MEC establishes 'MediaLab' to support MENA campaigns

Headed by Nareena Mehra as Strategic Planning Manager, MediaLab MENA will act as a dedicated strategy and resource centre to provide additional industry insight to maximise the value of MEC client's brand communications.

Nareena Mehra has worked with a number of key brands during her eight years in advertising and brand building, ranging from P&G to Qatar Airways, Novartis to Glaxosmithkline.

As a graduate of Smith College in the USA, Nareena started her account planning career at Leo Burnett (US). Nareena then joined Planning at Grey WW in New York, working primarily on health care clients such as Novartis and Eli Lilly before joining Saatchi & Saatchi in Dubai as Senior Strategic Planner for the MENA region. She then headed the Strategic Planning Department at Dentsu Middle East before joining MEC in January this year.

MediaLab MENA is currently a five-person team, focused on supporting all MEC offices in the region by trend watching, providing valuable consumer research and insight, and carrying out strategic investment evaluations.

MEC MENA International Business & Development Director, Yves-Michel Gabay, said: "MediaLab is a valuable service tool of the MEC global network and has been established as a part of MEC MENA's ongoing regional development. The move is yet another show that MEC MENA is growing as fast as the Burj Dubai tower, with 17 new faces alone in 2007 across the network in the UAE, KSA, and Lebanon offices."

MEC also has offices in Oman, Kuwait, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Bahrain and Algeria, and currently has a total of 190 staff.

MediaLab is based in MEC MENA's Dubai headquarters.