories, or just go have dinner in a nice restaurant.
What factors do you believe led to the success of Qabila?
The team’s passion and dedication towards the vision, and also the strategy in creating a unique business model with a daring spirit.
How did the revolution affect Qabila? Did the concept change and how?
The revolution changed the dynamics of the media industry and the culture of Egyptian audience, who became more critical and hungry for value-based content, which multiplied our potential to succeed. It also inspired us to crowd source our content after seeing the spirit of collective collaboration during the first 18 days of the revolution.
Who are your target audience? (Social class, education, age group…etc.)
We target every Egyptian but mostly young ones between the age of 15 and 35 who constitute about 50% of the population.
Do you think publicizing Qabila’s videos through TV channels is important?
Absolutely, it expands our audience base to those that don’t have internet access.
In your experience what has been the reaction of Egyptians to your online videos?
To what extent are they affected by them to either make a change or get involved? We receive very positive feedback from our online viewers, but one of our major challenges is measuring the impact of out videos on people’s decision-making. We’re will working on developing a model for this.
How do you set priorities for the videos, do you focus on what is hot in the news are is there a plan of some sort?
We simply ask or audience on social media and then use or own judgement. After all we belong to the same demographic of the audience we’re targeting.
How have twitter and Facebook affected Qabila’s exposure?
They have been our main tools for marketing or videos and most importantly engaging and interacting with our fans.
What was the international reaction to Qabila?
We know you have been traveling a lot lately tells u more about this. I travelled to more than 8 countries around the world to attend conferences where I can promote the concept of Qabila and speak about our success story. It affected or business majorally, not just on a marketing level, but also the development of global partnerships that reflected directly on our bottom-line.
What other plans are coming up? Any new projects other then Qabila?
Yes, I’m currently cooking up a new business in the advertising industry that should be launched this Ramadan. As for Qabila, we’re launching Qabila Academy in April, which will be our new learning arm targeting young talents that want to become professional media workers.
How can one join Qabila and what are the prerequisites?
We always look for creative talents that have a local flavor that can connect with the Egyptian mainstream audience. Candidates can send their resumes and portfolios to mawaheb@qabila.tv
Where did you travel to talk about Qabila or give lectures?
Boston, New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Dubai, Nairobi, Berne, Prague, Nicosia, Beirut and Amman.
Have you faced any difficulties as a woman and an Arab in the field of media productions?
Not really, the challenges I faced were for being an entrepreneur just like male entrepreneur but not for being a woman.
What does Qabila Media productions do other than the awareness videos?
Short films, we hosted our short film festival this year as well as talk shows.
What is Qabila’s involvement with the United Nations?
The UN is one of our clients.
Who would you say was your guru or your biggest inspiration throughout this entire journey?
Disney.
Tell us a little bit about your background in the field as well as what you did prior to all this?
I will send you my bio in a separate email.
What is one thing that you’ve learned from Qabila and will take with you from here?
To always be focused on the vision and to start professionally from day one like I run a billion-dollar company.
Ending this interview, tell us a prayer you have for Egypt.
I wish Egyptians also focused on what unites them and act towards achieving the beautiful picture we have for our country.
WE SAID THIS: Watch This Lady Folks, She Is One For The Books!
