MIDDLE EAST
PUBLISHER
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
9 REASSURING BANK LOGOS CRISTAL COLLECTION
What the logos of a selection of Our special report
the region’s biggest banks say on the MENA Cristal
about their brands p10 awards p13
Make it new? Make it work
Advertising/Marketing/Media/Public Relations
www.mediaweekme.com Issue 0015 25 January 2009
PUBLIC RELATIONS
In this issue
PROFILE Edelman set for Gulf re-entry
Former Asda’a affiliate close to forming new regional partnership, claims executive
CHRIS WRIGHT/Executive editor
ABU DHABI Almost eight months after losing Asda’a as its regional affiliate, portal to execute its global
global PR company Edelman is poised to reboot its operations in the Gulf, business here. IT’S JANUARY, which means the award season is almost
according to David Brain, the agency’s CEO for EMEA (pictured). While Brain disagrees
Edelman’s formal relationship with Asda’a lasted for nearly five years, with this view, he does not
and by all accounts it was an unusually fruitful one. A key part of Edelman’s hide his disappointment at
re-entry into the Middle East market, Brain says, will be finding a new and Edelman’s estrangement
equally compatible partner, adding that Edelman is currently eyeing the from Sunil John’s agency.
mid-sized Dubai-based agency Promax. The break came about as upon us.
National enquirer “They’re not an affiliate, but it’s getting closer,” Brain says. “We’ve been a result of WPP’s buyout
Sultan Al Qassemi, the looking around, and for a variety of reasons we haven’t locked onto of Joseph Ghossoub’s
outspoken Emirati columnist anyone yet. But we’ve done some work with Promax, and we’ve been network The Holding
explains why the Arabic press surprised at how good they are. They’re checking us out, we’re checking Group, Asda’a’s parent
is “rubbish”. them out. So we’re not looking anywhere else right now.” company, which led to
p09 Edelman began to rebuild its regional presence in November of last year, a realignment with WPP This year, we expect the usual celebrations of regional
opening a six-person office in Abu Dhabi, headed by Iain Twine, previously property (and former
CASE STUDY associate director of its corporate practise in London. Brain says that the Asda’a affiliate) Burson-
agency plans to increase its staff by a further three people by the summer. Marsteller.
“We don’t want to rush into anything,” he says. “Asda’a were our eyes “The irony there, of
and ears for a long time, so we’re a little bit blinded. There’s no mad rush course, is that Sunil
to overextend ourselves.” ditched Burson-Marsteller creativity to be tempered with added emphasis on results.
Brain adds that Edelman has plans to set up operations elsewhere to come to us,” says Brain.
in the region—particularly Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Dubai—but says “I signed that agreement
that Abu Dhabi was an obvious place for the agency to regroup following with Sunil.”
its split from Asda’a. Edelman has an existing account with the emirate’s The Asda’a split was particularly difficult for Brain and his colleagues
massive green initiative Masdar, and also handles PR for the Government of because it came at a time when Edelman was nearing a much
Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi-owned Premiership club Manchester City. anticipated buyout of its own. “We had an agreement to buy Asda’a,”
Off-road thinking Some have expressed doubts that, even with a new partner, Edelman Brain says. “But, frankly, Joseph Ghossoub did such a good-slash- Business needs to be drummed up, which means ads that
How Team Y&R created a will be able to quickly re-establish itself as a regional presence—at best, mad deal with [WPP boss] Martin Sorrell, with Asda’a lumped in—we
critically acclaimed campaign says one observer, the agency’s Abu Dhabi office will provide it with a looked at the numbers and couldn’t make that work.”
for Land Rover by completely
ignoring the brief.
p25 MEDIA
are merely frivolous or achingly clever just won’t cut it—not
REGULARS Kuwait about to enter free zone fray
NEWS 04 Plans for media hub take one step closer to becoming reality
PROFILE 09
THE NINE 10 PAUL MCLENNAN/ planning its own media and the required infrastructure, News editor
FEATURE 13 technology city. high-speed internet and satellite
OPINION 19 KUWAIT Proposals for Kuwait’s first The response from the industry channels”. in 2009, not without something more substantial to back
MEDIAWEEK 22 media city have been submitted has been mixed, with some saying Hadi Kaadan, associate VP for
MARKETINGWEEK 23 to the government for approval, there are more pressing media BPG Media in Kuwait, would also
ADWEEK 25 following years of discussions. matters that need to be addressed, welcome such a project, but adds
PRWEEK 26 Despite the unfavourable global such as improved regulations and that people shouldn’t hold their
DIGITALWEEK 27 economy, minister of information licensing issues. breath. “I don’t think it will even
IN FOCUS 28 Sheikh Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah Eman Al Awadhi, editor of happen for another five or six years them up.
DESIGNWEEK 31 has cited an “urgent need” for such the English desk at the state- from now because it takes time to
PEOPLE 33 a facility, and has presented a report owned Kuwait News Agency, get approved by the cabinet and
THE BLOTTER 34 on the project to the cabinet. supports the idea. “More than 30 other committees,” he says. “It has
If the proposal moves ahead, newspapers have been licensed been discussed for many years,
Kuwait would follow in the footsteps here, so it does make sense to but I do not believe it will change
of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and have something like a media anything unless there is regulation All the more interesting, then, to take a look at some of the
would leapfrog Doha, which city,” she says, citing the need from the Ministry of Information. It
is reportedly in the process of for “a place that would have will just be cosmetic.”
notable entries for this year’s MENA Cristal Awards, which we
do in a special five-page feature this issue. As competition judge
Antony Lawrence tells us, “We have to measure everything we
do—and it’s hard to measure big brand advertising.”
Publisher Ashley Rees
He’s right, of course, you cannot just snap your fingers and
ashley.rees@engworldwide.com conjure up data on how effective an ad is—even the returns
that are quantifiable take time, and the qualitative benefits to a
Editorial
Ashley Rees, publisher
brand or organisation are extremely tough to pin down.
MIDDLE EAST
Executive editor Chris Wright
chris.wright@engworldwide.com
What we can do when evaluating the region’s creative
ashley.rees@engworldwide.com
Contributing editor Ben Flanagan output, though, is ask the right questions—about relevance,
ben.flanagan@engworldwide.com
for instance, both to the brand and the target audience. The
News editor Paul McLennan
paul.mclennan@engworldwide.com
best advertising, no matter how inspirational it is in its ideas or
News writer Charlie Neyra
execution, never loses sight of what it’s trying to say and who
charlie.neyra@engworldwide.com
it’s talking to.
Creative
Thankfully, the majority of the ads that appear in this issue
Creative director Victoria Calaguian
of Media Week seem very focused. What we see at this year’s
victoria.calaguian@engworldwide.com
Cristals is, overwhelmingly, creativity with a purpose—not art
Head of design Roy Cruz
for art’s sake. Or, let’s face it, art for the agency’s sake.
Designer Leigh Walsh
Designer Rouland Medina
That said, it’s gratifying to see how creative standards have
Designer Ali Arellano
risen around the region. This is not only true of creative
Designer Maricel Poso advertising, but media planning, journalism, PR—you really
Chief photographer Bernard Testa
get a sense that the region is coming of age.
Photographer Mosh Lafuente
Production
Production manager Maher Mahbouby
maher.mahbouby@engworldwide.com
Senior production executive Issam Ghanem
issam.ghanem@engworldwide.com
Production Executive Sadish Kottodi
sadish.kottodi@engworldwide.com
p04 p07
p14
Circulation
Circulation director Nick Pomeroy
nick.pomeroy@engworldwide.com
Marketing
Marketing director Gemma McKeown
gemma.mckeown@engworldwide.com
Marketing manager Shaik Shibli
shaik.shibli@engworldwide.com
Advertising & Sales
Commercial manager Tanya Sharp
tanya.sharp@engworldwide.com
+971 50 633 6284
p16
p17
Management
Publishing director Mike Orlov
Managing director Neil Petch
Group CEO Rehan Merchant
Chairman Hanif Merchant
VW Passat R36 V6 GT
Ad.ai 11/27/08 5:54:11 PM
The Publisher does not accept any liability for errors or
inaccuracies contained in this publication, however caused.
The views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those
of the Publisher. Information contained in this publication
is intended for general use and readers are advised to seek
p15
specialist information before acting upon any information
enclosed herein. No part of this publication or any part of
its contents may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form,
without the express permission of the Publisher in writing.
p22
The only exemption to this is for extracts used for the purpose
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www.mediaweekme.com 25 JANUARY 2009
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