Insights from Publicis Amir Zeitouni: Navigating UAE’s Communication Landscape
Amir M Zeitouni, the accomplished Business Director at Publicis Communications UAE. With a wealth of experience in the telecommunications industry, Amir brings a unique blend of strategic vision and creative ingenuity to his role. Spearheading innovative communication strategies, he is renowned for his adeptness in navigating challenges and consistently delivering exceptional results. In this exclusive interview, he offers invaluable insights into his journey, strategies, and the keys to his success in the ever-evolving realm of communications.
Having worked across the advertising, creative, and telecommunications sectors, how has your professional experience been? What have been some of the challenges and lessons you have learned?
In the fast-paced realm of telecommunications, the advertising industry is already fiercely competitive. My journey through advertising, creativity, and telecom has been both stimulating and rewarding.
Navigating through the years, and balancing client demands with our creative vision has been quite the challenge. Personally, I thrive when I find the right balance between innovation and achieving concrete marketing objectives. However, it’s crucial never to underestimate the value of iteration. The ability to clearly communicate ideas and work through drafts and revisions is essential, as is the capability to articulate our creative vision convincingly to clients and stakeholders.
When delving deeper into telecom, keeping up with technical advancements and embracing the ever-changing landscape is paramount. Building strong partnerships within the industry and collaborating with other companies to achieve common goals are also vital. Notably, telecom giants are undergoing a significant transformation, transitioning from traditional service providers to comprehensive technology entities, often termed “Techcos.”
How do you ensure Publicis Communications’ strategies align with the client’s vision and marketing objectives? What KPIs do you monitor and how do you make sure they are met?
The Publicis Groupe model is designed to revolve around and fulfill all our clients’ needs. From the Power of One model, offering all solutions under one roof, to the consultancy approach, Publicis Groupe becomes your one-stop orchestra, where every instrument plays in perfect harmony to deliver your brand’s unique melody.
Our powerful model acts as the conductor, ensuring that all elements – from creative spark to strategic savvy – come together seamlessly to create a masterpiece. We don’t just meet clients’ needs; we anticipate them, becoming an extension of their team, meticulously crafting every detail to bring the brand vision to life.
In the month of Ramadan, viewer consumption patterns differ significantly from those of normal times, so how can brands leverage these differences to reach their audiences in the best way possible?
Many regard Ramadan as the “Superbowl” of the Middle East, but I believe it’s much more than that. Ramadan is an incredibly exciting time – the consumer journey shifts entirely from the rest of the year. It’s a special period where we aim to forge emotional connections and establish long-term relationships with our audience.
The alteration in viewer consumption habits during Ramadan presents a unique opportunity for businesses to engage with viewers. To make the most of these changes, brands should prioritize shorter, high-impact ads and strategically schedule their advertisements.
Is it award-winning campaigns or understanding new emerging trends and technologies or something else that presents the biggest opportunities for the UAE’s advertising agencies?
When it comes to advertising in the UAE, the sweet spot lies in staying abreast of emerging trends and technology while tackling the challenge of creating award-winning campaigns. Allow me to elaborate:
Accolades spotlight efficiency and originality, two qualities vital for attracting customers. The advertising landscape is in a constant state of flux. Agencies can craft more creative and captivating campaigns by keeping pace with and leveraging new technology and trends, such as augmented reality, virtual reality, data-driven marketing, and the rising popularity of influencer marketing. Agencies that can showcase their creative prowess through award-winning campaigns and stay ahead of the curve in terms of technology and trends will thrive.
The UAE has recently passed a decree-law aimed at controlling media operations within its borders. How has this impacted the media landscape and how are media agencies complying with it?
The UAE’s media law change presents media agencies with an intriguing new chapter. Clear standards and responsible content development are emphasized, offering a chance to prioritize quality over quantity and engage viewers with powerful messages. Media agencies are adaptable; thus, I believe they will succeed. Innovative content that complies with the new regulations may see an increase. This could foster a more positive and cohesive media environment, showcasing UAE culture and values. Overall, this is a positive step towards a more mature and responsible UAE media climate. Creative minds should be excited to develop new methods to engage audiences within this evolving landscape.
Do you have any advice for young professionals looking to get into advertising and media?
My advice to young professionals will be limited to 5 points, and I’ll elaborate a little on each:
1. Demonstrate Business Acumen: Advertising is a business, but innovation is key. Showcase how innovative ideas translate into measurable outcomes. Learn data analysis basics and showcase your skills in interpreting data for advertising strategy. Understanding marketing principles, such as customer journeys and market research, enhances your value.
2. Stand Out of the crowd: Specialize in areas like social media marketing or content production to build a strong portfolio. Highlight your business knowledge and outcomes achieved.
3. Networking like a pro: Connect with industry experts and attend relevant conferences. Use LinkedIn to engage in industry debates and network with employers. Reach out via emails or messages to introduce yourself, express interest, and showcase talents.
4. Start Strong: Seek real-world experience, even through small opportunities.
5. Embrace Persistence: Overcome challenges and show passion for the industry. Grit and a growth mindset are your secret weapons.
Vice Media’s Rafael Lavor: Shaping Media Strategy for Tomorrow’s Audience
Meet Rafael Lavor, Head of Strategy MEA at Vice Media, whose illustrious career spans over 18 years of shaping the creative landscape. With a diverse background that includes leadership roles in local innovation consultancies and global creative agencies, he has orchestrated groundbreaking campaigns for iconic brands such as Peugeot, Mastercard, and Amazon. Renowned for his strategic prowess, his work has been celebrated with numerous accolades, including awards at esteemed ceremonies.
Join us as Rafael shares his wealth of experience and insights into navigating cultural complexities, harnessing AI in gaming, and pioneering impactful brand activism in the ever-evolving media realm.
Congratulations on your appointment as the Head of Strategy MEA at Vice Media. Having worked in creative strategy, digital communications, brand management and more for over 18 years, could you please share your career journey and any interesting experiences you encountered?
Thank you! I’m really excited to join the VICE team. One thing that I emphasized throughout my interviews for this job was my love for working with unconventional individuals. I believe that interesting experiences often arise from embracing the unusual, leveraging the unexpected, and capturing unique perspectives. Around 17 years ago, I used to manage research for an innovation consultancy. This involved moderating focus groups, conducting interviews at various locations like parties, subway stations, and malls, and even stopping people on sidewalks to inquire about behaviours and brand perceptions, among other things.
Once, during ethnographic explorations around neighbourhoods in São Paulo for a gas company, my colleague and I approached a woman to discuss her preferences regarding household services. While we were near her home, she asked us to wait outside. Suddenly, her husband emerged—with a gun on his belt. Yes, a gun. Despite being terrified, we managed to explain who we were and what we were doing, partially diffusing the tension. Despite his initial suspicions, we ended up engaging in a lengthy conversation about his experiences as an unemployed security guard, local politics, rising prices, housing issues, and, yes, gas services. It was an incredibly strange, risky, and unexpected encounter, but nonetheless valuable. This experience taught me a great deal about genuine dialogue, sensitivity, openness, personal biases, and the unpredictable nature of life.
As a strategist and researcher who has worked across different markets and different agencies and consultancies in automobile, FMCG sectors, how different is the MEA region from Brazil? How did you cope with the transition?
Outsiders tend to perceive Brazil as a monolithic country, but it is certainly not. It is replete with internal regional nuances, cultural specificities, ethnic diversity, historical issues, and severe inequality problems. Similar to the Middle East, Brazil presents a spectrum of societal complexities. Navigating these continental challenges requires keeping biases in check, conducting thorough research, and remaining open to listening. Listening becomes a superpower to cope with such a transition. I have conversed with numerous individuals and delved into various books about the region, encompassing its history, diversity, dialects, landscapes, economies, religions, cities, conflicts, cultures, and more. Yet, I still acknowledge that I know very little. I will always remain a foreigner, continuously learning. As long as I retain this perspective, I will be fine.
In the MEA region, there are bound to be cultural nuances that matter. How do you accommodate them in your creative campaigns? How are audiences responding to them?
Cultural nuances, at a certain point within the creative process, culminating in execution issues: do we ultimately have the capacity to incorporate all cultural nuances into everything we planned, or do we need to compromise somewhere? It’s a conundrum we all face. We either promote something extremely resonant to a specific audience on a smaller scale or go big and risk diluting the message. The best scenario is trying to find a universal human truth hidden within local habits: the need for love, the search for meaning or security, the desperation of being lost and alone, or the craving for external validation. Desires, wishes, anxieties, fears—regardless of one’s ethnicity, religion, or cultural background, we all seek the same things as humans. Culture is built upon human needs and emotions. Whenever we can unearth and refine those raw inner emotional triggers, chances are the audience will have a resounding response.
While conceptualizing a brand campaign, how can you ensure that the idea resonates with the audiences the way it should?
Do your homework: Conduct thorough research to uncover something deeply relatable to the audience—a truthful insight, an interesting fact, a behavioural paradox, or a gripping tension—anything that can resonate amidst the noise of timelines.
Frame it beautifully: Distill the most poignant insight or truth about the audience into a single keyword or short expression that everyone involved in the process memorises. This becomes an internal dogma, a guiding meme, repeated until it’s recited back to you.
Recruit internal allies: Ensure that the team involved has relevant previous experience and a cultural background suited for the challenge. Team members may share important similarities with the audience, such as age group, mentality, overall perspective, stage of life, expertise in the category, or other relevant factors. You need a collectively empathetic team.
Finally, trust the process: Have faith in your creative partners and help them take ownership of the audience’s perspective by crafting the details of ideas and executions through people’s lenses along the way.
As a result of emerging technologies such as cloud computing and IoT, the media industry has been impacted significantly. Please provide your insight into how to implement these technologies to stay on top of trends while not sacrificing people’s touch?
Honestly, I’m not sure. I don’t see the omnipresence of connected screens and touchpoints as a good thing. It’s like more connected devices mean more screens, more interruptions, just more of everything. But here’s the thing: the more options we offer, the less value they seem to hold for people. It’s basic supply and demand. And our attention span – and our patience – keeps on diminishing. We’re drowning in a sea of uninspired content, diluting the impact of advertising spaces. The way I see it, the answer is to make advertising premium. We’ve got to make it worth people’s time, something they actually want to watch. With technologies like IoT, Cloud Computing, and Machine Learning, we can streamline processes, sure, but from the consumer’s side, it might feel like an invasion of privacy or just too much information. As we navigate this digital landscape, let us prioritize the needs of our audience. Let’s put people first and craft premium content spaces that resonate deeply with them.
What are some of the most innovative or creative campaigns you have overseen? How did they differ from similar campaigns and what did you learn from them?
Let me tell you about one campaign that I absolutely adore. Activision Blizzard teamed up with Crispin Porter and Boguski to launch Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 in Brazil. The game, with its flawless revamped gameplay mechanics, not only brought back the classic Tony Hawk experience but also revived beloved soundtracks from previous editions.
What made this launch truly special was its homage to the Brazilian audience. Among the iconic tracks, there was a special nod to “Charlie Brown Jr.,” a band that made history in the 90s and 00s scene. It was led by the charismatic singer and skater, Chorão.In a stroke of brilliance, the team decided to make this homage even bigger. They remastered not just the game, but also the band’s hit track’s music video. Through family contacts, they secured never-before-seen footage of Chorão and the band, giving fans a glimpse into their history.
The result? A brand new music video launched with zero media effort that became an overnight sensation. More than a decade after the band’s dissolution, fans from that generation felt deeply honored by the game’s tribute. This beautiful campaign tapped into nostalgia in a distilled, truthful, and well-crafted manner. It serves as a reminder that even in today’s digital age, connecting with the most basic human emotions remains the most effective strategy for capturing hearts and minds.
With a new year ahead, what do you think will shake up the entire creative and media sector in 2024? What should we be prepared for?
The blockchain has undoubtedly left its mark, but the NFT trend proved to be a fluke, and dedicated Metaverse spaces are yet to make a comeback. Surprisingly, Space Computing remains a distant concept. In the current landscape, my bets lie on Gaming powered by Artificial Intelligence and Impactful Brand Activism.
AI is revolutionizing the creative industry, offering both challenges and opportunities. Embracing this transformation, we must harness AI’s potential to elevate creativity to unprecedented heights. Consider the possibilities of Gaming Platforms as canvases for exploring AI’s capabilities. With AI tools, we can craft immersive content with minimal resources, leading to unimaginable outcomes. Moreover, brands and companies must take decisive action. The world faces crises—from environmental degradation to geopolitical tensions—and it’s time for businesses to step up. With their influence, corporations can drive positive change, shaping regional and global policies for a sustainable future. Ultimately, it’s everyone’s responsibility to contribute to creating a livable world.
On His Hustle As An AdTech Entrepreneur, Industry Insights, And More: Interview With Digitalks Founder, Mohit Jain
Mohit Jain has been working in the AdTech space for over a decade in various capacities, the recent being the founder and chief consultant in his own venture- Digitalks in Dubai. He is passionate about data analytics, and particularly enthusiastic about the endless possibilities with the integration of technology and marketing. He has spent the last 15 years working focused on digital advertising & data and has worked with some of the biggest & brightest agency names in the MENA region.
Today he shares with us his thoughts and insights about not just the latest developments in AdTech, but also his hustle as an entrepreneur at Digitalks.
Mohit, firstly, tell us what made you take the leap from your already established career to starting your own venture, Digitalks?
I have just loved working with the agencies throughout my career span and that’s where I learnt the skills which made me whatever I am now but at some point, the work became quite repetitive, dealing with similar challenges over & over again, enormous work pressure and 14 – 16 hours working days was impacting work-life balance. On top of that, I wasn’t able to develop new skills to keep up with the pace of the industry. That’s when I decided to take this leap and take control. I am very glad I took this decision at the right time.
What unseen opportunities do you aim to tap with Digitalks?
I don’t know about unseen but I am trying to position Digitalks in between a world that sits between Marketing & IT i.e. Ad Tech. I think of us as “technical marketers” who understand how marketing communications succeed in the digital world and who can code at the same time and tie both worlds together with the help of data and that is why we call ourselves “Data Whisperers”.Speaking about AdTech, what recent developments are you most thrilled and concerned about? You can cite one example for each.
Frankly, I am more concerned about how advertisers make use of existing AdTech they have access to.Agencies are great in promising bells and whistles and sharing incredibly beautiful stories using words such as big data, artificial intelligence, deep learning, machine learning, etc but they fail miserably in fixing the foundations and most basic things in their AdTech. I’ll be very happy if they can simply just use Excel and Google Analytics properly to their full potential, to begin with.
How much importance or budget do today’s Advertisers give to data compared to their marketing budgets? Do they have separate budgets allocated for data alone (similar to marketing budgets)?
The true fact today is that the budgets for projects related to data come out from overall marketing budgets. Unfortunately there are not many advertisers who set budgets aside specifically for data specific work in the region we operate in but the situation is rapidly changing. Businesses seek more accountability and this can be only measured by data so things are already shifting. I believe that Covid-19 pandemic is going to further strengthen the budgets in this direction.
Is DMP mandatory for all the Advertisers who are spending their budgets across multiple platforms. Isn’t that a costly affair for small & mid-sized Advertisers?
DMP is an enterprise technology and definitely not for SMEs. In my opinion, DMP is a dying technology which is severely impacted by walled gardens from Google & Facebook, the war of browsers against cookies, GDPR & similar laws, and most importantly it is dying because DMP ad tech companies oversold & overcharged advertisers to a great extent and then they failed miserably in delivering the business results.Marketers often get confused between DMP & CDP. Can you please simply state the difference between them both and which one should the Advertisers pick first?
Both of these terms can be confusing for someone who doesn’t work with these platforms closely. The confusion is understandable as both technologies claim to collect, unify, segment and activate customer data across digital channels. In simple words, think of a DMP as a big database that collects addressable “cookies” of your prospects & customers and provides a capability to push this data to outside activation platforms so you can reach them with the right message wherever they are or use this data to personalize their experiences on your website or app. On the other hand, think of CDP as a “data pipe” to pass your own customer data to multiple places depending on the use cases such as when someone fills up a lead form on your website you want to send this data to your CRM, to your email marketing vendor, to your SMS vendor, Google’s & Facebook’s of your world so you can target these users online and then also trigger a workflow to your contact centre partner in India so they can schedule a call with your sales team.What’s your take on Google disabling the third-party cookies in Chrome? How is it going to affect the data industry of advertising?
It does mean the honeymoon is over for some companies and it is going to impact the audience sizes available in your DSP based on interest and affinity however as the biggest budgets are going to Google, Facebook, Amazon and new social channels such as Snap and TikTok – these guys have built their companies on data they own so I am sure nothing is going to change for them as they will figure out a way however for consumers it does mean more “privacy”. I think it was a very smart move from Google as they prepared themselves clearly to tackle this situation before they announced the change to the world. They gave themselves a 2 years deadline too. Cookies track consumers on the web but things would really change when this rule will be applied on mobile apps as well where cookies are not present and the glue is the device ID of the consumer which is a more powerful piece of data than a cookie. It would be interesting to see how the future will unfold on this front.Should Advertisers keep buying third-party data from DMPs for their campaigns on programmatic? Is it really worth spending those additional dollars on this data?
It depends on what is your objective. If you are a CPG advertiser looking for mass reach, then these 3rd party datasets can be useful but if you are a performance-driven advertiser then in my experience these 3rd party datasets don’t bring the results they seek. 3P data bought from a DMP or through a DSP is more or less the same but the data volumes of a DMP-based 3rd party data could be higher depending on how that segment was configured.Coming back to your company Digitalks, how do you plan to increase your verticals and business overall? Is there any expansion plan on cards?
We are a talent-driven business and expansion for us means bigger team sizes. A lot of companies prefer the “hire fast fire fast” approach but that is not my style.I am not too concerned about the business as there is too much work out there if you know what you are doing. In addition, I don’t want me or my team to end up working 18 hours a day.
What would you suggest to the young Digital Advertising professionals who are looking to build their career around data science? Is there any specific course or education that you would want to recommend to them to enhance their skills?
I think the first piece of advice I give to young professionals entering into the world of data is to understand where they want to start first. I see 3 very broad categories-- Folks who focus on data collection and who can code, build data pipes, build data lakes, work with APIs, etc
- Folks who can take this data and give it a shape in the form of a report, dashboard, analysis, etc
- Folks who can go beyond and use this data in machine learning, artificial intelligence, statistical modelling and beyond.
The last question- During this unprecedented Coronavirus phase, brands are becoming conservative about their marketing strategies and spends. How do you think this will affect the overall Digital advertising industry? Does data have a role to play here to help the marketers float through?
The need for measuring every dollar spent is always critical but now due to the CoronaVirus situation, this demand is at its peak. Data has played a great role and will continue to do so in bringing this clarity to advertisers. The advertising budgets were already shifting to online but I think CoronaVirus will work like jet fuel and will speed up the journey of all advertisers who were missing out and will also fuel more money coming to online channels from offline channels.More and more consumers will go online and as a result demand and supply both will increase however I think brands will be more driven to spend on performance campaigns than just branding campaigns. That right mix between branding & performance will make or break sense from a brand’s advertising budgets. Data will continue to proliferate and how advertisers make use of this data will be the only differentiator left between a successful brand vs average brand.