With advertisers facing growing pressure to optimize their media spend and drive business impact, particularly as digital transformation agendas reshape the regional advertising landscape, finding ways to make real impact is more important than ever. The study compared ROIs across various media categories including offline, digital non-social media, social media, and Snapchat, using the average ROI of the four categories as a benchmark. Key findings show that Snapchat outperforms all categories in efficiency and effectiveness, exceeding the average ROI benchmark by +14%. Despite accounting for just 8% of total ad spend, Snapchat contributes 10% of all media-driven sales, demonstrating its ability to deliver higher returns with efficient investment.

The study analyzed advertising performance across key industries, including telecommunications, financial services, and over-the-top (OTT) streaming. When it comes to the OTT sector, findings reveal that Snapchat drove up to 1.64x higher efficiency for app installs and subscriptions For telecommunications brands, when leveraging full-funnel activation, a 2.5x higher efficiency was seen compared to the lowest-performing channels. Financial services advertisers also ranked Snapchat as a top-tier performer in loan application campaigns, highlighting its effectiveness in driving conversions.

​The study further emphasizes the importance of a full-funnel strategy, where brands allocate 40-70% of their spend to upper-funnel awareness campaigns while maintaining consistent investment in lower-funnel activities. This approach has generated 1.5x higher ROI compared to single-objective campaigns. By leveraging Snapchat’s diverse ad formats – including Snap Ads, Story Ads, and AR Lenses -brands can enhance visibility, engagement, and long-term loyalty in an increasingly competitive digital environment.

As brands continue to refine their strategies, prioritizing high-performing platforms will be key to staying ahead in a competitive landscape. By leveraging insights from this study, advertisers have the opportunity to optimize their marketing spend and unlock new levels of efficiency and impact in their campaigns.

Using a series of stark tableaux, EMIR’s Head of Advisory and former futurist-in-chief for Dubai, Dr Noah Raford, depicted the future that is to be expected for the three key consumer generations, Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha. He advised the marketing community to look for the upside in every situation. “During the next 20 years, we will have to face an extraordinary and unprecedented confluence of economic, political, social, climate and technological transformations. Our job will be to regulate our own emotions and anxieties before helping others, people we know and care about, as well as people we don’t,” Dr Raford warned. “Some will bury themselves in distraction like video gaming, others, technically Gen Alphas, will see AI and other technologies for what they are: an opportunity to create something new and unique.”

This echoed Blake Cuthbert’s opening talk, during which the CEO of OMD EMEA described six forces that disconnected marketing from growth and offered six counter-approaches to turn them into positives. These include abundance planning, cultural activations, integrated creator planning, commerce intelligence, agentic buying, and the agent ecosystem. “It’s not a case of humans or machines but humans and machines, even in terms of to whom or what we will address marketing messages to,” Cuthbert said. “Individuals and organisations will have to maintain their prompt libraries, which will usher in a new paradigm of effectiveness. What we’re seeing is the end of Big Advertising and a future with lots of littles, characterised by hyper-personalised messages in branded ecosystems.”

With a keynote address she delivered with a heavy sprinkling of humor, the renowned digital anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush captivated the audience with her deep insights into the intricate relationship between technology and human behaviour. Drawing on her extensive research in digital culture across the MENA region, she shed light on the unseen forces at play in our interactions with technology, uncovering the subtle yet profound ways it shapes our thoughts, decisions, and habits. Harfoush offered actionable strategies to extract the benefits of technological advancements while safeguarding ourselves against unintended consequences. “After automating manufacturing, we’re now automating knowledge work,” she observed, adding a warning. “If we rely too heavily on AI without remaining thoughtful and engaged, we risk losing mastery of our thinking and expertise when we need it to validate the work of machines,” she cautioned. Harfoush urged the audience to cultivate “intentional expertise” to ensure that human creativity, judgment, and depth of knowledge remain irreplaceable pillars of progress.

If storytelling is a fundamental and immutable aspect of humankind and how we learn and communicate, Qi Pan, Snap’s Director of Computer Vision Engineering, revealed the next iteration of the media experience: story-living. Pushing the limits of Augmented Reality, media experiences will involve people in large, shared environments. “The technology and devices are developing to make this vision a reality. The ability to add digital content on top of the physical world is hugely exciting for users and brands, as they now can add entertainment and information at scale,” Pan said. “With rapid tech advancements, like Snap’s fifth-generation spectacles, AR is becoming more natural, letting users add content to the real world without losing touch with it.”

The event, which took place at the Museum of the Future, drew a large crowd of senior business and marketing professionals from brands, agencies, and media circles. OMD has been staging annual thoughtleadership events in the region since 2007. Over the years, OMD has consistently delivered thought leadership and innovation, solidifying its position as a pioneer in the industry.

“When everything around you is changing and the very notions on which an economy or market is based are shaking, you can either resist or ride the wave. We’ve clearly chosen the latter, and by adopting our new positioning statement, ‘We Create What’s Next,’ we’ve taken the first of many steps to reconnect marketing with growth where this link had become weak. As always, the devil is in the detail, and it is by looking at our world through an empathetic lens that we can pick up the trends and insights that will make a difference to our clients,” commented Saleh Ghazal, CEO of OMD MENA. “Decoding Generation (H)uman has been designed as a rallying cry to operate the deep transformation the next decades call for. Yes, it can be uncomfortable and even scary but being innovative in this context means being courageous and inquisitive, finding the upside by flipping challenges on their head. It also means understanding what makes people unique and connecting with them relevantly and authentically at scale.”

This edition of OMD Sense was produced in partnership with Snapchat, a trailblazer in augmented reality, creativity, and media technology, and Talon, a global OOH specialist media agency reimagining and reinventing the possibilities of the medium.

Distinctively driven by TBWA’s proprietary Disruption® methodology, Collective AI incorporates over 50 years of TBWA’s disruptive ideas and insights from more than 11,000 creative minds across 40 countries.

Collective AI serves as a gateway to all AI tools available to TBWA employees and clients, including custom AI applications and extensive archives. It is powered by Omnicom’s first-mover partnerships with Adobe, Microsoft, Google, and DALL-E.

Leadership and Vision

TBWA’s AI initiatives are spearheaded by Global Chief Product Officer Deepthi Prakash and Global Head of Data Intelligence and AI, Michael Horn, in collaboration with Omnicom’s CTO, Paolo Yuvienco. Prakash commented, "Our creativity extends beyond making content. We have long developed physical and digital products, applications, and experiences. AI enables us to scale that without an army of people. With functionalities like no-code development or 3D modeling, we can help more brands bring distinctive products, services, and experiences to market."

Innovative Applications

Recent projects utilizing AI include:

• TBWAHakuhodo’s creation of Iruyo, a machine learning-driven robot to calm babies during car rides for Nissan.
• A competition by TBWA for Golden Circle, an Australian food brand, where kids designed lunchboxes that were rendered into AI-created designs for 3D printing.
• A collaboration with the Riky Rick Foundation where TBWAHunt Lascaris produced “Stronger,” a song that used AI to assemble the late rapper’s tweets into lyrics addressing mental health stigma.

Platform Features

The Collective AI platform includes custom tools such as:

• Edges AI: Converts cultural intelligence into actionable insights, helping brands understand and capitalize on cultural trends.
• FEED AI: Extends TBWA’s social media capabilities, providing expert solutions in research, strategy, ideation, and planning.
• Inclusive AI: Ensures products and services meet standards of inclusivity, helping teams create inclusive content and identify diverse creators.

Omnicom’s exclusive partnership with Adobe Firefly will enable TBWA to influence the development of new generative AI applications, enhancing how the Firefly Custom Model serves brands.

Strategic Impact

Troy Ruhanen, TBWAWorldwide Global CEO, highlighted the broader implications of AI: “While AI aids in automation and efficiency, its true power lies in creating content and brand experiences that people embrace, solving business problems and exploring cultural opportunities.”

Reda Raad, TBWARAAD Group CEO, added, “The launch of our AI platform marks a significant milestone. We are excited to empower our team with customized tools that enhance efficiency and drive transformative results for our clients.”

Mercedes-Benz will consolidate global media, brand, and performance marketing activities under Team X, a tailor-made agency solution from Omnicom Group, Team X will be a fully integrated, global agency model from performance content development to media playout and measurement, with responsibility for Mercedes-Benz businesses in more than 40 markets starting January 2022. 

The global account is reported to be worth more than $US600 million. 

“We share the importance of this moment and feel privileged to partner with Mercedes-Benz as they transform and merge their global marketing and communication activities”, says Omnicom CEO John Wren. "Mercedes-Benz was looking for a holistic agency partner that could help deploy a sustainable and globally consistent luxury experience for the company’s brand promise around the world for the first time. Our newly formed Team X delivers on that goal, creating a streamlined global structure with clear single points of contact as well as innovative data and analytics connected in every layer." 

To support the bespoke agency, Omnicom acquired two Mercedes-Benz partners: Berlin-based, digitally-native advertising agency Antoni, launched in 2015 with founding client Mercedes-Benz; and German PR and communications agency Oliver Schrott Kommunikation GmbH (OSK).

Mercedes is aiming to develop digital and data-based media, as well as brand and performance marketing activities. The new agency set-up will also strive to simplify marketing operations by creating globally consistent brand experiences across customer touchpoints, Mercedes-Benz said in a statement.

Britta Seeger, responsible for sales at Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, said: "This is where Team X will act as our holistic, fully networked agency partner for globally sustainable, efficient, and effective communication. Our goal is to build the most desirable cars in the world – we also want to convey the desirability of our products as well as our esteem for our customers in every contact with our brand."

Agency groups involved in the pitch were asked for a concept for a fully integrated global creative agency, for which Mercedes-Benz says Omnicom Group presented a compelling approach, unlocking "a holistic view of the consumer across every brand-defining touchpoint, experience and moment along the customer journey."

Bettina Fetzer, VP Communications & Marketing at Mercedes-Benz AG, said: “The creative unit with hubs in the US, Europe, and Asia will take local needs into account early into the strategy and creative work, and adapt global brand presences in a regionally nuanced way. In addition, together with all regions, we want to significantly strengthen the communicative and experience-oriented proportion of brand communication. In parallel, we will work as a team on continuous brand development and the design of our style-defining appearance across touchpoints and audiences – in all regions and markets. One presence, one brand experience – one 'Mercedes look and feel' for all brand-defining activities worldwide – that is our goal." 

In 2018, the agency made a stunning comeback from the ground up which helped nab the title that year. Adweek credits the agency for sustaining the same formula and for leveraging that momentum to make winning a repeatable process in 2019, and into the new decade.

The agency also secured the top position for the best net new business performance of any global media network in 2019 as reported by COMvergence, the international independent research company. It also led the top spot in the Middle East ranking. OMD was also given first place in COMvergence’s 2019 Global Media Agency Rankings and Billings report that was published in December- which showed the agency leading the industry with billings of $19.6 billion.

Commenting on the collective affirmation of OMD’s industry-leading performance in 2019, OMD Worldwide CEO Florian Adamski said, “OMD is starting the new decade with greater capacity and commitment to deliver better decisions, better ideas and better outcomes – faster – for our clients all around the world.”

“What makes our performance in the Middle East particularly remarkable is the market context. Despite the headwinds and difficult conditions, we’ve maintained our focus on performance, quality and innovation to propel our clients, and ourselves, ahead of the curve,” added Wissam Najjar, COO of OMD MENA

On why he was in Dubai

I am responsible for Europe, Middle East and Africa, and MENA represents a very important part of our region. I’m visiting Dubai as it is our hub in the GCC, which represents 60 percent of MENA advertising investments.

On the importance of the region

In terms of financials, MENA sits easily in our top five [markets], but in terms of talent, techniques I would put it in our top three. We have a superb team here delivering exceptional performance, especially when one considers the significant contraction in regional ad investments from $5.5 billion in 2014 to $3.4 billion last year. Elda [Choucair, CEO of PHD MENA] has done a magnificent job and added new offices in Lebanon and Egypt; OMD with Nadim [Samara] as the new CEO is enjoying tremendous success [like the Zain win] and has achieved notable awards; and Fadi [Maktabi, GM of Hearts & Science MENA] is an outstanding talent who is also delivering exciting new business. That’s just a few people and of course, full credit must go to Elie [Khouri, CEO of Omnicom Media Group MENA].

On client challenges

The impact of technology on business is asking questions of everything and everyone. And it couldn’t be more exciting as the opportunity for new thinking is unlimited. But the shift for clients and their agencies to a total customer-first mindset is a major challenge, as many legacy structures and ways of working still exist. For example, how will marketers construct fast, fluid and enjoyable consumer journeys for their customers? How do they unify data effectively to enable this? How will they dismantle silos to allow disruptive integrated thinking to quickly flourish? And how to do this in today’s world when there is no time and financial expectations are largely short term? With 5G connections in the MEA forecasted to grow from 1.2 million in 2021 to 16.6 million by 2023 and m-commerce expected to jump from $17 billion in 2018 to $37 billion in 2022, the shift is accelerating. So, if you’re a client and you are trying to make sense of everything, it’s not surprising you are impatient with your agencies. But then, that’s the opportunity for everyone to raise the bar. 

On client education

As a client, I would expect my agency to passionately understand every area of my business, my challenges, my customers, the pressures I face and the barriers to new opportunities. As an agency, you must therefore be ‘all-in’. Only then, based on the agency’s contribution, is trust secured, and only then will a client be receptive to new ideas.

On traditional vs non-traditional clients

When it comes to success metrics, there is often a significant difference between marketers who have grown over many decades and those whose career started in the last 15 years, in particular those who have successfully embraced the commercial impact to their business of smartphones and tablets. Steve Jobs said the iPhone was going to change everything and he wasn’t wrong. 

The clients who have been born of the smartphone tend to look at the mid to lower end of the funnel, where attribution and conversion are everything. Their success metrics tend to be sophisticated, customer-centric and focused. As their businesses grow, however, they start to move up the funnel and begin to think about the power and value of their brands. That’s very exciting. Equally exciting, the more traditional marketers are rapidly evolving to the point where ‘digital’ silos begin to disappear and integrated precision marketing at scale becomes the norm. 

More precise success metrics covering business, marketing, channel and customer will be employed and force everyone to improve outputs and re-establish the value of great ideas. 

On the Middle East region being slow to change

I don’t think this is a fair assessment. Marketers everywhere are going through a period of tremendous change and significant uncertainty. For instance, it’s easy for people to talk about omni-channel strategies, but it’s difficult for large established corporations to make that happen immediately.

With digital’s share of total media investments in the region increasing from ten percent in 2012 to 42 percent in 2019 [in the GCC] and the rapid rise of m-commerce, I think the Middle East is working very fast to shift. In terms of innovation, this [region] remains one of the most agile areas in the world.

At the end of the day, you either change or you’re out of business. Cost-cutting alone will never grow a business in the long term. Embracing and investing in change and unleashing creative talent in all areas is the only way to deliver sustainable growth. 

On technological over-reliance

Technology has to work for the customer experience, not the other way around. Take motion pictures for example. When Spielberg made Jurassic Park, he wanted the dinosaurs to have life-like movement because, in his opinion, the film wouldn’t work without it. But the existing tech couldn’t deliver it. Yet his driven creative genius and focus on his audience resulted in him finding a tiny experimental unit who were developing what then became the CGI business. Much like Steve Jobs, Spielberg’s view was “how do we get technology to create something that people have never seen before”? And that for me is always the key to business success.

On the future of holding groups and consultancies

There are many competitive challenges facing agencies but holding companies will determine their own future. The days of scale being measured by billings alone are disappearing. When I started this role in 2001, our business was much smaller; we had 1,500 people across EMEA. We now have 9,200 very talented people who have helped generate outstanding results. 2018 was our best year yet, based on all quantitative and qualitative measures. That said, clients have never faced greater challenges. We can’t rest for a second. Harnessing and nurturing our collective intellectual scale is key. Diversity is vital to encourage opportunity and fresh perspective. Empowering that talent matters. For instance, Omnicom’s creation of Omni will enable our teams to work together to develop and execute integrated, precision marketing-based outcomes through different parts of the group in real-time. Ultimately, success is determined by the quality of the work and scale of the outcome. 

Elie Khouri, CEO of Omnicom Media Group MENA, explains the reason behind the refresh: “Since our inception, we have focused, first and foremost, on our clients’ challenges, our people and our product. It is now time to reflect all this work and our position in the way we look. With this new visual identity, we more clearly express that we are client-first, data-led and people-powered.”

This is particularly critical at Christmas when household consumption increases significantly as does waste disposal. The message of “a conscious Christmas” is an important one at a time when plastic waste is cluttering our land and marine environment to the extent of entering our food chain.

If we don’t change our ways, this is what Christmas will look like, the company says.

Source: All statistics are sourced from GWP Group.

Therefore, Omnicom Media Group MENA has formed a strategic partnership with ad fraud prevention specialists TrafficGuard. The partnership will give the group’s agencies – OMD, PHD and Hearts & Science – exclusive access to TrafficGuard’s ad fraud mitigation solution for six months making it the first agency in the region to partner with the ad fraud company.

The group was one of the early partners of MOAT and in 2017 moved to a whitelist only approach that is regularly vetted by its inventory team.

When brands promote their apps on different sites and platforms, including ad networks, and buy these insertions on a cost-per-install (CPI) basis, they can be exposed to multiple fraud types, including SDK spoofing, click injection and faked installs. TrafficGuard safeguards installs in real-time, blocking invalid traffic, and provides consistent attribution reporting to clients and supply partners. This allows brands to only pay for qualified installs and enhance the success of their mobile acquisition campaigns.

“Fraud doesn’t just waste media budgets at the top level, it also limits the speed at which ad networks and supply partners can optimize, restricting overall advertising performance and ultimately diminishing ROI,” explains Mathew Ratty, CEO of TrafficGuard’s parent company, Tech Mpire, in a statement. “Proactively blocking fraud keeps ad dollars out of the pockets of the bad actors and provides clean data, helping supply partners to optimize their performance. By partnering with TrafficGuard, Omnicom Media Group MENA is demonstrating its commitment to delivering superior performance to both its clients and supply partners.”

“What has made digital advertising so appealing to brands is the ability to measure the performance of investments and their contribution to the bottom line, relying on models like pay-per-install. The issue is that fraudsters have also been very active in this space and in this region, which has made protection measures an essential first step,” adds Christos Solomi, Executive Director – Programmatic at Omnicom Media Group MENA. “Our partnership with TrafficGuard is the latest in a series of initiatives we’ve taken to create a safe and effective environment for our clients’ brands and investments.”

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 of two percent in the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group described the revenue slump as the worst growth in North America since the recession, helping send the shares on their sharpest intraday plunge since March 2009.

EXCLUSIVE: Yves-Michel Gabay on joining Gamned! 

Many ad clients are shifting their spending toward online media, an area where Silicon Valley giants have an edge. That’s expected to make it harder for traditional advertising agencies to maintain growth and earnings.

Paul Sweeney, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said ad-account losses and general uncertainty in US digital media are dragging down Omnicom’s organic revenue growth – a measure that excludes deals and currency fluctuations. North America accounts for more than half of the company’s sales. Margins also are under pressure, despite efforts to focus on more profitable businesses.

“Omnicom’s 2018 margin outlook is disappointing, with the company expecting stable margin even as it pruned its portfolio in 2017,” Sweeney said in a note.

READ: Why did only 1 in 10 brands grow in the last 3 years?

However, Morningstar Investment Service’s Ali Mogharabi notes that Omnicom’s digital-advertising business is performing better than last year. It posted organic growth of seven percent.

“We believe that the transition towards digital is not impacting the company as much as the market expected in the last few years,” he said.