Advertising veteran, Hubert Boulos steps down from his position of CEO at DDB Middle East after dedicating over a decade to the agency. Here’s what he had to tell Communicate.
Hubert Boulos assumed the role of CEO at DDB in October 2013. Since then, the agency has made some understated but significant wins. Under his leadership, the agency onboarded brands such as McDonald’s, Porsche, Saudi Tourism, and more. We caught up with Boulos to bid a well-deserved goodbye and probe him (a tad) on what’s next for him.
If you were to re-collect some of your most significant memories with DDB, what would they be?
The most significant moments are, in my opinion, tied to the people who have been with DDB from day one. When I started working with the team, I didn't know most of them, and it feels unreal to say this – but they have stuck with me for 10 years. Most of my best memories are with these people. We’ve had some wonderful parties, and our annual Ramadan, Christmas, and New Year’s celebrations count among the big moments for me.
From a business perspective, there were some major landmarks that I will never forget. First, the launch of Saudi Tourism in October 2019 was a massive win for DDB Dubai, and I take great pride in having been part of that. Another significant milestone came just six months after I joined when DDB secured the Porsche account in 2014. This win put us on the map overnight, as nobody expected us to secure a deal of that magnitude. We managed the brand's rollout across 26 countries on three continents.
On a personal note, working with McDonald's was a huge achievement for me. It was a brand I had long dreamed of working with, and I finally got the chance to deliver some exceptional work for them in 2015. I had the honor to work with the then Chief Marketing Officer at McDonald’s, Tarek Al Kady – who’s untimely demise was a great loss to all who knew him.
Another piece of work that stands out for me is the campaign we did for Americana. I consider it a masterpiece, as it was crafted after conducting very in-depth traditional research to understand the Egyptian mindset. These campaigns were based on pure emotions and they reaped business results as well.
What does it take to build a resilient and agile team, especially in the Middle East- which is prone to constant change?
Again, you live and die by your people. I realized that as a leader, you need to be very careful about the talent you hire. During my time at DDB, I never ran the agency based on a system; it was a product of the people, the team. Therefore, hiring the wrong people can be very costly. While I feel blessed to have worked with some of the best personalities, I have also made huge mistakes in my tenure.
To answer your question, I suggest leaders be very particular about their talent transformation strategies. There is no perfect formula for hiring the right people, but I’d recommend that, in addition to their credentials and previous experiences, it’s crucial to read the personalities of potential candidates. This can be very tricky as a manager, as you can’t come across as paranoid and want be trusting. I’d say 90% of the people I worked with in my tenure were true to their personalities and 10% of them weren’t. As a leader, you should be able to minimize that 10% as it can create a lot of problems.
In your opinion, what challenges are leaders in positions like yours poised to face in an era where digital transformation is a constant?
The biggest challenge is going to be the scarcity of funding. The Middle East doesn't spend enough on advertising, leading to a race to the bottom. This scarcity means you can't hire the right people, which results in hiring the wrong ones. Maximizing revenue is crucial. Only a few agencies have figured out how to adapt. Publicis Groupe in the Middle East is a great example, they have successfully attracted better talent by combining different strategies. They've addressed the region's issues of talent and revenue scarcity by going beyond traditional advertising.
The key is to get paid for ideas rather than just executing tasks. Digital transformation and media buying are often treated like plumbing—dispatching content without regard to quality. The challenge is to ensure agencies have the right people to deliver great ideas and the right clients who believe in those ideas. Unfortunately, it's hard to find such clients today. Many in the region prefer digital solutions without considering the creative aspect.
Agencies in the Middle East struggle to systematically deliver great ideas. Clients often turn to London, New York, or Amsterdam for quality work, which hurts the local industry. There are occasional successes, like Droga5's “Don’t just live life, play life,” campaign for Saudi Arabia’s megaproject Qiddiya. The campaign was originally crafted in New York, and it disappoints me that such high-quality work for the region often comes from outside the region.
What's next for you? Do you have any plans settled for how you're going to continue your professional and personal journey?
I am an adman, and I’ll never be anything else. It’s a choice I made very early on in my life. I plan on running my course in the Middle East (sorry not sorry). I’ve already launched an agency that is yet to go public. The reveal is to be coming very soon. While I am purely an adman, I recognize the importance of AI and its role in advertising and digital media. With the freedom, to run my own empire, I am looking forward to coloring outside the lines – pursuing all those endeavors which I couldn’t in the past.
I plan on expanding and onboarding projects without any geographic or sectorial limits. I’m really excited to build my new venture on the foundation of “great ideas,” while constantly reminding myself of the fact that there are no bounds to creativity, especially with the rise of the digital age.
I want to make advertising great again.
