Search Results for : Communicate

Communicate‘s latest issue is out. This quarter, we explore the intricacies of programmatic advertising. Deep-diving into this complex world, we look into the various stakeholders and how they interact, the issues that this growing industry faces – from ad fraud to the phasing out of the third-party cookie – and what the future has in […]

Partnership aims to drive change via actional insight generation on issues that matter most to the advertising & marketing sector.

What is art? Is art a concept or an object? Who decides: the artist, the critic or the public? These questions have fueled discussions for decades, as this selection shows. Each has had some effect on the global art scene and has driven it forward. Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, 1917Widely seen as Duchamp’s most famous […]

By Erhan Ecevit Today everyone who works in consumer insight business knows it’s getting difficult to get to the key insight that will differentiate brands in the marketplace. In traditional market research, we tend to ask consumers what they do, when, where, why? We ask them but then are they saying the truth? or maybe […]

By Sarah Longbottom There have never been so many challenges facing the communications industry. Technology, AI, diminished brand trust, balancing truth with public interest, and the impact of social corporate responsibility are just a few of the key issues the industry is grappling with today. This industry is tasked with identifying current and future challenges […]

Dutch artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde is on a mission to upscale the conversation about humans’ future. Instead of focusing on what people know scares them, Roosegaarde creates projects that tickle humans’ curiosity about the future, by merging technology and art in urban environments. His Roosegaarde Studio constantly comes up with a stream of innovative creations, such as the Smog Free Project, that […]

Memes are more than a fad. They have become legitimate means of expression, communi- cating an entire cultural idea or theme in a singlevisual (words, sounds, pictures, gestures, etc.) and spreading from person to person. Originally coined in 1976 by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins to describe the cultural counterpart of a gene, the term ‘meme’ […]

By Elias Jabbe The Middle East Public Relations Association will host its inaugural Leadership Majlis in Saudi Arabia on October 21 at the Hyatt Regency Riyadh Olaya after several editions in Abu Dhabi. According to a press release distributed by MEPRA Executive Director Sabrina De Palma, the UAE-based nonprofit is dedicating the KSA MEPRA Leadership […]

In a study published, recently, by the London based Global Disinformation Index (GDI), an estimated $235 million is spent annually on websites that are designed to mislead the public and spread disinformation. The advertisers do not necessarily know the business practice of the websites. The study analyzed programmatic advertising on 20,000 misinforming domains around the web. […]

By Leo Premutico There’s an old saying in screenwriting: If you want to reveal the truth of a character, dial up the pressure and force him or her to make a choice. Well, it seems a choice is being forced upon our industry, and I think it’s a great thing. A recent Forrester report, “The […]

Built on the Jaddaf Waterfront in Dubai, the Jameel Arts Center is an independent initiative that aims to act as a dynamic platform fostering dialogue between the many contemporary art players in the UAE, the Middle East and South Asia. Founded in November 2018 by Art Jameel (an organization that supports artists and creative communities), […]

Embrace, an awareness support network based in Lebanon, has partnered with the social media giant Facebook to support the ongoing campaign “Talking Saves Lives.”  The campaign  has been developed to mark the Embrace Lifeline (1564)- which is the first suicide prevention helpline in Lebanon and the Middle East. “A lot of people resort to social […]

Dubai Media City has announced the launch of ON.DXB, which is a new regional festival that is designed to support industry growth and talent development in the media, entertainment and content development industries.  The inaugural ON.DXB will take place at the Sound Stages in Dubai Studio City from 21 – 23 November and will feature […]

In its fifth edition, Zenith’s Online Video Forecasts 2019  report, it is forecasted that the average person will spend 100 minutes each day watching online video in 2021, which is up from 84 minutes this year, In other words, that’s the equivalent of watching 25 continuous days of video in 2021. “The amount of time people […]

The September print edition of Communicate is out this week, giving an in-depth look at creativity. There are many reasons why we chose to focus on this topic. First, whether society defines creativity as a way of life, a scientific mechanism or even some sort of magic, it is a phenomenon that makes our lives more […]

Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” which stars Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino and produced by Netflix, will appear in theaters few weeks before the movie makes its debut on the streaming website. This announcement comes months after negotiations between Netflix and major theatre chains in the U.S. This move is described by some as Netflix […]

Snap Inc. has announced today Lens 2.1, a new update to Lens Studio, Snap’s lens app makes it possible for anyone to build Augmented Reality (AR)  for Snapchat. Lens Studio is an open platform to all  creators, advertisers, designers and others.  “This means that partners and advertisers may use Lens Studio to create Lenses that […]

Last February at the World Government Summit 2019 in Dubai, Christine Lagarde, the first woman managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), sat in front of her audience and gave them some news: “AI and the fourth industrial revolution will have a more severe impact on women than men,” she told the crowd, explaining […]

After it was fined a record-breaking $5 billion for not following antitrust laws in the EU, search giant Google recently announced that, starting early 2020, Android users in Europe will see a new choice screen allowing them to choose between four search providers, including itself.  “Next year, we’ll introduce a new way for Android users […]

By Ethan Jakob Craft After a trial run in Canada that’s been ongoing since May, Instagram announced on July 17 that it would be hiding publicly visible likes from users in six additional countries—Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand—in the name of shifting away from the app’s emphasis on popularity. And while its […]

In the latest of big data beaches, bank holding company, Capital One Financial Corporation, released a statement discussing a breach in their database. The breach has allowed an unauthorized individual to gain access to  sensitive information of millions of their customers. Capital One stocks went down by 5.73 percent in response to the incident on […]

Fake news may be a top concern for media, politics and society in general, but they’re only the first stage in another worrisome development. Indeed, when the reality of fake news exploded into public view with the 2016 US presidential elections, the concept of invented information created and disseminated to purposefully confuse, manipulate and/or polarize […]

By Halley Theodore There’s a German word, schadenfreude, that describes one of our basest, yet most satisfying, emotions. Quite simply, schadenfreude is the pleasure we take in the misfortune of others. (Schaden = damage, and freude = joy). It has no real equivalent in English. Off-brand Muppets sang about the joys of schadenfreude in the musical […]

Snapchat added 13 million daily users in a breakout second quarter, thanks to the viral explosion of a pair of augmented-reality filters that pulled in more than 200 million users in just two weeks. It’s a significant boost in traffic that has renewed the company’s credibility with advertisers, who are starting to pile into the platform. On Tuesday, Snapchat shared its second-quarter results, reporting […]

By Ana Andjelic  Alan Turing, WWII-code-breaker and precursor of artificial intelligence, is the new face of the UK’s 50-pound “note” (bill). The entire thing is noteworthy, but most captivating are Turing’s words inscribed on the note: “this is only a foretaste of what is to come and only the shadow of what’s going to be.” This […]

By Sharvari Alape The DIFC Data Protection Law No. 1 of 2007 is due to be modified soon with the new proposed Data Protection Law [2019] draft being circulated for consultation.  The GDPR’s replica effect globally has led many state institutions to review their data protection laws. Various  jurisdictions in the region are re-evaluating their […]

By Luca Allam Adam Morgan coined the term ‘challenger brand’ in his 2009 publication Eating the Big Fish and co-authored PHD’s 2012 book, Overthrow: 10 ways to tell a challenger story. Both books explained the traits of the different challenger attitudes and illustrated how to embrace their behaviors. In many ways, they made it easier to […]

By Afreen Khan  Researchers at the New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi have designed a microprocessor that provides data privacy using cryptography. The project which is the first of its kind, works on protecting data from leakage, with an aim to limit the threats and vulnerabilities.  The team behind CoPHEE, the microprocessor, is led by […]

Neticenzy, a Dubai-based digital marketing agency with a focus on social media, recently won TikTok’s B2B account. Communicate had a relaxed chat with Fadi Khater, Founder & Managing Partner, to discuss this big win and more. Much more. Your PR announcing Netizency’s TikTok win does not read like the typical PR. It was kind of […]

New department will commission papers and host expert debates, policy briefings by high-level officials. Arab News, the Middle East’s leading English-language daily, has announced the establishment of a new Research and Studies Unit (RSU). Based at the newspaper’s headquarters in Riyadh, the new unit will deliver thought-provoking studies written by a team of acclaimed resident […]

The Arab News Newspaper, the leading English language newspaper of the Middle East with bureaus in Chicago and New York, is sponsoring a special weekly radio program “The Ray Hanania Show” on the U.S. elections hosted by Arab News US Correspondent Ray Hanania. “The Ray Hanania Show” is brought to you by the Arab News […]

In recent years, #SaudiNationalDay has been a key conversation topic on Twitter. In fact, the Saudi flag emoji was tweeted 27 million times globally in the past year (1 Sept 2019 – 1 Sept 2020, Twitter Internal). With more audiences turning to the platform – marking the highest ever quarterly year-over-year mDAU (monetizable daily active […]

While brands and advertisers claim to place inclusivity at the top of their agenda, they often fail to engage with communities with hearing impairments, rarely including sign language options in their campaigns. However, some organizations are recognizing the problem and strive to find a solution. Alwaleed Philanthropies, an NGO chaired by HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin […]

 Rahul Agarwal, VP Product Partnerships at digital media technology provider Polar, explains the opportunity for programmatic advertising in the pandemic crisis. Programmatic advertising, like every other industry, has not been immune to the negative effects of the current pandemic. As countries around the world were locking down their economies in the beginning of Q2, brands […]

Designed and created by UAE-based, Beirut-born Indian Mohana Rao to stand in solidarity with the people of Beirut, the concept and artistry of the ‘Je Suis Beyrouth’ motto reflect the majestic Lebanese evergreen cedar tree topped by an endlessly burning guiding, luminous flame. Together with the UAE’s Red Crescent and in collaboration with the Lebanese […]

Anghami, the regions largest and most loved streaming service, announced today a new collaboration with The Walt Disney Company Middle East in which brands are able to reach millions of consumers through various branding and media solutions alongside hit Disney movie soundtracks.

By Sachin Mendonca, Strategy Director at Geometry MENA. Every brand is fighting for their share of attention online, against the backdrop of a limitless pool of exciting content that’s constantly growing. Yet, we find that the behavior of spending time around a single piece of content decreases by the minute. There’s simply too much [content] […]

While marketeers understand their target market holds the key to business success, they sometimes miss the mark when it comes to engaging them. If a brand fails to add value through personalized touchpoints, then, in the words of Arianna Grande, it’s “Thank you, next!” With today’s digital economy characterized by disruption, customized communication is not […]

By Rohit Jaiswal, COO, Dabur International Ltd If you prefer a brand because it is ethically sourced, locally produced or it contains components made from recycled material, then you are a consumer that values sustainable solutions. Sustainable marketing enables a company to build relationships with consumers, by letting them know they are important to the […]

By Darren Hodgkin, CEO of PPMG A website is more than a window to your store. In 2020 it is your store; as important as your brick and mortar, stand, or stall. For web-only brands, it is the one sales environment they have and as crucial as the products they sell. While visual merchandising tells […]

The latest research installment powered by Choueiri Group’s data team takes a closer look at how the Covid-19 crisis has brought about a significant surge in TV viewership for Gen Z “Zoomers” around the globe. The findings serve to inspire regional brands to tap into the wide spectrum of marketing opportunities that TV can deliver […]

Gaming has become one of the most profitable entertainment spaces in recent years but brands in the region have yet to dig into it. Why? Haven’t you heard? Since last September, French couture powerhouse Louis Vuitton has been designing outfits for Riot Games’ free-to-play video game League of Legends’ virtual characters. What’s more, Louis Vuitton […]

“Fraudsters will take money from wherever they can get it, and if you’re not paying attention they’re going to take it from you,” said Dr Augustine Fou during an interactive discussion on ad fraud organized by the Advertising Business Group (ABG).

Cortlan McManus, Head of Content Practice at Publicis Media. I work with great people who inspire me to be better than I would be myself. I get my hands dirty in <code> to think of internal products that allow us to make better products for our clients. We think about people – their problems – […]

Nadim Karam, Senior Director – Planning at Hearts & Science, explains how blockchain brings scalable trust to the digital marketing industry. It is no secret that the digital marketing ecosystem is riddled with complexities and inefficiencies. In fact, fraud and waste within digital marketing have been doubling every two years on average, and there are […]

Saba Omaish, OSN’s Head of Marketing, explains how the MENA broadcaster challenges us on TikTok to keep our eyes peeled for the world’s best entertainment. What do you do when you have a massive list of amazing TV shows and movies to watch and only 24 hours in a day to watch them in? Keep […]

Rami Zeidan, Head of Video and Creative at TikTok, explains how the platform’s creative community united to come up with virtual Ramadan traditions during Covid-19. The holy month of Ramadan has always been a time of togetherness marked by reflection, gratitude, charity. This year, with social distancing measures in place, universally-enjoyed Ramadan traditions were, in […]

Consumers look to businesses to feel more positively about how these brands support society. A recent global study by Kantar on Twitter shows that, in fact, only 8% of people believe that brands should stop advertising during the global pandemic. This has been especially evident in the month leading up to Ramadan, when there has […]

Rajat Kaura, Head of Creative Strategy at Radix Media MENA, explains how mindfulness can increase a brand’s share of voice thanks to its relevance and impact on the consumer’s life.  Jack Kornfield, American author and Buddhism practitioner, once told a tale of his Buddhist master out on a walk with his students. They came across […]

Digital Advertising Specialist Chris Gregory-Pasha reflects on what the Joe Rogan deal really means for the future of podcasts on Spotify. Hands up who only started listening to The Joe Rogan Experience podcast during lockdown and quarantine? Me too (I typed that one-handed). Spotify announced recently that it has entered into a multi-year, rumored to […]

Hearts and Science’s Sonia John (left), Associate Director – Digital Transformation, and Achrafe Mami (right), Associate Director – Biddable Media, discuss the future of company culture and their five key work-from-home learnings. 1. Work-life balance: Start your day with the right intentions Achrafe Mami:  When I initially started working from home, I was determined to […]

KFC launches an innovative blockchain program for its digital advertising and media buying, making it the first QSR (Quick service restaurant) brand in the region to do so. Communicate got a chance to speak with Ozge Zoralioglu, Chief Marketing Officer at KFC, to learn more about this new step, and what it means for the digital media buying […]

Jessica Usenbor, Platforms & Capabilities – Programmatic Lead at OMG, explains how Google’s phasing out of third-party cookies will in fact help the industry go back to basics. The deprecation of the third-party cookie is an opportunity for advertising to get back to its essence and focus on its core objective: to build customer trust […]

Babyshop celebrates Ramadan using children’s words of hope and compassion. At a time when many brands are trying to spread messages of solidarity and positivity, Landmark Group’s children retail store chain Babyshop hit a high note with “A World We Deserve,” a film released globally on the eve of Ramadan to, in these peculiar times, […]

Last week, the world celebrated its 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Looking back; it’s scary to see how much damage mankind has caused on Mother earth, and why the fight to preserve the environment is now more important than ever. Yet many still remain oblivious to the impact they’re causing on the planet. For those […]

Mobile advertising platform, Ad Colony unveils some interesting findings on consumer behavior on mobile as the holy month of Ramadan begins. The company surveyed people throughout the Middle East and North Africa about mobile usage during the Ramadan season. Respondents typically aged from 25 to 44 years. The key highlights of the survey are as follows […]

The impact of social distancing as a result of the COVID-19 crisis has been felt across industries and sectors, with technology and social media playing a critical role in connecting people, communities, and businesses – this is even more pertinent given the imminent start of Ramadan. Amid this difficult period, it has become even more […]

Talkwalker used its social media search engine tool, Quick Search to dive into the online conversations happening in the MENA region around Covid-19. Here are the insights: The conversation clusters around Covid-19 in the Middle East includes insights from various sources as such as media, consumer and social data. The main conversation topic that is […]

The Arts Centre at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) recently held its first-ever live virtual open mic poetry night. Communicate got a chance to speak with Bill Bragin, Executive Director at NYUAD’s Arts Centre to understand what kind of challenges he faced and what opportunities live streaming offers the institution. What exactly is a “live […]

Kunal Gupta, CEO of digital media technology provider Polar, explains how the communication industry can seize opportunities and face the unprecedented challenges of these covid-19 times.

Kunal Gupta, CEO of digital media technology provider Polar, shares learnings from past recessions so that we can better address the covid-19 crisis.

Digital Advertising Specialist Chris Gregory-Pasha on how Quibi could disrupt the OTT landscape, or not… Launching a brand new short-form streaming service in the middle of a global pandemic – utter madness or disruptive brilliance?Well, in reality, it’s probably a bit of both… Quibi, for the uninitiated, is the brainchild of Jeffrey Katzenberg, the founder […]

Kunal Gupta, CEO of digital media technology provider Polar, shares five reflections for the advertising industry in the age of coronavirus. 1. Spend decreases in obvious advertising categories will be offset by overall digital growth. Travel represents 9% of digital ad spend and in the past day alone, three of my clients have shared they’ve […]

Dimitris Tsouroplis, Director of Human Resources at Crescent Enterprises, on how human capital development is a priority in the face of a Fifth Industrial Revolution. Industrial development is taking place at an exponential rate, and human capital development is hot on its heels every step of the way. So, what do we do while we […]

Adnan Bashir, Senior Manager for Corporate Communications at Sigma Systems, explains how the job of communications professionals will never be the same.  It goes without saying that a cloud of uncertainty now hangs over us all – and is unlikely to dissipate anytime soon. In the last few weeks, we have witnessed a cataclysmic disruption […]

 Henry Windridge, Head of Brand – MEA at Discovery and Rowan Ashraf, Snap Content Manager at UTurn, talk about creating content on Snapchat for their respective brands and share some insights into how consumers interact with content differently on the platform, during the holy month of Ramadan.  What do you like the most about Snapchat? […]

Reda Raad, chief executive of communications group TBWA\RAAD, on how true leaders should address the current crisis. Just a few short months ago, the year ahead looked promising and prosperous. Now, the talk is of mere survival. The sheer scale of the unfolding crisis has led to panic and paralysis on a global scale, but […]

Hanin Hamade, Manager, Data Sciences Practice – Publicis Media, explains why and how brands should keep an eye on the booming social media chatter around the pandemic. It is no secret that 2020 has been off to a rocky start. Conversations around covid-19 have no border and are not siloed to specific audiences; we see […]

People seek clarity and guidance from businesses as well during times of crisis. Eimear Lambe, Director of Twitter Next, EMEA and Stephanie Terroir, Head of Twitter Next, MENA, share tips on what brands should keep in mind while communicating with their audience during these troubling times.  Since the emergence and subsequent outbreak of COVID-19, there […]

Social media has become a haven for users to share intimate moments with friends and family. Snapchat is no stranger to such moments and expects to see a lot of those kinds of moments during the holy month of Ramadan. Vishal Badlani, Creative Strategy Lead at Snap Inc. MENA shares a few hacks which will […]

Lara Hadjetian, Head of Employee Experience Practice at Edelman, explains what organizations need to consider when communicating with their workforce in times of a public health crisis, as they capture the learnings from COVID-19.   The COVID-19 outbreak has created challenges around the world, going beyond public health. As the global community mobilizes to contain […]

By Nisha Patel, Head of Xaxis MENA talks about the need to keep the topic of gender diversity an ongoing conversation and not just during a special occasion.  The value of gender equality in businesses is proven, with inclusive companies reporting 19% higher innovation revenue than others. However, despite its benefits, this issue is too often only […]

By Komal Mishra, communications specialist at Active DMC Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can often create uncertainties and discomfort for employees and stakeholders. An effective and accurate communications strategy can ease some of this stress. Without it- you run the risk of rumors, perplexed brand messaging, disappointed employees and distrustful customers. Here are a few tips […]

Matteo Ippoliti, Founder of translation company Langpros, explains how translation can help bridge the cultural gaps in such a diverse country as the UAE.  The United Arab Emirates is one of the most diverse countries in the world in terms of culture and language, owing to its history and incredible economic growth that attracts millions […]

Bayan Ishtaiwi, digital media manager at Vizeum, explains how Google’s phasing out of third-party cookies is going to scramble the market. There is not a single person I know that wasn’t targeted with an ad after browsing content somehow related to that ad. To the point that we often hear the words ‘creepy,’ ‘annoying,’ ‘too much,’ […]

Gregg Fray, Owner of Seven Media and Seven Studios, explains why the key to a successful creative process is to always start with the end: know who you’re talking to and what your content is meant to achieve.

By Mateen Agha, SEO Lead at ForwardPMX Paid search marketing enables businesses to advertise their products and services by sponsoring listings on a search engine or websites like Google. It is known as PPC (pay-per-click) because the advertiser pays every time their ad is clicked. More and more brands are beginning to recognize the importance and see […]

As 2019 draws to a close, here are some of the wishes from the OMD team for 2020.

Taghreed Oraibi, business director at BPG Orange, shares tips on how to address the issue of influencers lying about their real Instagram following. Influencers play a significant role in driving consumer attention to marketing campaigns, especially millennials. According to research conducted by BPG Group in 2017, 94 percent of in-house marketeers in the UAE believe […]

Mateen Agha, SEO Lead at ForwardPMX, explains what brands can do when Internet users don’t need to click on anything to find answers. It has probably happened to you. You searched for something on Google and found the answer right on top, without clicking on any link. This is a ‘zero-click search:’ a search query that […]

Vishal Badiani, creative strategy lead-MENA at Snap Inc., Regardless of the platform, there is no doubt that people are willing to spend time on experiences that catch their attention. The challenge is that the window of opportunity on traditional formats is shrinking. For better or for worse, people can choose to do many other things […]

Rami Abughazaleh, from copywriting agency Yala Creative, explains why a good brief is well worth your time Effective marketing is a collaboration, with the client and creative working as one. Avoid misunderstandings and poor results with a clear plan of action. A thoughtful, detailed brief gets your project off to a good start. Start off […]

By Aida Saharoui I have been active in the GCC digital agency ecosystem for the past eight years, and seem to still witness a lot of questionable practices when it comes to agencies’ practices in the region and worldwide. With the support of Communicate, we have listed the top 5 things that any business should […]

Rami Abughazaleh, from copywriting agency Yala Creative, explains why you should take humor seriously. A little humor lightens the day and helps build connections Depending on the brand, amusing your target audience can be a highly effective strategy As with any creative approach, it has to be done right to work well The case for […]

By Gregg Fray, owner of Seven Media and Seven Studios There’s a school of thought that suggests humans are unique among animals due to our ability to tell – and believe in – stories. We’re able to engage huge numbers of our species using facts woven together as narratives, and through fictional stories that get […]

 By Reem Masswadeh – Director of Client Servicing at Cicero & Bernay Public Relations. In the current marketing world, it is important to efficiently use every tool that is available to you, to be able to keep up with your competitors. While PR is not often looked at as a data-driven field, especially when compared to other areas of […]

Rami Abughazaleh, from copywriting agency Yala Creative, talks attention spans and advertising. There are multiple mediums for your message, but each requires its own approach. Attention spans are in high demand – adapt accordingly! Good creative involves managing the content load wisely. The importance of customizing copy The art of marketing has evolved dramatically over […]

By Tariq Al Sharabi, MD at Cicero and Bernay Public Relations. Technological disruptions and digital progressions have impacted the world in ways that are complex and multifaceted. Consequently, all industries are facing a constant evolution. The communication and public relations (PR) sector is no different, with the field being in constant flux, always adapting, witnessing […]

By Elías Jabbe The ongoing impact of digital on the tourism industry in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia emerged as a popular topic of discussion at the annual MEASA Aviation Show in Dubai on October 14. The event, which has been organized for several years by Terrapinn Middle East, featured tracks such as […]

The self-described circus for adults Rouge shows how creativity can express itself in many forms. Communicate spoke to director Elena Kirschbaum. A mix of acrobatics, cabaret and burlesque, award-winning, Australia-based Rouge is a different kind of circus that manages to inject a healthy dose of creativity in a discipline that sometimes goes in circles, constantly […]

Rami Abughazaleh, from copywriting agency Yala Creative, explains how authenticity is everything for a brand. Respect the intelligence of your customers – they will repay you. Credibility, not overpromising, is the best way to set your brand apart. Keep your marketing materials clear and focused on real benefits. In a 24/7 online world, we’ve never […]

By Ed Barnfield, the winner of Communicate’s creative fiction competition! I wrote a novel last week,” says Fatima. “It took me three hours.”We are meeting in the virtual café at Morningside. Fatima has chosen a cartoon elephant as her avatar, although she insists on keeping her trademark sunglasses and earpiece, which is disconcerting. I’ve gone […]

By Elías Jabbe PR industry leaders and journalists gathered at the inaugural Middle East PR Association (MEPRA) KSA Leadership Majlis in Riyadh on October 21, to discuss the evolution of the PR industry in Saudi Arabia. This year’s “Impact & Influence”-themed edition was documented on MEPRA’s social media platforms as it happened at Hyatt Regency […]

With the advent of 5G technology in the region, Mobile brands are in the race to reposition themselves in the fast-changing market.  Communicate spoke with Norman Zhang, Marketing Director, Oppo Middle East, in an exclusive interview, about the company’s efforts in developing a premium brand image.   How significant is the Middle East market for Oppo? What […]

Rami Abughazaleh, from copywriting agency Yala Creative, explains how to get the most out of your copywriter. Trust is important in the creative process. Let the agency make recommendations and guide your choices. While you may know your business inside out, leave actual writing to those who know writing best. Give detailed feedback, but always […]

Patrick Harris, VP-global agency development at Facebook, sat in an exclusive interview with Communicate to discuss how the social media giant is adapting to these challenging times. How did your system of agency partners develop? [Early on] we hadn’t yet figured out the role the ecosystem would play, how Facebook would invest to make sure […]

By Elie Aoun, CEO of Ipsos Connect I have been working in research, media research in particular, for the last 27 years. That’s the only thing that I’ve done. Throughout these years, I witnessed many changes and transformations, always – or at least most of the time – for the better. I used to see […]

Bayan Ishtaiwi, digital media manager at Vizeum, discusses YouTube Premium and what it means for marketeers. Anyone who utilized YouTube as a media channel will probably know that it can be one of the most impactful channels to boost brand awareness and ad recall; not only that, but also driving conversions if you are leveraging […]

Hamish McPharlin, head of Insights at BBC Global News, says that, understood and used the right way, data can fuel creativity. If there is something that media companies are not lacking in, it is data about their consumers. With the rise in connectivity and an ever-increasing connected user base, we know about our audiences more than […]

 Melissa Moubarak, strategy & data director at UM MENA, describes her experience as a first-time Effies MENA judge. As a first time judge at the MENA Effie Awards this year, it was with anticipation and a little trepidation that I reported to the judging room. Hoping to play it cool when in fact I didn’t […]

Rami Abughazaleh, from copywriting agency Yala Creative, shares some tips from a writer’s perspective. Credibility is key: speak to your audience in a voice they recognize and understand. Once you establish a communication style, be consistent. Maintaining a tone of voice builds brand awareness and trust.   Tone is everything You wouldn’t address a boardroom […]

By Aida Saharoui First things first, let’s start by explaining what Digital Performance Marketing is, and how it is positioned in the Digital Marketing Sphere. Digital Performance Marketing is the field of Digital Marketing that focuses highly on data. It is no longer a matter of visibility only but mostly efficiency. Decisions in performance marketing […]

Over the past couple of months, photographers from all corners of the planet have submitted their best family shots to the #Family2019 Contest organised by AGORA images. 

Twitter has issued a statement apologizing for unintentionally using contact of users, emails and phone numbers, to enable target advertising. The company said that they are unable to say how many people have been affected. The company added in the statement that a third-party marketers might have reached Twitter users based on contact details. They added […]

Bukhash Brothers, the UAE based celebrity and digital marketing consultancy, said that trends within the influencers market spanned lack of transparency in disclosing content. In a  survey findings  released by the firm,  results indicated that 84 percent of the UAE influencers do not disclose branded content or brand partners, while only 44 percent reveal ‘paid […]

Anghami, the leading on-demand music platform in the MENA region, announced today a partnership with Snapchat through which they will promote regional talent from MENA to the world. “The innovative partnership will feature Anghami’s English and Arabic music in Snapchat’s augmented reality lenses, for the first time giving Snapchat users in MENA the opportunity to […]

Advertisers will spend more on social media platforms than on print for the first time this year, according to Zenith’s Advertising Expenditure Forecasts.  According to the report , advertising expenditure on social media will grow 20 percent in 2019 to reach US$84bn, while advertisers’ combined expenditure on print, newspapers and magazines, is expected to fall […]

To celebrate Saudi National Day, Saudi Aramco created an educational film  featuring the journey of the country through key historical milestones, using Twitter as the main channel to connect with its audience. The interactive film showcases the civilizational and developmental shifts witnessed by the Kingdom, one era after another. By detailing the Kingdom’s transformation, the film […]

By Kashmira Motiwalla Successful brands and retailers know that customer loyalty is invaluable. Earning and building loyalty has been a retail priority for decades, growing into its own mini-industry.  Loyalty done well can be transformative. According to retail company Bluecore, repeat customers generate 40 percent of retail revenue; on average, they are 130 percent more […]

Omnicom Media Group MENA has announced in a statement  the opening of the regional operation of its dynamic creative specialist agency Adylic. Adylic works in data-driven, personalized creative advertising and dynamic creative optimization (DCO) solutions. The Dubai operation, Adylic’s seventh in the world, will serve the Middle East/North Africa region (MENA), said the statement. Raouf […]

An advertiser-focused group has launched a global initiative to make the advertiser voice heard on the topic of cross-media measurement, said a statement of the group. The ‘Cross Media Working Group’ is the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and key advertisers from WFA’s Global Media Board including EA, Mastercard, P&G and Unilever. The group said […]

According to a new report from Accenture to be released this week, disruption from innovative digital technologies could put more than US$575 billion of Middle Eastern companies’ total value at risk. The report notes that while executives are aware of the threat of disruption, they are not prepared for it; nonetheless, appear reluctant to invest in the […]

By Hanisha Lalwani With only a handful of companies within the region experimenting with podcasts, this on-demand audio medium remains largely untapped. “Since we first launched the forum, our ecosystem has evolved,” said Hebah Fisher, co-founder and CEO of Kerning Culture, the organizer of the forum. She added that an increasing number of people are turning […]

Agora images are a free-to-use app social app. The app is for the global photography community, with more than 3.5 million users from across 193 countries. On a weekly basis the app’s  users – amateurs and professional photographers – can participate in a photography competition through the it. The app organizers said that they are on a mission […]

As Global Chief Executive Officer, Eileen is responsible for UM’s global strategy, direction and operations, overseeing global management for UM’s client. We speak to her about the challenges their clients are facing, whilst the company’s eagerness in including different people to ensure delivery.

Surkus, a multi-sided experiential marketing platform has made its debut in the United Arab Emirates. This announcement follows international roll-out in markets including the US and Hong Kong with over 750,000 engaged users around the world, a statement said.  The platform will be headquartered in Abu Dhabi’s Hub71 startup ecosystem. Surkus said in the statement […]

Forever 21, the retailer once beloved of young women seeking a fast fashion fix, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late Sunday night. This move has been described by the New York Times as a “reminder of how quickly the retail landscape is transforming.” Chapter 11 in the U.S. law helps postpones a US company’s obligations to its creditors. Which […]

By Hussam ElHage Have you ever thought what element(s) within Emails and SMS’s that hold(s) the real value?  Hint: it is not the ad copy. It is something called PII data, which most of us in agencies do not really deal with; as agencies almost exclusively deal with 3rd party cookie data. PII or Personally […]

By Max Al Awaad Infiniti Global Head of Marketing and Comms, Phil York, discusses with Communicate the communication direction that the luxury brand is taking. This year, the brands celebrates 30 year anniversary. Despite the challenges the brand has been facing in different international markets, the brand views itself as a progressive challenger brand.  

By Garett Sloane Google is experimenting with contextual ads at “much lower costs” when it comes to marketing its own products—even as it leads the way as one of the most vocal proponents of the power of personal data for targeting ads online. Marvin Chow, Google’s VP of marketing, peeled back the curtain on the […]

Careem, the regional transportation network, has launched for the first time a global campaign that communicates a call to “Start Something,” which aims to reinforce the company’s brand purpose. While the campaign targets “everyone,” it specifically looks at “people with passion and ambition for a better future, people that are proud to be part of […]

In a research conducted by AdColony with On Device Research within several regions, Egypt ranks the highest in number of smart phone mobile gamers in the world followed by Brazil and Russia. The research was conducted across 15 countries in the Middle East, and other regions. Within the Middle East, the companies looked at KSA, UAE and […]

By Elías Jabbe  Riyadh-based entertainment startup, Telfaz11, have been on an international journey after creating immensely popular short films and video series such as Khambalah, Top 5 and Alkhallat that have amassed billions of views on YouTube.  Following their launch in 2011, a presentation of their short films in Los Angeles at the 2017 Saudi […]

Group Partnership, a WPP company, said that they have won back the DEWA creative services account following a five-way pitch. According to the company, they will be mainly be responsible for working on the marketing and communication strategy as well as developing all creative campaigns for the entity. In addition, they said that they have […]

Tony Bourached is announced as the new CEO of Mindshare MENA, as of October 1st, 2019. Bourached is the current Regional Digital Director for Mindshare. His marketing career started back in the UK before he joined Mindshare Saudi Arabia in 2010 as Head of Digital. During his time in Saudi Arabia, he was tasked to establish the first fully dedicated digital department within […]

By Ziad Issa   The last decade showed us many changes in media consumption, where everyone almost accesses the internet, smartphone, and social media. The technology is shifting the use of audio and video-based content. In Saudi Arabia, over the top (OTT) has not yet taken away significant reach from linear TV as it has […]

Isobar, a global digital agency part of Dentsu Aegis Network, has been selected as the digital agency of record for the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Board (ETPB) earlier this month. According to a press statement, Isobar will be driving digital strength and brand loyalty through a  digital media strategy across seventeen key markets including the GCC, […]

Mustafa Al Abdullah, the man behind Middle East’s latest hit song “Taal” – is also a music director , songwriter and composer who is believed to be on his way to reinventing the music landscape. Through his work, Abdullah is keen on putting  Iraqi musicians on the global map through changing the Iraqi music scene. […]

Snap Inc. has announced the launch of 3D Camera Mode on its application Snapchat. The company said that with  the new feature, Snapchatters can create Snaps that “change in perspective depending on how users view them on their phones.” “With the introduction of depth and interaction, Snaps can capture even more detail about how the […]

Creative work does not guarantee agreement by everyone in the room. Some of the work might fail to convey the intended meaning, others are just marked as red. Despite that, brands must continue in pushing their ceilings to convey the messages that they want. We have showcased a few examples of multinational companies that has […]

By Muriel Aboulrouss Everything I create or teach is based on my  personal experiences and my journey of self discovery. I do not pretend to set new definitions or rules as I do not believe in either. I am guided by pure intuitive impulse.  I believe that the road to move people is to provoke […]

Taqeef, a UAE-based air-conditioning solutions company, has focused its efforts on building a brand image that is friendly to its surroundings. It has created “iMatter” which is a CSR initiative that is designed to “reflect the company’s core values of social responsibility and empowerment,” as described by the company. The program is  STEM education program […]

“We were able to fully realize the potential Facebook holds in delivering incremental reach and driving effective performance. This campaign was a true testament to the benefits one can derive from marrying the right proposition with the right audience.” - Saba Omaish, Head of Marketing at OSN

Bayut.com, a UAE property portal, recently launched their TV commercial starring Hollywood actor Chris Hemsworth. The agency, Crayons Communications, said that the choice of Chris Hemsworth was due to his position as a Hollywood A-lister and was making news in the world with the release of Avengers – Endgame and Men in Black movie. The ad […]

By Max Alawwad Youtube has launched music streaming service in MENA earlier this week. According to the company the amount of music content  watched on their platform has reached to 60 percent, every year, within the past three years. The following is an interview with Tarek Abdalla, regional director of marketing at Google Middle East and North Africa, […]

By Max Alawwad Facebook has come under scrutiny, on multiple occasions,  for its handling of the user’s data. One of the recent events was Facebook paying hundreds of contractors to transcribe audio clips of users from its Messenger app. The social media giant, alongside other tech companies, have been accused and fined on multiple events of mishandling […]

WARC, the global authority on advertising and media effectiveness, has released the 2019 MENA Strategy Report that outlines successful key marketing trends in the region. “This year’s entries demonstrated a more robust style of strategic thinking across the region that generated some impressive returns,” said Lucy Aitken, Managing Editor, Case Studies, WARC in a statement.  The […]

By Michele Iozzo Just a few years ago, you could clearly distinguish between banners for brand awareness and banners for sales conversion. With different key performance indicators (KPIs), performance marketing and brand departments co-existed with minimal interaction. Today, marketers need to ensure consistency across all channels, and performance ads often don’t meet those standards.  It’s […]

By Maximilian Gower  On MENA level, Spotify have shared “Culture Next” which was a study with lifestyle bloggers from around the region to understand their insights. The study looks at Gen Z and Millennials. It was in partnership with research agency Culture Co-Op. The report outlined five trends including but not limited trends such as band […]

By Brian Braiker Evans Nguyen flits inside a giant glass box, hitting a tennis ball against a digital backboard with a moving target on it. The clock is ticking as he scrambles to bank the ball off the wall as many times as he can. He has 90 seconds to move a digital Mercedes sedan across […]

By Mai Al Khouri I have realized that stepping out of my comfort zone, while maintaining pragmatism, is an essential component to working in communications. For me, it is important to be constantly aware of this, especially in Lebanon, where the economic, political, and social spheres are as tense as ever, with the added geopolitical stress. […]

Earlier this summer, Burger King Kuwait introduced a concept “Hotter is Cooler,” which aimed to interact with the temperatures in the country.  This is not the first campaign in which the company works on interacting more with the community it lives with. Burger King and agency Memac Ogilvy has been working together to deal with […]

Jamie Angus is the director of the BBC World Service Group, which is the service that provides news in English and the other 42 languages globally, on TV Radio and Online. He began his career working for Radio4 after graduating from Oxford University. After which he rose to become the lead of the service. In […]

By Denise Lee Yohn Kim Kardashian West eventually caved to the social media backlash that arose from her decision to brand her new line of shapewear Kimono, opting for the less culturally inappropriate Skims instead. But that doesn’t mean all brands now need to ensure their naming decisions pass muster with customers. Certainly we have entered an era in […]

A blockbuster film association is seen as a significant investment from both a brand and product perspective, said Sebastien Auguin, Marketing Director at Audi Middle East to Communicate. Auguin added that with traditional advertising, the company would “never reach” such a large audience for such an extended period of time. “An important factor is the very […]

Twitter announced today it has appointed Samantha Billingham as Head of Video Solutions for the Middle East and North Africa region. The move is another step, the company said, to provide video content solutions to advertisers.   In recent news, Twitter has  allowed advertisers to pay only for completed views. “The client gets charged for only […]

Since January 2019, TikTok has been ranked the top downloadable app behind WhatsApp and Messenger. The app is believed to be popular among the younger generations who could use it to upload their content using elements such as music and effects. The app’s technology sheds a light on how the algorithm is designed to bring […]

By Andreas Keller  As the summer holidays come to an end and the business community returns to town, get ready for a flurry of new business PR briefs to hit the market. Sorting through which opportunities to go after and how to win the ones you prioritize can be challenging. After over 10 years of […]

Technology has already transformed the way we shop, it is believed that more people are increasingly shopping using their devices daily. That said, there has been an increase in technology at the point-of-sale and as part of overall retail operations. This means more data from the offline world.  We spoke to Liquid’s CEO Sachinn J Laala […]

By Imad Lahad There is no hiding from the fact that artificial intelligence (AI) is gradually changing our world, one industry at a time. Perhaps in no greater way than in government communications. Earlier this year in Dubai, we witnessed a moment that clearly captured this sentiment. International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde was being […]

In collaboration with Memac Ogilvy, Jordan’s water utility organization known as Miyahuna, removed the dots from the Arabic spelling of logos, in an attempt to alter the word’s meanings. Therefore, highlighting the importance of a few single drops. The campaign named “Don’t underestimate the dots” used this technique to help people understand the significance of […]

By Drew Neisser Shortly after arriving as the CMO of NetApp, Jean English hit a wall. Charged with writing a new story for the $6-billion-data-storage company, English presented what she thought was a winning direction to their customer advisory board. With refreshing honesty, she recalls that “They hated it.” Slightly chagrined, she “walked out the […]

Omnicom Media Group’s data, analytics and technology consultancy Annalect, announced in a press statement, two new senior executives in the Middle East and North Africa region. “Andreas Frangeskides has joined as Director-Marketing Solutions, while Oleksandr Cherviakov is now the consultancy’s Senior Manager-Business Solutions,” said the statement. OMG also said in the statement that they hired Joubran Abdul Khalek […]

Facebook is finally starting to roll out a new feature allowing users to see which advertisers have their data and prevent them from using that data to target ads. On Tuesday, the social network revealed a new option to delete “off-Facebook activity.” The company first mentioned its interest in such a product more than a […]

Gambit Communications, a local independent agency, has announced its launch late July in the Middle East market. Gambit Communications is named after the opening move of the game of chess. “The name is also a double-entendre because the phrase ‘make an opening gambit’ also means ‘to start a conversation with someone’, and in our field […]

By Mario Morby Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into my little world Enjoy the silence.  Lyrics from one of, if not, the greatest song of the 90s?  Don’t know. Maybe.  As much as I’d like to debate music from the 90s that would sort of contradict what I’m about to say, which […]

In an attempt to offer “balanced” reporting, media globally offers climate deniers with no scientific background space to oppose scientists. This revelation came in a study which has been recently published.  The study analyzed,  media coverage from 2000 to 2016, after scanning around 100,000 media articles, bylines, citations and mentions. The study found that with […]

In recent news authorities at Bali, an Indonesian Island, have asked tourists to either behave or leave their land. This warning came after an incident that was posted on Instagram about a couple from Czech Republic who acted disrespectfully at a temple in Bali. The incident has caused locals to ask for a tourist boycott.  […]

WARC revealed the Effective innovation Report – Lessons from the 2019 WARC awards, which highlights the key innovation trends for effective marketing.  The report itself includes opinions from judges who highlights the ideas that have transformed a business or disrupted category conventions and delivered major results. The WARC awards feature some of the marketing industry’s […]

By Drew Neisser ADP’s chief marketer Lorraine Barber-Miller explains the benefits of re-imagining an already successful brand. Most B2B marketers can only dream about having nearly 100 percent awareness among their targets.  But what if that awareness is limited to one aspect of your business, how do you broaden perceptions without losing the essence of […]

Facebook Inc. just completed a massive fine of $5 billion settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission following the probe on its privacy practices. However, the social networking giant came under scrutiny over its privacy concerns as another violation by the company has been reported a few hours ago.  According to a report by Bloomberg […]

In a recent survey, security company Bullguard, found that 79 percent of public Wi-Fi users are at a risk of being hacked when they choose their connection. Through public Wi-Fi, hackers can set up what appears to be a legitimate gateway but it is actually malicious and can steal people’s sensitive information. According to a statement […]

By Vinod Krishnan Viewers are watching more content than ever before, with expectations for nearly endless content choice anytime, anywhere and on any screen. To innovate and stay ahead of viewer demands requires the adoption of technologies and solutions that accelerate content production and delivery.  Today, cloud technology has the power to fundamentally change how media […]

By Brian Braiker There don’t seem to be as many big, outsized personalities in advertising as there were in previous generations. Think Ogilvy, think Burnett, think Bernbach. It’s something that David Droga—himself no shrinking violet—says he thinks a lot about. “It bugs me,” he says. He’s certainly doing his share to shake things up, though: The […]

By Sharvari Alape  Stand-up comedy is a global form of expression that provides a new space and stands away from other traditional means of connecting with societies. Comic form of expression is not new to the region; however, stand-up comedy has been around for two decades old, placing our region many years behind the world […]

It’s every company’s dream to know the real-time location of its audience, deeply understand them and know exactly how, when and where to speak to them. Data mining companies specialize in providing brands with such information, ensuring campaigns’ cost-effectiveness by harvesting and analyzing data. However, these firms and how they operate are still not well […]

By Erik Matlick Amid heightened concern around consumer privacy, Google is the latest browser developer to make policy changes that impact the use of cookies. In strengthening the privacy protections within its Chrome browser, Google has made it easier for users to block third-party cookies and harder for tech companies to fingerprint. With consumers bombarded by targeted ad […]

By Sharvari Alape  Technological advancements through digital innovations are driving companies to transform their workforce. According to a report by Research and Markets, the global market is set to reach USD 24 billion by 2023, proving a strong growth in workforce transformation.  Praj Calthorpe, Deputy General Manager, Condo Protego, told Communicate  that the workforce transformation […]

By Sharvari Alape Over the past few years, we have seen companies consolidating the Chief Marketing Officer roles into “chief growth officer” and other titles that incorporate commercial and sales posts.  Hence, the layoff of 400 marketing employees by Uber, made last week, was just another hit in the wall by some who see companies […]

With a growing necessity to operate cost-effectively within the market, more clients on a global level are stressing to have a transparent relationship with the agencies. Various research has recorded misunderstandings between clients and agencies, what they have agreed upon in terms of their work. There are multiple reasons why these misunderstandings occur. Stewart Morrison, Managing […]

The riding giant Uber has announced earlier this week a layoff of third of its’ global marketing team.  Some of the members of the marketing team in the Middle East and North Africa has been affected. Overall around 400 employees has been let go worldwide. According to a sheet that went viral, the employees within […]

By Drew Neisser Most new CMOs arrive with a mandate to find ways to make marketing more effective. Ironically, only a small percentage ask for or are given the time they need to assess the situation—let alone provided the time they would need to research a meaningful customer insight that could have a material impact on […]

By Garett Sloane Amazon has struck a deal with The Trade Desk and Dataxu, two sources of online advertising, to deliver commercials to Fire TV. On Friday, Amazon announced the new arrangement developed for media companies that stream video on Fire TV. The video publishers can now set up what are known as private marketplaces to […]

To many over-the-top (OTT) providers, an ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) service is merely a tool to garner interest and funnel viewers to their higher revenue-generating subscription video on demand (SVOD) products. As a result, they don’t feel the necessity to innovate around advertising. By failing to think outside the video-advertising box, though, they’re missing […]

According to a cyber security research conducted by both VMware and Forbes Insights, only 25 percent of the business leaders across Europe, Middle East and Africa are confident in their current cyber security. “The current security practices are not 100 percent fit in the digital era,” said Rasheed Al-Omari, Principal Business Solutions Strategists SEMEA at […]

Internationally accredited advertising agency, TBWA, announced in a press statement today, a change in its creative team in their Dubai headquarters, which according to them, will be working at full potential immediately. The new creative structure is being led by Executive Creative Director Manuel Bordé, who will be responsible for all creative output. The team also […]

One of the main challenges viewed in adopting Artificial Intelligence is the gender biases available in the data. Hence, as part of an ongoing discussion on creating a non biased data, companies are looking into various ways to ensure the role of women throughout the process.  We spoke to Francesca Gori, Regional Director of Legal […]

Saudi Arabian Telecom brand, Jawwy, launched a Ramadan campaign in both cities Riyadh and Dubai, almost two months after Ramadan. They said their campaign is to encourage people to continue the generosity and kindness that they display during the holy month. With the support of FP7 McCann Riyadh and FP7 McCann Dubai, Jawwy found that […]

Google is closing a loophole that revealed when people were browsing in “incognito” mode, but the fix will leave some publishers defenseless against a certain breed of freeloading readers who can now jump their paywalls. By the end of July, Google says it will patch the glitch in its Chrome web browser, which allowed websites […]

Notable for its news coverage, BBC.com  is also home for wide genres of content ranging from informative to entertaining topics such as lifestyle, science, culture, natural history and more.  The BBC team explains that real time and accumulated data plays significant roles in identifying the type of content audiences most likely want to engage with. […]

By Ann-Christine Diaz For the everyday consumer, the name McDonald’s might summon a handful of singular images: the Golden Arches, a Big Mac, a red container of fries, Ronald McDonald. But just two years ago, if you surveyed the company’s advertising around the world, you’d find a completely different picture: jumbled messages comprising a mish-mash […]

By Anthony Crupi Advertisers looking to shill for their products and services within the context of an Emmy Award-winning series are once again more or less out of luck, as premium cable and streaming platforms gobbled up most of this morning’s nominations. Of the dozens of scripted, reality and variety series acknowledged today by the […]

By David Getson Video games inspire a level of engagement and fandom that most brands would kill for. Successful game brands are more than a recurring touchpoint in a fan’s daily life; they can become a meaningful part of a fan’s identity. As we look at current trends in games marketing, some emerge as critical […]

“We live in an era of disruption; the speed and frequency with which brands connect with customers every day have been transformed dramatically, as consumers are more digitally connected. The key to success for brands is agility; that’s why at McDonald’s we are seeking progress over perfection. As marketers we need to have a high tolerance for risk, we recognized that we need to test new things, fail fast, spot the successes, and scale fast. We collaborated with Facebook because we knew that we could leverage data analytics and insights to help point us in the right direction, supporting our move from mass marketing to mass personalization. This is key to making our customers’ journey more memorable and providing an exceptional personal experience.” - Tarek El Kady, Senior Director, Marketing – McDonald’s MEA

Xavier Anglada, the Managing Director at Accenture Digital and Innovation Lead in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, believes that companies have no other option but to innovate. “Innovation is not about waking up and thinking a great idea. It’s a very streamlined process of things you need to do to bring ideas that […]

By Shavari Alape  UM, the marketing and media agency network of IPG Mediabrands, announced the launch of Remix Culture, the first culturally focused iteration of its annual Wave X study that tracks social and digital media usage in 81 countries.  The study concludes that resist, retrograde, reglocalize, and recreate are the four major trends that […]

By Laurent Sirgy In today’s hyper-connected world, data security and privacy are integral in everyday life. Data forms the very foundation of any modern digital enterprise. It drives everything from new user experiences to products and business insights.  Sharing data brings many benefits but carries a substantial amount of risk. Personal or organizational data can […]

By Pamela Kaupinen We are seeing sharp shifts in the social storytelling landscape lately, from new shopping features to hidden likes, and it is now more important than ever for marketers and brands to understand how to work effectively with content creators. Understand your partners In our global study of 300-plus social-media storytellers, more than half […]

By Professor Farhad Oroumchian The recent progression of technology has seen businesses shifting from traditional to digital platforms to interact with consumers. Organisations these days use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to carry out various transactional and business activities digitally. On such technique that has recently grown in popularity and application is the use of chatbots. A chatbot […]

By Sharvari Alape Orikami Lab, a Dubai-based design innovation hub, has transformed “Spectrum Watches” to meet the present demands of the digital world. The two companies have collaborated together to deliver what is viewed as a “scalable and livable design system and narrative for the brand.” While  the brand enjoys immense success in the offline […]

By John Clark We are in the midst of a shift in the perception about neuroscience. No longer do we regard it as just an interesting topic; we are now talking about neuroscience as a proven and useful tool. The conversation tends to focus either on the different technologies and their use in research and evaluation; or on learnings from behavioral […]

By Afreen Khan After the analysis of more than 8000 responses, Twitter has expanded their rules against hateful conduct to include language that dehumanizes others on the basis of religion. The announcement came in a statement to the press. Twitter conducted two months research backed up by feedback from its Arabic, English, Spanish and Japanese […]

Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) Measurement  has been expanded to 26 major markets including UAE, South Africa, Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Turkey, among others. Nielsen is expanding its advertising measurement of YouTube’s mobile app. The measurement company announced a deal with Google that will witness the Nielsen […]

By Adam Kleinberg Direct-to-consumer (DTC) business models have been heralded as the antidote to disruption. From the moment Unilever wrote a billion-dollar check to a unicorn, virtually every brand that sells a product in a store has been tripping over themselves to figure out their DTC strategy before they get Dollar-Shave-Clubbed upside the head. The […]

By Tomasz Wnuk Digital advertising represented the largest portion of ad spend for Middle East marketers in 2018 at 52 percent— and that number will only grow, according to the 2019 Middle East Report on Travel Advertising published by SOJERN. Whereas, two in three (61 percent) travel marketers plan to spend more on digital in […]

By Nader Bitar Earlier this year I wrote about how Amazon tends to disrupt and realign any industry it chooses to lay claim to. Some seven months on, that turned out to be fairly prophetic as the e-commerce giant has now officially entered the ad-tech fray with the full might of Sizmek’s tech stack behind […]

With a strong record of creating cutting-edge phones that are as forward-thinking as they are innovative, OPPO seems to have taken the lead in exploring into uncharted territories with its latest OPPO Reno Series– a smartphone that has created a huge buzz in the Middle East for its large, uninterrupted screen with a sleek pop-up […]

We spoke to Puja Panuum, the Managing Director of Blis, about how companies can leverage geolocation data while maintaining people’s privacy. She said that in today’s age companies only work with others who are privacy conscious and take the matter seriously. Today, businesses use data very differently which is why it is considered the “new […]

By Afreen Khan CAFU has recently launched a film, shot and produced by themselves, titled “Faded Voice.” The film is an initiative to reward its fan base by crowdsourcing the plot from the customers in a creative manner. The campaign included a series of multiple films that were shot locally in Dubai, catching more than […]

By Anthony Crupi The giddy excess of the Peak TV era has culminated in a sort of option paralysis among consumers, many of whom, when presented with a near-infinite number of entertainment choices, make none whatsoever. According to Nielsen’s newly released Total Audience Report for the first quarter of 2019, more than one-fifth (21 percent) […]

By Anne Connelly We’re at the edge of one of the greatest societal shifts since the separation of church and state. Ten years ago, with the creation of bitcoin, people were given the ability to digitally transact value without the need for a government to manage the system. Bitcoin marked the beginning of the separation […]

She launched Z7 Communications with a team of two, about twelve years ago, but now they are an agency of more than 40 employees. Zeina El-Dana, Founder and CEO of Z7 Communications talks to Communicate about the significance of investing in the company’s employees to be able to grow “without compromising on the exceptional standards.”   […]

Around the Clock Communications (ATC) is the new exciting name in the UAE advertising scene. We have a big mission to disrupt and change the communication industry. With our offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Beirut and soon-to-open Riyadh, ATC comprises an inspiring hive of specialists, ready to handle every facet of communication, to deliver a […]

By Sharvari Alape  Invasion or Soqor Al Arab, is an Arabic language mobile game that has been launched in 2016. Since then, it has driven over 5 million registered users. Likewise, Salah Al Din which is the first IP game, has found fame. The game is  based on the historical TV series Salah Al Din- a […]

By Sharvari Alape Twitter, UNHCR, and the London-based Kniterate has launched a global Twitter campaign, #KnitForRefugees.  Mainly powered through social media, the campaign depends on retweets to spread awareness and raise funds. Once a tweet is retweeted, users get an automated response asking for donations. The campaign’s  initial launch has been in Dubai, after which it will […]

By Nicola Mendelsohn The Cannes Lions Festival has never been more important. This gathering of the great and the good from the creative industries on the sun-drenched Croisette, has always been an opportunity to celebrate outstanding work from the past year and look forward to the emerging themes in advertising. I’m sure this will always be true […]

By Hallie Johnston We all know the doom-and-gloom headlines about the short lifecycle of CMOs, the squeeze on the agency business model and the continuous fragmentation in the media ecosystem. Never before in the history of marketing and advertising have clients and brands been as overwhelmed with new ways to connect with consumers. And while this […]

By Faris Sibai  Augmented Reality (AR) is propelling the e-commerce industry into the future with a model that makes advertising not only personalized but fun for the user.  Augmented reality revenues are estimated to reach a staggering $14 billion in 2021, according to ARtillery Intelligence. This growth presents an exciting opportunity for marketers, as consumers […]

By Sharvari Alape  Alibaba Cloud, the data intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, has risen to be China’s largest provider of public cloud services, with eyes to expand beyond within the Middle East. During its inaugural Middle East and Africa (MEA) Internet Summit, Selina Yuan said to her audience that the company does not have competition because […]

By Afreen Khan LinkedIn announced a new content partnership with GCC-based digital marketing agency, Netizency. The partnership between both companies aims to provide multimedia content that should be both strategic and relevant to the market. Consumption of content varies across platforms in relation to the demographic that is being catered for. The company said that […]

By Bassam Mustafa Influencer marketing has seen a major growth spurt, and is currently all the rage. With football superstar Leo Messi kicking off the Expo 2020 Dubai video campaign, to Bollywood king Shahrukh Khan being locked down by Visit Dubai, the region has been bursting at the seams with celebrity and brand unions this year. But how […]

By Dan Cantorna  Data is considered by many to be the oil of the 21st century. The success of any brand in today’s digital economy is ultimately dictated by its access to data and ability to interpret it. There is no question that you need to leverage your own customer data. However, brands need to […]

By Drew Neisser There’s tremendous pressure on CMOs to spend their budgets online, particularly at tech companies. For those with a couple of decades of experience, there’s even a reverse bias that if they don’t spend most of their dollars digitally, they’ll be perceived as out of touch. So, leave it to a couple of […]

By Caline Malek As the Gulf prepares to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution, artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to bring a number of benefits to many industries, including the media sector. Indeed, robo-journalism – the automated creation of news article by an algorithm – is rapidly gaining ground around the world. Many prestigious media outlets […]

Google is testing a carousel format for text-based search ads on mobile, as the tech giant considers adding more inventory on tiny screens without disrupting user experiences. Presently Google allows a maximum of four ads displayed vertically on mobile search results, and marketers only pay when someone clicks. The carousel format would allow Google to present […]

By Muzammil Hamza Although Virtual Reality rung it’s announcement bells first in 2012, the “reality” aspect was still fictitious to mainstream users in the MENA region until mid-2015. Initial applications of the technology, and sneak-peaks of the gadgets involved spurred a global race to identify the next major market opportunities, especially among tech-enthusiasts, who expected the […]

By Dr Alun Epps There is no need to even slightly paraphrase the prophetic line from the Eagles staple that has become the author’s go-to phrase to describe the “black mirror” world that we have allowed ourselves to check out of any time we like (but never leave). To loosely quote Thomas Browne (1643) from […]

By Afreen Khan Microsoft opens its first data centers in MENA, the company announced last week at an event held in Dubai. The two new data computing centers are based in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai and will be working on delivering Microsoft Azure, the cloud-based system, to the region. The technology giant believes that […]

By I-Hsien Sherwood and Ann-Christine Diaz Another Cannes Lions is wrapping, but don’t let its lessons fade away into the summer dog days. If you’d rather those memories stick like the floor of the Carlton Terrace, read on for a refresher. Whether you’re nursing a sunburn and a rosé headache or a grudge because you […]

By Alexander Jutkowitz It’s 8 a.m., and you step on to the subway [metro] to get to work. You automatically look down at your phone, and your scrolling thumb takes over, zooming through Instagram and going down the proverbial rabbit hole of everything from videos of your best friend’s Miami vacation to soul-shaking quotes about […]

By Ayman Haydar You could be forgiven for thinking that 5G has been implemented, tested and been through several iterations given the amount of coverage it has generated in the last six months alone. We’ve always been impatient when it comes to waiting for the next big technological development and the arrival of this fifth-generation […]

The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) launches the “Voice Coalition.” The new group is designed to help brands understand more about the impact voice will have on the way consumers select brands. WFA  said in a statement that the partnership has been founded with Fast-Up Partners (FUP), in which the group has been created after […]

By Ann-Christine Diaz and Max Sternlicht At the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Ad Age sat down with and Alex Diamond, HBO’s director of consumer marketing, and Andy Ferguson, group creative director at Droga5, to learn more about the expansive “Game of Thrones” #FortheThrone campaign that kicked off the final season of the popular show—and which […]

By Hussam ElHage I am revisiting this article a year after I initially wrote it. Originally, I was going to discuss the new entrants to the advertising world; consulting firms. But now, they’re already here! Let me begin by saying that during my time working within media agencies, Accenture and other firms on a global […]

He turned an average-sized plastic manufacturing company into a marketing services giant with a market value of $20 billion. After 33 years of service, he left WPP in the midst of controversy, and within a month formed S4 Capital, providing digital marketing solutions to a broad array of clients. At age 74, executive chairman Sir […]

In alignment with the start of Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, WARC, the global authority on advertising and media effectiveness, has released a white paper under the title of” “Anatomy of Effectiveness.” The white paper is meant for brand marketers and advertising agencies. The paper highlights five key priorities for brands seeking greater impact. […]

By I-Hsien Sherwood Global ad sales growth will continue to slow this year, according to a new report from ad forecaster Magna. Ad revenue will grow 5 percent in 2019, nearing $600 billion worldwide—a drop from last year’s growth rate of 8 percent, but a slight uptick from Magna’s most recent forecast in December, when […]

By Ann-Christine Diaz Tennis pro Serena Williams, skateboarder Lacey Baker and high school football player/homecoming queen Alicia Woollcott are among the athletes who “dreamed crazy” in Nike’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” effort. But Nike dreamed crazy, too. The brand took a stand and threw itself into the center of cultural controversy by featuring former […]

By Sharvari Alape Eltizam Asset Management Group is ready to work on its brand recognition, said Uros Trojanovic, General Manager, Strategy & Planning at Eltizam in an interview with Communicate. “Growth has been achieved not through brand awareness but other avenues. So in order to sustain that continued growth both in the UAE and also […]

By Sharvari Alape  The topic of blockchain is being increasingly discussed in the region as brands realize the potential behind the concept. Coinciding with the current market trends, the sixth edition of the Arab Luxury World 2019 dedicated a panel discussion among the industry experts titled, ‘Blockchain: is it the next luxury revolution?’ “Who here […]

By Mohamed Itani Let’s face it, some of you must have thought of or desired at some stage to manage your media in-house. Well, if you go by the saying “if you want something done right, do it yourself” then you must have actually gone beyond the simple thought of in-housing. Well, it also appears […]

By Afreen Khan The luxury world’s biggest conference in the MENA region, Arab Luxury World, returned for its 5th edition on the 12th of June 2019 with a changed perspective on the marketing of luxury goods. One that is described as not only  more inclusive but also open minded and forward-thinking, targeting a newer and […]

By Puja Pannum Let’s face it, you can’t truly get to know your audience based on the content they read. Imagine someone reads a football article, for instance. Based on this information, it would be understandable if a brand thought that this person might want to buy some football boots, when in actual fact they have […]

The fifth edition of the Media Consumption Forecasts by Zenith sheds light on the rise of mobile internet usage globally, along with the popularity of television and radio. According to the survey conducted across 57 countries, the amount of time people use on mobile internet is a collective of 3.8 trillion hours this year, which […]

Omnicom Media Group EMEA has announced three promotions at the top of its Middle East/North Africa (MENA) operations in a press statement. The regional CEO, Elie Khouri, has been promoted to chairman, while OMD MENA’s CEO, Nadim Samara, takes the same position at the regional holding and PHD’s CEO Elda Choucair moves to the newly […]

By George P. Slefo A new study suggests that Fortnite has more in common with Facebook than Call of Duty, with the massively popular game emerging as a new kind of social network for a key demographic of younger consumers that brands covet. “Unlike other platforms and services, Fortnite uniquely combines benefits from gaming, social […]

Following the launch of Amazon.ae at the beginning of May, the brand has experienced a significant rise in its ad awareness within the UAE during the same month, said YouGov spokesperson in an e-mail. In a survey conducted by YouGov BrandIndex, the results show an uplift in the brand’s ad awareness increasing by +13.9 points, […]

With an aim to capture people’s attention and increase donations, the UNHCR has been telling the story of refugees differently. “The current realities of refugees have forced us to look out of the box and for non-traditional ways of how we as a UN agency want to communicate,” said Omer Elnaiem, Campaign and Advocacy Officer […]

A Research conducted by the World Advertising Research Center or WARC on Global Advertisement Trends for the year 2019 uncovered that online advertisement has indeed experienced growth and will continuously keep growing, thereby becoming the most frequented advertisement format for Global Media by 2020.  The expected rise in spend on internet ad formats is charted […]

By Tahaab Rais Ramadan matters because it embodies values that help make people better versions of themselves, such as generosity, togetherness, empathy, kindness, giving, food and family-time, among others. Christmas matters too because it too embodies those great values too. Both occasions should be famous around the world and should be celebrated by everyone.  Christmas has […]

By Ana Julia Olivera Advertising plays a significant role in today’s world. Countries have relied heavily on branding themselves to attract tourists and bring in foreign investments. It has become more evident, through research, that nations benefit from corporate brand advertisements that are in line with their nation brands. In turn, increasing their soft power […]

By Afreen Khan C2 Comms describes themselves as not just “any” advertising and branding consultancy agency, but importantly seekers of change and creating new perceptions.  The company that has lately announced a rebranding for itself, talks to Communicate about “reengineering of the way we approach the business of communication.” C2 Comms Managing director Roy Aftimos […]

By Paul Woolmington If “the medium is the message” was one of the most radical concepts of the 20th century, then a compelling question for the 21st century is this: What can now be defined as a medium? Marshall McLuhan’s famous theory, of course, is that the medium itself, not the content it carries, is what […]

By Sharvari Alape People experience ads everywhere. From sponsored ads on social media,  the in-between ads on TV to the enormous billboards on the streets. However, that does not mean they resonate with the advertisement on a level to spark an action. Comparatively, very few campaigns over the last years have tackled specific social  issues […]

WhatsApp, a free and popular messaging Facebook-owned app, is set to be no more ad-free. It its not clear when the exact date in which the ads will  be implemented into the platform.  “As we said last year, we will start showing ads in status in the future,” a WhatsApp spokesperson in an e-mail to Communicate. The announcement was […]

By Jessica Wohl When Sears redesigned its logo late last month, it was intended to signal a new brand positioning, an attempt at freshening its image and a Hail Mary to connect with customers. The new design—a combination of a home and heart, with the new slogan “Making Moments Matter”—got a reaction out of people, […]

According to Facebook IQ, brands have 57.6 million more hours to capture attention during Ramadan due to the additional time spent on Facebook during that month. Hence, they say that “SHARED by Facebook” offers brands and people an easy-to-navigate platform to help them make the most out of these moments. So what is Shared by Facebook?   […]

By Divya Ariga As virtuous as the “We should all be feminists.” $860 t-shirt from Dior may be, it does not attempt to look at the complex power relations which men and women present by merely existing. It is important that marketers and communications professionals absorb the idea that feminism, has real-world implications, that through simply […]

By Alex Maalouf Let’s forget all of the buzz words. Instead, let me ask you this. How much do you rely on the internet? Would you rather forget your wallet or your phone? Or are they one and the same today? It may feel like we’ve lived in a digital world for years, but we’re […]

Publicis Groupe has launched Digitas, a connected marketing agency, in the Middle East, earlier in May 2019. The agency is set to provide brands in the Middle East with access to a  diverse expertise across data, strategy, creative, media, and technology all under one roof. We spoke to Tony Wazen, Chief Executive Officer Middle East of […]

By Nariman Zouheiry, Lebanon “Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.” – Bill Drayton, founder of international social enterprise promoter Ashoka. No one could have said it better than the father of social entrepreneurship himself. Drayton initiated […]

By  Brian Braiker Rishad Tobaccowala has logged nearly four decades at Publicis. Starting with a run at Leo Burnett and followed by stints as chairman of Digitas LBi and Razorfish, he spent some time in leadership roles at VivaKi and Starcom IP as well as other companies under the Publicis umbrella. Today he is the […]

Infiniti has been telling stories in the form of advertising. For them, digitization has changed the way brands are perceived today. “People come to the show room knowing the exact car they want,” said Karsten Jankowski, General Manager of Marketing & PR at Infiniti Middle East.  Hence, he explains that the brand uses all sort […]

By Anthony Crupi The much griped-about series finale of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” on Sunday night broke the premium cable network‘s all-time ratings records, as nearly 20 million viewers tuned in to find out who would get to sit on the Uncomfortable Pointy Chair. According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, the 82-minute “Thrones” capper averaged 19.3 million total viewers, […]

By Mai Youssef The rise of digital media has reduced consumers’ attention span to that of a goldfish, which is less than 9 seconds. With consumers seeing over 5,000 ads a day, it’s no surprise that around 615 million devices globally are now blocking ads. With so many brands competing for a few seconds of […]

By Sharvari Alape Having started his journey 25 years ago with Horizon FCB, Mazen Jawad is the president of Horizon Holdings that is home for five agencies. He moves around his office with ease and familiarity as he reminisces, “I used to love watching commercials more than going to the beach with my family. I […]

By Afreen Khan Home of a 1.5 billion users worldwide, WhatsApp reported a security breach few days ago. The company, which  introduced “End-to-End Encryption” in 2016, asked users to update their WhatsApp mobile applications as the update contains a fix for a malicious hacking that was reported. The breach was discovered early May, in which […]

By Afreen Khan Image Nation Abu Dhabi, Majid Al Futtaim and MBC Studios, three of MENA’s most influential and major media companies, signed an agreement to come together in a coalition to create a major production platform for film and television related projects in the region. This partnership, they said, will facilitate the production of […]

Leo Burnett UAE and Lower Gulf today announced, in a press statement, that the agency’s Regional Executive Creative Director of Dubai André Pereira Nassar, is leaving the agency after more than five years to pursue other opportunities. “We are truly sad to see André leave us but we respect his desire to pursue other opportunities […]

By Ahmed Hafez Younis “There’s no recipe for creativity.” If you walk around Facebook’s offices chances are you’re going to come across this poster. It truly reflects what we at Creative Shop believe. We also believe that to connect with today’s consumers in this mobile world, we must build for where they are and not where […]

By Pedro Goncalves One of the strongest memories from my early days in advertising was the “EUREKA” moment, when for the first time, I was exposed to the biddable media concept. Words like Programmatic and RTB were still to come into use, but I felt strongly that whatever the official name, it will have a gigantic […]

By Sharvari Alape In response to a Reuters’s report, international cigarette maker Philip Morris has suspended their global social marketing campaign for their product IQOS. Reuters inquired about the company’s campaign that used an influencer who is under the age of 25. The campaign was designed to use young online personalities to sell its new […]

GroupM, WPP’s named, Ravi Rao, CEO at GroupM Middle East North Africa (MENA), the group said in a statement. He replaces Filip Jabbour, who was appointed in 2015 when GroupM launched in the region and has taken the decision to step down. “Clients increasingly require services beyond media planning and buying, and I’m looking forward […]

Future government and digital transformation are driving Bahrain’s IT market, said the newly appointed Country Manager of SAP Bahrain. This transformation is with at an aim is to reach a record-high of  $186 million by 2021. Bahrain Economic Vision 2030 aims to foster economic diversification, which is why according to SAP, organizations are increasingly digitally transforming, […]

APCO Worldwide expanded its presence in the MENA region with the opening of a new office in Manama, Bahrain, Brad Staples, CEO of APCO Worldwide, said in a statement. APCO’s office in Bahrain comes during a banner year for the company with 2019 representing the 35th anniversary year of the firm’s founding. Founded by Margery Kraus as […]

By Mike Proulx With four simple words printed on a slide behind Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg during his recent F8 keynote, 15 years of social media playbooks essentially vanished: “The future is private.” Indeed, in what felt like a snap from Thanos’s infinity gauntlet, Facebook is pivoting to messaging apps as the foundation […]

By Justin Choi The world wide web celebrated its 30th birthday this past spring. That’s three decades’ worth of growth and evolution for an experiment whose entire purpose was to encourage freedom and decentralization of information and communication. Unfortunately, this open, free global information network has never worn heavier shackles than it does today. Today’s web […]

This video explains the importance of programmatic in branding. Accordingly, programmatic optimizes branding, nonetheless it is important to adjust the strategies from direct display to use in programmatic.   This is the last video of the series about programmatic advertisement is published in partnership with Gamned.

By  Drew Neisser If Dave Gerhardt had his way, those annoying lead-generation forms that incessantly pop up on most B2B websites would simply disappear. As CMO of Drift, a company that enables live chat and bots for more than 150,000 companies, Gerhardt and his team have a vested interest in connecting sales teams with future […]

Kerning Cultures announced recently that they have  raised $460K. This news makes them  the first venture-backed podcast network in the Middle East with this capital. The seed round was led by 500 Startups, a global Venture Capital firm that has invested in companies. Podcast industry has been rising in the region and global wide. The […]

The world’s largest sneaker company is launching Nike Fit, an addition to its app that lets customers scan their feet at home and provides their proper size in various models. The company says 60% of people wear the wrong size shoe, and concern over fit has a material impact on consumer confidence. “This is something […]

Dubai-based agency Face to Face has collaborated with Expo 2020 Dubai to create the event’s first advertising campaign featuring global ambassador Lionel Messi, the company said in a statement. Messi stars in a digitally-led campaign that’s focused on Expo 2020’s messages of “collaboration and unity.” The two-minute film will run across digital channels globally and […]

Terry Kane is the Regional Head of Auto, Finance, Telco & Travel for MENA at Facebook. His work as he explains is to help businesses understand friction within their process and solve it.   “So the the industry [travel] is usually fragmented,” he said in an interview. One of the processes he describes is the […]

In a statement to the press, PRCA announced  Ahmad Itani, Founder and CEO of Cicero & Bernay Public Relations (C&B), has been selected to be the Vice Chairman of  the leading PR association for MENA. PRCA MENA was launched in 2016 with the aim of raising standards in PR and communication. The association exists to […]

By Rizk Haddad. On January 31, 2019, at 6am, all Shock Middle East radio brands introduced a clutter-free experience to our listeners and clients with ‘only two ads in a row’. We wanted to understand the consumer behavior around radio consumption and engagement better, and commissioned an independent research survey with IPSOS. This highlighted key insights […]

By Elías Jabbe Twitter celebrated the regional launch of its global #StartWithThem and #TwitterFronts initiatives in March and April in both Dubai and Riyadh. Following its global #WhatsHappening motto that has been at the center of Twitter’s marketing campaigns over the past few years, #StartWithThem highlights the unique ways that Twitter has been leveraged in […]

Programmatic Advertising is bringing more accuracy in targeting for far more competitive cost. So the next question for the advertisers is : In-House or Outsourced ? This video walks us through understanding the internalization for brands that have the resources to recruit and train for programmatic advertising.   This series about programmatic advertisement is published […]

By Tony Stanol With a tighter candidate market and industries like tech firms and consultancies vying for advertising talent, mistakes in the hiring process are costlier than ever to agencies. I agree with 360i’s Jared Belsky’s recent article and know that we can “make it better, together.” I’ve learned countless lessons from my 11 years of […]

Mashreq’s in-house marketing and communications team has appointed TBWA \RAAD , part of Omnicom Group Inc., to work closer with the team in order to strengthen the bank’s position as the region’s most progressive and innovative community-focused bank. “Our data-driven disruption model questions and challenges normal conventions and we feel the rapid digital transformation of the […]

Burger King used an ultra-realistic autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) to create their latest advertisement launched within cinemas in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. In the latest ad, an actor is seen drawing a tray with the meal towards him, and slowly biting into the sandwich. The 45-second cinema spot, with sound design by Elie Akl, highlighted […]

Speaking at the Ai Everything conference in Dubai, Amy Webb, Futurist and Founder of Future Today Institute said that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not about robots but about the future of humanity. She added that businesses need to think about AI holistically. The AI expert and bestselling author of ‘The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans […]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rolled out a redesign of his social networking app with a focus on communities known as Groups, and a layout that loses the blue. On Tuesday, Zuckerberg opened Facebook’s F8 developer conference by announcing an overhaul of the apps, including the new look for the main property. Zuckerberg also laid out […]

Amazon and Souq announced the launch of Amazon.ae, a new local shopping experience for customers in the UAE. The website Amazon.ae features over 30 million products from local and international businesses, including products previously available on Souq and five million products from Amazon US, the company said in a statement. Customers can shop on Amazon.ae […]

By Elías Jabbe Pertinent topics such as mobile advertising, digital publishing and influencer marketer were discussed and further analyzed during the Mobile Marketing Association’s annual Impact Forum in Dubai. The forum brought in thought leaders working in-house  at global and regional companies to discuss the transformation of business through mobile. Among the speakers was Emre […]

Publicis Groupe MENA announced in a press statement the resignation of Alex Saber, Chairman of Publicis Media MENA. The company said in a statement that Alex will leave office end of May. “Alex has played a critical role in the development, growth and success of Publicis Media in the region. He is leaving to start […]

By Elías Jabbe The Mobile Marketing Association returns to Dubai today to host the latest edition of one of its signature events: MMA Impact Forum. The Istanbul-based MENA & Turkey chapter of the global MMA is leading the organization of the annual forum in Dubai that unites marketers from various countries in the Middle East […]

The role of media trader is to buy advertising space to reach on the precise audience only, using a strategy that will help in achieving the company’s digital objectives. The trader uses Real-Time Bidding (RTB) to buy the advertising space. The trader is in charge of optimizing on an hourly/daily basis the campaigns in progress. The […]

By Janet Levine There’s no shortage of headlines about storied print publications scaling back or shutting down entirely. Ad Age, for one, called it a category in “secular decline” in its 2019 Publishers A-List. From a media perspective, print publishers have a unique opportunity to reinvigorate their brands. If we treated these publishers the way […]

By Jose Duarte When it comes to social, brands often still chase the all-consuming, elusive pursuit of virality. While many people can’t even describe what that means, clients and social media managers spend a lot of time seeking, or asking their agencies to get them the next viral moment that will rival moments like the famous […]

Amazon.com Inc. said it spent $1.7 billion on video and music content during the first quarter of this year, the first time the technology and retail giant has itemized the growing cost of providing streaming services to consumers. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Seattle company said it spent $1.5 billion […]

New exponential technologies, has led to the digital disruption and transformation of industries, organizations, and governments. Whether Cloud Computing (CC), or Robotic Process Automation (RPA), or Artificial Intelligence (AI), these technologies are taking hold in the Outsourcing and Shared Services (OSS) industry in the region.   Outsourcing was once focused only on the goal of […]

By Rishi Saxena Measuring impact is the big challenge. An average person in the Middle East is served over 1,500 online impressions a month and can see up to 600 marketing messages across different media channels within a day according to the results of a 2018 Nielsen benchmark study on MENA media trends. This does not […]

WARC, the international marketing intelligence service, forecasts podcasts to account for 4.5 per cent($1.6bn) of global audio advertising spend by 2022, which his the double the expected investment of this year. The company said in a statement  that this forecast is almost double the $885m in expected investment this year. This expectation comes at the […]

Our second episode takes us into Real-time bidding (RTB), which means the advertising inventory that is bought and sold on a per-impression basis via programmatic auction. This takes places while the page is loading. The bidding begins as soon as the user visits the webpage. The bid request is triggered from the publisher’s end that may include […]

By Kelly Ehlers It’s the new “synergy.” It seems that in every pitch meeting and thought leadership piece (including this one!), we’re talking about an omnichannel approach to communications. This often leads to the question, “What does omnichannel even mean?” Let’s dig into what’s behind this trend: Omni-what? Sharing a prefix with popular words such as omnipresent […]

Snapchat has announced partnership with advertising partners for the debut of its new advertising product, Commercials. The Snapchat Commercials are an unskippable, six-second ad unit that are exclusively run on premium partner content called Snapchat Shows. According to the company, TV networks and entertainment studios are reimagining popular series for Snapchat, with shows across entertainment, sport, food […]

Launched during SXSW in April 2016, The Tempest is a media company by women, for women, with a focus on media presentation of various groups across the world. Not only content wise, but also on employees level, and other levels of stallholders. Communicate spoke with  Mashal Waqar, the co-founder of The Tempest, a media company […]

By Alex Malouf Is there any company more ubiquitous than Google? The company is everywhere, serving up billions of search engine results every day, powering our phones, helping us with our emails, providing even the directions for us to take. You know you’ve made it when your brand name becomes a verb. Google hasn’t been […]

According to Accenture Technology Vision 2019, an annual report from Accenture, the enterprise is entering a new “post-digital” era, where success will be based on an organization’s ability to master a set of new technologies that can deliver personalized realities and experiences for customers, employees and business partners. This year’s report, under the title  “The […]

Programmatic advertisement is a term that describes a range of platforms, tools and services that have made digital advertising more automated and data-driven. Through this concept, advertisers can obtain digital media without pricing, so they can pay only for the relevant impressions they will distribute on the right audience. Programmatic allows real time flexibility and […]

1st Case Study: Emirates NBD Emirates NBD is a leading bank in the UAE. Part of their corporate marketing initiatives is to build and maintain brand affinity amongst the local UAE community. One way the bank does this is through tailored communications during cultural moments like Ramadan. Emirates NBD turned to Snapchat—an untapped medium and […]

By Eric Kallman I think it was Jeff Goodby who used to write about asking his cab drivers what commercials they liked. It was a good way of taking the pulse of the people for someone living in the middle of adland. So, recently I decided to do the same with my Uber drivers. “What […]

YouTube will soon be available on Amazon’s Fire TV while Amazon Prime Video will show up on Google’s Chromecast and Android TV devices. The frosty relationship between Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. thawed a little further Thursday when the two tech giants said in a statement that they would begin letting each other’s video services […]

Whether there is an appetite or not they [brands] have to face the changes said Imad Lahad, Head of APCO’s AI Comms Lab, during an interview with Communicate . He spoke to us about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is moving at a pace that is 10 times faster than digital transformation. “Companies that won’t be […]

By Christian Reilly For modern Chief Intelligence Officers (CIO), success is not about the technology; it’s about using technology to drive business innovation and value. It’s about providing an always-on, secure digital workspace — without a costly outlay of capital. And it’s about efficiently and securely expanding into new markets and regions. In other words, […]

By Femi Oshiga  The 5G future is beginning now across the Middle East and Africa.  With the technology expected to contribute billions to economies around the region, network operators are rolling out pilot deployments and making investments in communications infrastructure.   For example, GSMA reported that local operators in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are […]

Bringing technologists in the Middle East together, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit in Dubai was held on Wednesday, to connect, collaborate, and learn more about the AWS Cloud and the way organizations in the Middle East can leverage the cloud technology to innovate and grow. AWS had previously announced that it will launch the first […]

Google announced it will launch the first Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge in Middle East and Africa (MEA) June 2019. The aim of the challenge as described by Google is to empower news innovators by showing newer ways of thinking in online journalism through development of new tools to elevate the industry. This initiative was announced […]

By Mary Ellen Dugan Gen Z can create personal brands faster and more effectively than any generation that’s come before them. If you represent a brand or agency, that should give you pause for thought. Gen Z will make up 40 percent of all consumers by 2020. As this generation of digital natives has been […]

The growth in the penetration and pervasiveness of the Internet and smart mobile devices, especially in MENA, has led to unprecedented social media usage in the Middle East, according to findings by a Twitter research team. Twitter commissioned NeuroInsight, one of the world’s leading neuroscience-based market research companies, to conduct a neuroscience study that looks […]

An analysis of the languages used through social media shows that Arabic is a dominant language within Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE. Findings of the research reveals that 90 per cent of the posts, across the studied industries, were in Arabic, compared to only 10 per cent in English. However, the majority of the users […]

There are four key ways to reach customers in Saudi Arabia, according to Mustafa Ismail CEO of Smaat, a digital marketing company, that works in the GCC and North Africa. They are culture, language, youth and influencers. Talking to an audience on Monday, he said that content for Saudi Arabia should provide cultural relevance, and […]

In a conversation with Communicate, Peter Mears, CEO of Havas Media Group, reiterated the significance of looking at advertisement as a field that has changed within its ecosystem, yet the “fundamentals of the craft” remains the same. Considered one of the most powerful people in the advertisement world, Mears said that the craft is about […]

By Stanislava Burianek We already know very well that Millennials represent a very significant spending power globally and even more so in the Middle East. They represent US$2.45 trillion in spending power, according to Adweek and according to Omnicom Group, 70% of them are likely to buy brands that support causes they care about. Subsequently, […]

Trio students at Middlesex University achieved winnings in both the Masar Student Creative Award for Print Competition, and the Student Integrated Award Competition at the annual Dubai Lynx Festival. Communicate will be publishing a three parts interview with them. The Third and final interview is with Melina Serrao, who designed a campaign to inspire personal growth and development. […]

By Jack Neff Marc Pritchard has asked a lot from digital media the past two years, but his latest ask may be the hardest to get — civility. In a speech to the Association of National Advertisers Media Conference in Orlando on Thursday, Procter & Gamble Co.’s chief brand officer called for a “New Media Supply […]

Trio students at Middlesex University achieved winnings in both the Masar Student Creative Award for Print Competition, and the Student Integrated Award Competition at the annual Dubai Lynx Festival. Communicate will be publishing a three parts interview with them. The Second interview is with Divya Ariga, who designed a campaign to empower blue-collar labour in the UAE. […]

With Ramadan quickly approaching, advertisers are planning for one of the busiest months of the year. This also extends to the digital landscape, which experiences a significant increase in user consumption during this period and therefore a peak in the advertising industry. Twitter conducted an online survey with users who celebrate Ramadan in the UAE, […]

By Puja Panuum It is safe to say that the relationship between consumers, content and brands has undergone seismic change in the last 10 years. Understanding the needs of the consumer has become much simpler because of the increasing availability of real-time data, which allows brands to target their messages in a way that marketers […]

By Elías Jabbe The smoke has cleared after another memorable experience of learning during Dubai Lynx 2019. One of the key insights was the need to be braver and expand our comfort zones as humans and communications professionals. Through a series of panels held by The Marketing Society, Choueiri Group and the International Advertising Association, […]

Trio students at Middlesex University achieved winnings in both the Masar Student Creative Award for Print Competition, and the Student Integrated Award Competition at the annual Dubai Lynx Festival. Communicate will be publishing a three parts interview with them. The first interview is with Rym Farran, who designed a campaign to promote adopting dogs. Rym Farran, created […]

By Shelly Palmer We can chat all we like about human biases creating AI biases with our Western cultural ideology, but if there is going to be anything like an AI bias council, it should probably be held in Beijing, Shanghai, or Shenzhen. Chinese cultural and political norms are going to have a much bigger […]

Hotwire, the global communications agency, represented in MEA through its exclusive partner Active Digital Communications, has announced an exclusive partnership with The Hoffman Agency to collaborate in Asia.  “Dubai-based Active DMC has many international clients across the world as part of our partnership with Hotwire. The addition of Hoffman into our partner network now allows […]

Facebook has asked Amazon to take down the data bases, in response to millions of user information being exposed. Researchers at a cybersecurity firm, UpGuard, found user information, posted publicly on Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud computing servers. The data that was exposed has been used by a Mexican social media firm, Cultura Colectiva. The firm said in an […]

Amazon is trying a new way to take its Alexa digital assistant mobile by developing wireless earbuds that mirror Apple’s popular AirPods. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant is readying earbuds with built-in Alexa access for as early as the second half of this year, according to people with knowledge of the plans. The headphones will look and act […]

By Jeremiah Rosen Recent documentaries about business scandals are captivating audiences. Take, for example, the behind-the-scenes looks at the infamous Fyre Festival disaster and the disgraced Theranos that have set social media ablaze with commentary and memes. Each company was founded and led by charismatic, well, liars who were convincing enough to dupe unwitting investors […]

By Bianca Best The future is being incubated at our schools, but in the wrong way. Just ask education guru Ken Robinson, who delivered the stimulating Ted Talk about how schools are killing creativity. He spoke about an antiquated ethos that enforces learning by rote, an approach that yields little value later ‘out in the […]

By Jack Neff It’s time to put on your thinking caps, or at least get test subjects to. Neuromarketing has gone from the realm of intriguing experiments with questionable merit among market researchers to an everyday tool for many brands. And it literally involves thinking caps, in that electronic sensors are used to measure brain […]

by Volkan Çağsal, CEO of Adphorus Digital advertising was almost half of all advertising spend in 2018, and it keeps growing, with two in three travel marketers planning to spend more this year. The second biggest chunk of that advertising spend is going towards social media. According to Sojern’s State of the Industry Report which surveyed […]

1. The growth of Internet advertising will drive global ad spend in 2019 Stronger than expected Internet advertising will drive 4.7 percent growth in total global ad spend in 2019 reaching $623 billion – substantially ahead of the 4 percent forecast made in the previous edition of the report, published in December 2018. Zenith forecasts […]

French automotive manufacturer, Groupe PSA, has selected independent creative shop, Science & Sunshine, to handle creative for Peugeot in the Middle East after a long pitch process involving several agencies. The Peugeot account is a significant win for Science & Sunshine, which turns three in April 2019. The agency will handle creative duties for the […]

By Alfonso De Gaetano, Director – Global Partnerships Emerging Markets at Google The news publishing business is facing a challenging and complex reality. First, people are consuming more news than ever before, from more sources than ever before. They learn about their world and form opinions in very different ways. On the open web, anyone can […]

After a series of new business acquisitions and a successful 2018, entourage is expanding into KSA. “This is the year of Saudi,” says entourage marketing and events chief Mohammed Tayem. “In line with the leadership vision of Saudi Arabia, and with trillion dollar investments towards boosting the economy, we are very excited to be partners […]

TV commercials may not be so superior to digital ads when it comes to viewability as the industry believes. According to a new study from IPG Media Lab, 29 percent of TV commercials are not actually seen by viewers. The media agency worked with TVision to analyze six months of TV viewing behavior to assess […]

Facebook Inc. disclosed a flaw on its social network that made passwords of hundreds of millions of users visible to employees. However, the company says the issue has now been fixed. During a security review in January, Facebook found that the passwords were stored in a readable format, against its security procedures, but that they […]

[L: Gemma Graves; R: Khaled Ismail] Gemma Greaves is the chief executive at The Marketing Society and Khaled Ismail is The Marketing Society Dubai Chairman and vice-president of communications – Europe, Central Asia, Middle East & Africa Region – Tetra Pak Tell us about your Dubai hub, the progress since launch, and the kind of […]

By Danielle Jamal, communication director, Leo Burnett Agile is an achieved buzzword status; a word we all currently love! A very critical component to today’s success; however, are agencies and brands equipped to embrace this methodology in order to cater for today’s rigorous demands? It’s still a hit or miss! Agencies have acknowledged the importance […]

Communication architects balcony8 have been appointed as the new multi-disciplinary agency to represent Waterfront Market across a variety of channels over the course of the next year. The agency has been assigned to promote and grow the presence of Waterfront Market within the UAE working collaboratively with the marketing team. A state-of-the-art facility housing produce, […]

Zainab Imichi Alhassan, co-founder of POP Communications, on taking our roles as communicators seriously At the age of twenty-two, I started working in public relations in the United Arab Emirates. Five years later, I now run my own agency. While the path has been filled with its challenges, as is with any serious and fulfilling […]

Audio ads generated $1.6 billion in the US in 2017 – a 39 percent jump from the year before – according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) US podcast ad revenue rose a whopping 87 percent in 2017 (to $314 million from $169 million in 2016), according to a recent study by IAB and PwC […]

By Rebecca Koch, social media executive, 1000heads Dubai With nearly 12 million daily Snapchat users in the GCC and 42 percent of the region’s population on Instagram, there’s no mistaking that your audience likely lives online. Recent updates to Snapchat and Instagram have added even more opportunities to diversify your content offerings and interaction points […]

It’s not just Facebook and Instagram that were down for the count; the social network’s ads also ere offline. Facebook Ads Manager, the lifeblood of advertising, was out of order, along with the rest of the platform. Ads Manager is the self-serve advertising website that millions of marketers use to schedule their campaigns across Facebook, […]

Facebook and its family of apps such as Whatsapp and Instagram all suffered an outage yesterday for several hours across multiple countries in the world, including the UAE, the US, Brazil, Lebanon, among others. It’s safe to say that for a few hours, people across the world were transported back to the 90s. Just the […]

Pizza Hut META has appointed M&C Saatchi as its new creative agency of record. The account covers the planning, creation and implementation of integrated communication campaigns for Pizza Hut across the GCC region. Following a pitch, involving several leading agencies in the Middle East, M&C Saatchi was awarded the account. The agency’s remit covers market […]

By Léa Allam, social media account manager, Bruce Clay MENA After doing a quick Google search in Arabic, you’ll notice a significant difference in the search results compared to the same in English – both, from a quality and quantity perspective. With an estimated 420 million people around the world speaking Arabic and it being […]

By Yulia Klimacheva, head of brand strategy at Jpd Agency Today, we live in an unprecedented period in our history, where women in many corners of the world hold their own rights and stand equal alongside men. Which is why we have witnessed such a phenomenal growth in women entrepreneurship over the last two decades. From […]

Publicis Media is merging its Spark Foundry and Blue 449 media networks, bringing both under the leadership of Spark’s global brand president Chris Boothe. With this move, the new network deepens its presence in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, MENA, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Singapore and Spain, as well as other markets around the world. The change comes as […]

Dubai-based independent communications agency ALISA PR has been appointed to handle all PR activities for Bar Baar, a ocial hub and gastropub located at Majestic Hotel, Bur Dubai. ALISA PR will be responsible for all PR operations and strategies to continue to build the reputation and create awareness of the brand’s exciting day and night […]

Isobar MENA, part of Dentsu Aegis Network, has made a significant leadership change that will see Ziad Ghorayeb taking over as regional MD of Isobar MENA as Karim Khalifa steps down from his role as CEO of Digital Republic – the agency he founded before it was acquired by the group in 2016 – and […]

California Garden has awarded its strategic and creative duties to Horizon FCB Dubai. The agency will be responsible for the repositioning and launch of the brand and its range under its new brand platform. This includes brand strategy, the brand relaunch as well as the marketer’s portfolio of food products within this year’s calendar. Mazen […]

After six years of operation in the UAE and Qatar, Netizency is opening its 3rd office in Lebanon. The agency’s new location will be based in Beirut’s up and coming digital and creative hub, Beirut Digital District. “We have chosen Beirut as our new operation destination to work with some of the fastest and most […]

By Michele Iozzo, Managing Director MEA, Criteo As 2019 gets underway, marketers in the Middle East have been busy planning for the year ahead and getting ready to address the challenges and opportunities that it will bring. 2018 has seen many dramatic changes in the data marketplace worldwide, which have fostered innovation and strengthened the […]

Marriott International is launching a global marketing campaign introducing Marriott Bonvoy, the new name that replaces Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG). The campaign celebrates Marriott Bonvoy as a travel program with the tag line “Rewards Reimagined” through its 30 hotel brands. “Marriott Bonvoy expresses the joy of ‘good travel’ made […]

YouTube is trying to stamp out its second major brand revolt in as many years, putting executives on an emergency call with top marketers and agencies, and sending a memo to Madison Avenue to let advertisers know it’s working on a fix. The problem: Pedophiles are viewing videos of children, leave disturbing comments and then […]

Following a competitive pitch, global home and small appliance brand Beko has consolidated its regional media account with OMD. The account was previously split between two networks, with OMD managing the brand’s activities in Egypt and Jordan. The appointment will see the agency cover 17 markets in the region for Beko’s full portfolio of products […]

Ampersand, a global specialist marketing and talent consultancy, has been chosen by Johnson & Johnson Middle East to run and manage its new Distributor Academy Programme across Africa, Middle East and Turkey. The two year appointment will see Ampersand develop and deliver a bespoke ‘classroom’ and video training syllabus to help J&J distributor partners’ sales […]

By Mustafa Shamseldin, Senior Vice President Foods Category, Middle East, North Africa and Asia Pacific, PepsiCo While supermarkets, restaurants, and a myriad of other retailers and services providers are going online, the traditional vending machine has remained somewhat static. There have been minor upgrades over the years, such as accepting credit cards or selecting snacks […]

Lee Clow, the creative mind behind ads like Apple’s “Think Different” and Adidas’ “Impossible is Nothing,” is retiring. As of February 14, the chairman at TBWA/Media Arts Lab and director of Media Arts at TBWA/Worldwide is moving into an advisory role as chairman emeritus at Media Arts Lab. Clow joined the agency known as Chiat/Day (once nicknamed Chiat Day […]

By Sanjit Gill, GM, Middle East at Collinson The rise of digital-native retail brands offering highly competitively priced products with rapid home delivery services continues to increase pressure on the wider retail sector. Amazon, for example, with its low overheads and streamlined distribution service, has expanded into markets globally at the expense of many traditional […]

In January, Mastercard erased its name from its logo. The red-and-yellow overlapping discs that have anchored its brandmark for nearly 50 years would, in most cases, stand on their own. In February, it launched its “sonic brand identity,” a lyrics-less melody that gives new meaning to brand jingles. The new work has one core, 12-second […]

Following a competitive pitch process, Havas Media Middle East has been appointed as the media agency for Bounce Middle East. The partnership will see Havas Media ME handle the media strategy across the entire GCC region. Houda Tohme, managing director, Havas Media says in a statement, “We are thrilled to have won the Bounce Middle […]

When CES opened its doors in Las Vegas last month, Mastercard took the opportunity to drop some news: The company was erasing its name from its logo. The red-and-yellow overlapping discs that have anchored its brandmark for nearly 50 years would, in most cases, stand on their own. It’s not every brand that has the […]

Choueiri Group’s digital media arm, Digital Media Services (DMS), has launched its latest digital ad performance solution “DMS Perform” at STEP Conference 2019 on February 13. As brands set out to compete in today’s cluttered markets, quality lead generation has become an increasingly more complex task. Marketers, in turn, want assurances that their advertising is being […]

With more than 420 million people around the world speaking Arabic, it’s surprising that only three percent of online content is in Arabic. We caught up with Her Excellency Maryam Eid AlMheiri – Director General of Abu Dhabi Government Media Office and Chief Executive Officer, Media Zone Authority – Abu Dhabi and twofour54 to learn […]

2018 was a transformative year for Saudi Arabia, socially and politically, but also for brands.   One such brand is Saudi Telecom Company (STC) that closed all 220 branches across 118 governorates in the Kingdom’s 2.1 million square kilometers of territory on December 19 without any warning or prior notice.   Instead, STC went to its clients by redirecting […]

TBWA\RAAD has announced a joint venture with AB Group to establish its presence in Egypt and expand in the wider North Africa region. The newly created AB\TBWA\Egypt is expected to bring an integrated vision and disruptive thinking to its client and industry collaborations by focusing on anticipating future trends and defining unique strategic platforms that […]

By Hussam El-Hage, digital marketing manager, Arabian Automobiles Buried treasure; the epitome of every pirate story. The infamous “X marks the spot” leads us to the hidden troves of gold and jewels; treasure chests filled to the brim with coins. Blackbeard’s hidden gold has modern age treasure hunters scouring the oceans casting their “prospecting nets” […]

Almost 30 years ago, the first clickable banner was displayed on the Internet. Over the years, the digital and marketing industries have evolved, but banner ads remain one of the best advertising channels. Programmatic (especially in retargeting) is leading the charge by enabling ad buying automation and personalized displays based on their behaviour. Tomasz Wnuk, […]

(L: Justin McGuire, Founder and CEO of MCG& Group; R: Dan Matthews, Founder and CEO, Daniel Marks) The recruitment and executive search firms Daniel Marks and MCG& Group have formed a strategic alliance to be known as DMCG Global. This partnership provides a global recruitment network of over sixty consultants covering territories including North America, UK, […]

MENA-based online advertising company, Buzzeff, has been acquired by Teads, a Global media platform, to bolster online advertising services for regional advertisers while expanding their reach to international audiences. This is one of the first such acquisitions to take place in the advertising technology industry in recent years, specifically in the UAE, signifying the importance […]

By Alex Malouf The world of communications is changing. Read anything on the future of communications, and you’ll be served a dose of artificial intelligence (I’m still skeptical), the convergence of internal and external communications, the digital workplace and the like. Some knowledgable folks out there are even predicting that the role of communicators will […]

Facebook and Apple are in another fight over privacy and data after reports surfaced last week that Facebook built a consumer research app that opened a backdoor to iPhones. The phonemaker, which disabled the app, has accused the social network of violating its app rules. Apple and Facebook have had a contentious relationship since Apple […]

In November 2018, WPP announced that it is merging J. Walter Thompson with Wunderman to create Wunderman Thompson. The merger saw Wunderman global CEO Mel Edwards becomes global CEO of the combined agency, with JWT global CEO Tamara Ingram becoming chairman of Wunderman Thompson. Now, it has revealed what the brand stands for: a “creative, […]

The need for high quality content is stronger than ever before as noise and clutter – especially on social media – increases. But even more important is for this content o be searchable and visible. Enter SEO and SEM. Although search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) have been around for a long […]

Ampersand, a global specialist marketing and talent consultancy, has been appointed by Etihad Airways to run and manage its first-ever marketing excellence academy. The appointment will see Ampersand develop and deliver a training curriculum on all aspects of marketing and communication to help the Etihad Airways marketing team build on their existing skills. The bespoke […]

Programmatic media company Gamned, has launched a new offering called Emerge that combines data science and consulting to offer better insights to advertisers. Launched in 2009, Gamned expanded to the MEA region in 2016 with ex-MEC boss Yves-Michel Gabay at the helm. Just last year, it was acquired by French broadcaster TF1 Group as part […]

By Laura Wasson, creative director at advertising agency, Madwell This is the age of “woke capitalism” and we are no longer selling products but ideas, values, movements. In theory, this is a positive thing, but it can go weirdly wrong: Witness the gulf between Nike’s inspired and risky Colin Kaepernick spot and Gillette’s tone-deaf #metoo commercial. To avoid the […]

Coca-Cola will not run an in-game Super Bowl ad for the first time since 2006. Instead, the beverage giant this year will air a 60-second pre-game spot right before the National Anthem. The anthem, of course, has emerged as a polarizing moment in National Football League games since Colin Kaepernick in 2016 began kneeling during […]

By James Pass, managing director, JPd Brands have moved away from the traditional approach of putting products first. Now marketers believe in storytelling to build meaningful brands. Storytelling is an essential marketing tool that helps brands develop communication that is memorable, emotionally engaging, and profitable. A brand story need not be overly elaborative; it just […]

By Medina Beganović, managing partner, Via Media Here’s a fun fact: 90 percent of our decisions are subconscious. Why? Here’s another fun fact: people are highly irrational. And yet, we marketers conduct research, gather audience data, and mine it for insights in the hope of finding out what our audiences want, think and believe. The […]

Following a four-way competitive pitch, McDonald’s Egypt has decided to award its digital and social media account to OMD Egypt effective January 2019. The account was previously managed by Digital Republic. This represents a major win for OMD Egypt as McDonald’s isn’t only a key client of the global network but also a highly innovative […]

[L to R: Lucy O’Brien, Dani Richa and Fouad Bou Mansour] FleishmanHillard Middle East has become part of the Impact BBDO MENA group of companies, which has been operating across the Middle East and North Africa region for more than 45 years. Both, FleishmanHillard Middle East and Impact BBDO MENA, are part of the Omnicom […]

Many of the hot brands in retail today didn’t exist a decade ago. But now, backed by big-time venture capital, new direct-to-consumer players are making enough waves in the retail landscape that heritage players are forced to pay attention. Larger brands caught dueling for consumer dollars might do well to adopt some of the marketing […]

For the first time in 20 years, Omnicom Media Group has refreshed its brand identity system, including a new logo with the OMG acronym, a modernized logotype and new graphic elements. The system is based on three core tenets: the geometry in the letterforms of the logo, the concept of micro to macro pattern repetition […]

By the numbers, CES is an impressive circus of gadgetry. The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was spread out over nearly 3 million square feet last week, with 4,500 exhibitors showing their wares – the latest in 8K screens, giant drones, walking cars, robot pets and automobile prototypes that would make Bruce Wayne jealous […]

By Ayman Aly, senior regional marketing manager, Canon Middle East Most organizations have one aim: to grow their company into a successful business. The key to this is marketing the brand and the evolution of digital technology in the past decade has exponentially increased the choice of marketing channels. In the highly competitive area of […]

Following an extensive multi-agency review process, Zain Group, a Middle Eastern mobile operator headquartered in Kuwait, has appointed OMD as its new strategic media-buying partner effective immediately. The account was previously managed by Mindshare. This is the first telco account win for OMD on a regional level. Just recently, J. Walter Thompson was reappointed as […]

Bridging the gap between humans and data has become a critical aspect of any business with an online and offline presence, writes Naguib Toihiri, head of marketing at RBBi With the increase in technical advancements, Artificial intelligence (AI) has been this year’s topic of interest disrupting one industry after the other. According to PWC Middle […]

The key to effective brand management is creating a positive and memorable brand experience for customers. A brand experience is an ecosystem that exists around a brand or product, manifested in the sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioral responses evoked by a brand. The Brandberries interviewed Daniele Calderoni, regional brand and portfolio director of MARS, to get his take on […]

Following a multi-agency pitch, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) has announced the appointment of Start Design as its new brand agency of record. The remit covers key areas such as brand architecture development, and brand and visual identity development in support of the digital transformation of EITC’s portfolio of brands, including du and Virgin Mobile. […]

Following a pitch process initiated in Q3 2018, Zain Kuwait has selected incumbent J. Walter Thompson as its creative and communication partner. Commenting on the appointment, Najla Al Eisa, manager corporate communication and branding department says in a statement, “We value our brand and consumers more than anything, and as such believe that the creativity […]

[Image: David Balfour, co-founder, Lightblue] Chalhoub Group’s luxury fragrance house Ghawali has appointed Lightblue as its lead creative agency. Lightblue will lead Ghawali’s marketing efforts in creative, content creation and experiential. Supported by Havas PR and Havas Media, the independent agency will steer the luxury house’s effort for the year to come. Commenting on the appointment, Anees […]

Following a multi-agency pitch process, Volkswagen Middle East has appointed Socialize as its social creative and digital media. The agency, which was recently acquired by We Are Social, will handle the brand’s social and digital strategy across the GCC, Lebanon and Jordan. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Volkswagen in the next stage of their category-leading marketing transformation. […]

By Dave Parkinson, co-founder, Brave & Heart It’s that time of year again. The 2019 predictions are flooding through. “Never has so much been said by those who knew so little…” For a change, here is something a little more fun versus the usual articles that come out at this time of the year. So, […]

We are one week into the new year. Gym memberships and salad joints are both enjoying an uptick in business. But, resolutions aren’t just about physical fitness. We talked to agency folks and came away with 10 ways they plan to be a little bit better this year, and not in the calorie-counting way. Here’s […]

By Sawsan Ghanem, joint managing director and co-founder, Active DMC With IoT and the reality of our connected world today, the pressures on brands are unrelenting and their need for a PR partner and strategic content marketing consul, is a matter of necessity. Companies of all sizes, government bodies, personalities, NGOs and more all have […]

Multinational technology company Lenovo has appointed Leo Burnett MEA as its advertising agency for the PC business in the Middle East and Africa. Leo Burnett will provide strategic support to Lenovo’s team while collaborating to develop a long-term advertising strategy to drive the brand’s business objectives. Claire Carter, marketing director MEA at Lenovo says in a […]

Adform, a global independent advertising technology platform, has opened its first office in the region in Dubai. The operation will provide on-the-ground support Adform’s existing Middle East clients while seeking new business. Pawan Setpal, who has more than ten years’ experience in digital advertising and adtech will be responsible for day-to-day operations. Setpal joins Adform […]

Facebook Watch receives 75 million viewers a day, according to new statistics shared by the company. But despite its growth, the platform is still a fraction the size of its most important rival, YouTube, and some media companies are concerned by the platform’s ever-changing character. Making sense of the numbers The longer-form video platform launched […]

The UK alone used 125,000 tonnes of plastic wrapping last year, especially around Christmas 500 million canned drinks are sold over the festive period 13,350 tonnes of glass is binned every year during December and January And so, Omnicom Media Group MENA has dressed up the Christmas tree outside its building in Dubai Media City […]

By Mateen Agha, associate director – SEO, Bruce Clay MENA Quite funny how people keep asking “When can we stop investing in SEO?” We say. “SEO is done when Google stops changing/updating its algorithm and all your competition is dead.” And that’s never going to happen. Just last year, Google updated its algorithm 2,543 times; […]

By David Spencer, commercial director MENA, FreeWheel Video advertising is a highly engaging format and with digital video revenues and viewership across MENA set to grow more than 20 percent a year until 2021, it represents an exciting opportunity for advertisers to connect with audiences. But, to take full advantage of video, advertisers need to […]

By Mayank Garg, Head of MediaCom Beyond Advertising, MENA The hottest buzzword of 2018 is quite certainly ‘influencers’. It doesn’t matter if they actually influence their millions of followers; they certainly carry the title in their Instagram bios and increasingly well-designed media kits. Influencer marketing is big business too. Advertisers globally are positioning themselves to […]

Keith Weed is retiring as Unilever’s Chief Marketing and Communications officer in May after nine years on the job, the company confirmed. The news comes a week after the company announced insider Alan Jope would succeed Paul Polman as CEO effective the first of the year. Unilever has yet to name a successor to Weed. A […]

Havas Paris has won the tender to work with the COFREX (French Exhibition Company) to enhance its influence strategy for the French Pavilion at the Expo 2020 Dubai. COFREX has jointly engaged Havas Paris and Havas Dubai to develop and implement its PR and influencer strategy to promote France’s national ambitions at this global event […]

For decades, free TV has coexisted alongside premium programming that requires a subscription to a cable or satellite service. Now that traditional TV content is shifting to the Internet, a similar dynamic is taking shape. Subscription streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are jockeying with a growing crop of free, ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) […]

Procter & Gamble Co. spent an estimated $10.5 billion on advertising and other marketing costs in the year ended June 2018 with little change from the previous year, according to Ad Age Datacenter. Yet, it was pushed to second spot this year on Ad Age’s World’s Largest Advertisers ranking of the 100 biggest spenders, which […]

By Fernando Angulo, Global speaker, SEMrush.com Since childhood, I have been fascinated by aviation. Growing up it was exciting to follow stories about the planes, the pilots and the science of flight that rapidly developed and diversified into fixed wing and rotary types as well as the evolution of propeller and later jet power. Which […]

Starting off as a digital media blog by Pete Cashmore in 2005, Mashable quickly went on to gain international fame and was bought over by American publishing and digital company Ziff Davis in 2017. Back in 2015, the then executive director for EMEA at Mashable Ben Maher told Communicate, “The good thing about us [Mashable] […]

By Josh Beckwith, Senior Sales Director, Middle East & Africa at Sojern Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few years, you will have witnessed the rapid growth of social media impacting all aspects of how marketers reach and interact with their audiences. In fact, over three billion people use social media […]

Image Credit: Illustration by Josh McKenna Two thousand eighteen is the new 1859, says Michael Kassan, MediaLink chairman and CEO. It was, of course, in 1859 that Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities, which kicks off with one of the all-time great first sentences: “It was the best of the times, it was […]

TF1 Group announces that it has taken a majority stake in programmatic media company Gamned, which was founded in 2009 by Olivier Goulon and Anthony Spinasse. TF1 Group aims to leverage the qualified audiences of its new digital arm with programmatic effectiveness to develop an integrated, innovative and high-powered multi-channel advertising offer. The acquisition is part […]

In the latest in a wave of changes at the world’s largest holding company, WPP is merging J. Walter Thompson with Wunderman to create Wunderman Thompson. The news of the change comes two months after WPP announced the merger of legacy shop Y&R with VML. WPP’s new CEO Mark Read announced the news in a […]

Mobile ad fraud is on the rise and is estimated to have doubled since last year. Juniper Research has estimated that advertisers will lose some $19 billion to fraudulent advertising activities on online and mobile devices in 2018. The issue of app install fraud is a growing concern, particularly in the GCC. Therefore, Omnicom Media Group […]

What is IAB? The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is an independent body aimed at benefiting the digital ecosystem through education, research, standards, guidelines and best practices. Founded in 1996, it is headquartered in the US and has 43 licensed IABs around the world. Why did it take nine years for IAB to get its GCC […]

By Tala Amin, social media director, Bruce Clay MENA With 2019 right around the corner, it is time to analyze the social trends for the coming year. So far, social media has continually stepped up its game when it comes to augmented reality, influencer marketing, and video content. With that in mind, we must ask […]

By Atif Altaf, associate marketing manager, and member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Life is no more a straight road leading toward dreams; it is now a steep mountain to climb up high. Days from being ‘slow & steady’ are geared up to be ‘fast & ready’ for people to run, change […]

The unprecedented use of social media in the Middle East has seen people get addicted to their phone – even more than their partner – and so, of course, brands want to make the most of it by targeting audiences where they spend the most time i.e. social media. But, targeting them alone isn’t enough. […]

ICLP, a global loyalty agency, was founded in 1987 and has been present in the Middle East since 1993. It is now merging with loyalty, travel experiences, insurance and assistance businesses to become Collinson, which was incorporated in 1992. The company’s loyalty division comprises of three brands: ICLP; loyalty commerce specialism Collinson Latitude; and customer […]

It’s that time of the year (officially, at least) where one has reason to scare and be scared. So, to spook things up we asked a bunch of people from the agency world to tell us what scares them the most. Here’s what they said: Louise Roberts, managing director, MullenLowe Open            […]

Future Tech Media, an emerging market-focused digital solutions and technology business today announced the acquisition of Adzouk, a Middle East premium digital advertising network. Here are five things you need to know about Adzouk: It launched its own brand safety solution. Earlier this year, it launched 1tag Secure. The solution not only prevents brands from appearing […]

By Jo Webber, commercial director at GES Middle East, full-service events and exhibitions provider The world is undergoing a radical change, and digitization is becoming a part of our everyday lives. With most industries adapting to market trends, the events sector has been quick to respond as well. The advances in technology have not only […]

Today, Facebook is launching “Ad Breaks” in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. An Ad Break is a video advertising format that can either be a pre-roll before the video, a midroll during the video or an image ad in the player directly below the video. The feature allows publishers and creators to monetize their […]

OMD has won the global media mandate for Mercedes as part of a global review, report industry sources. In the region, OMD works with another automotive client i.e. Nissan, and it is unclear at this point how the new global appointment will play out in the region. At the time of writing this, neither of […]

Christos Solomi is the executive director of programmatic at Omnicom Media Group MENA. 1. To a layperson, how would you explain programmatic TV? Most of the ads you see on your TV were planned and purchased weeks and often months in advance of the spot appearing on your screen. Everyone watching the TV channel at […]

Through a strategic partnership with Connect Ads, Oath, a Verizon subsidiary, is bringing global creative studio RYOT to the MENA market. The studio, which offers premium end-to-end content marketing solutions, is present in 14 countries around the world through a local affiliate or partner. Bringing its expertise in creative digital campaigns to the MENA region […]

Not even close, say some of the region’s top marketing talent at The Marketing Society’s latest Brave Conversations…  ‘Brave Conversations’ is a series of quarterly roundtables held by The Marketing Society and Communicate. The candid chats bring together marketing and advertising experts to discuss, debate and challenge both, new and existing topics that are of […]

Active user minutes increase by 12% – video active user minutes increase by 18% in Saudi 60% Saudi Twitter users have shopping plans specifically for November White Friday (or Black Friday depending which part of the world you are from) is a big opportunity: 21% of the 5.9 million tweets about shopping in MENA were about Black/White […]

MENA Market Place (MMP) describes itself as a “premium programmatic advertising marketplace enabling leading publishers and premium brands to better monetize their digital advertising inventory.” Sound familiar? That’s because the company first launched in 2014. A lot has changed since then. Nader Bitar, director, has replaced Vincent Pellilo, the ex-managing director, bringing with him a […]

Two weeks back, Facebook said it had discovered a data breach affecting 50 million users and had informed local law enforcement. Here’s a recap: There was a loophole in Facebook’s code for a feature called “View As” that lets people see what their account looks like to someone else. This allowed the hackers to steal […]

Following a competitive pitch process, Abu Dhabi-based F&B company Agthia Group’s Al Ain Water has appointed Leo Burnett MEA as its creative agency. The agreement is effective from Q4 2018 and extends to the other water brands, Al Bayan and Alpin, and covers digital, outdoor and print advertising, in addition to social media. The agreement […]

In May 2018, pharma and consumer-health giant GlaxoSmithKline started reviewing its massive global media account. The review included Dentsu and two incumbents – Omnicom’s PHD and GroupM. It has now decided to consolidate its estimated $1.7 billion global media buying assignment with Publicis Media effective next year. A bit of history In 2010, GroupM’s MediaCom – the then […]

Concluding a high-stakes global creative agency review that started in April this year, Ford has hired BBDO as its lead global brand creative agency. It will still keep WPP for significant pieces of the business, including media planning and buying, shopper marketing and CRM. WPP will also retain Ford’s multicultural and so-called “tier 2” dealer […]

Following a competitive pitch process, Carat Dubai has been awarded the media responsibilities Dubai Parks and Resorts. The account was previously managed by Omnicom’s PHD since 2015. With a mandate to build brand equity of Dubai Parks and Resorts as a go-to leisure and entertainment experience, Carat will target residents of and visitors to Dubai […]

By Nathen Mazri The 2007 Revolution What happened in the year of 2007? It has changed human beings’ course of thinking, action, behavior, and communication. Facebook, Twitter, AirBnB, GitHub, and Kindle all came to life creating a world revolution. The easy access and flow of information and knowledge at an accelerating rate has A new […]

FOX Networks Group Middle East has appointed Value Branded Content (VBC) as its new advertising sales representative agency for National Geographic Abu Dhabi and National Geographic Kids Abu Dhabi channels in the MENA region following a regional review over the last few months. Commenting on the appointment Sanjay Raina, general manager and senior vice-president of […]

By Christina Ioannidis, Chief Engagement Officer, Aquitude, a boutique brand engagement consultancy which works with corporations to engage with their main stakeholders i.e. their employees and customers Today’s marketers are operating in a market, which is shifting with demographics changing drastically. Generational divides, rifted by digital savviness and social changes, have created a complex marketing […]

WPP is officially merging Y&R and VML. VML global chief executive officer Jon Cook will lead the new agency, which will be called by an alphabet soup of letters: VMLY&R. WPP says the shop will be a “contemporary, fully integrated digital and creative offering to clients on a global scale.” David Sable, former global CEO […]

Exactly one year back, MCG& Group launched Ampersand, a talent consultancy providing L&D, search, strategic advisory and M&A services with Nick Clements – who was already group COO – at the helm. Today, the company celebrates its first birthday, several new client wins and a partnership with IPA to offer training and certification in the […]

Facebook says it discovered a security breach earlier this week that affected almost 50 million accounts – out of the over two billion accounts on Facebook. The company says it has fixed the breach, which allowed hackers to take over people’s accounts. In a statement on Friday, Facebook said that it has informed law enforcement […]

Last week, we published a piece by Alex Malouf who manages corporate communications for P&G across the Indian Subcontinent, Middle East and Africa. He also holds (or has held) board positions for several communications associations including the Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA), Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, International Association of Business […]

Ali Azarmi started his career in Advertising in 1987 in Publcis Graphics London Office and came to Dubai in 1993. He was the executive creative director at BBDO until he left in 2004 to work as an advertising consultant. In 2008, he established the Middle East branches of Joy Films UK ([email protected]) with his partner […]

Following a pitch process including multiple international agencies, Property Finder has chosen J. Walter Thompson as its communication partner for the UAE effective immediately. The agency has been tasked with managing the upcoming brand launch amongst other creative and communications duties. Hamza Chaoui, chief marketing officer, Property Finder says in a statement, “For this brand […]

“It’s no secret that I care about the communications industry in the region. I’ve done more than my fair share when it comes to supporting people and organizations in becoming more aware of what good communications is all about, and why it’s central to building strong reputations. I’ve also spent years advocating for the adoption […]

When asked what his biggest takeaway was after attending Burning Man earlier this year, Martin Sorrell had a ready response: “The importance of creative destruction and renewal.” A photo of the iconic Burning Man graced the first page on the prospectus of Sorrell’s new venture, S4 Capital. And to be sure, Sorrell himself has been […]

Choueiri Group’s AMSI recently announced its latest appointment as media representatives for the General Entertainment Authority (GEA) of Saudi Arabia. The tie-up effectively enables the region’s advertisers and brands to benefit from GEA’s leadership in bringing the most sought-after live entertainment offerings to the Kingdom. AMSI will retain the representation rights to sell advertising space […]

Independent mobile advertising platform AdColony teamed up with three Unilever brands to run interactive mobile video campaigns in what the company claims to be a regional first. The Unilever brands included Sunsilk, Brooke Bond and Jif, which used the Aurora HD interactive video ads. This format also gives advertisers the opportunity to measure attention of […]

Dubai-based digital marketing agency Netizency has added wagamama, the chain of Japanese-inspired restaurants in the UAE, to its menu of clients. In the UAE, wagamama is managed by RMAL Hospitality, a restaurant and hotel development business with a portfolio of international restaurant chains like Trader Vic’s, Marco Pierre White restaurants, and others. Netizency will start […]

(Image: Jack Dorsey and Sheryl Sandberg testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Credit: Bloomberg) Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey received praise from lawmakers for just showing up to hearings in the Senate on Wednesday, while Google’s refusal to send someone sufficiently senior to please the Senate Intelligence Committee was represented […]

BPG Group celebrated its recent rebrand and renewed business restructure at the company’s 25th offsite on the QE2 floating hotel in Dubai. The Group unveiled the new structure in June by replacing BPG Bates, BPG Cohn & Wolfe, BPG Maxus and BPG Possible with two verticals: BPG Max, which will handle media and data just […]

Three million marketers around the world use SEMrush as their trusted data provider and all-in-one marketing suite with built-in competitor intelligence.

Ford launched its global review in April this year putting incumbent WPP’s Global Team Blue (GTB) under peril, especially at a time when the group deals with naming Martin Sorrell’s successor. Now, a few months later, Ford has tapped Wieden & Kennedy New York for a short-term marketing assignment that comes amid its massive global agency […]

Twitter, Facebook and Google have all been developing new ways of handling political ads since the 2016 election, when all the platforms were abused by bad actors spreading disinformation, including through paid posts. The platforms are all changing the rules on who gets to place political ads and what information the public gets to see about them. […]

The one executive who has persistently stood out as the likely successor to Martin Sorrell at WPP, Mark Read, is set to officially take the helm. Read is expected to be named as CEO of the world’s largest advertising firm as early as next week, according to multiple company insiders who asked not to be […]

For the past year, select Google advertisers have had access to a potent new tool to track whether the ads they ran online led to a sale at a physical store in the US. That insight came thanks in part to a stockpile of Mastercard transactions that Google paid for. But most of the two billion […]

By Elías Jabbe The summer is usually considered a calm time in the Gulf countries, when business grinds to a halt and vacations are the focus. Not at AstroLabs, the Dubai-based Google for Entrepreneurs hub which is home to a plethora of startups and offers digital training courses throughout the year. Following the opening of […]

The retail industry in the region – especially in the UAE and KSA – has undergone massive changes in the last two years. Between 2011 and 2015, GCC retailers captured above-average revenue growth, margins, and returns, according to a McKinsey report. However, due to the instability of oil prices, the introduction of VAT, and new […]

By Stacy Fernandes, communications executive at Active DMC By now I am sure you have heard of trending viral videos like the Ice Bucket Challenge, the Mannequin Challenge and now the ever-famous Kiki Challenge. Thanks to social media, these popular video challenges have started a global sensation. According to Complex.com, The Kiki challenge, which was […]

Volkswagen AG mapped out details of its transformation from a mass manufacturer of cars to a provider of transportation services by unveiling a car-sharing service and promising digital acquisitions as part of a 3.5 billion-euro ($4 billion) push into next-generation automobiles. The plan will kick off in Berlin, where the manufacturer will put 2,000 all-electric […]

By Puja Pannum, managing director at Blis MENA We can learn a great deal from the flurry of recent data scandals striking companies of all industries across the globe. And yet, the unavoidable crux of the issue is still at hand – data and advertising both massively lack transparency. Whilst an influx in data protection […]

Grey infamously lost the Revlon account globally as the cosmetic brand took creative duties in-house. But, closer home Grey MENA scored a big win through Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (DEWA) marketing and communications assignment. The account was awarded to Grey MENA following a multi-agency pitch. Effective August 2018, the Dubai office of the agency […]

Appetite Creative Solutions, the creative technology agency for innovative digital solutions, has launched Liquid Skins, its Programmatic Guaranteed solution allowing high impact creative, delivered at scale programmatically. The fully responsive format works across desktop, mobile and tablet screens – enabling high-impact, creative solutions. For multi-device activations, it allows buyers to enable campaigns across multiple platforms from […]

No matter how much a consumer rationalizes their purchase decisions, ultimately it comes down to emotion. And that’s why today’s marketers and agencies need to pay attention to the emotions behind the data. One such agency, Omnicom’s RAPP, which classifies itself as a “high precision brand engagement agency”, is reinforcing the notion of empathy in […]

Virtual assistants, or more simply chatbots, have been all the rage in recent times. Brands like Hamleys, Nissan and Emirates NBD are just a few who have deployed chat bots to engage with customers. Now, INFINITI has launched Idris, its new AI-powered virtual assistant that aims to helps customers with any product-related questions. Idris is […]

Although it’s early days, brands such as McDonald’s, Staples and GM are paying cash and purchasing data direct from the consumer, giving literal meaning toward the notion that “data is the new currency”. Between regulation such as GDPR and scandals like those plaguing Facebook, consumers are aware more than ever of the so-called value exchange when using […]

Brands of today need to group their efforts on delivering the best ‘return on creativity’ to fuel their performance. It’s impossible for a brand to rise above the noise without creative strategies to help them shine. The current renaissance of technology has created huge challenges for brands, but they have also created a playground for creativity. […]

In the battle of online versus traditional and e-commerce versus retail, the former platforms have been touted as the clear winners. However, recent moves by tech companies seem to suggest otherwise. Despite the (over)hyped effectiveness of digital advertising, giants like Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat have all resorted to traditional media, like print and outdoor, to […]

Grey is out as Revlon’s global agency of record after a year, the agency confirmed. “Our contract ran through June, and we both chose not to renew,” says Grey spokesman Owen Dougherty. The agency continued its work as Revlon got its internal agency up and running, he says. But the move does not mean good […]

Mars, Incorporated, the global pet care, confectionery and food business, and one of the world’s biggest advertisers has appointed MediaCom to handle its media planning and buying duties across most of the company’s portfolio. The result follows a competitive pitch against Omnicom, led by Hearts and Science, and Publicis, led by Starcom. In 2014, Mars consolidated media planning […]

This article first appeared on Communicate‘s sister site: AMEinfo.com Apple is a company that just reached $1 trillion in market cap and it is also getting ready for the new iPhone release. Samsung, on the other hand, just in time for the Note 9 release (August 9), is upping its ante by releasing adverts attacking […]

At Discovery, Ramadan is always a crucial period for us, and an opportunity to position Fatafeat – our flagship Arabic food brand – as the key destination for audiences across the Middle East during the month of Ramadan. This year, our Fatafeat Ramadan strategy was truly 360, with a diverse line-up of locally produced shows […]

Indra Nooyi is stepping down as CEO of food and beverage giant PepsiCo Inc., handing the reins to a top lieutenant in a transition that will draw attention to the dearth of prominent female CEOs in corporate America. Nooyi, 62, will leave the role in October and remain chairman until early 2019. Ramon Laguarta, 54, […]

Successful independent agencies can make their larger peers seem bloated and inefficient. But is it easy to just start an agency from the ground up? We sat down with some of the biggest players in the smallest shops during the Small Agency Conference and Awards not long ago to find out what makes indie agencies tick, and […]

Earlier this summer, Finish, the leading dishwasher detergent brand launched a first of its kind – a contextual marketing digital campaign. It hinged around the love women have for cooking for their loved ones during the month of Ramadan & contrastingly, the hate they have for the dirty dishes this cooking creates. Read: Domestic staycations rate […]

By Tanaz Dizadji, Founder & CEO of insydo & Brand Ripplr There’s no denying that when done right, influencer marketing is the most effective way to reach relevant audiences and build brand loyalty, which is why it will continue to spiral into a multi-billion dollar industry over the next five years. However, issues and concerns […]

On August 3, Burberry unveiled its new logo marking the first change in 20 years. And people are not loving it. Here are a few tweets that made us LOL. 1. This company that was both truthful and funny I love the way Peter Saville purged the Burberry mark of everything superfluous, like personality, style, […]

In an effort to be more sustainable, Ikea is taking new steps. It’s cutting a big part of its marketing to apply the financial resources to a new US campaign. Beginning Wednesday, the 75-year-old Swedish retailer is doing its first national out-of-home push in the US, where it operates 48 stores, and hosting live catalog […]

Burberry has changed its logo for the first time in 20 years, revealing the new look via an Instagram post. The British heritage brand’s new logo says “Burberry London England” in stark capital letters, replacing the softer, rounder font the company previously used. Riccardo Tisci, the star designer Burberry hired this year to revamp its […]

The rise of the Internet and smartphones – and their prevalence especially among the younger generation – has led to a multitude of consequences ranging from data privacy, election tampering to mental health disorders. The push to address the first two issues began much before the third but this year the momentum seems to be […]

Advertisers are worried that Facebook is about to become a data desert as it deliberately dries up a once easy source of rich data on its users. On August 15, Facebook will shut down a program called “partner categories,” which gave its advertisers a way to tap directly into the largest consumer data brokers within […]

The Internet’s prevalence and the smartphone’s increasing penetration is seeing users turn to their phones for the simplest of tasks. And when they do, they aren’t typing only in English. In fact, Arabic ranked as the fourth most used language online in 2017. That’s why, Red Blue Blur Ideas (RBBi), a Dubai-based independent digital marketing […]

By Issam Kink, associate director – digital planning at OMD Online ad safety has been a heated topic over the past couple of years with an emphasis on Video content. Setting a goal for video safety is a challenge for marketers who want to strike a balance between editorially controlled and user-generated content, especially with […]

In July 2018, while a lot of Twitter accounts were being banned/removed, a tree was born. On Twitter. Enter Ghafa The Tree. Hello, my name is Ghafa, honoured to be the national tree of the #UAE . Over 250 years old…I stopped counting TBH. I give a Ghaf about the world. Do you? حياكم، إسمي […]

Amazon’s advertising business continued its ascent last quarter, hitting $2.2 billion in revenue – a growth rate outpacing even optimistic forecasts for the company. Yesterday, Amazon reported second-quarter results and advertising was again the brightest spot for the e-retailer, growing at 132 percent, its fastest-growing segment by far. Amazon’s total sales hit $52.9 billion, an […]

By Faith Popcorn, futurist, author, founder and CEO of marketing consultancy BrainReserve Twenty years ago, I said a revolution is coming in which women would supersede men. I guess I was a little early with this prediction (it’s a problem we futurists have) because it’s happening right now. As women forge ahead – pursuing higher education, […]

Following a multi-agency pitch, Dubai-based digital marketing agency Netizency has won the social media business of Lenovo’s PC and Smart Devices business across the Middle East and North Africa region. The agreement with Netizency will cover strategy development, content creation and reporting for Lenovo’s business across the region, with the objective of building awareness and […]

By Adrianne Pasquarelli (Illustration by Doug Chayka) At the SoHo flagship of fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff in New York, the shelves are stocked with XXS, the smallest size available. But the store is not sizeist – those floral dresses and blush-pink leather jackets aren’t just for the petite. Consumers who grab a frock off the […]

J. Walter Thompson Dubai has been named the Agency of Record for King’s College Hospital in Dubai. King’s College Hospital, which has been providing healthcare services for 175 years, aims to support HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid’s Vision 2021 to position Dubai as a world-class global healthcare hub. Commenting on behalf of King’s College Hospital […]

Another high-ranking marketing executive is leaving PepsiCo. Kristin Patrick, whose duties have included overseeing the company’s in-house content studio, will leave the company by the end of this week. It was her decision to leave, according to a person familiar with the matter. Brad Jakeman, the high-profile president of PepsiCo’s global beverage group who left […]

There’s no shortage of skeptics and believers when it comes to blockchain technology, but the biggest question as it applies to digital advertising is pretty basic: What actually makes sense? The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Tech Lab last week revealed details of a Blockchain Working Group pilot program that is designed to answer that question. The […]

By Ruth Bernstein, co-founder and chief strategic officer at Yard, a strategic image making agency Over the past few years, marketers across all industries and categories have been obsessed with millennials – how to reach them and build meaningful connections with their brands. This captivating generation has a unique sense of self and a nontraditional approach to life […]

Consumers lack a full understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and are looking to businesses, government and academia for education, according to a FleishmanHillard report. The report highlights that 61% of all those surveyed believe the responsibility for educating the public about AI should be shared. The report, ‘Artificial Intelligence & Communications, The Fads. The Fears. […]

Snapchat and Nielsen, doubling down on their partnership, are now offering marketers the ability to make targeted ad buys based on offline data, in a similar fashion to other popular social media platforms. A marketer can use Nielsen audience data, for instance, to target someone on Snapchat who purchased lipstick at a retail store offline. […]

Facebook is investigating a social analytics company called Crimson Hexagon because of its potential dealings with a Russian organization and other concerns over how it handled private data. Crimson Hexagon, based in the US, provides social data analysis for brands by monitoring platforms including Facebook and Twitter. The brands it has worked with include Adidas, Samsung, […]

Omnicom Group suffered its biggest decline in nine years after posting sluggish results, renewing concerns that the ad giant can weather media disruption spurred by the likes of Google and Facebook. The stock closed on July 17 at $70.69, down nearly 9.5 percent from the previous day’s close after the New York-based company posted weaker-than-expected revenue growth […]

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has launched a WhatsApp Business solution, allowing guests to communicate instantly with the airline via the popular messaging app. READ: Online video viewing to exceed this much in 2018  The new service, which is the latest element of Etihad Airways’ digital strategy, will provide an enhanced […]

The Customer Experience Group has announced the addition of SmartCX to its family of agencies. “The new customer experience measurement, consulting, and data analytics business will further strengthen the leading position of the Customer Experience Group as the go-to aide to premium and luxury brands in need of powerful customer experience solutions,” noted a statement. […]

Millennials spend 1 hour every week on selfies – from clicking to editing – according to a 2017 study by design agency Now Sourcing and online eyewear retailer Frames Direct. 55 percent of social media selfies come from millennials, but Gen X follows with 24 percent and baby boomers with 9 percent. Selfies are an […]

New analysis by Kantar Millward Brown of 2000 brands measured in the BrandZ™ global brand equity database shows that fewer than 1 in 10 brands grew between 2014 and 2017. But Amazon, the quintessential disruptive brand, more than doubled its brand value in the same period simply by making more people’s lives easier and less […]

Programmatic advertising agency Gamned! made its entry into the Middle East in 2016. Now, two years later, it has appointed Yves-Michel Gabay as managing director and strategy advisor for the MEA region. This move is part of the agency’s global expansion and strengthening plans, which include a new office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to service […]

By David Spencer, commercial director MENA, FreeWheel The TV market is surging in Africa and the Middle East, and is expected to grow by 30 percent in the five years leading up to 2021. With its young and fast-growing population, the expanding middle class in Africa, and positive future development forecast in the region, the […]

Global consumers will spend an average of 67 minutes a day watching online video this year, up from 56 minutes last year. By 2020 the average person will be spending 84 minutes a day watching videos online. In that year, China will have the keenest viewers, with the average person spending 105 minutes a day […]

Here are five lessons I learned whilst refreshing my brand, Bruce Clay Middle East. By Neal Patel, MD, Bruce Clay Middle East Stay true to your values Bruce Clay is globally known for performance search and is widely credited for coining the term ‘SEO’. That is some feat. The first thing we did locally was […]

With the emergence of subscription video-on-demand services (SVODs) such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, the media has been quick to foretell the demise of TV. But, is there any truth to those words? TV has remained a powerhouse and mainstay in modern life ever since its introduction in the 20th century. Many historical moments broke […]

McCann Health has fired global chief creative officer Jeremy Perrott, after a complaint against him alleging a violation of the company’s code of conduct. He was terminated before the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last month. A spokesperson for McCann declined to comment on the nature of the complaint or the length of the […]

Omnia, an independent brand and digital agency based in Dubai, is officially announcing the opening of its new Jordanian office. Located in the capital, Amman, the new office is in response to the growing demand for Omnia’s digital expertise and will act as a digital development hub for the company’s growing roster of digital clients […]

If you have noticed a dip in your Twitter followers recently, you’re not alone. Twitter has warned users and brands that it is purging more accounts from the service and they could see a dip in followers. The media-messaging service is focusing on locked accounts in its latest effort to clean up spam, bots and […]

Shortly after winning the global adidas contract for media, WPP and GroupM’s MediaCom has scored another huge win. Hilton has selected WPP’s MediaCom as its media agency of record for cross-channel planning and traditional media buying following a review. A Hilton spokesman confirmed the selection to Ad Age in an emailed statement. “We selected MediaCom for its […]

The Ogilvy Group has terminated the employment of its chief creative officer, Tham Khai Meng, after an investigation into his behavior following employee complaints, according to a memo sent to staff yesterday by CEO John Seifert. Seifert said he had been informed of employee complaints two weeks prior. Just last month, the group rebranded after […]

We recently reported that Snapchat is testing new Shoppable Snap Ads, a format it is first using to promote its Spectacles camera sunglasses. Also, Snapchat is working with more brands on what it calls Sponsored Snappable ads, which are augmented reality games created by brands with the same technology used in games like Pokémon Go. Snapchat […]

Powered by Meltwater Middle East Since the introduction of Live Video on Facebook last year, brands, influencers and individual users alike have been using the feature to connect with their followers in an authentic, real-time setting. As with any new feature, it’s important for social media pros to consider how it fits into their content […]

By Christos Solomi, executive director – programmatic, Omnicom Media Group MENA With a name like Christos Demetrios Solomi, you can easily guess that I probably have some Greek in me. Growing up in a Greek household meant reading mythology was mandatory and consequently, you develop a strong understanding of the idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy. […]

Spending on the technologies and digital transformation that enable Smart City initiatives is expected to accelerate over the 2016-2021 forecast period, reaching $2.30 billion in 2021, according to research firm International Data Corporation. In light of this, digital outdoor company Elevision has signed a 10-year contract with DIFC that will see the installation of more […]

Recently, Twitter held a half-day event bringing together agencies, brands and publishers to shed light on female Twitter users’ behavior, mindset, and habits. With women now driving in Saudi – and 3 million* being expected to do so by 2020 – brands have found themselves a shiny new opportunity. While the short-term and direct impact […]

By Abdallah Adra, senior regional manager, PMX MENA Who had ever imagined ten years back that spends on digital media or any other media could one day overcome the investments on TV advertisements? Whoever thought back in that period that what was offered as a free of charge media to support paid traditional media, would […]

A battle between WPP and Sir Martin Sorrell’s new agency, S4, to acquire Dutch digital production company MediaMonks is turning ugly, with WPP threatening to withdraw share awards from Sorrell’s exit payoff if he goes ahead with the purchase. Speaking at Cannes about the potential competition between WPP and his new agency S4, he called S4 a […]

Yesterday, we announced the news of Mindshare winning the media business of Pizza Hut, which is part of Yum Brands. The companies have now confirmed the win that consolidates the offline and digital business within one agency. The agency – and some of its partner agencies within GroupM – already works with Pizza Hut and […]

Mindshare MENA, part of GroupM, has won the Pizza Hut account. The account was previously handled by PHD for digital and Initative for offline media. Pizza Hut is part of Yum Group globally but Americana has the franchising rights in the MENA region. Americana moved its portfolio of clients from Initiative to Omnicom’s Hearts & […]

The Dubai-based marketing and advertising industry body Advertising Business Group (ABG) has announced its plans to tackle a number of key industry issues and making new appointments during its first AGM. ABG Chair Sanjiv Kakkar, who is Unilever’s executive vice-president across MENA, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, outlined two key initiatives: The first is to […]

TBWA has partnered with Facebook for a custom training program that will be rolled out across its offices in Africa, Middle East, Turkey, Central and Eastern Europe. Called TBWA Facebook Foundry, the program focuses on “inspiration, learning, and creativity,” according to a statement by the agency. It is based on Facebook’s existing ‘Blueprint’ program, which […]

Dawn Metcalfe is a Dubai-based executive coach and trainer who founded PDSi, a company that provides training, mentorship and coaching. She is also the author of two books: Managing the Matrix: The Secret to Surviving and Thriving in Your Organization and The HardTalk Handbook. Metcalfe’s second book is also a certified training programme offered by […]

1. What do you love about this industry?  In live entertainment, no two days are ever alike. Not even two hours. Being the marketing director of La Perle, I need to very quickly adapt to the everyday craziness, shift gears and get the entire team to keep up with the fast-paced environment. That unpredictability and […]

By Meghna C. Hazarani, senior UX analyst, RBBi Last year I got the opportunity to work on an e-commerce site which was not only enlightening as a ‘UXer’ but also, as a user who finds an excuse to shop pretty much every day. The small details that lead to cross-selling, up-selling, and plain old selling […]

Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) is expanding its MENA footprint with the launch of Merkle, a technology-enabled, data-driven performance marketing agency. Merkle was founded as Merkle Computer Systems in 1971 as part of Merkle Press. In 1998, it was acquired by entrepreneur David Williams who is the Chairman and CEO of the company today. In 2016, […]

  Google is rebranding its ad business after 18 years. The changes are rolling out in July 2018. Google Ad Words is becoming Google Ads, which will represent the full range of advertising capabilities offered by Google. Google Ads will have a new campaign type for small businesses. DoubleClick and Google Analytics will no longer […]

Last week, we reported the end of Nightline – the 11-year-old evening talk show on ARN’s Dubai Eye 103.8. The show was hosted by James Piecowye, a professor at Zayed University and co-founder of Creative Mornings Dubai, who announced that he would be going ahead with a new podcast platform. “We are going to keep […]

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia made history when it passed a Royal Decree in 2017 permitting women to drive in the Kingdom. The ban officially lifted on June 24, 2018 when women took to the streets albeit behind the wheel. This lifting of the ban means that Saudi Arabia will have 3 million female drivers […]

J. Walter Thompson Saudi Arabia has retained the Consumer Business Unit (CBU) account for Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and additionally been awarded the operator’s Corporate Account, after a rigorous selection process across multiple international agencies. J. Walter Thompson KSA’s relationship with STC dates back to 2007 when the agency won the contract for the Al […]

Nightline, the evening show on ARN’s Dubai Eye 103.8 FM, has come to an end after 11 years. Hosted by James Piecowye, the show ran from 8 to 10pm on the channel. Other shows too are expected to be canceled with a slew of new shows, including a night time music show to be rolled […]

The World Cup is a huge global phenomenon with more than 3 billion people watching it in 2014. This year, with the participation of four Arab teams, viewership in the region is naturally expected to be higher, which in turn, means that advertising spends during this period are also higher. The biggest chunk of spends […]

With 75 percent in the GCC considering themselves “extreme football fans,” it’s no surprise that the FIFA World Cup is garnering massive viewership from the region – more so given the participation of regional teams. And that raises the question of where local audiences are watching it. Thanks to a new deal the answer might […]

Wunderman Global CEO Mark Read was thrust into the spotlight in April when WPP announced that CEO Martin Sorrell was stepping down amid an unspecified allegation and that Read and his colleague Andrew Scott would step in as chief operating officers. Read had been floated in past years as a possible successor to WPP’s iconic leader, […]

(Image credit: Illustration by Tam Nguyen/Ad Age) By Brian Braiker, editor, AdAge W. Somerset Maugham was onto something in 1941 when he wrote “the Riviera isn’t only a sunny place for shady people.” While still hilarious in 2018, there was significantly less shadiness – both in conference-goer behavior and as a reprieve from the blazing sun […]

Do you do the Cannes Cannes?  By David Parkinson, co-founder, Brave & Heart I went to Cannes Lions. Once. It started well: flight into Nice, taxi to Cannes, take in the narrow streets with a sense of excitement in the air. The streets were thick with older dark-rimmed glasses in sailor tops mixed with younger preppy […]

75% of the world’s data traffic will be video by 2020. Online video revenue in MENA to grow between 22% and 35% annually until 2021 So yes, users around the world are watching video – a lot more than they ever did, which explains why advertisers are increasingly spending more on digital video. But, much […]

TV is getting a new season thanks to AT&T’s deal with Time Warner. AT&T is a sleeping giant in the ad world. Now, with the US Department of Justice approving its $85 billion bid to acquire Time Warner, it’s about to wake up. What does it all mean for the advertising industry? Basically, more data, […]

1. Wait, so what just happened? US District Judge Richard Leon that an AT&T-Time Warner deal can proceed. Essential background: In October 2016, A&T announced that it had agreed to buy Time Warner for $85 billion. But then Trump got elected. Trump made it clear, even before his presidency began, that he’s no fan of […]

The holy month of Ramadan is an introspective and spiritual time of the year, when people fast, pray, change their daily routines, catch up with their favorite TV drama series and spend more time with their near and dear ones. It’s also that time of year when television and digital screens are bombarded with commercials. […]

30% of audiences are estimated to block ads in 2018, in the US alone. 40% dislike Facebook ads 70% dislike mobile ads These numbers are clear evidence that audiences dislike common forms of advertising including text and video. Even with a more tailored and targeted approach, thanks to data, consumers don’t like the methods of […]

When Campbell Soup Co. named Publicis Groupe the winner of a massive agency review for digital, creative and media, the press release contained a smorgasbord of buzzwords that have come to typify holding company-level pitches. Publicis will provide an “entire suite of marketing services and provide more accountability and flexibility than traditional marketing models,” its March […]

By Michelle Engle, senior vice-president, product, Valassis Digital The debate surrounding probabilistic versus deterministic cross-device tracking is nothing new. But with the rapidly evolving online landscape and technological capabilities, and with customers increasingly engaging across multiple devices, brands and agencies should be having a different conversation: They need to look beyond which targeting method to […]

Image Credit: Illustration by Tam Nguyen/Ad Age Snapchat has replaced one problem with another, to advertisers’ potential benefit: Prices for ads on the platform have gone from ungodly to low, low, low. About two years ago, Snapchat was charging brands $300,000 to $500,000 to sponsor a Lens, an animated filter that transforms people’s faces in […]

Snapchat and Instagram are stepping up their shopping rivalry as they both work e-commerce into new areas of their apps. Instagram On June 12, Instagram brought shopping into Stories, the vertical-video section that was copied from Snapchat. Brands on Instagram will now be able to drop shopping bag stickers into their Stories and sell products […]

Last week, international chain IHOP changed its name to IHOb in a marketing gimmick announcing its new range of (b for) burgers – instead of P for pancakes. Dear Internet, we abbreciate your batience. Now let’s see who guessed right. B-hold!!!!! #IHOb pic.twitter.com/Fh3SkZ7s3Y — IHOb (@IHOb) June 11, 2018 The build-up to the announcement saw […]

Following last year’s controversy that saw Patou Nuyteman replaces Edmond Moutran as Memac Ogilvy’s CEO, the agency has been on a roll. Just recently, the agency underwent a global rebrand after 70 years. The company reinvented its approach through a new client-centric, integrated structure that centralizes its offerings under what it’s calling its “Next Chapter”. In […]

Previously known as Ogilvy&Mather, Ogilvy has restructured its operations under a new brand identity. Founded as Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather in New York City in 1948 by the late David Ogilvy, the company grew into a global network that incorporates several brands such as Ogilvy Public Relations, and Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency.  John Seifer, […]

By Yasmine Abdelkhalek, Consultant, FTI Consulting (Image credit: Netflix) Companies are constantly striving to communicate their corporate narrative to their key stakeholders. Devising a comprehensive content strategy has always been integral to successfully build a brand and attract the right audience. With advancements in data science and data analytics, content strategists have been given a […]

RAPP Middle East, part of the Omnicom network, has just concluded an extensive pitch process bagging a three-year CRM contract for a leading automotive client. The client is none other than BMW Group Middle East. The pitch included other companies including Accenture Interactive, according to industry sources. Just recently, however, BMW Group extended its relationship […]

Socially-led creative agency network We Are Social, has acquired a majority stake in Socialize, the Middle East’s largest independent social media agency. The move, which is subject to regulatory approval, is We Are Social’s first acquisition, and extends its network to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for the first time. We Are Social […]

Audio, or an audio ad, has been around since the times of radio. Today, audio ads have taken on a new life thanks to streaming services like Spotify and more locally, Anghami. Audio ads generated $1.6 billion in the US in 2017 – a 39 percent jump from the year before – according to the […]

A year after what Goldman Sachs labeled the “the biggest M&A deal in the Arab World” i.e. the Amazon/Souq deal, Noon has announced its strategic partnership with US-based online auction platform eBay. About the deal The e-commerce platform, which saw a major investment from Alshaya late last year, will now fulfill eBay orders made on […]

From arcade games to high-end Playstations to Candy Crush… gaming has undergone a massive evolution. Through this evolution, somehow, it managed to stay away from the attention of marketers. There was no brand logo inserted in a Pac-Man or a video ad inserted in Space Invaders to continue playing. But now, with gaming making its […]

In conversation with Pui Chi Li, head of marketing for the Middle East and Africa region of Xerox’s Developing Markets Operations.  What are the challenges you have faced because of being a woman? The transition to a working mother has been one of the greatest challenges to date. Prior to children, I had total control […]

On May 24, Publicis Groupe unveiled Marcel, its AI-powered platform that “advances transformation of the Groupe from a holding company to a platform, ushering in a new era of creativity and innovation,” it said in a press statement. Marcel was announced almost a year earlier in June 2016. Speaking at its launch in Paris, Arthur […]

There’s always a new medium, a new channel, to look out for in the world of advertising. The pervasiveness of the Internet and smartphones has created ample opportunities for audiences to consume content more frequently than they ever did. Publishers, on their part, have stepped up the game to provide more content in more formats […]

In June 2017, Publicis Groupe announced that it won’t be participating in events and awards until July 1, 2018. In this year, it would focus on the development of Marcel, which it announced on May 24. Yet, we see the Groupe’s agencies winning some awards. Publicis Groupe clarifies in a statement that these entries have […]

Image credit: Arsen Galstyan / AFP By Puja Pannum, managing director at Blis MENA The World Cup: whether it’s vuvuzelas or 7-0 thrashings, it’s the sporting event of the year that is sure, as always, to have a massive global impact. As for brands, it’s a crucial time to drive awareness and sales – Coca Cola, […]

The social media giant just can’t seem to catch a break ever since news of Cambridge Analytica broke. Two days in front of the Senate, one in front of EU officials, an FTC investigation, and hundreds of assurances later, Facebook has messed up yet again. On Thursday, it was revealed that the privacy of 14 […]

Publishers have many reasons to be unhappy with the walled gardens of Facebook but most recently they have been upset with Google’s moves as part of its GDPR compliance. Four major trade bodies that represent some 4,000 publishers from around the globe found themselves in a standoff with Google and its CEO Sundar Pichai in […]

By Lindsay Pattison, chief transformation officer, Group M Worldwide and Worldwide CEO, Maxus Global The ad business is gearing up for another trek to the south of France for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. But this year, the sunny Mediterranean skies greeting us will belie more ominous, metaphorical clouds looming over our industry. […]

A global automotive client that spent $4.1 billion on advertising globally put its global creative account on review in April spelling bad news for incumbent WPP. The client is none other than Ford, which is currently with WPP’s Global Team Blue (GTB). The account has been under strain for months as the automaker began re-evaluating […]

Instinctif Partners Middle East is an international business communications consultancy, which recently launched its ‘Content & Creative’ practice following a successful year that witnessed 58 percent revenue growth in 2017. It also won 11 new clients the previous year. Now, it has been re-appointed by Middle East asset manager Emirates NBD Asset Management, the wholly […]

Triangle MENA (Triangle), a creative agency that specializes in building comprehensive online experiences, has successfully deployed two new digital products for the Saudi Broadcasting Authority – SBC TV & Shashtacom. SBC, a TV Channel that offers the KSA audience local to regional varied content, and Shashatcom, an on-demand video platform that delivers a wide array […]

By Waseem Yakdi, CEO, Zia Creative Network Once considered to be incomparable, the relation between creativity and return on marketing investment delivering effective and staggering profitability has now become a new normal in the current advertising scenario. Now, in agencies, planning departments work much more closely with creative departments. Amid economic uncertainty, there is greater […]

Hotels in the UAE are targeting residents of the country with special discounts and offers. While most tourist spots – and sometimes hotels – have special rates for UAE or GCC residents, there has been an increase in hoteliers offering such packages during Ramadan. One such brand is Jumeirah Group. “This Ramadan as a UAE […]

Following a multi-agency pitch earlier this year, Socialize has been awarded the digital communications and social media mandate for Sony across the Middle East and Africa region. The account was previously handled by independent agency, Qrious. Socialize has been tasked with increasing awareness and interest around Sony’s diverse range of products across televisions, audio, digital […]

Apple held its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) yesterday, June 4, unveiling new updates for developers and users. This time around there were no hardware announcements, but there are some pretty significant software updates that will have huge implications for marketers – especially considering that as of this year Apple has 1.3 billion active devices […]

“The choice of a Saudi princess for Vogue Arabia‘s [June] cover is completely tone-deaf.” These are the words of Husain Abdulla, executive director of Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain, in a recent interview with NPR.  Vogue Arabia, published by Condé Nast in partnership with Nervora in the region, has been embroiled in one […]

Yesterday, du released a statement saying that it’s in negotiations with Qatar-based beIN, the official broadcaster of the FIFA World Cup 2018. Soon after, beIN released the following statement: “BeIN MEDIA GROUP announces that after lengthy negotiations it has not been able to reach to this day an agreement to continue its services over DU’s […]

The consumer VR software and hardware market size globally was $2.2 billion in 2017 It is expected to grow to $4.5 billion in 2018 But, 200 million people worldwide will be using mobile AR in 2018 vs 60 million in 2013 Virtual reality or augmented reality? [Tweet “VR offers an escape from the real world […]

Excitement is high for the FIFA World Cup in the region with four Arab countries participating in it for the first time. The first game on June 14 will see Saudi Arabia and Russia kick off the tournament. A GCC-wide study by OMD shows that 75 percent consider themselves extreme football fanatics and 65 percent […]

Snap, which opened its Dubai office early last year, is headed by ex-Yahoo veteran Hussein Freijeh as managing director. He is supported by Jake Thomas, ex-LinkedIn, as head of agency development, and Rami Saad, ex-deputy COO of DMS, as head of content. Now, it has appointed Choueiri Group’s digital arm, DMS, to act as sales […]

Vogue Arabia launched amidst much fanfare with its digital edition in October 2016 and first print issue in March 2017. Condé Nast International tied up with Dubai-based publisher Nervora for the regional edition. Since its launch, the magazine has been embroiled in controversy every now and again. Two of its biggest controversies involve a Saudi […]

Facebook has been under fire for a multitude of issues ranging from data privacy to fake news. Now, after multiple complaints, hearings and GDPR, it has to fix at least some of them. But, first… Facebook has been saying for a long time that it has tied up with external fact-checkers but its stringent control […]

23% of TV ad spends are during Ramadan, according to Ipsos 2017 research Viewers in Saudi Arabia (60%) and in Egypt (70%) actually prefer watching ads on YouTube to TV In MENA, users spend an extra 6 million hours on Facebook throughout the month Clearly, Ramadan is a peak period for advertisers with users spending […]

Image credit: Daniel Berman/Bloomberg By Shelly Palmer, CEO of The Palmer Group Some people believe that voice assistant Alexa is listening all the time. This is true. Some people believe that Alexa records every word for posterity. This is false. Some people believe that having an Amazon Echo increases their risk of being hacked. This […]

7 questions with  J. Walter Thompson Beirut’s creative director, Paola Mounla 1. What are the challenges you have faced on account of being a woman? To be frank, throughout my career, I have never faced challenges based on my gender. However, the industry as a whole still objectifies women – not in the workplace but in […]

Ramadan is a peak period for advertisers as audiences purchase more as well as consume more content on different channels. The last couple of years have seen a gradual shift from TV spends to digital not only during Ramadan, but also throughout the year. However, Ramadan is one month during which both TV consumption and […]

In 2016, talent and recruitment group MCG Group launched a subsidiary recruitment consultancy, Hopscotch, to bring together professional women who prefer flexible working options and companies looking for quality, shorter term hires. The firm is headed by Helen McGuire, MCG Group CEO Justin McGuire’s wife, who is the former head of digital content at Impact […]

Sometimes advertisements and brand activities seem so bizarre, you can hardly believe it! Table fans that can take you to the moon. Chocolates that let you travel time. A vertical soccer match high in the air, 10 storeys off the ground to be precise. You think that’s impossible? Lo and Behold. Adidas proves nothing is […]

By Stefanie Fernandez, head of sales solutions at LinkedIn MENA Sales and marketing alignment is becoming increasingly widespread as a business objective. There is a growing focus on sharing between the two departments – sharing knowledge, sharing resources, sharing credit. But one of the key questions, from an operational standpoint, is whether sales and marketing […]

Creative agencies have been known to be slow on the uptake of technology with media agencies embarking digital and data quickly. That has now changed with multiple creative agencies building their digital offering. TBWA\RAAD, for example, has its own data department and manages digital and social for clients including Nissan. In fact, the agency’s CEO, […]

By Moe Jawhar, executive creative director of Serviceplan Group ME Advertising during Ramadan can increase your sales and raise your brand awareness if you bear three simple rules in mind. The holy month of Ramadan is with us, so be ready to read multiple articles from many experts discussing its impact on advertising, media consumption, […]

There has been a huge hue and cry about GDPR as companies scramble to get their data and privacy laws in order. You would’ve known from the 10,000 emails you have received to opt-in to continue receiving newsletters and such. [Tweet “The EU’s GDPR went into effect on May 25 and on the same day […]

Taxation is a globally accepted practice by the state to generate revenue and subsequently fund expenditures that sustain the operation of the government. For so many years, the people of the UAE were basking in the glory of a tax-free lifestyle, however, a year ago the government announced that VAT would finally take effect in […]

By Aiman Al Zyoud, CEO and founder, Charisma Group There’s a lot of talk about how TV is dead, and in a way that’s true. Gone are the days when families huddled around the television, or when you raced home to make it on time for your favorite show. The digital revolution has rendered the television […]

1. What do you love about this industry? I love the speed of change in our industry…it is changing every week. The way we are able to send, receive and capture information about personal messages, business messages and marketing messages is mind boggling. I also love the power of this industry to form and change […]

Following a pitch handled by UK-based media consulting company, ID Comms, PHD has won the global media account of British banking and financial services company HSBC. The incumbent was GroupM’s Mindshare. “We have selected PHD as our preferred Media Planning and Buying Supplier as they demonstrated strong strategic skills and advanced digital transformation capabilities,” Leanne […]

Last month, we broke the news that Careem was looking for a creative agency. More than eight creative agencies including TBWA/RAAD, J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett are said to be participating in the pitch. [Tweet “Now Careem has announced that it has appointed TBWA/ RAAD as its global agency of record to lead brand […]

This report addresses the important trends that impact the FMCG sector during the holy month of Ramadan in the MENA region, what marketing strategies FMCG brands adopt to connect with consumers, how FMCG brands measure the success of Ramadan-centric campaigns and, last but not the least, how FMCG marketers and advertisers need to catch up […]

The holy month of Ramadan is an introspective and spiritual time of the year, when people fast, pray, change their daily routines, catch up with their favorite TV drama series and spend more time with their near and dear ones. It’s also that time of year when television and digital screens are bombarded with commercials. […]

Unilever’s oral care brand Closeup has chosen J. Walter Thompson Dubai as its Agency of Record and communications partner in the Gulf region. The agency’s relationship with Unilever dates back to 1902 when a press ad in a US title marked the beginning of the longest-ever working relationship between an agency and a multinational client. […]

Just recently, Radisson Hotel Group appointed Accenture Interactive as its global experience agency to increase the digital presence of the company’s brands and hotels and transform the digital experience to improve customer acquisition and retention. Radisson has worked with Accenture Interactive previously to create a chatbot for the meetings and event planners. This new appointment will […]

The royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was no private affair. Other than it being a widely covered occasion by all media outlets, it was also an opportunity for brands. That shouldn’t really be a surprise given the massive interest in the event. Google Trends reports a surge in the ‘Royal Wedding’ with […]