The strategic appointment represents Initiative’s vision to elevate deeper client partnerships, scale product-led growth, and establish the agency as a definitive partner for brands seeking to thrive in MENAT’s increasingly complex digital landscape.

With over 20 years of diverse experience spanning three continents, Sandhu has led strategic growth and digital transformation for industry-leading brands including Nike, BBC, Specsavers, John Lewis Group, Colgate, Palmolive, Hermès, Gucci, Shiseido, and Expedia. In her previous role as Chief Strategy and Growth Officer for EMEA at Kinesso—the technology-driven performance marketing powerhouse at the core of IPG Mediabrands—she led cross-functional teams and collaborated with market CEOs to architect localised strategies encompassing business innovation, product development, technology integration, and service transformation.

Sandhu’s leadership credentials are backed by prestigious industry recognition, including an IPA Grand Prix for John Lewis’ iconic Christmas campaigns and a Cannes Lions shortlist for the BBC, demonstrating her ability to blend strategic vision with creative excellence in delivering award-winning results.

Beyond her core responsibilities, Sandhu will work closely with Initiative’s talent development and inclusion team—drawing on her experience as a RISE Champion, her mentoring through WYK Digital UK, and her involvement with the Women’s Open Network at IPG Mediabrands—to strengthen the agency’s position as an employer of choice, while driving holistic business transformation across the region.

The challenge of initiating reconstruction in the short or medium term in these areas is significant, given the delicate topography and rugged terrain, especially in the face of unpredictable weather conditions, including rain and snow, meaning the catastrophe has rendered many people in remote and mountainous villages homeless, exposed to the harsh elements. 

In response to this humanitarian crisis, the Jood NGO and Wunderman Thompson Morocco took swift and creative action, devising the ‘Life-Saving Outdoors’. 

A manufacturing process was implemented within 48 hours of the earthquake to recover and transform hundreds of 4×3 billboards into durable temporary tents. Unlike some newer digital or paper OOH billboards, these are made from high-quality, thermal fabric, which is perfectly waterproof, making the tents robust enough, waterproof, and warm, therefore offering protection against the elements and retaining heat for optimal living conditions. 

To swiftly support this initiative, numerous partners including clients, media agencies, and local printers like Allianz Insurance, Mindshare Morocco, Media Rep, Inregie, and others responded promptly by showing solidarity. They quickly provided support by offering 4×3 billboards, making donations, and even dismantling billboards to contribute swiftly to this noble cause. 

Hind Laidi, Founding President of the Jood NGO said, "This is a powerful demonstration of solidarity and creativity in action, demonstrating that even in the most difficult times, humanity can unite to help each other. We are committed to creating a world of solidarity that contributes to relieving the pain and misery of the earthquake victims, and to the realization of more actions aimed at preserving their dignity." 

Nabil Sarih, Creative Director at Wunderman Thompson Morocco, added, “The “Life-Saving Outdoors” concept encapsulates the potential of each converted 4×3 outdoor billboard to serve as a temporary refuge for families of more than eight during critical times. It provides essential shelter, albeit temporarily when much needed. However, its impact goes beyond simply providing shelter but also rejuvenating old billboards and giving them a noble second life, demonstrating their ability to be reused for vital initiatives. This principle applies to various disasters, highlighting the adaptability of this solution for rapid and effective response.” 

Within 48 hours of the earthquake, approximately fifty tents were crafted, and the production has consistently continued, providing shelter for over 400 families up to the present day, with a maximum of eight individuals per family in one tent. A cumulative total of 1,219 tents and 239 tons of blankets, mattresses, and pillows have been supplied. Additionally, 26,615 individuals affected by the disaster have received food assistance, insured by Jood. 

Jood has distributed over 682,555 food baskets and 2,023 tons of food items to families impacted by the disaster across hundreds of villages. Beyond these endeavors, the NGO has implemented various measures to aid those affected by the catastrophe, including the deployment of an on-site shower truck with hairstyling services, benefiting 3,790 individuals. 

The demand for shelters remains significant, and it is crucial to continue producing more tents to aid those affected by this catastrophe. As winter approaches, the Jood NGO is calling on all brands, companies, and individuals to join this cause by contributing to the 'Life-Saving Outdoors' initiative. Each transformed 4×3 billboard represents another step towards the protection and preservation of human lives, as well as the safeguarding of affected animals and the establishment of temporary classrooms for students affected by this tragedy. 

Why did you join this industry?

After my first year at university, I took part in a unique study-abroad program held annually in Salzburg, Austria, that connected people from all five continents to explore how digital media technologies are shaping society, innovation, and culture in a global media age.

Four years later and a civil engineering degree in hand, I took a sharp turn and pursued a career in media. It’s an industry that rapidly changes and challenges you to not only learn rapidly but to stay curious about what’s happening.

How did you land your first job?

I was interviewed for an internship position and the first thing I got asked was to come up with as many ways to use a paper clip as possible. It turns out most people can only think of about 10-15 ideas; I thought of 22. Two months and endless questions, shadowing, courses, mistakes, and lessons later, I was hired as a Junior Performance Executive. The rest is history.

Who do you look up to?

I am constantly surrounded by strong female role models in my life that are fierce, brave, intelligent, and inspiring. I look up to them every day.

What’s the best advice you have received so far?

Champion one thing at work and be so good at it that you become integral to the business.

What’s the best advice you have given so far?

Get a notebook and start writing things down.

How do you feel about the stigma sometimes associated with Millennials and Gen Z?

The stigma comes from a generation that created a culture of long working hours and endless striving, which caused burnout, unhappiness, and gender inequity. We work to live rather than live to work and we are slowly rewriting policy under the nose of the Boomers because money and work are not the be all and end all. We have proven that you don’t need to be in the office from 9 to 6 to be effective.

What do you think you specifically bring to the organization you work for?

Being an expert in all things social media but also an all-rounder across different channels, platforms, and skills.

What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned at work?

It’s not about where you work; it’s who you work with.

What’s the most rewarding thing about your job?

Being in a position to enable others to learn what I know and help influence their career progression.

What’s the most frustrating thing about your job?

Hearing someone say, “We’ve always done it this way.” It is easy to get caught up in the motions but embracing a culture of change means maximizing your potential as a company and, perhaps most importantly though, creating a culture of change means talking to your people to transform “We’ve always done it this way” to “How can we do it better?”

If not this, what would you be doing?

I would be a civil engineer on a construction site somewhere around Dubai.

Would you start your own venture in the future?

Yes, I want to start a non-profit organization for a cause I’m very passionate about: empowering migrant and refugee women with the skills they need to integrate back in society, become protagonists of the life of the communities they live in, and act as multipliers within their families and circles.

As we pass through February, we’ve comfortably had two months to digest the growing volume of commentary speculating on how 2021 will shape up for the industry.

Yet, in the search for clues to what lies ahead, it’s easy to get lost in the fog of reading into the future. And given the flux we’ve just experienced, many will likely still be catching breath after the pace of 2020.

The good news is that there are still significant gains in simply taking on board lessons from what’s just gone and fixing fundamentals, especially in areas where, as an industry, we have room for improvement.

Another crack at true customer centricity

Customer-centric business models have always seemed caught in a paradox – simultaneously requiring more robust data before using what’s currently available. Take e-commerce; entering 2020, a Visa study estimated the sector was worth $15 billion+ in sales and growing 25% year on year in the UAE (vs. 11% in mature markets). Since then, over 50% of the region’s online shoppers have increased spends, with between 40% to 70% of transactions attributed to first-time online buyers, depending on the industry. Looking forward, 53% of UAE businesses and  a massive 80% of Saudi businesses expect these levels to sustain, especially once pent-up demand is released into the economy.

This is just one example from many, adding up to a lot of extra (and often first-party) data from many new users and customers. Possibly more than we know what to do with.

Yet, 2020 exposed once again just how poorly this data is often used.

My music platform of choice regularly struggles to compile a ‘smart’ playlist of new music I actually like; while asking friends has proven a more effective way of discovering shows to stream that really match my interests vs. what’s served up on screen (both would’ve been helpful during lockdown).

Targeted offers can be useful but email is a flawed delivery channel since everything gets lost in an NPS feedback minefield; on a related thread, targeted emails from a major online portal seem to always offer me everything but what I want.

So, for 2021, perhaps it’s time we broke into this complexity to use the data we always had and the new data we got, for good. Not just campaign or media good; but genuinely to benefit the people we’re meant to serve – our customers.

We can start by breaking large data sets down into manageable subsets for specific tasks, channels, and business units; as we slowly scale improvements up over time and across different parts of a business, we’ll start to see tangible improvements in customer retention and satisfaction that help businesses – finally become truly customer-centric.

Addressing privacy through trust

Naturally, any conversation around data eventually trends towards impending privacy policies from the tech behemoths. Especially when overlaid with GWI polling suggesting that during the last half year alone, the gap between the number of MENA users preferring to pay for services to keep data private vs. use free versions in exchange for data has almost doubled in favor of the former.

The pandemic highlights a route through this bottleneck by building trust through transparency. When audiences were further polled about willingness to share data for personal or public good – the example being contact-tracing apps – 73% approved.

This is worth noting in the context of proposed solutions for post-pandemic challenges. The travel industry, for example, is talking about digital vaccine passports to support recovery. These solutions have found support locally, with Emirates and Etihad among the first to sign up to trial the IATA travel pass, indicating our region’s keenness to show the world a route to normality.

As similar solutions are proposed across healthcare, retail, entertainment, and other sectors, it becomes clear that acceptance of data sharing across secured, universal, and unified platforms will need to rise significantly before we see results. The UAE’s Minister of State for the Digital Economy & AI went as far as acknowledging governments’ role as facilitators and guardians of this space at this year’s virtual WEF.

It proves tech, industry, and lawmakers will need to unite and quickly – to develop these solutions; but if attitudes shift far enough, businesses downstream in the economy will feel enormous benefit. Framing the data conversation through the lens of transparency and true customer benefit (and NOT just asking permission to use data for a ‘better website experience’) can reassure a skeptical public that platforms normally considered frenemies are capable of protecting data AND working together for a greater good.

Using what we know to understand what we don’t

Finally, if there’s one thing 2020 taught us, it’s that we simply have no idea what’s really coming around the corner this year. No article or meme gets close to offering real certainty.

Yet, if every future shift, no matter how large or small, is qualified (through audience behavior data) as to whether it’s here for now, here to stay, or still to grow, we can plan with more confidence. Changes for now require a tactical response until normal patterns return – for example, our collective ramp up of screen time during lockdowns. Simply, there are not enough hours in the day for us to sustain 2020 levels of media consumption forever.

Changes that stay – such as work-from-home behavior – and changes still growing such as the continued rapid adoption of contactless & mobile payments throughout the economy, require more strategic responses that fundamentally transform how businesses operate.

This strategic vs. tactical balance – coincidentally close to the 60/40 ratio between long and short-term planning that Binet & Field recommend – should set most businesses up to plan more effectively.

And if we complement that with a more transparent and customer-centric approach to data, some of those predictions of a better year ahead may just hold true this time around.

This article was published in Communicate’s Q1 edition. You can access the full magazine here.

Aswin joined Reprise in September 2019 to deliver upon some demanding initiatives in the Data & Analytics workstream. He brings eight years of experience in analytics solutions, optimization, and personalization using data and marketing cloud platforms. With martech & analytics solutions’ unprece- dented growth, Aswin can help choose the right tech partners to meet the digital transformation requirements. He has been pivotal in nurturing analytics maturity frameworks and use-cases for growing client values.

Aswin is fortunate enough to have a wide variety of client-facing experiences across emerging regional brands and global Fortune 500 brands. He has strong industry-focused, analytics consulting foundations for retail, travel & hospitality, and lead gen (banking, automotive, hitech & SaaS).

Aswin likes to jump on to hands-on experimentation mode to understand its relevant business value with any new CX and data technology. He can create thought-leadership and devise commercial service models using the technologies.

Chady Debs
General Manager of Hall and Partners MENA

Omnicom Media Group MENA has promoted Chady Debs to General Manager of Hall and Partners MENA this February.

Chady joined OMG MENA over 15 years ago as a Consumer Insight Executive. Since then, he has played an integral role in launching and building Hall and Partners, a fast-growing research consultancy in the region. Under his leadership, H&P has retained major clients over the past six year.

Chady has an ambitious trajectory with a clear set goal to evolve H&P into a tech- oriented research agency. He will lead an accomplished team of creative analysts and marketing science experts to create further success as he takes on the role of GM.

Dana Sarkis
General Manager of Hearts & Science UAE

Dana has been part of OMG MENA for over 14 years and offers experience spanning various disciplines in the media consultancy field, in the UAE and the UK. She’s been with Hearts & Science since its inception and has contributed to not only the building of the product in the region but the setting up of processes, talent sourcing, and forming the company’s culture.

Her resilience and adaptability coupled with her passion for data science and technology have helped shape the agency product and culture, deploying this to make better strategic decisions to drive business results for clients. Dana has an innovative plan for the future of the agency and she will be leading a new transformation initiative that will launch this year.

Dana’s ability to propel her clients further through data-led customer-centricity paves the way for an exciting new era for Hearts & Science under her leadership.

David Fox
CEO Middle East & North Africa at Memac Ogilvy

David joined Batey Ads in Sydney where he started his advertising agency career. David spent the next four years developing advertising campaigns for brands such as Singapore Airlines, Singapore Tourism Board, Audi, Deutsche Bank, CityRail, and Sydney Olympic Organizing Committee.

In 1999, David joined Ogilvy Australia, managing brands such as Nestle, Lion Nathan, Hyundai, and Unilever. In 2003, he was promoted to the role of Executive Director of the Sydney agency. This role included managing new business and responsibility over a suite of the clients within the agency.

In 2005, David was transferred to London to head up Ogilvy’s Global Trade Marketing operation in Ogilvy’s global shopper marketing agency, OgilvyAction. After two years, he was promoted to Global Client Services Director and in 2009, he took over as Worldwide Managing Director across all global clients. David also sat on the global board for OgilvyAction.

In 2013, OgilvyAction merged with G2 to form Geometry Global. David took over running all global clients and sat on the global Geometry Board. After a year, he returned to Australia to take up the role of Chief Executive Officer for the Ogilvy Group in Australia.

David is Australian and has a diploma in Advertising and Communications as well as a being a graduate of Australia’s Award School.

Denise Kerbaj
Performance Operations Director at UM Beirut

With her ten years of experience in quality management and workflow automation combined with her experience in biddable media, Denise joined the digital hub of UM Beirut in January 2021 as Operations Director, where she leads operations in the digital performance team currently catering for the GCC region.

Her role is key in ensuring efficiency through streamlined processes, as she builds on three main pillars for a successful operational plan: resources, processes, and inclusion. As a short-term goal, Denise will bring in her knowledge in process mapping and optimization to guarantee a smooth and efficient workflow ensured by the means of automation, project management tools, responsibility matrices, and macro-management of day- to-day tasks in alignment with client needs and objectives.

Another important goal would be growing the digital performance team while organizing training programs, dispersing updates from multiple ad-tech partners, ensuring continuous cross-channel knowledge, tech proficiency, and soft skills improvement.

As the hub team members sitting in Beirut are technically part of their respective teams across UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain, maintaining a consistent workflow and quality of services is key; this is where the Operations Director’s role strives by the means of effective communication with business leads, performance directors, digital directors, and media directors.

Gabriel Castellanos
Data & CRM Director at MRM Dubai

Head of Data and CRM at MRM Dubai, Gabriel brings an international perspective into how companies and brands develop data strategies to the MENA region. His team leverages data to help businesses understand their digital ecosystem, develop algorithms that increase Life Time Value, reduce churn of current customers, and strategically automate multiple time-consuming CRM processes. With over 17 years of experience on some of the world’s biggest brands, Gabriel covered Spain, USA, and LATAM markets before making Dubai home. He has also served a wide variety of industries including automotive, banking, retail, and hospitality.

Ines Blanfuney
Head of Strategic Planning at DDB Dubai

After studying Strategy and Marketing at La Sorbonne (Celsa), Inès started her career at Publicis Conseil in 2014 as an Account Executive. She joined the Strategic Planning in 2015 and worked as a Global Brand Strategist for clients such as Renault, Orange, Nestlé, Carrefour, Heineken, L’Oréal, Puma, Engie, Seb, Ma French bank, the French government, etc. In 2018, she embraced the challenge of humanitarian communications for the international NGOs Doctors Without Borders and ICRC. Her strong belief is that empathy, sensitivity, and creativity can drive insightful communications that have the power to make a real impact and contribute to a better world. Inès is also a lecturer at La Sorbonne for the Master 2 Magistere where she gives classes in Strategic Planning.

Joy Sahoun
Group General Manager at The Network Communication Group

After completing a Bachelor in Business Administration at the American University of Beirut and for the past 13 years, Joy worked his way up within the family business from Communication Executive to Client Servicing Director. Through constant hardwork and dedication, Joy and his teams were able to grow and develop key accounts as well as win new businesses as clients. Some of their most prominent clients include Toshiba, Dunlop, Hershey’s, Hasbro, Meraas Leisure & Entertainment, Dubai Chamber, Novartis, Procter & Gamble, and so on.

Joy sets himself apart with a unique leadership mentality; his take-charge attitude constantly brings order and energy to the team by focusing on opportunities to implement structure and take decisive actions. Always solution-driven, Joy is in constant communication with his team members to brainstorm and find the best ways of putting plans into action.

Aside from business growth and team management, Joy has led on the introduction of retail transformation and data-driven solutions as part of the group’s offering in order to ensure that the agencies and the team remain fully equipped with the latest trends and in their ability to drive end to end marketing communication solutions.

Fluent in English, French, and Arabic, Joy is also conversational in Spanish and Japanese, a language he acquired after one of TNCG’s entities, AGA, became associated with ADK, Japan’s third largest advertising network.

Karim Slim
Regional Managing Director of MRM MENAT

Karim is known for his success in new business development, for being highly valued by his clients, and for his drive for innovation and creativity. In January of this year, Karim was shortlisted for the Campaign UK’s ‘Account Person of the Year’ award.

Karim has substantial experience working with large clients from the MENAT region like SABIC, Aramco, B20 Saudi Arabia, Cleveland Clinic, The National, and many others in addition to some of the most reputable global brands including Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric, Honeywell, and EasyJet. He possesses outstanding business acumen, is strategic and highly skilled and experienced in his field. His success lies as well in his ability to build a strong culture within his agency and lead a high-performing team.

Karen Doumet
General Manager of PHD UAE

Karen has been with PHD for 11 years and, in that time, has contributed immensely to PHD’s growth and product development. She has played an instrumental role in winning new business and has been the driving force behind PHD’s proud client retention record over the last few years.

Karen offers a great wealth of strategic media and communications experience. Her analytical approach has been complemented with her strategic business thinking and strong client relationship skills – all of which have helped her gain respect and trust from her peers and clients alike. Above and beyond her successful tenure at PHD, Karen holds a passion for behavioral economics, which has played an interesting role and a competitive advantage when unearthing hidden opportunities for her client’s brands.

Luca Allam
CEO of PHD MENA

Most recently, Allam held the role of Managing Director for PHD UAE and was responsible for business growth and further developing the strategic product.

Luca joined PHD over ten years ago when he moved from OMD International, London to Dubai as Head of Digital; since then, he has been an essential part of PHD’s success. He has led an aggressive new business streak and contributed to multiple significant award wins including The Most Effective Media Agency award at the MENA Effies in 2019. His unwavering commitment to position PHD as the foremost strategic-thinking agency, his drive to developing talent, and his devotion to shaping and protecting the agency’s tight-knit culture have helped him build PHD to become a powerful brand and formidable player in the region. Under his leadership, there is no doubt that the PHD network will continue to grow whilst retaining a commitment to accelerating PHD’s unique strategic product development across markets.

Nitin Mohan
Digital Performance Lead at Magna Global

Nitin joined Magna Global in February 2021, bringing with him a wealth of experience in the digital marketing field. He has over 12 years of experience having worked across the agency side, client-side, and publisher side in India, Singapore, and the UAE.

His primary role will involve developing the agency’s performance marketing offering further and sustain the growth this agency has experienced over the past few years. His role will include work streams not limited to process automation, further enhancing performance best practices to enhancing new solutions for Magna Global’s clients; ultimately to deliver even better ROAS for the agency’s clients.

Oliver West
CCXP, Customer Experience Director at MRM MENAT

Coming out of MRM London where he led the Experience Design practice, Oliver has joined MRM Dubai to help instill a culture of human-center design throughout the office, amongst his colleagues and across all of their client work. An award-winning and industry respected Experience Design lead, certified CCXP, speaker and mentor with over 20 years of hands-on experience for some of the world’s biggest brands, Oliver always strives to understand the needs and behaviors of the human at the other end of the relationship through data and primary research combined with the predictability of the fallible human brain. His team can then deliver on those needs alongside the business objectives, to create beautiful and rewarding experiences through any and all channels.

Peter Bishay
General Manager of PHD Egypt

Peter started his career with the OMG agency, OMD, as a Media Manager, where he spent ten successful years working from the group’s Cairo office before moving to PHD Egypt as a Business Unit Director in 2018. Prior to his career at OMG, Peter was with Mindshare, in Kuwait and Cairo.

Peter offers unparalleled levels of client trust through his regional expertise and keen focus on devising powerful strategies that deliver results which, in turn, builds disproportionate growth for his clients. Peter will be supercharging PHD Egypt based out of the PHD office in Cairo.

Ranwa Zahr
Strategy Director at Initiative

Ranwa started her career in media at a time when local brands were developing into regional and global behemoths; to be a part and catalyst of this transformation has been like having a supercharged growth curve. Her older clients (Mubadala, Meraas, Al Futtaim) were either development companies or conglomerates and the portfolio of industries she worked on was vast, ranging from real estate to shipping to aerospace.

In her last stint, she led the regional planning for the largest glocal aviation firm, which brought her to realize that no matter the industry, there are scientific solutions to the challenges faced by businesses. Rawan loves how the role of agencies is now changing, from traditional planners and buyers to full-fledged marcom, martech, and data consultants. This elevates the caliber of work and expectations, so that people in the industry are better equipped for the future while benefitting clients.

Ranwa believes that science is at the base of any strategy, whether gleaned from consumer behavior, database upon database, or an environment that has never seen such dynamic times. Because of this, her role is key to lending science to creativity and changing the way it is marketed.

Tina Sioufi
Strategy Manager at FP7 McCann Dubai

Tina brings with her a unique mix of both agency and client-side experience. She discovered her passion for advertising at Leo Burnett Beirut, where she spent five years in both the digital and strategy departments. In that time, she worked on some of the agency’s most disruptive and effective campaigns, and was ranked by The Directory as a top 10 Strategist worldwide for three years running. Having ventured out of the advertising world to join a booming Lebanese-born new-delivery startup, Toters Delivery, she also brings an agile startup mindset and a unique perspective on innovation and digital strategy.

She is thrilled to have joined the strategy team at FP7 McCann, where she hopes to contribute to the agency’s proven expertise in creating impactful communication that results in real business value for its partners. She is also particularly enthusiastic to come back to the advertising world in 2021, a year which represents an unprecedented turning point for the entire world and that promises to be filled with opportunities for brands to earn a meaningful role in people’s lives.

This article was published in Communicate’s Q1 edition. You can access the full magazine here.

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 in a statement to the press that they aim to find cross-industry consensus on key global principles for measurement, with broadcasters, digital platforms and measurement companies also involved in the initiative.

“Meaningful cross-audience measurement represents a step-change for marketers in understanding the impact of their marketing investment. But with great promise comes great complexity so there are many challenges to work through. Our first goal is to identify the global principles that can help accelerate the adoption of cross-media measurement, enabling more individual markets to adapt a common platform while also reflecting local market custom and practice,” said Stephan Loerke, CEO, WFA in a statement to the press.

According to the group, there are four key areas where more work and consultation is required to build consensus: privacy, measurement infrastructure or pipework, metrics and date and lastly, governance.

In terms of privacy, the group aims to ensure that the data provided respects consumer privacy and is in line with the existing and emerging privacy regulation. For measurement infrastructure or ‘pipework’, the group said in the statement that “measurement requires a complex infrastructure of components and data. Decisions are required as to how best to connect these, for example, the role for TV panels, calibration with other sources as well as the method of audience de-duplication.”

The group added that the cross-media measurement requires consistent definitions and metrics to enable like-for-like comparisons between media. Nonetheless, they added in the statement, a clear governance in order to protect privacy and ensure objectivity and enable fair decision making.

The statement added that this collaborative project aims to build principles, “built on agreement and commitment from the industry, which can become the foundations for potential solutions.”

Earlier this year, Initiative reinvented its product offering and positioning to find alternatives for clients increasingly struggling with advertising avoidance and shifts in consumer behavior. The agency now aims to lead clients through changes in the industry by focusing on “cultural branding” as opposed to historical “brand advertising”.

“We are excited about working with the Initiative team to connect with parents and kids in new, innovative ways. After an extensive global review, we believe that Initiative’s digital-first approach, international reach and strong local insights will support our long-term ambition to bring LEGO play to more children around the world,” says Julia Goldin, chief marketing officer of The LEGO Group.

“The LEGO brand and iconic products have a special place in the lives of children and parents, and we’re honored they’ve entrusted us with such a big responsibility. We’re thrilled to be part of their team,” says Mat Baxter, Global CEO of Initiative.

The LEGO Group is the third global client to appoint the agency this year, following the Carlsberg win and retaining the Amazon business.

Initiative and R/GA, both part of Interpublic Group of Cos. (IPG), formed a cross-agency solution to serve the diverse needs of the brand as it evolves for the next generation of consumers.

Since its establishment in 1973 in Turkey, PINAR has served a wide variety of dairy, meat and drinking water products meeting different consumer needs across the region.

Initiative MENA, part of MCN Holding and IPG Group, will be tasked to carry out the offline and online media planning and trading services for PINAR, across the MENA region.

Commenting on the win, Raffoul Mattar, managing director UAE at Initiative MENA says in a statement: “As a market leader, PINAR provides endless opportunities for highly effective media campaigns. We will be working closely with the marketing team for mutual success, creating and delivering innovative solutions and world class strategies and campaigns for the brand.”

Arda Cenk Tokbas, general manager, HDF FZCo, Pinar’s regional office, adds: “Pinar is a much-loved brand that’s found in hundreds of thousands of kitchens across Turkey and the GCC. In fact, meeting the consumer needs is considered to be vital for brand success, that’s why we always explore the needs, understand our customers, face the challenges and then invest in market research and product development. With that in mind, finding the right partner was key. Initiative MENA has demonstrated strong leadership, passionate understanding of our business, and creative strategic thinking.”

As part of the series, we interviewed a millennial and non-millennial from several leading agencies in the region. This article features:

The millennial: Ghassan Mikati (25), senior media executive

The non-millennial: Saad Sraj, associate director (30)

Most important factors in a job:

Mikati:

• Co-worker relationship: Building good relations helps create a comfortable team atmosphere
• Learning Potential: The range of experience and expertise I will be able to derive out of working in this company giving me wider choices in building my career path
• Work appreciation

Sraj:

• Career advancement
• Job and company security
• Overall remuneration

Best way for a company to retain you:

Mikati:

By making me feel valued and appreciated through recognition in the form of verbal praise and monetary rewards.

Sraj:

By providing a clear career path with room for advancement and development along with fair salary raises.

Your driving force in this job:

Mikati:

The competitive nature of the ad industry is what drives me to push forward and give my utmost. I am able to do so with this job, considering the fact that we work on top clients in the KSA market, which drives out top challenges throughout the year.

Sraj: 

The company, the team and the clients. The company has a great reputation in the industry, I’m managing one of the best and largest digital team in KSA, and dealing with top brands is a definite advantage.

Expected frequency of appraisals:

Mikati:

There’s no particular interval for receiving a promotion. However, I’d expect it whenever I start displaying potential that exceeds my current job requirements. I do expect appraisals on an annual basis, in order to keep track of my progress and development.

Sraj: 

Appraisals are usually done each year, so I expect to be considered on a yearly basis as long as I’m performing well. As for promotions, it’s about the right time when the company and I feel that I’m ready to move to the next level and handle more responsibilities, which would be every every couple of years.

Career goals:

Mikati:

Short term: Derive a new creative media opportunity that’s new to our market, but would create high impact.

Long term: To have infiltrated several branches of the ad industry broaden my career path

Sraj: 

Short term: Equip myself with the right skills and knowledge to advance my career.

Long term: Open my own business related to digital and technology.

Work-life balance:

Mikati:

Enjoying a healthy lifestyle would allow any employee to perform better at work. The working individual would need to make sure they are in a fit mental state that would allow them to come to work clear minded of any worries or negative moods that might conflict with their performance.
Yes, checking my email/work during weekends allows me to stay alert of any urgent updates that the client might be sharing during this period.

Sraj: 

Work-life balance is very important especially that I’m married and have a small family. However, working in an agency and dealing with clients with urgent requirements requires commitment and additional work after normal hours and occasionally during weekends, which I got used to since this is part of my job responsibilities.

What would motivate you to switch jobs:

Mikati:

Recognizing any career advancement opportunity, which might arrive in the form of a higher position title or an interesting opportunity that would widen my scope of knowledge/learning such as entering a new market or taking on another major client.

Sraj:

When I feel like I’ve reached the ceiling in terms of advancement as well as when I find a better opportunity that fulfills my career aspirations.

In a statement today, the regional media communications network announced that it won the ‘Best Social Media Campaign’ at the M&M Awards, which held its silver anniversary this year. The category was one of three new awards classes introduced for the first time in the program, which honors excellence in the international advertising industry.

Initiative MENA received the award for a campaign conducted for KFC Arabia, titled: ‘Kintacky! Kintacky! Kintacky!’

“Our strategy of turning ordinary moments into extraordinary experiences paid off well. The judges said that our entry stood out because we reacted to an opportunity and hit such a resonant tone. They were impressed that a lot of the content was created by the audience, rather than the agency,” says Spencer Moody, regional strategy director, Initiative MENA.

“Our teams readiness for reactive real time marketing opportunities allowed us to trigger, fuel and grow a media activity has never been seen before in the region,” said  Ziad Ghorayeb, Director MENA for digital at Initiative.

“We are very proud of our win at the M&M Awards in our first ever participation. It caps an impressive awards season for the agency, which has picked up major accolades and honours at the Internationlists, Effies, Dubai Lynx, global Crystals and a gold at the Festival of Media,” added Ramzy Abouchacra, regional managing director, Initiative.

The 25^th edition of the M&M Awards took place earlier this month in London, U.K. Alongside ‘Best Social Media Campaign,’ the special anniversary event also featured the new categories ‘Best Entertainment Platform’ and ‘Best Content Creation Award.’ The milestone edition featured a segment dedicated to looking back over the changes in the industry it has witnessed in that time.