Karen Kamel, business director, Ogilvy CommonHealth MENA
The health marketing arm of Ogilvy, Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide (OCHWW), has officially launched its MENA operation in a press conference late last week out of Dubai. Currently, OCHWW staffs 1200 experts (medical strategists and writers, health marketing consultants, regulatory specialists, doctors, pharmacists, biologists, digital health teams, PR specialists and creative teams) across 52 offices in 32 markets, specializing in several areas of health marketing, including pharmaceuticals, public health, and health and wellness, among others — as well as servicing brands that have a health and wellness dimension to them. Its scope of activities covers professional and consumer advertising, sales promotion, medical education, digital health solutions, pharmacy channel planning and public relations.
In the MENA region, the agency will operate in two hub offices in Dubai and Istanbul. The Dubai operation will be led by Karen Kamel, business director at Ogilvy CommonHealth, who holds seven years of experience in the health marketing in the industry, and who will be directly reporting to Ronald Howes, regional managing director at Memac Ogilvy.
“It’s always a pleasure for me announcing these startup companies. Even when we were four people working for one client, there was always a defined strategy. We ventured into OgilvyOne and sports marketing among others. We will start a business when we know we have enough muscle and man power to open a new venture. We just didn’t have the right people. What helped is that I announced the sale of the majority [of Memac Ogilvy] to WPP,” said Eddie Moutran, CEO at Memac Ogilvy, in his opening statement of the launch press conference.
“The demand from the Middle East healthcare market continues to grow and the clients are constantly looking to engage with specialists that can offer 360 degree communications support. It is even more imperative that the Middle East healthcare practitioners take the growing demands of the clients seriously and respond creatively,” says the agency in a statement.
