JAD DAOU: THE QUADRUPLE WIN, OR A NEW BLUEPRINT FOR THE INDUSTRY
Jad Daou - Deputy General Manager, UM UAE details how clients, agencies, suppliers and consumers can all lead the way towards a better communication industry.
It's 2025, and the media industry is navigating a labyrinth of challenges. Agencies are striving to balance tightening budgets with rising client expectations, while brands chase short-term metrics. Suppliers find themselves caught in a price-driven race to the bottom, and consumers – often undervalued – are left with subpar experiences. This mounting tension is reshaping the ecosystem, and the time has come to pause and reflect: is the industry poised for evolution, or is it teetering on the edge of stagnation?
This critical question underpins the 'Quadruple Win' – a framework that prompts a fundamental shift in perspective, reimagining priorities to create balanced success across all stakeholders.
Agencies: Beyond the Price Wars
Price-driven competition has long been the norm for agencies, but its limitations are becoming increasingly evident beyond eroding profit margins. Delivering on ever-lower CPMs often comes at the cost of quality and relevance. The pursuit of low-cost inventory creates ripple effects, diminishing trust and undermining long-term relationships with clients. Agencies that prioritize investing in tools, talent, and strategies to drive value are not just surviving – they are thriving. Delivering value, not volume, is the sustainable path forward.
Brands: The Risk of Vanity Metrics
For brands, the allure of easily measurable metrics—impressions, clicks, and views—has often overshadowed deeper, more meaningful connections with their audiences. While these metrics provide a quick snapshot of reach, they rarely capture the nuanced impact of brand-building efforts and meaningful engagement.
To stay ahead in today's complex landscape, brands must redefine success. It's no longer just about chasing numbers; it's about fostering genuine trust, cultural relevance, and lasting loyalty. Short-term cost savings at the expense of these factors can inflict long-term reputational damage. By aligning advertising strategies with consumer values and aspirations, brands don't just safeguard their equity—they establish enduring trust that transcends individual campaigns and builds lasting consumer relationships.
Suppliers: Elevating Standards
Suppliers play a pivotal role in the media ecosystem, yet their contribution often goes underappreciated. The pressure to deliver large volumes of inventory at competitive prices has led many to compromise on quality. When trust erodes due to low-quality placements or opaque practices, the entire ecosystem suffers—from agencies and brands to the end consumers.
The path forward is clear and compelling: suppliers must double down on transparency, premium inventory, and meaningful innovation. Those who embrace these principles will emerge as valued long-term partners, helping shape the future of our industry. Those who continue to prioritize volume over value risk becoming irrelevant.
Consumers: Silent Yet Powerful
At the heart of the media ecosystem lies the consumer—a stakeholder whose needs and expectations are often misunderstood. Their expectations are simple yet uncompromising: relevance, respect, and resonance. Irrelevant or intrusive ads don't just fail to connect; it risks permanently alienating audiences from brands.
The consumer's voice may be quiet, but its impact is undeniable. Agencies, brands, and suppliers must unite their efforts to deliver ads that truly resonates—content that isn't just seen but remembered. This alignment creates a virtuous cycle: agencies build stronger campaigns, brands earn lasting trust, and suppliers gain credibility. When consumers feel genuinely understood and valued, their loyalty becomes the driving force that propels the entire ecosystem forward.
A Shared Responsibility
The future of our industry hinges on fostering collaboration rather than competition. No challenge exemplifies this need for industry alignment more starkly than the transition to a cookieless future. The ongoing delays and uncertainty surrounding this shift reveal deep systemic inertia: agencies remain underprepared, suppliers have underinvested in alternative solutions, and brands are struggling to adapt—all while consumers remain in the dark.
A coordinated effort, grounded in the principles of the Quadruple Win, could have transformed this critical transition into an opportunity. By developing robust first-party data strategies, building cookie-independent inventory, and fostering transparent consumer dialogue, the industry could have set new benchmarks for collaborative success. Instead, our lagging response underscores the urgent need for systemic change.
Moving Forward
The Quadruple Win isn't just a theoretical ideal — it’s a call to action for the industry to embrace its interdependence. When agencies, brands, suppliers, and consumers thrive together, we create a more resilient and innovative ecosystem.
Consider the power of coopetition, where competitors collaborate for collective progress. Imagine rival platforms uniting to develop privacy-compliant solutions that elevate the entire industry. This concept, while deserving deeper exploration in the near future, holds undeniable potential to drive collective progress.
The question isn't whether the Quadruple Win is possible—it's whether we're ready to make it happen. The future of our industry isn't predetermined; it's a choice we must make together. The time for change is now.
