When your client is RAM Middle East and they ask for a campaign to launch the all-new RAM RHO 1500, you turn car specs into a spectacle. Publicis Middle East saw more than a truck. They saw an aircraft.

The RAM RHO is a lighter, faster, more agile beast with 540 horsepower. But more than that, it’s a prime example of how RAM is redefining the pickup category — bringing high-quality interiors, human-centric technology, and comfort into a segment traditionally known for utility.

Truck owners in the Middle East aren’t looking for a workhorse. They are looking for a fun driving experience. They demand more from their vehicles: size, thrill, and refinement in one. Today’s vehicles don’t just compete with each other; they compete with all forms of mobility. And with Middle Eastern consumers indexing high on destination travel, positioning the RAM RHO as an exciting mobility experience felt like a natural leap.

Enter RHO Airlines: an unexpected destination travel brand, a turbocharged PR stunt and, unofficially, the world’s shortest flight, clocking in at just 1.2 adrenaline-fuelled seconds.

When you’ve got a new truck this bold, it only makes sense to roll out a campaign that no one saw coming. Publicis transformed the RHO’s product truth into a campaign that doesn’t just speak to performance — it launches it, literally and the client immediately cleared it for take-off. The agency created a full-blown airline experience in the least likely place imaginable: the desert. There were check-in counters. Boarding passes. Air hostesses. Ground crew. Even air traffic control. Everything you’d expect from an airline — except the plane.

Because with RHO Airlines, the aircraft is a RAM truck.

To take things airborne, RAM collaborated with beloved influencer duo The @SaudiReporters — and orchestrated a desert prank of epic proportions. The campaign began with cryptic teaser content, hinting at a new airline entering the market. It culminated in a short film capturing the Saudi Reporters prank, the big reveal and Abdulaziz’s screams.

RHO Airlines became a fictitious airline that generated real engagement and reminded us that branded content doesn’t have to be boring.

Hessa brings over 15 years of experience in the region, with a strong track record of developing campaigns for both Saudi Arabia’s leading brands and global powerhouses. Her work spans sectors including telecom, tech, banking and finance, FMCG, and automotive, with a portfolio that features global and regional brands including Apple, stc, Almarai, Red Bull, Volkswagen, and several top financial institutions. 

Her creative approach combines strategic thinking with cultural relevance, and she’s known for delivering ideas that are both impactful and grounded in insight. Hessa joined Leo Burnett early in her career as a copywriter and now returns to lead the creative charge in a market that continues to evolve rapidly. 

Hessa’s work has been recognised at award shows including Dubai Lynx, Loeries, Effies, WARC and D&AD, and has previously served as a juror for Dubai Lynx and the Clio Awards. 

Her appointment reflects the agency’s ongoing focus on strengthening its creative leadership across the region and deepening its commitment to the Saudi market.

Unveiling a roadmap that is set to expand over the next three years, the Maheerah Network is designed to be a long-term enabler for women in every stage of their career. The first of its kind for women in creative marcomms in Saudi Arabia, the initiative aims to establish an industry standard for leadership, empowerment, and continuous development.

The journey begins with Maheerah Network, foundational series of year-round activities geared toward women from across the industry. Through online and offline events, access to exclusive insights, and learning opportunities such as webinars and networking meetups, it aims to build early confidence, capability, and community.

The second pillar, the Maheerah Programme, is a high-level learning and development track for women in senior roles from across the industry. With its third iteration taking place during Athar Festival 2025 later this year in October, it will feature curated workshops, leadership coaching, and executive-level training designed to equip participants with the tools to step into strategic and leadership roles within the creative sector.

Building on that, the Maheerah Alumni pillar creates an enduring network for graduates of past editions of the Maheerah Programme. Alumni will continue to benefit from tailored professional growth experiences including webinars, mentorship with industry leaders, and in-person gatherings. Leading by example across organisations such as NEOM, Nestle, STA, and more, members represent a growing cross-section of sectors including marketing, advertising, PR, and technology.

Maheerah Network is an initiative by Athar Festival and powered by Publicis Groupe. For more information, visit https://atharfestival.com/maheerah-programme-4/

As media, data, and technology continue to evolve, brands need more seamless, impactful ways to connect with their audiences. This partnership bridges the gap between data-driven media strategies and experiential creativity, delivering solutions that drive engagement, measurable impact, and long-term brand affinity.

Living Room MENA has consistently led the way in experiential marketing and creative tech, blending human insights with cutting-edge technology to create standout brand activations. Their portfolio includes transforming Dubai Mall’s fountain divers into Deadpool for 20th Century Fox, launching an AI-driven film festival for Expo City Dubai, and introducing interactive AR experiences for the RTA for public transport day.

Beyond delivering innovative marketing solutions, the partnership is designed to fuel business growth for both agencies, offering clients a unified, future-ready approach. Together, Publicis Media ME and Living Room MENA will enhance their market positioning, strengthen their offerings, and introduce a joint go-to-market strategy to drive new business opportunities.

As a strategic launch partner, Publicis Media will play a key role in supporting Landmark Reach’s retail media framework enhancing their understanding of how our clients will want to see Landmark’s first-party data structured, segmented and made available for targeting. By blending first-party data and other digital touchpoints, Publicis Media and Landmark Reach are working together to build a seamless ecosystem where insights drive smarter, more personalised brand strategies. This collaborative approach ensures that every element—from campaign planning to consumer engagement—is interconnected, positioning Landmark Reach as a scalable, future-ready retail media platform that delivers both impact and measurable growth.

What sets this partnership apart is how all elements—campaign strategy, data insights, and execution are fully connected to deliver consistent engagement across channels. Landmark Reach’s media touchpoints, from in-store screens to app-based and digital activations, are synchronised to provide a seamless experience throughout the shopper’s journey. This holistic system ensures that each interaction builds on the next, creating deeper trust and loyalty between brands and consumers while enhancing campaign performance.

The movie comes from Publicis, for King Faisal Specialist Hospital, as a way to encourage the viewers to donate organs and was conceptualized and directed by Tahaab Rais (Rais wears other hats but for the purposes of this article, he is director). The effort portrays organ donation as a way to continue one's life, presence, legacy and good deeds, for a topic which is still ethically-checkered in the Arab world due to social, religious and ethical restrictions. Film can be seen here.

With over 15 years of experience spanning media, digital, and content roles across the region, Dyala has been at the forefront of driving impactful content strategies for brands. Most recently she was the Head of Commercial Content Partnerships at TikTok for METAP, where she was responsible for creating revenue opportunities for TikTok by building bespoke content solutions for advertisers and agencies. Under her leadership, the METAP team pioneered global first programs for branded content with creators and publishers across key moments such as Ramadan, and the World Cup as well as vertical-based programs.

Prior to this, she led content efforts at Webedia Arabia/UTURN Group, where she successfully brought together brands, publishers, and influencers to create cohesive and engaging content ecosystems.

Under Dyala’s leadership, the focus will shift to creating a unified content practice that brings together intelligence, creativity, and technology to solve complex client challenges.

Who doesn’t love their own stuff? Whether it's pride, a sense of ownership, or even sentimentality, we are driven to place greater value on items we own.

Behavioral science attributes this to a phenomenon known as the endowment effect, where people put disproportionately more value on the items they own.

It’s a reality that’s been played into in the advertising industry for decades. From product trials to 30-day money-back guarantee offers, brands leveraged these tactics in the hopes that once a consumer owns the item, they get emotionally invested and less likely to part with it.

In an era of technology that continuously builds on more immersive experiences, the endowment effect has never been better leveraged than in augmented reality. AR has been all the rage over the last few years and is only forecasted for accelerated growth in the coming years, with 48% of Gen Z shopping with AR by 2025. This growth translates to not only the younger generations but even Gen X, 50% of whom will be using AR in their shopping experience by 2025. This highlights the increased adoption of the technology across different features.

Its accelerated adoption and consideration are, by and large, driven by the endowment effect. According to the Future of Shopping study, commissioned by Snap and Foresight Factory in the UAE, the top reasons behind wanting to use AR is ‘to get a 360 visualization of the product’ (37%) and ‘to see what products look like me’ (35%).

AR enables consumers to try and experience a product without the investment and gives them an immersive way to readily experience the product before deciding on buying it. But just as with the previous tactics, AR taps into that emotional investment that the endowment effect drives, and it does so stealthily.

Unlike physical product trials, the social pressure element is removed from the equation, making it far more attractive. Notably, platforms like Snap and Facebook are leveraging this with fun and immersive AR features. Yet, others players such as Google, through its Google Lens, are also delving deeper into AR, particularly as a key conversion trigger. The rising importance of AR in social experiences has driven the growth of digital and creative tech solutions such as Alive Now to develop more customized AR solutions that can be deployed across channels. We see many brands such as Sephora and IKEA also beginning to in-house AR features in their owned media to maintain an always-on interaction for their consumers with AR technology.

In whatever format we see it, AR is being used to get consumers to engage with the product: posting selfies with it, placing the items around the house, and even recreating the right scenarios with the product; all of which get us to get invested behind the product without physically owning it – a next-generation take on the endowment effect.

AR has disrupted the nature of trial, creating a more subtle way to fall in love with a product before buying it. Its effectiveness, along with the rise of digital nativity, has no longer made AR a luxury, but an essential component in our arsenal of building brand experiences that connect consumers with our brands.

What is Digitas?

​Digitas is the Connected Marketing agency, purposely built around a diverse set of capabilities that enables us to identify better insights, make stronger connections, and drive critical business outcomes. Digitas is wired for Marketing transformation and offers brands access to all digital marketing solutions under one roof in order to truly transform their marketing ecosystems within the fast paced action happening today. Digitas focuses on a single customer view to maximize customer lifetime value, as we connect media with data, technology, and create experiences to win in the moments that count.

What will Digitas do differently in comparison to the existing parent company, Publicis Media?

Digitas is a one-stop shop for all marketing solutions needed to win in today’s market. Our roots are grounded in Media, CRM and data, but we are a powerhouse in digital experiences, creative, social, search and technology. We’re an integrated, full-service agency, but we work with the speed and scrappiness of start-ups, always listening and always optimizing. While media remains a key component of Digitas’ Middle East offerings, the solutions have been expanded to cover the entire Marketing spectrum.

Can you talk to us more about the technology that you will focus on for your clients?

Consumer experiences are generally disconnected due to different tech stacks from various providers, Digitas works towards integrating these technologies to provide better end-to-end customer experiences. Without the proper technology setup, brands are losing out on opportunities.  Our role as the Connected Marketing Agency is to ensure that the proper technology infrastructure is expertly set up to drive better efficiencies from various Marketing operations. As of today, Digitas covers the full spectrum of technology services from website/app design and development, to UX and UI, to tech stacking, to tagging and much more.

What are some issues Digitas may face working here in the Middle Eastern region and how does Digitas plan on overcoming that?

The fragmentation of today’s marketing solutions is a definite challenge. In the Middle East, brands have been accustomed to working with different agencies for their creative, media, data, technology and other scopes. Bringing everything together is still fresh for a lot of brands yet we have no doubt that we will overcome that as there is an absolute need for our solution today. Customers are tuning out from the conventional advertising and they hold the power when it comes to which ads they interact with. Brands need to transform the way they market from pushing media to building relationships from the first impression to a lifetime of advocacy.

The Digitas clientele already consists of some big names, what are some of the challenges these clients are facing that you will help them with?

We’ve had extremely positive outcomes with our existing clientele since we’ve launched Digitas in the Middle East. Our priority right now is to support them across our entire solution. Our Connected CRM offering has the ability to enhance the overall customer journey, start building relationships with customers and improve efficiencies when prospecting for new customers. The battle for increasing market share is never ending for all brands which is where Digitas’s Connected CRM can truly make a difference by delivering growth through retention. Nowadays with the pressure on all businesses, choosing an agency that is siloed by capability means having a singular focus, it slows down a CMOs ability to create a superior customer experience, placing the burden of connecting it all up on the client’s team. At Digitas, our purposefully diverse skill set means we are fluent across the marketing ecosystem, capable of connecting everything ourselves or orchestrating across a client’s agency ecosystem to do the same. 

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 chief growth officer and a member of the management board at Publicis, the world’s third-largest advertising holding company by revenue—that’s behind WPP and Omnicom.

In his 37 years he likes to say he’s spent a decade in creative, a decade in digital and a decade in media, which provides him with a unique vantage point from which to view the marketing and advertising ecosystem in 2019.

“The world has become much more complicated. The way we used to divide things before makes no sense,” he says on the latest episode of the “Ad Lib” podcast. “It’s impossible to separate what’s digital and what’s not.”

Tobaccowala joins us less than a month after the company announced it will be acquiring data marketing juggernaut Epsilon in a $4 billion deal, which is still pending. He unpacks what the acquisition means for the holding company.

“We don’t necessarily think that data is the new oil. We think to a great extent how you refine data is where the real value is,” he says. “Our clients are struggling with not having enough data on their own. When they leverage platforms, they sometimes lose their customers to the platforms.”