Communicate casts an eye over Cairo’s advertisers to see who’s spending, what they are spending on, and what’s changing
Originally published in Communicate, June 2010
Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but there’s been a financial crisis in the Gulf. Marketing money has been pouring out through a real estate-sized hole, along with other perforations, and some of that money has been flowing towards Egypt. Clients there have been competing in a much more established market in ways that the free-falling GCC can only envy. Following on from April’s look at Egyptian agencies and media, Communicate takes a look at the country’s advertisers themselves. Read the rest of this entry »
Draft FCB London’s executive creative director, Mark Fiddes, tells Communicate why his agency is dealing in digits
Originally published in Communicate, May 2010
“A number paints a thousand pictures,” said Mark Fiddes, executive creative director of Draft FCB London, as he introduced his presentation at the Dubai International Advertising Festival. His talk was catchily entitled, “Using data insights to connect in 6.5 seconds,” and he used it to outline some numbers that might set the creative brain ticking, or at least help it win a pub quiz. Read the rest of this entry »
Richard Pinder, now promoted to CEO, tells Communicate that, for Publicis, “better value” is not the same as “lower price”
Originally published in Communicate, June 2009
When Publicis Worldwide’s then chief operating officer (now CEO) Richard Pinder came to town, Communicate caught up with him to find out about the importance of value, North African creativity, and how Publicis Graphics (the regional manifestation of Publicis Worldwide, which is the lead creative agency in the Publicis Groupe holding company) should be winning more prizes. Read the rest of this entry »
Pride of Young Lions fails to roar
Originally published in Communicate, June 2009
Last month Communicate was invited to be among the 40 or so judges of the Cannes Young Lions competition in Dubai. The contest pitted teams of young creatives against one another to see who would win the chance to go and represent the UAE in Cannes this month.
Each year the competition picks a charity and the ads are created – in nine hours – against that noble cause’s brief. This year, the client was the UAE Make a Wish Foundation. The foundation grants wishes to seriously ill children between the ages of three and 18, and the brief was simply to raise brand awareness.
Some of the work on display looked like it could have been put together by those children. If their dying wish had been to work at an advertising agency, this might have been what they produced. It might have been quite impressive if the young creatives behind it were, say, at school. But they’re not; they are working at agencies. And not as interns, either; as fully paid-up members of staff. Read the rest of this entry »
No toil or trouble at Adwomen ME’s first TrendTalks sessions
Originally published in Communicate, May 2010
ACT I
SCENE I. A desert place.
Thunder and lightning. Enter witches
Ah, the opening of Macbeth. It was the first thing which sprang to mind when Communicate was invited to the inaugural Adwomen ME TrendTalks, a get-together of 50 female members and various speakers organized by Adwomen Middle East. It was hard to escape visions of cauldrons and an evil coven, eager to boil this male journo alive. Read the rest of this entry »
As the paper celebrates its first birthday, Communicate finds the title still has a long way to go
Originally published in Communicate, May 2009
At a round table in Abu Dhabi last month, Gavin Dickinson, the executive director of publishing at The National, spoke with journalists about the newspaper’s business model. Like everyone else, it seems the daily has been hit by the credit crunch. But being young, bold, and blessed with very rich parents, it doesn’t really care. Read the rest of this entry »
As Lynx allegations fly, Communicate finds all’s fair in love and awards
Originally published in Communicate, April 2009
This year’s Lynx Awards and Dubai International Advertising Festival served up the sort of scandal, drama and intrigue that the industry – and Communicate – thrives on. Read the rest of this entry »
ADK’s Koichiro Naganuma tells us about the importance of local knowledge and how the Middle East is the center of the Earth
Originally published in Communicate, July 2008
Koichiro Naganuma, president and group CEO of Japanese ad agency ADK was in town recently to familiarize himself with the workings and staff of AGA ADK, the result of a merger between his company and Dubai-based AGA a year and a half ago. Communicate caught up with him and Roger Sahyoun, president and CEO of AGA ADK, to talk about the unique appeal of this region to an Eastern agency looking west. Read the rest of this entry »
Phil Thomas, CEO of the Cannes Lions advertising festival, was in town this month to talk about the upcoming Dubai Lynx advertising awards. Communicate caught up with him to find out what direction the event is taking
Originally published in Communicate, March 2008
When the Lynx started, was the plan always there to turn it into a festival?
Absolutely. What we wanted to do was test the waters and see if we were going to be supported by the region. Is this something the region really wants? Let’s have an award first and see how that goes. And we were blown away by the support we had, we were amazed by the entry levels and the attendance on the night last year, so we felt confident that we could create a three-day event that would also be supported by the region. Read the rest of this entry »
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