MENA Search Awards 2018 Book of the Night by Don't Panic Events

THANKS TO OUR EVENT SPONSORS

RELIVE THE SEARCH PARTY Welcome to the Book of the Night 2018. Inside you will find details of all our finalists plus a showcase of this year’s winning work. Since its launch, the MENA Search Awards has celebrated the very best in SEO, PPC and content marketing across the Middle East and North Africa, and recognised and rewarded the individuals, companies and organisations that are transforming the Search industry. Entry quality was extremely high and our thanks go out to our judging panel who had the unenviable task of shortlisting and choosing this year’s winners. I’d also like to thank our sponsors and supporters for adding their weight and considerable influence on a competition that continues to reflect the talent, expertise and continuing growth of the industry. Our thanks go to our headline sponsor, Yandex, our Photo Booth sponsor RBBi, our Social Wall sponsor Bruce Clay, our media partner Brazen PR, and our category sponsors: DeepCrawl, PRCA MENA and SEMrush. If you were there on the night, you will have celebrated, mixed and mingled with the best in Search – not to mention danced the night away! So, our final thanks and huge congratulations goes to all the winners and everyone who made the shortlist. It’s a real achievement and I hope you enjoyed the evening. Nicky Wake Don’t Panic MD & Creator of Search Awards

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; RETAIL FINALISTS Artefact MENA & Azadea Group Powering eCommerce with Paid Search Chain Reaction & Pizza Hut Winning The Online Ordering Battle! Chain Reaction & Axiom Telecom The Triple Mission Impossible! iProspect & MAC 25% Discount Campaign Latitude & The Modist Taking the Modest Movement Online MediaCom Worldwide & Bose Bose 360 Degree eCommerce Search Strategy

WINNER: Chain Reaction & Axiom Telecom SUMMARY Our story of a triple mission impossible with Axiom Telecom. A company trying to achieve substantial sales growth: 1) Online, when unfamiliar with eCommerce; 2) In a new market already saturated by international and local players; 3) Almost entirely using SEO, but in a very short period of time for SEO. Nevertheless, our story ends with a triple mission accomplished. The main Results of the campaign: • Achieved sales of 2.4 million SAR in 5 months against a target of 1 million SAR; • Increased the Organic traffic by 50% • Increased the ranking of the generic keywords by 70% • Ranked in the first results on Google on several keywords of latest products by 38% such as iPhone 8. Largely thanks to this one campaign, Axiom far exceeded its six-month turnover improvement target in just five months.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This campaign had great objectives and demonstrated an effective use of budget resulting in great results They added that evidence supplied was clear, with great focus on research and achievement.

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FINANCE FINALISTS Mindshare MENA & HSBC Always On Search Drives Business RBBi & Internaxx How we used Audience Intelligence to Increase our UAE Footprint by 36%!

WINNER: RBBi & Internaxx SUMMARY Our partner, Internaxx, has been servicing investors for more than 16 years across over 150 countries. Internaxx provide an online trading platform offering users trade access to asset classes such as Equities, Exchange Trade Products (ETPs) and Funds. The unique appeal that Internaxx brings to international and expatriate investors is security. Over the last 10 years there have been incredible instances of financial market disruption. Security is now one of the biggest deciding factors in selecting a trading platform. In 2016 Internaxx surveyed 4,000 customers and 98% responded with INVESTOR PROTECTION AND REGULATION as one of the top three deciding factors in selecting a trading platform. The other two were MOBILE TRADING PLATFORM & FEE STRUCTURE. This puts Internaxx in a prime position as they offer world-class security thanks to membership of the Luxembourg Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGDL). Being based in Luxembourg also means that the “offshore environment” provides stability, security and privacy. Internaxx came to RBBi with a clear objective. Over the last 3 years customer account openings from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had experienced incredible growth. The UAE market is showing signs of peaking again after a tremendously difficult period. A large and growing wealthy expat population provides a rich hunting ground and Internaxx wanted to swoop in and build their UAE presence at a rapid rate. At RBBi we were confident in effectively reaching this audience through leveraging local publishers and cross-platform knowledge.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges commended RBBI & Internaxx for the strategic planning, execution and creativity behind the campaign. It was it a a clear winner.

BEST USE OF SEARCH – THIRD SECTOR FINALISTS Kubix Digital & Women.Digital United We Stand in the Search Industry so Let’s Connect The Dots! Mindshare MENA & SEO Sherpa Growing Organic Search for ZAIN Saudi Arabia

WINNER: Kubix Digital & Women.Digital SUMMARY Women.Digital is a non-profit organization founded by the female members of Kubix Digital, an international search agency established 11 years ago by two ex-Googlers, Halide and Pinar. We set up this network at the beginning of this year, aiming to build a community of women working in the Digital Marketing Industry that can help each other to solve problems and find solutions through connecting with the latest trends, tools, brands, businesses, employers, startups and more, within Istanbul and the rest of the world. Diversity is a big trending topic - and so it should be in the Digital Marketing industry. By hosting monthly meetups and events to inspire, educate, and connect the female Digital Marketing leaders of today and tomorrow, we want to set a milestone and winning an Award at the MENA Search Awards would only proof that we are on the right track to make this a big movement for the MENA Region and also internationally!

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS Kubix Digital & Women.Digital have created a unique campaign, demonstrating a great in-house and volunteer initiative. The judges felt the campaign was likeable and left a lasting impression.

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; HEALTH FINALISTS Artefact MENA & Zulekha Healthcare Access in Real Time iProspect & Acuvue Online Visibility Nexa & GMC Clinics SEO & SEM Campaign RBBi & Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi A Patient First Approach to the Search Journey

WINNER: Nexa & GMC Clinics SUMMARY Nexa prides itself in standing out from the crowd, and since being established in 2005, has been at the forefront of the latest marketing techniques and trends. As a fully independent digital agency, we continuously challenge traditional ‘marketing norms’ by offering digital marketing and technology to our clients that helps them to achieve improved business results and performance. Our core success comes down to a willingness to have transparent ‘return on investment’ conversations with every client based on a clear, customised strategic approach for every business we work with. This often means that we ask our clients to take informed risks by not only changing the way that they market their brand, products or services, but also to challenge the way they think about the impact of marketing for their companies. We don’t just look at marketing in isolation as we strongly believe that performance is impacted by customer service and the overall sales experience. Therefore, our strategies often include the optimisation and digitalisation of these services in order to provide greater results for our clients. This approach requires a high level of trust from our clients and winning awards such as these will help demonstrate that our belief in this approach works, enabling us to build trust based on proven results.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This particular campaign demonstrated strong performance, with a great use of data and statistics to inform their research. The judges were particularly impressed with the team's excellent understanding of business implications.

BEST USE OF SEARCH – TRAVEL & LEISURE FINALISTS Artefact MENA & Emirates Hello Yandex Artefact MENA & Emirates The Power of Exclusions on Brand Searchers iProspect & Atlantis The Palm You’re Different RBBi & Jazeera Disrupting the Busiest Flight Routes in the World! RBBi & Premier Inn How we Boosted Dubai Room Bookings by 4x RBBi & Qatar Airways Improving Search Performance Beyond Major Challenges SEO Sherpa JA Resorts & Hotels SEO Campaign

WINNER: RBBi & Jazeera SUMMARY In 2017 Jazeera Airways embarked on one of the most exciting journeys since its first flight took off from Kuwait International Airport in 2005. The airlineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rebranding in August 2017 symbolised not only new slick livery but also a complete volt-face in marketing methodology. At the same time, Jazeera Airways recruited elite airline marketing talent from Etihad and Qatar Airways to deliver top-tier airline expansion expertise. The team got a new lease of life and budget placement was now to be led by data and dominated by digital. That's where we, Red Blue Blur Ideas (RBBi) came in to drive Jazeera forward in 2018! Our paid media activations reached out across multiple channels and culminated in a high performance paid search strategy. This meant we were able to harness the moments that matter most to a diverse audience, driving sales and revenue to heights never seen before at Jazeera Airways.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS With a solid strategy, strong results and an innovative approach it was a clear winner by the judging panel.

BEST USE OF SEARCH – REAL ESTATE & PROPERTY FINALISTS Artefact MENA & DAMAC Properties Developing Online Property Leads Bruce Clay MENA & First Group Sell Some Hotel Rooms Fellas Magna Global & Dubai Properties Beyond Performance – Dubai Properties’ Always On Paid Search Campaign

WINNER: Magna Global & Dubai Properties SUMMARY As GCC economies and consumer confidence slows, property developers compete for leads before buyers sign with a rival or defer altogether. This creates a challenge for Real Estate to acquire high lead volumes, but most importantly, qualified leads. Fortunately Dubai Properties and Magna is a unique partnership which flexes to maximise digital opportunities and ways of working to drive conversions. Going beyond an ROI driven approach with deeper levels of measurement through lead qualification processes by Dubai Properties, Magna put together a team of experts to build custom conditional automation scripts across a large account, customized messaging to the identified profiles, and leveraged data modelling to achieve the balance necessary between different business KPIs in a saturated and highly competitive vertical. Overachieving Dubai Properties’ results was only the beginning – with this approach, Magna changed their Search game.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This was a well-executed campaign with excellent structure and strong results. Judges commented that it was demonstrative of an excellent search project submission into the awards.

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FMCG FINALISTS Bruce Clay MENA & Johnson and Johnson Change Your Perception with Carefree... s360 & Arla Foods The World of Lurpak Butter SEO Sherpa Pets Delight SEO & SEM Campaign

WINNER: SEO Sherpa SUMMARY SEO Sherpa is the organic SEO service that helps companies like Aramex, Harpers Bazaar and Guinness World Records win more customers by getting them found first in Google search. While we have a small office in Dubai, our entire team is free to work remotely from wherever they choose. Our team consists of 43 full-time search engine specialists spread across three continents and seven countries. We are a dedicated search only agency, that lives and breathes SEO. It would be hugely rewarding to see our work (and the contribution we make to the SEO community) recognised by the MENA Search Awards judges.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS This campaign demonstrated excellent strategy, objectives and budget. The submission was well-written, with clear results.

BEST LOCAL CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Artefact MENA & Azadea Group Powering eCommerce with Local Search Artefact MENA & DAMAC Properties Acquisition through Localisation Artefact MENA & Emirates Hello Yandex Bruce Clay MENA & McDonalds Riyadh Return of the Mac! Chain Reaction & Real Pilates Introducing Dubai to Real Pilates â&#x20AC;&#x201C; One Lead at a Time RBBi & Al-Futtaim Automotive Revving up Local Search Accessibility for Users RBBi & EMAAR Plotting the EMAAR Skyline Online SEO Sherpa Kozma & Kozma SEO Campaign

CATEGORY SPONSOR

WINNER: Chain Reaction & Real Pilates SUMMARY Real Pilates is small company run by a husband & wife team with two Pilates studios in Dubai. Its customer retention is very high at about 70% because it offers a genuinely great experience, but it was struggling to acquire enough new clients to fill its classes, typically only 50% full back in December 2016. Chain Reaction was engaged to turn around the lack of leads from search engines. The following objectives were agreed (and achieved) between January and April 2018. • Increased the volume of leads by 150% per month • Increased the conversion rate by 62% • Decreased the cost per lead by 109% • Sales directly attributable to search (accepting Google-related offers) increased from an average of 14 new clients per month to 54 new clients • Increased the monthly ROAS from 142% to 673%

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges were blown away by this submission. They felt that this campaign was brilliantly executed on the tight budget provided, demonstrating excellent knowledge and execution.

BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN A SEARCH CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Bruce Clay MENA & LG Knowledge and Innovation is Power! iProspect & General Motors TV Sync Wisoft Solutions Manipal University Dubai Campaign

WINNER: Wisoft Solutions SUMMARY Wisoft Solutions has long provided sound, comprehensive, and creative digital marketing strategies across Dubai and UAE. Our prime forte is lead generation, SEO, PPC, SMS communication, web design and development, and all things inbound marketing. The Manipal University campaign that we listed for is something of a story. When we started the campaign, the odds of generating leads for a little-known University in the Middle East like Manipal University was extremely low. However it turned to be one of the most successful campaigns that delivered much more than what we expected with 1100 leads acquired for a target of 600. We believe that it is not only crucial for every organization to recognize the effort taken to achieve much more than what is required, but also appreciated and rewarded. Most campaigns are successful. But, every once in a while, there comes a campaign that simply puts a smile on our face because all the late nights and extra effort finally made sense.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The judges felt that this was an excellent campaign which was tangible, well-flowing and great to read, highlighting fantastic results.

BEST LOW BUDGET CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Chain Reaction & Real Pilates Introducing Dubai to Real Pilates â&#x20AC;&#x201C; One Lead at a Time SEO Sherpa Kozma & Kozma SEO Campaign

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges felt this was a fantastic campaign with excellent planning and execution. The results were demonstrative of the effort invested into the campaign and the entry was a worthy winner.

BEST INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN FINALISTS BOOPIN GEMS Education Campaign iProspect & General Motors TV Sync Magna Global & Dubai Properties Beyond Performance – Dubai Properties’ Always On Paid Search Campaign Nexa & Seawings Integrated Digital Strategy & Execution SEO Sherpa Pets Delight SEO & SEM Campaign

WINNER: Nexa & Seawings SUMMARY Nexa prides itself in standing out from the crowd, and since being established in 2005, has been at the forefront of the latest marketing techniques and trends. As a fully independent digital agency, we continuously challenge traditional ‘marketing norms’ by offering digital marketing and technology to our clients that helps them to achieve improved business results and performance. Our core success comes down to a willingness to have transparent ‘return on investment’ conversations with every client based on a clear, customised strategic approach for every business we work with. This often means that we ask our clients to take informed risks by not only changing the way that they market their brand, products or services, but also to challenge the way they think about the impact of marketing for their companies. We don’t just look at marketing in isolation as we strongly believe that performance is impacted by customer service and the overall sales experience. Therefore, our strategies often include the optimisation and digitalisation of these services in order to provide greater results for our clients. This approach requires a high level of trust from our clients and winning awards such as these will help demonstrate that our belief in this approach works, enabling us to build trust based on proven results.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS Nexa & Seawings campaign demonstrated excellent detail, great results and was an all-round great entry.

BEST MOBILE CAMPAIGN

WINNER: Kubix Digital & Türk Telekom SUMMARY In early 2008, Türk Telekom organized Turkey’s very first Search Engine Marketing pitch, which we won! Working together now for 10 years, we want to show our appreciation to Türk Telekom with a MENA Search Awards entry, believing this is a great reward for Türk Telekom itself and its major shareholder Oger Telecom, originating from Saudi Arabia. For us as an agency, winning this award would help us gaining great recognition in this region and would strengthen our bond with Türk Telekom. It would also be a huge acknowledgement that even an institution which is almost 180 years old, can be genuinely technology driven and provide cutting-edge services. Our entry shows how we increased Türk Telekom Tambu App’s usage by creating cost-efficient campaigns with measurable returns. With Tambu, Türk Telekom wanted to emphasize the importance of technology and mobility, and make it accessible to everyone. Tambu is a mobile app to customize fonts and messages for your mobile phone with culturally localized emojis and themes. The app quickly became everyone’s favorite and for Türk Telekom the promotion of the app was crucial to drive longterm loyalty with their customers.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS Kubix Digital was a stand-out winner with their clear objectives, targets and the results attained for their client, the judges were left very impressed.

BEST ARABIC PPC CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Chain Reaction & Jamalon Sharing the Love of Arabic through Books & PPC Nexa & La Fontaine Hotels & Resorts Arabic PPC Campaign RBBi & Jazeera Arabic First Fueled ROAS!

WINNER: Chain Reaction & Jamalon SUMMARY Jamalon is the largest online bookstore in the Middle East, with over 10 million book titles, the company sells it’s books across 35 countries worldwide. Jamalon’s vision was to become the Arabic readers’ first choice when considering buying any book from any country in the world. For Jamalon, the key focus was to start getting the right people engaging with the site, generating meaningful conversions which is purchasing books. On this campaign, we focused on developing a high quality of traffic and lead generation in terms of transactions. The account was in so much need to be restructured yet the account was massively huge, and with the time given to our team to achieve Jamalon's KPI’s it was very challenging for us yet we were able to exceed the KPI's given by the client and deliver more results than Jamalon ever expected.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges commended the sophistication of the campaign and how it demonstrated excellent performance. The objectives were realisticand clear, and lead to the campaign attaining excellent results.

BEST PPC CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Artefact MENA & DAMAC Properties Acquisition Through Expansion Bruce Clay MENA & McDonalds Riyadh Return of the Mac v2! Chain Reaction Sharing The Love of Books Through PPC Kubix Digital & Deichmann Because We REALLY Love Shoes Latitude & flynas Bridging Offline Payment Data to Drive Growth Magna Global & Dubai Properties Beyond Performance – Dubai Properties’ Always On Paid Search Campaign MediaCom Worldwide & Bose Bose 360 Degree eCommerce Search Strategy RBBi & Jazeera Disrupting the Busiest Flight Routes in the World!

WINNER: MediaCom Worldwide & Bose SUMMARY In FY17, our paid search (PPC) strategy on always-on brand, generic and shopping campaigns resulted in a growth of 68% in revenue year-on-year (FY16 vs FY17), and therefore we were eager to explore further opportunities outside of Google & Bing to drive incremental revenue for Bose. Research showed us a new trend in online shopping where up to 55% of e-shoppers start their purchase journey from E-commerce websites. Following this observation, we designed a 360 Degree E-commerce search strategy that would complement our always-on paid search campaign (Google & Bing), expand our paid search portfolio and capture untapped audiences. As a result, our online revenue increased by 52% year-on-year. The sales and conversion rate (CVR) increased by 95% and 25% respectively (year-on-year). With our E-commerce search campaign launched we successfully completed our paid search portfolio coverage.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The judges felt that this was a solid entry, generating revenue, growth and excellent results. They added that this campaign was impressive and showcased the work of an outstanding team.

BEST ARABIC SEO CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Chain Reaction & Baqala Winning the Online Shopping Battle Chain Reaction & Pizza Hut Winning The Online Ordering Battle Mindshare MENA & SEO Sherpa Zain Iraq SEO Campaign RBBi & Toyota UAE An Arabic First Approach to SEO

WINNER: Chain Reaction & Baqala SUMMARY Here, at Chain Reaction, we treat our clients as partners. Their goals are our goals, not only because we are in a very competitive market and industry, but because we care about results and communication. Baqala is an online store that save time and effort for Kuwaiti users by ordering their home grocery needs online with delivery. Baqala trusted Chain Reaction to take care of their Arabic online grocery store in Kuwait, in which expanded to optimize their English website as well. All agreed campaign targets were significantly outperformed, boosting organic sales revenues to $35,790 Vs. the target of $5,000.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The results achieved on the small budget provided were excellent. The judges added the evidenced provided showed a solid strategy, implementation and execution making it a stand-out winner.

BEST SEO CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Chain Reaction & Axiom Telecom The Triple Mission Impossible! Chain Reaction & Pizza Hut Winning The Online Ordering Battle iProspect & Atlantis The Palm Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Different Kubix Digital How the Global Brand Oleg Cassini Grew Locally with Search Mindshare MENA & SEO Sherpa Zain Iraq SEO Campaign RBBi & Al-Futtaim Automotive Eliminate Cannibalization to Boost Your SEO RBBi & Qatar Airways Improving Search Performance Beyond Major Challenges SEO Sherpa JA Resorts & Hotels SEO Campaign Turkcell & Hype Pretty for Both Users and User Agents

CATEGORY SPONSOR

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS SEO Sherpaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campaign not only delivered impressive results on a tight budget but had a large impact on the business. The judges were left impressed and noted the strategy & execution to gain these results.

MOST INNOVATIVE CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Kubix Digital & Mavi Black Friday Sales Rock Turkey â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Not The Bird, The Country Latitude & flynas Bridging Offline Payment Data to Drive Growth MediaCom Worldwide & Bose Bose 360 Degree eCommerce Search Strategy

WINNER: Latitude & flynas SUMMARY Latitude Digital Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency specializing in Paid Media, Organic Search, Display, and Creative. flynas, a leading low-cost domestic airline based in Saudi Arabia, have been experiencing difficulties in accurately measuring and reattributing completed online transactions made through the SADAD payment method. To help flynas increase online revenues, Latitude recognized that a robust tracking solution was needed to integrate the offline SADAD data into the online space. Given the fast-paced nature of the airline industry, we needed to quickly access up-to-date data, and implement an automated cross-matching process designed to present granular results. This would help us to build the client’s confidence in online channels by proving the true value of digital campaigns with accurate ROI from SADAD payments. We also believed that this would help to reduce the time spent reporting and re-invest hours into campaign strategy and execution… Winning the award for Most Innovative Campaign would be testament to Latitude’s approach to solving a very complex problem – harnessing our expertise in Google Analytics, DoubleClick, Google Cloud and Google Data Studio to deliver an innovation never seen before in the MENA region. In turn, this has enabled flynas to drive greater efficiency from their investment.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This campaign provided a strong case study and showcased innovation throughout, coupled with being executed perfectly it was a clear winner.

BEST SOFTWARE SUITE FINALISTS Bruce Clay MENA SEO ToolSet Marin Software Marin Search OnCrawl SEO Data Platform SEMrush

WINNER: SEMrush SUMMARY SEMrush is a leading digital marketing toolkit for SEO, PPC and digital marketing professionals worldwide. With 30 tools within the software, search data for 140 countries and integration with Google services, SEMrush provides solutions for in-house marketing teams and agencies working with clients of any size in any industry. This award highlights that with tools like SEMrush the emerging markets can find themselves on a more equal playing field with global digital marketers in developed countries, especially when it comes to SEO insights and accuracy. The award is also a great motivation for the team and proof to our clients they have made the right choice. We couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have done it without trust, feedback and enormous support from our community. We are honored to be recognized as the best SEO software suite by the most experienced industry experts. We are putting our hard work and dedication in supplying the most innovative SEO software to our customers and providing them with top-notch service. We will make sure to continue expanding our toolkit with new awesome tools and features that will help our users be successful in their business.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The judges commended SEMrush on their attention to detail and the showcasing of their innovations. They were left impressed and noted the execellent overview of the tool, making them the winner of Best Software Suite.

BEST SOFTWARE INNOVATION FINALISTS Back Azimuth HREFLang Builder Marin Software MarinOne & Marin TruePath OnCrawl OnCrawl Rankings

WINNER: Back Azimuth SUMMARY Back Azimuth works with some of the largest global companies solving complex SEO problems. We submitted our HREFLang Builder as the most innovative software to reward the team for the amazing work they have done to make the impossible, possible. Our greatest innovation was the ability to map pages for any site based on URL tags, meta tags, and even harder language mapping between languages and separate sites. No other tool has been able to do this type of mapping and not at the scale of millions of URL combinations and create validated XML files. To our knowledge is the only tool that can effectively process Arabic language URLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s converting them to encoded URLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for the export. Winning this award would mean that both HREFLang Builder and HREFLang as a tactic, are seen by our industry, as critical to the overall success of SEO programs for global businesses.

BEST SEARCH SOFTWARE TOOL FINALISTS Back Azimuth HREFLang Builder DeepCrawl OnCrawl SEO Data Platform SEMrush

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS This submission was incredibly detailed, highly relevant and personalised to the MENA region. The software too was innovative, impressive and stood out as a worthy winner.

BEST INTEGRATED SEARCH AGENCY FINALISTS Chain Reaction Latitude Digital Marketing Nexa RBBi

CATEGORY SPONSOR

WINNER: Chain Reaction SUMMARY Chain Reaction, is the region’s 1st digital performance marketing agency, and the 1st Google Adwords partner in the Middle East region back in 2010. We are also one of the very few local agencies who was started by people from the Middle East region and not expats from Europe or Asia. Our data-driven approach to everything we do has helped us in tapping new levels of cooperation between us and our clients and also helped in maintaining many clients for years. Working across PPC, Programmatic media, SEO, Content, Analytics, Social Media and UI/UX with data/ROI imprinted in our DNA, makes us the integrated agency of choice for many regional and local brands. In a nutshell, we’re proud of what we’ve achieved and excited for the future, and we want to share out excitement with everyone in our industry.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges felt that Chain Reaction are an excellent agency. The case studies and examples of work showcased clearly that it is an agency pushing the boundaries in the MENA region.

BEST PPC AGENCY FINALISTS Artefact MENA Latitude Digital Marketing

WINNER: Latitude Digital Marketing SUMMARY Latitude Digital Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency specialising in Paid Media, Organic Search, Display and Creative. Despite facing various challenges and a tough marketplace, we have witnessed strong growth n the past 12 months. Through diversification of our product and client sector portfolio â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we have continued to evangelise search in the MENA region. Winning this award would recognize all the hard work invested by our internal and client teams.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS This is a solid agency doing great work and growing n the MENA marketplace. Their submission had strong focus and demonstrated excellent company objectives.

BEST SMALL SEO AGENCY FINALISTS Bruce Clay MENA RBBi SEO Team

WINNER: RBBi SUMMARY Since inception, we always imagined RBBi to be a very different kind of an agency. An agency that truly puts end-users needs first. An agency that truly looks at the bigger picture in every project undertaken – always asking, how does the entire digital experience benefit the end user? Are we helping them reach their end goal in the most optimal and painless manner? We strive to partner with our clients to really understand their challenges and objectives. In turn when we partner with them meaning our team really feel like our partner’s success is also ours. If we win, we feel all our work over the past seven years approaching our partners holistically has paid off. Winning would therefore validate our vision, investment and drive as an agency.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS RBBi has excellent retention of clients and demonstrated their company mission and visions in an insightful way. The growth of the agency over the past 12 months has been excellent and their contribution to local development made them highly deserving of this award.

BEST LARGE SEO AGENCY FINALISTS Chain Reaction SEO Sherpa

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS SEO Sherpa has great objectives. Their submission was very detailed and clear. A very worthy winner!

YOUNG SEARCH PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR

WINNER: Shubham Gaur - Artefact MENA SUMMARY Artefact is a marketing agency built on the perfect union of marketers and engineers. As a Digital Account Executive, Shubham supports us with one of the most complex global, paid search accounts and since joining Artefact he has demonstrated great abilities in learning, problem-solving and analysis. Winning this award would be awesome as it would bring Shubham and our team recognition for being forward thinkers, adopting latest technology and providing solutions that exceed client and agency expectations.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS Shubham has excellent potential to grow within this industry. He has demonstrated great promise and was a clear winner in this category.

MENA SEARCH PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

WINNER: Saif Jarad - Chain Reaction SUMMARY Saif Jarad is an internet entrepreneur who founded the 1st online performance marketing company in the Middle East back in 2010 “Chain Reaction” and he is the current CEO of the company. At the moment Chain Reaction has 4 offices across the region, serving regional and local brands including some Fortune 500 companies in the region. He is a well respected and inspirational speaker at many regional events and a digital marketing trainer. He also managed to sign various representation and agency partnership deals for the Middle East region with China and Russia.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS Saif demonstrates an excellent work ethic in everything he does. He is an important advocate to the search industry and a very worthy winner. Congatulations Saif!