Arab advertising comes of age (page 3 of 3)

But this effort has to be combined with the gain of respectability as well as the infusion of passion for the profession.

Aren't you concerned that you will be training people who might end up working for your competitors or clients?

It is always sad to see good people leave. But there are times when you cannot prevent this from happening. Impact/BBDO has always been regarded as one of the best training grounds for the profession in our region.

Nevertheless, it is particularly rewarding when those who were trained at Impact/BBDO end up as our clients, or after a few years spent in a competitor's organization, they decide to come back. Both cases happen quite frequently. The bottom line is that we will continue to provide the finest training for our people - you just can't grow without a decent internal training program.

Is there an imbalance in terms of talent between Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Kuwait?
Absolutely not. Every market needs to be served by the best talent possible. Moreover, we often rotate our people across markets so that they gain comprehensive regional exposure and diversity in their career with us.

Agencies and media have been complaining that there is not enough money and that there has been no growth for the last seven years.

While there is some truth to your statement, one has to understand the real reasons for this situation.

First, the costs of running a quality marketing-communication organization are rather high in the region. The primary cost factor is compensation which, for a market our size, is at par with Europe.

Second, from an income pool standpoint, we suffer from a devalued media market. The whole Middle East market in terms of media value is smaller than South Africa or Belgium. This is unbelievable given the strategic importance of our region to worldwide advertisers. Our hope is that we will witness a gradual adjustment of media costs to efficiency, while additional new media will come in place and contribute to the growth of our profession's revenue pool.

The Middle East has had a fragmented advertising market for years. Will this change?

The Middle East is not one market: it is a geographic space with several common criteria. But the fact of the matter is that we face here geographic diversity as well as demographic and psychographic variances. However, as is the case worldwide, we are witnessing regional harmonization in the Middle East just as the world at large is witnessing increased globalization.

This dual phenomenon is mirrored by our media scene, where we observe the proliferation of local and specialized media adding to the fragmentation on one hand, and an increase in regional media contributing to the harmonization across the region on the other.

Where do you see your company further down the line?

We want to continue growth through disciplined expansion: that means more and larger specialized companies across our markets. We will maintain our regional expansion and are now finalizing our presence in Morocco and other parts of North Africa. And most importantly, we want to maintain our growth by strengthening even more our partnership with our existing clients.

I have always believed that creativity must play a pivotal role at Impact/BBDO. This will never change. Equally, I have always favored a long-term partnership mode with our clients.

Partnership is not just a trendy word - to me it means involvement and knowledge of our clients' business beyond advertising or marketing services. It means having a proactive attitude towards our clients' markets and our clients' consumers.

It means being able to apply our know-how and resources in the most creative and the most impactful manner. My vision is to be this kind of company and to surround myself with the people capable of sustaining this vision. The good news is that I already have those people.