The commercial break

By Diana Milne, Editor

Shortly before leaving his post, Saatchi & Saatchi’s MENA CEO Elias Ashkar sat down with Diana Milne to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of the Middle East advertising industry.

“I don't see why, in this region, we can't produce quality creative work. That's what Saatchi & Saatchi are trying to do”
-Elias Ashkar

As the biggest player in the Middle East advertising industry Saatchi & Saatchi was on the frontline when revenues plunged across multiple industry sectors last year.  And with property companies the biggest spenders on advertising in the UAE, the situation represented a sharp U-turn for the firm. Saatchi & Saatchi’s outgoing MENA CEO Elias Ashkar describes the situation: “It’s really difficult to measure it with any degree of accuracy but overall it is felt that advertising expenditures are down by about 35 percent in general across the region. There are some sectors that are more severely affected than others; in first place for sure is property. The property market is still yet to pick up.” He goes on to say that the beleaguered auto industry too, cut down its advertising expenditure dramatically.

Signs of the times

The clearest evidence of this slowdown can be seen on a drive down any of the UAE’s main highways which, in the days of the emirate’s economic boom were flanked on either side by advertising billboards each competing to shout the loudest about the latest property developments. But when the downturn struck, with outdoor advertising the worst affected medium, these billboards offered stark evidence of the state of the market, says Ashkar. “Outdoor advertising was the most dramatically affected because it had been dominated by property. I would be driving between here and Abu Dhabi a couple of months back and it was a sad sight with all these empty billboards. I wish they could have been used for free advertising to give them a bit of life instead of leaving all these empty ugly hoardings.”
Ashkar says that as well as reducing their advertising budgets companies are changing their marketing strategies and the way in which they target customers. For instance many are focussing on below the line advertising strategies – targeting specific customer groups: “Budgets have gone more broadly into tactical promotional advertising versus above the line.” There has been a shift too in the industry sectors at the forefront of advertising activity. Those most active today, says Ashkar, are the consumer goods and telecoms industries. In fact some have increased their advertising spend to take advantage of lucrative gaps in the market. One such company is Saatchi & Saatchi’s biggest Middle East client, the global FMCG giant, Procter & Gamble. “As a matter of fact some of the brands are actually spending much more than last year. With P&G, it’s all about market share. As a smart advertiser they say there is the opportunity to buy market share even cheaper now because you can negotiate rates and also their return on investment is better because their message is more impactful now.”
The economic downturn has also created a new breed of super advertisers in the region – companies whose products have suddenly experienced a surge in popularity due to customers’ spending cut backs. Most notably, says Ashkar, fast food and confectionary companies are experiencing a surge in advertising activity: “Probably one of the businesses that has grown the most is chocolate and confectionary. And as you can imagine people go out less so there’s a lot of home deliveries, pizzas etc.”

His interest however, is less about the quantity of the advertising the agency produces than about the quality of the work. In the past advertising produced in the Middle East has come under fire for falling short of standards in more mature markets. Ashkar says that standards have improved greatly but concedes much work has to be done to bring it up to London or New York standards: “Overall I think the work in the region has improved over the last few years. This is evident in the work that is being awarded at international festivals such as Cannes. However, this does not mean that we are there yet because actually the top quality work still represents a minority of the work we see in the region. The vast majority of it is far below what I believe is acceptable by international standards. There are a lot of brands that do a lot of shouting. There is a lot of overselling and very little honesty. Too much information, no insights and not enough entertainment with lots of research.” He believes Saatchi & Saatchi will lead the way in raising such advertising standards through its Lovemarks philosophy and SISOMO (Sight, Sound and Motion) three step process of engaging with customers: “I don’t see why, in this region, we can’t produce quality creative work. That’s what Saatchi & Saatchi are trying to do.”

One campaign that Ashkar is particularly proud of is the one Saatchi & Saatchi created for the Dubai Metro. The year-long campaign was transmitted via television, radio and print media with the key theme for the campaign being the ‘My Metro’ brand.  Ashkar says the campaign will set new standards for creativity in the region, in particular when it comes to public sector marketing campaigns: “Probably Saatchi & Saatchi’s star campaign is Dubai Metro. The agency has turned it into a Lovemark in a very short period of time. There was coverage of the campaign every day in the newspapers and everybody loved it even though there were some hiccups and glitches in the beginning. The fact that the whole campaign was built around this ‘My City, My Metro’ theme created a real sense of belonging, rather than it just being about transportation. Dubai Metro is Saatchi & Saatchi’s most recent Lovemark and it’s making a lot of noise and buzz in the market.”

Great minds

In order to create such innovative work, creative staff are needed. The agency recently announced the appointment of awarding winning creative Marc Lineveldt from Fortune Promoseven as its new Regional Creative Director and Ben Roberts from Saatchi & Saatchi’s London based agency as its Regional Human Interest Director. He says the appointments have already had a positive impact: “I feel refreshed and rejuvenated by these appointments. Already there’s a different buzz and energy in the agency.” Ashkar concedes however, that recruiting talented creative team members from more established advertising markets is one of  the biggest challenges he faces: “There are many challenges in this region, but as far as I’m concerned the biggest challenge is talent. Finding the right talent for the market is a very tough task. To find these people in the Middle East is not easy because the industry is still developing. Whereas if you are in London or New York you actually have a tough time choosing because they are all so qualified.”

He goes on to say that this challenge is greatest in Saudi Arabia, which doesn’t hold the same attractions as a lifestyle destination such as neighbouring Dubai when it comes to attracting staff to it’s Riyadh based office. To help address the talent spotting challenge, Saatchi & Saatchi, in partnership with its client Procter & Gamble, is working with the American University in Dubai to set up an annual competition to find the students with the most creative potential. Explaining the concept Ashkar says: “The programme is aimed at identifying talent in universities at an early stage, then encouraging these people and developing them. For each competition we will develop a case study with P&G. This semester for instance, it’s based on Head & Shoulders shampoo. The students then work on a marketing campaign.” The competition represents the opportunity of a lifetime for aspiring UAE-based creatives. And as Middle East based companies start their slow recovery from recession and attempt to fill those empty billboards again, creativity and innovation is needed now more than ever before. “I don’t see why, in this region, we can’t produce quality creative work. That’s what Saatchi & Saatchi are trying to do.”

Saatchi & Saatchi has grown from a small start-up company set up in London in 1970, to a global creative advertising company with 150 offices in 86 countries worldwide. It is part of Publicis Groupe, the world’s fourth largest communications company. The company currently has five offices in the Middle East/North Africa region, with further development planned for the Levant region in 2010.