FP7/MENA wins big at Global Effie Awards 

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Full-service advertising agency, FP7/MENA has received the Global Effie Award for the Most Awarded Agency Network in a Single Regional Competition. The awards took place on May 31, 2018 in New York City. The agency secured the award for FP7/DXB’s ranking as #2 Most Effective Agency Office Globally and FP7/CAI – FP7’s Cairo office– ranked #8 Most Effective Agency Globally.

“I’m completely honored and humbled at the same time – doing work that makes a meaningful difference for the brands that we represent is our job,” says Tarek Miknas, CEO, FP7/MENA. “Creativity that is not self-serving, nor made for award shows, but rather works to benefit both brand and consumer, is what makes us proud. That’s our True North. The fact that our Effie-winning work also wins at creative shows, goes to show that the complementary forces of effectiveness and creative brilliance, in our line of work, are two  sides of the same coin.”

New influencer policy comes into effect

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The National Media Council (NMC)’s new influencer policy came into effect on June 1, 2019, to regulate the growing number of social influencers who are making commercial gains from the recently recognised career. All UAE-based influencers are now required to be registered and to flag paid posts and gifts accordingly to make the advertising of products and services more transparent.

Influencers have three options when obtaining an NMC license – which is now compulsory for all influencers making money, or accepting sizable gifts, while promoting brands and businesses. Category 1 is an individual license, best suited for high-profile individual influencers – they will require a separate business trade license in order to be considered for their NMC license. Category 2 is a partnership license – best suited to small groups of micro-influencers, where they would share a trade license. Category 3 is for influencers who are registered exclusively to official influencer agencies.

The first official Influencer agency to be permitted by the NMC to sign influencers under its umbrella is Motivate-VAMP – a joint partnership between Dubai’s Motivate Media Group and Australian-based Influencer Marketing platform, VAMP. The agency currently has over 400 registered influencers and expects these numbers to grow considerably over the coming months.

“We are delighted to be a part of this initiative and commend the NMC on introducing such comprehensive regulations to support all sectors of the influencer marketing industry in the UAE”, says Chris Capstick, General Manager – Connect, Motivate Media Group. “We have invested a lot of resources into the digital arena and both our partners at VAMP and our on-the-ground team in Dubai are looking forward to the exciting times that lay ahead.”

Vogue Arabia Saudi issue causes a stir

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Controversy has surrounded Vogue Arabia’s first ever Saudi Arabian issue after a social media backlash erupted, stemming from the title’s choice of cover star. The cover features HRH Hayfa bint Abdullah Al Saud, daughter of the late King Abdullah, sitting behind the wheel of a car, but many social voices pointed to the fact it was indeed her father who curbed the rights of women drivers. While the glossy magazine described Her Highness as a trailblazer, others preferred to recognise some of the detained Saudi Arabian activists for their bravery in standing up for women’s rights.

In The Hot Seat – Ian Drinkwater

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Team TMN chat with Ian Drinkwater, Director at Performance Communications Middle East, who talks about his current role and offers his thoughts on the PR industry in the Middle East.

Name: Ian Drinkwater

Age: 46

Nationality: British

Current job title: Director, Performance Communications Middle East

When did you first arrive in Dubai? November 2007

Where did you work prior? I worked for French car maker, Citroën, in the UK for 10 years, which was also where I kicked off my PR career. The in-house team was known as being the best in the industry, so I couldn’t have had a better start to my PR career.

What were your first impressions of the PR industry in the Middle East? Having spent so long in-house in the UK, coming to the Middle East to work agency-side was always going to be a total eye-opener. While in some ways the industry operated differently from my previous experience, the principles remained the same. While the general approach was far more conservative than it even is today, from day one I found the challenge of working in the region fantastically exciting and rewarding.

Has your opinion changed much?

Over the past decade the media landscape has evolved dramatically, as have client’s expectations. Today our clients are far more focused on digital and experiential opportunities, to supplement their PR activities. Looking at the fields we work in, the industry has become much more sophisticated and we are now able to propose and develop creative PR campaigns in a way that simply wasn’t possible then. The region’s PR industry has definitely closed the gap on those markets that many consider to be the global leaders.

Tell us about your current role… I co-founded sports and automotive specialist agency Performance Communications Middle East (then called Performance PR) in 2009, just as the financial crash really took hold in Dubai. It was actually the perfect time to launch, with set-up costs at a minimum. We started with no employees and just two Dubai-based clients. Today I manage a dynamic team that works across the region for some of the world’s best-known brands, in a range of fields including traditional PR, digital and events.

What challenges do you face? Running a business, every day presents its own challenges and these change on an almost daily basis. However, with the lines between the different sectors becoming increasingly blurred in today’s dynamic communications industry, convincing clients and potential clients that a ‘PR agency’ is often best placed to deliver creative solutions to a range of comms scenarios has become increasingly relevant. And it is also something that we are seeing happen more frequently.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job? There are too many to mention, but I’ll highlight two. Firstly, that feeling of winning or retaining an account, and knowing that a major global brand has taken an active decision to place their confidence and trust in Performance. Secondly, seeing team members flourish within the company and beyond. It’s a great feeling to know that you have been able to have a positive effect on another person’s career.

How has clients’ expectations in today’s digital community influenced PR and marketing in the UAE? Over the past couple of years, there has certainly been a push from clients to work more closely with digital media and ‘influencers’. This has been one factor that has contributed to the need for an increasingly integrated PR/digital approach, which in itself presents an exciting opportunity for agencies who are able to react to address this.

How has social media in the region evolved to become an integrated part of the PR industry? We have seen a major change over the past few years as key media finally make the jump from print to digital. For example, five years ago there was only a relatively small number of quality motoring websites. Now, almost all print media outlets have launched their own websites and social media platforms. At the same time, we have found that there is an increasing recognition among clients of the need for closer collaboration between social media and PR teams, or in some cases, thanks to the skills they possess, that PR teams are indeed better placed to undertake certain social media activities.

What do you think of PR ethics in the industry today? Certain events may have outwardly given the industry a bad name, but my experience is that people work in PR for the right reasons. All PR professionals that I have dealt with have a genuine passion for communicating, are extremely hard-working, and purely want to do the best by themselves, their clients and their audiences.

Describe yourself in five words… Driven, professional, thorough, reliable, exhausted (three young children – enough said).

Who inspires you? Professionally, my inspiration has come from the extremely talented people I have been fortunate enough to work with over the years. None more so than the manager who first gave me the chance in the PR industry, and who taught me so much over the eight years I worked with him.

What’s your most overused saying? Probably ‘never assume’

Five things you can’t live without? Family, passport, photos, internet and junk food.

If you weren’t in your current role, what would you be doing? Working in the travel industry in whatever role would allow me to travel the world as part of my job.

What’s your favourite form of media? I’m still quite old school, so love picking up newspapers. I’m also a huge fan of the BBC in its various forms. Having travelled extensively and lived in five different countries, I’m yet to find a media outlet that, for all its failings, delivers such a high quality and professional service.

What advice would you offer to someone looking to start a career in PR in the UAE? Do it! But be prepared to work hard and don’t rush things. Take your time to learn the job and gain experience – too many newcomers jump around in the early years of their PR career in the pursuit of ever higher salaries, but after three or four years they simply don’t have the skills to justify their next desired job title.

Cracking great content in Dubai

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Richard Boullemier, Producer, First and Ten Productions offers his thoughts on the content creation industry in the Middle East.

“The need to feed your social media platforms, market your business or product and keep fans and consumers coming back for more is vital for a successful business.”

Creating content is a lot like going to brunch. (Stay with me on this).

There are tonnes of brunches to choose from in the UAE. Some cheap and some, not so cheap. But ultimately, if you want a champagne product with a great experience, you get what your pay for.

Content has become the buzz word in marketing speak across the GCC, and with good reason. The need to feed your social media platforms, market your business or product and keep fans and consumers coming back for more is vital for a successful business.

Despite being an established production company, our daily battle revolves around clients claiming they have someone that will do it cheaper. Followed by the inevitable line… “Can you match this quote?”.

This used to make us question our prices, but quality content comes at a premium. “Pay cheap, pay twice” is a good rule of thumb. A lesson we have learned as a company is that if you don’t stick to your guns, you will end up working harder for less because you are too professional to hand-over a video that is not up to your usual standard.

If you want your brand to be heard in a competitive market, it’s important to invest in yourself.

My advice for forward-thinking business owners is to focus on the amount of deliverables that you can produce with the content, rather than looking at it as a one off transaction.

If we film for a day, two days or a week, that content SHOULD be used in numerous ways to drive greater awareness of your brand. Our job doesn’t end when we turn the cameras off. The edit suite is where the magic happens. Just ask our friends at Arabian Adventures – who have been our main clients for the last three years – and they constantly dip into the huge bank of content to continually wow their clients and market their services across the globe.

So build that bank of content. You never know when that light bulb idea will happen and you wish you had the footage that could be edited into something amazing.

Content works in numerous ways and has multiple forms, so make sure you’re creating content that is relevant to your source market.

By all means, smash that 199 Dirham brunch. But if you’re trying to impress someone – you’re gonna need to dust off the credit card. And don’t try to bring your own plates to reduce the price.

Don’t get me wrong, I love cheap and cheerful. But be prepared for a killer headache.

Ogilvy to launch Marketing Technology Center of Excellence

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Ogilvy will deliver its Marketing Center of Excellence through its Memac Ogilvy offices across the MENA region. The new offering aims to bring out the company’s range of MarTech solutions while providing offices and clients with a skilled and highly competitive hub model.

“We’ve steadily grown our capabilities in the area of deep digital in recent years, in line with Next Chapter,” says Patou Nuytemans, CEO, Memac Ogilvy, Chief Digital Officer, Ogilvy EMEA. “In order for clients to become truly digital, they require partners with not only strategic and creative digital skills, but also deep expertise in technology. That’s what the Center of Excellence is all about. We are thrilled to be able to offer it here in the MENA region, where clients are increasingly showing great desire to innovate and transform digitally.”