MENA Search Awards 2020 - Book of the Night by Don't Panic Events

RELIVE THE MENA SEARCH PARTY The MENA Search Awards celebrate the very best in SEO, PPC and Content Marketing, and recognise the individuals, companies and organisations that are transforming the search industry across the MENA region. As you know due to Covid-19 restrictions and concerns around travel, this year’s MENA Search Awards didn’t take place in Dubai the way we had planned. It was not our usual Search Awards party, but we hope you enjoyed the virtual celebrations and coming together online as much as we did, for one different but equally fantastic MENA Search Awards. The entry quality was extremely high this year, meaning if you made the shortlist, you are truly one of the best in the Search industry. Our thanks go out to our judges who had the unenviable task of shortlisting and deciding who went home with a prestigious trophy. We’d also like to take the opportunity to thank all of our sponsors and partners, who without their support, the MENA Search Awards would not be possible. We’ll see you hopefully in real life in Dubai in 2021! Nicky Wake Founder of the Search Awards

MENASEARCHAWARDS BEST USE OF SEARCH RETAIL / ECOMMERCE (SEO) SEO Sherpa SUMMARY SEO Sherpa is the organic SEO service that helps fast-growth companies and world-leading brands win more customers by getting them found first in Google search.

FINALISTS SEO Sherpa Teckzu SEO Campaign WebQuest Joi Gifts SEO Campaign

While we have a small office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, our entire team is free to work remotely from wherever they choose. Our team consists of 40 full-time search engine specialists spread across four continents and eight 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) recognized by the MENA Search Awards judges.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS It was impressive implementation that showcased great work on all SEO aspects. It was also well worked on such a small budget and in such a competitive niche that led to great organic results. Congratulations!

BEST USE OF SEARCH RETAIL / ECOMMERCE (PPC) Chain Reaction & Mlabbas SUMMARY FINALISTS Chain Reaction & Mlabbas Thriving a Local Business During Covid-19 Initiative Project Jamnagar: Refining the Moments That Matter for Etisalat Customers

Mlabbas is a brick and mortar printing services shop that allows people to print their custom designs on practically anything they want – t-shirts, mugs, phone covers and more. The onset of Covid-19 has forced many a business to look towards digital to stay afloat when store footfall became practically non-existent. The decision wasn’t as straightforward for Mlabbas, a business that had never dabbled in performance marketing leading up to that point. They were instead faced with the decision to either jump head-first into uncharted waters, or create ways to minimize their losses by waiting out the pandemic. After much prodding, they finally agreed to give a performance marketing a chance to save their business, but with a measly $2,000 budget. A win for Mlabbas is a win for the little guy. A discredit to the old adage that an old dog can’t learn new tricks. Yes, yes they can.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This entry demonstrated great audience segmentation practices. We really admired the extra effort the perfomance team but into improving analytics fundamentals and the creative use of tag management to achieve this. It was also great to see that they were able to prevent the store from closing, well done!

MENASEARCHAWARDS BEST USE OF SEARCH FINANCE Chain Reaction & ADCB FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Boosmart Marketing Agency & AegonDirekt Building an Online Credit Life Insurance Experience

Chain Reaction & ADCB SEO is the Currency that Brings in more Business

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) is the third-largest bank in UAE, offering conventional and Islamic financial services in both retail and commercial sectors.

Reprise Digital & RAKBANK Weathering the Covid storm Universal Media Seven UM MENAT & FAB Always On

ADCB enlisted Chain Reaction to optimise its UAE website, with the goals of increasing traffic and creating an engaging, high-quality UX. We are pleased to report that all campaign targets have been significantly outperformed, with organic website visits increasing to 618k (vs. target of 480k) and the organic goals value reaching $46k/month (vs. target $20k/month). Winning this award would mean everything to us. Gaining recognition on the biggest stage, in front of our peers and rivals, would be the perfect way to celebrate the hard work of our team in a year where the coronavirus has caused serious disruption throughout our industry.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS This entry displayed very detailed and result oriented SEO project management and it was a well executed job. It is great how they have managed with the Covid disruption and turned it into a positive aspect for marketing attributes. Excellent work!

BEST USE OF SEARCH TRAVEL / LEISURE Merkle ME & Atlantis The Palm SUMMARY

NO SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

Atlantis is not just a hotel in Dubai; it’s a destination and a major attraction for tourists and residents alike. Many of the resort’s guests are international travellers who schedule a 2-3 day layover in Dubai and spend it all in the resort enjoying its world-renowned amenities. For us in Merkle, Atlantis is one of the most fun brands we help, and we are very passionate about the work we do with them. So, we made it a personal goal for us to help them regain momentum and compensate the time lost during the Covid-19 lockdown. But first, we needed to figure out how to drive as many bookings from the UAE market alone as we usually do from the whole world. We started looking at the market trends. In doing so, we spotted opportunities that were then translated into product offerings that fulfilled the demand of the target audience. Winning this award would recognize the amazing efforts Atlantis & Merkle teams to come up with an approach to achieve the seemingly impossible objective. This would also set an example of how close collaboration between client and agency can turn the toughest challenges into opportunities and unlock untapped potential.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This agency were able to pivot very succesfully, use creativity to build out user personas within their core audience and treat each of them differently. They used new trends such as ‘stay-cations’ and reframed their marketing around these new realities and found opportunities from them, which was very impressive to see.

BEST USE OF SEARCH THIRD SECTOR / NOT FOR PROFIT Sandstorm Digital & Al Jalila Foundation FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Chain Reaction & KHCF Don’t let Covid-19 Stop You From Saving Kids Who Are Fighting Cancer!

Sandstorm Digital Worldwide is a leading global performance marketing agency headquartered in the UAE with offices in Europe, the Middle East and North America. We provide a full range of digital marketing solutions with a strong focus on Paid Search and SEO.

Merkle ME & UNICEF Fundraising Campaign for Lebanon

As an agency, We are privileged to work on an impactful campaign that provides a beacon of hope to the most vulnerable and compromised medical patients in the UAE, with the ongoing pandemic, now, more than ever, we need to work together to instill hope on the UAE’s most vulnerable residents.

Sandstorm Digital & Al Jalila Foundation A’awen Program

A’awen, ‘support’ in Arabic, is Al Jalila Foundation’s treatment support program that provides financial medical assistance to UAE-based patients in need. The program alleviates some of the financial burden of patients suffering from life threatening illnesses who are unable to afford quality healthcare. Together, we can make a difference.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS For this entry there was a very thorough explanation of the audience and their behaviour. They achieved the results with very small budget of 1k to raise 5 times more, which is super impressive. Excellent work!

FINALISTS Boosmart & Logo İşbaşi Visibility Wizard for Online Accounting Software Chain Reaction & Gallega Fueling a local B2B brand Success through SEO Chain Reaction & Zid Growing the Ecommerce ecosystem in Saudi Arabia Initiative Project Jamnagar: Refining the Moments That Matter for Etisalat Business Customers SEO Sherpa Yellow Branding SEO Campaign

MENASEARCHAWARDS BEST USE OF SEARCH B2B SEO Sherpa SUMMARY SEO Sherpa is the organic SEO service that helps fast-growth companies and world-leading brands win more customers by getting them found first in Google search. While we have a small office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, our entire team is free to work remotely from wherever they choose. Our team consists of 40 full-time search engine specialists spread across four continents and eight 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) recognized by the MENA Search Awards judges.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The execution in this entry was particularly strong and reflected a real understanding of all the components (technical, content, linking) that constitute SEO success. The ability to pivot strategy and maintain consistent performance during the Covid crisis was highly commendable.

FINALISTS All Response Media Virgin Mobile UAE: Sim Home Delivery Campaign Boosmart & TurkNet Competing in ISP Industry with a Startup Spirit Chain Reaction & BOSCH Dominating the SERP of White Goods in UAE Chain Reaction & Fitness First A Jump Towards the Peak Chain Reaction & Lamsa THE 3MILLION APP DOWNLOADS CAMPAIGN Home of Performance & (HTMi) Hotel And Tourism Management Institute Switzerland Serving Future Hoteliers One Lead At A Time Initiative Project Jamnagar: Refining the Moments That Matter for Etisalat Customers Tidal Digital & Chaps and Co Barbershop Brilliance

BEST USE OF SEARCH B2C Home of Performance & (HTMi) SUMMARY This is the story of working together to survive the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. HTMi (Hotel and Tourism Management Institute Switzerland) is a renowned hospitality institute offering courses in hotel and hospitality management. However, due to the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic on the education sector they were facing the prospect of closure. The challenge? 10 enrollments by August 2020 for two professional degree courses they offer. As partners, HOP decided to support by offering our expertise pro-bono. Through this campaign, we overachieved the leads target by more than 30% getting 468 leads instead of the expected 300-350 leads. The average cost-per-lead was $9.60, 26% less than the client’s objective. What’s more, we doubled the education industry benchmark range of 3.78 - 6.49% by achieving an average click-through-rate of 13.04% in this campaign. Out of the 10 enrollments needed, 4 were tracked to be a direct result of this campaign. Also, the campaign is expected to have led to other enrollments that converted offline. HTMi achieved their goal of 10 enrollments before the start of this academic year and were able to reinstate most of their staff after the success of this campaign.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS For this entry it was great to see that during Covid when hospitality took a massive hit, they were able to continue trading. We really appreciated this agency’s willingness to forego their agency fee to help support a client during such a challenging time.

MENASEARCHAWARDS BEST USE OF SEARCH HEALTH SEO Sherpa SUMMARY SEO Sherpa is the organic SEO service that helps fast-growth companies and world-leading brands win more customers by getting them found first in Google search.

FINALISTS SEO Sherpa Gulf Eye Center SEO Campaign Stand Out Digital & RB&HH Specialist Care MENA launch campaign

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The winner made the commendable decision to have a free of charge service as part of their Covid support programme, and because of that they have helped their client stay in business which provides great value. Results are strong and the ROI is very positive.

MENASEARCHAWARDS BEST USE OF SEARCH AUTOMOTIVE SEO Sherpa SUMMARY SEO Sherpa is the organic SEO service that helps fast-growth companies and world-leading brands win more customers by getting them found first in Google search.

NO SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS This was a rock solid, well written entry which us judges loved! It is such a great example of work. What they were able to achieve with a small budget was really impressive!

MENASEARCHAWARDS BEST USE OF SEARCH REAL ESTATE & PROPERTY Artefact & DAMAC FINALISTS Artefact & DAMAC Improving Leads Quality and Feeder Markets by Linking Offline and CRM Data with Google Ads iMetric & KAEC Another World‚ Search Campaign Jellyfish & Emaar The perfect blend of audience focussed thinking, use of technology, and stringent testing

SUMMARY DAMAC Properties has been at the forefront of the Middle East’s luxury real estate market since 2002, delivering award-winning residential, commercial and leisure properties across the Middle East and the United Kingdom. By working with the DAMAC CRM team we ensured end-to-end tracking of campaign/source/medium to connect the lead through the different stages of the qualification process until the sale closure to improve the quality of leads. While the original campaigns generated a good amount of leads, we increased the efficiency of the search campaigns while expanding the source markets by using DAMAC’s offline 1st party & CRM data and integrated it with our Google Ads through Google BigQuery. This data was then used for 2 purposes: creating remarketing audiences using post lead data, and to optimize search campaigns and to find new source markets opportunities.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS We really understood their process and why they were able to deliver great results. They dove deep into who the customer is and applied the data from the user journey for optimization purposes. It was a great approach to think about the goals of the client on a high level rather than focusing on arbitrary metrics.

BEST USE OF SEARCH FMCG Tidal Digital & Muscat Livestock SUMMARY

FINALISTS Tidal Digital & Muscat Livestock A Cut Above The Rest Universal Media Seven UM MENAT & Johnson&Johnson Neutrogena

The strong partnership between Tidal Digital and Muscat Livestock has allowed us to transform MLS into the first online butchers in Oman. Our strategically led digital marketing approach was met with a high-quality customer service at the customer facing side, thus creating an unparalleled game changing service led by a dream team. Omanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s meat industry will never be the same again. Launched mid-2020 just before Oman went into lockdown, Muscat Livestock was an immediate success, reaching over 100k visits in just 2 months and becoming one of the top performing stores on Shopify within its category. With our multi-channel approach gaining thousands of sales already, the brand has successfully positioned itself at the forefront of a rapidly changing market, and as the future of meat retailing. Muscat Livestock is certainly one to watch out for. An award from the MENA Search Awards would recognise the phenomenally successful launch of the brand as a result of the strong campaign run by both teams!

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS This entry had nice structure, format and detail with solid results. We liked the focus on personalisation with shared learning. It was a clear winner for this category!

MENASEARCHAWARDS EAT.SLEEP.SEARCH.REPEAT. BEST LOCAL CAMPAIGN SEO Sherpa FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Chain Reaction & Madar Farms Cultivating Ambition

SEO Sherpa is the organic SEO service that helps fast-growth companies and world-leading brands win more customers by getting them found first in Google search.

Chain Reaction & Mlabbas Thriving a Local Business During Covid-19

Home of Performance & The Healthy Home Killing Germs and The Competition

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) recognized by the MENA Search Awards judges.

SEO Sherpa Gulf Eye Center SEO Campaign

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS

Tidal Digital & Muscat Livestock A Cut Above the Rest

This was a well executed campaign with impressive ROI. They focused on what mattered for the client and applied the best techniques to implement the practices. Very well done!

FINALISTS Arcs & Curves, Revelation PR & Sennheiser MTW2 Launch Campaign Chain Reaction & Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo Search Campaign Chain Reaction & Mlabbas Thriving a Local Business During Covid-19 SEO Sherpa Gulf Eye Center SEO Campaign SEO Sherpa Teckzu SEO Campaign Universal Media Seven UM MENAT & Johnson&Johnson Clean & Clear

SILVER AWARD Stand Out Digital & RB&HH Specialist Care MENA launch campaign

BEST LOW BUDGET CAMPAIGN Arcs & Curves, Revelation PR & Sennheiser SUMMARY We’re a Creative Digital Agency operating out of Dubai since 2012. We’ve been working with Sennheiser as a client for over a year and this particular campaign means a lot to us as well as to Sennheiser. The Momentum True Wireless 2 was a highly anticipated product and the campaign to launch it, had to be outstanding. We broke it down into phases and sub-phases - building intrigue through a series of teasers on social media and direct mailers, garnering engagement by asking social media fans about their choices, running video ads on youtube and Google display campaigns and also integrating online PR and Influencer Marketing into the fray. We also ran advertising on Amazon to drive online sales. Given that the Budget Results were phenomenal: • YOY increase in revenue for similar product was 130% • Marketing Investment vs revenue: 2,000% ROI • >750,000 impressions and a CTR of >3% on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube • GDN and Search campaigns yielded over 150,000 impressions with a CTR of over 2% • Amazon Advertising delivered 862,000 impressions with a 600% ROI. Winning this award especially in difficult times like these, would be a huge encouragement to us and to all small agencies like us

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This entry had strong results and nicely done creative. It was a great campaign and strong ROI!

MENASEARCHAWARDS EAT.SLEEP.SEARCH.REPEAT. BEST INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN Jellyfish & ASQ SUMMARY

FINALISTS Home of Performance & Gymnation Transforming High Bmi To Low Cpl Jellyfish & ASQ Multi-channel success with the simple use of data and innovative techniques

With offices in Dubai and 30 other cities around the world, Jellyfish is proud to be a next-generation leader at the forefront of the global digital economy. As one of a select few globally managed Google Marketing Partners, Jellyfish also offers services in Strategy, Paid Media, Programmatic Display, Social, SEO, Analytics, UX, Training and Creative. Getting the foundations right is crucial to Integrated Campaign success, and this is exactly what we did with ASQ. Through a combined approach via Paid Search, Paid Social and Programmatic Display we were able to get results that delivered real business value for our client. Our work showcases what can be done with smart use of technology and data, helping clients achieve their goals.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The submission clearly demonstrated how this agency has best served the clients needs by staying true to their proven approach. They have shown impressive results given the timeframe. Excellent work!

MOST INNOVATIVE CAMPAIGN Universal Media Seven UM MENAT & Johnson&Johnson FINALISTS Tidal Digital & Chaps and Co Barbershop Brilliance Universal Media Seven UM MENAT & Johnson&Johnson Neutrogena: Scaling personalization via High Value Audiences on Search

SUMMARY Neutrogena is one of the biggest volume drivers of Face Care within Skin Health at Johnson & Johnson. However, the brand’s range of portfolio (Wipes, Moisturizer, Face Cleansing, Mask, Anti Age) caters to different skin types & audiences and requires a sophisticated approach to paid search given the above complexities. Therefore, we needed to lean on 3 success parameters to tackle these complexities. Targeting, Communication and Optimization. Our approach focused on: • 1. Become more relevant to audience personas and their life stages, • 2. Drive Website Engagement as a key goal for quality traffic • 3. Achieve optimal performance in terms of both pre-click & post-click. We took this a step further by leveraging audience personalization via High Value Audiences by customizing our text ads to relate better to Neutrogena’s segmented personas. Our strategy paid off as we were able to exceed all our expectations achieving a lift in CTR +61% and a lower CPC -55%. This strategic approach also allowed us to drive better post-click performance, website bounce rate improved by -52% and increased time spent on site by +25%.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This campaign demonstrated a very well explained approach to the work with a strong strategy. Stellar implementation, data-driven approach and an innovative targeting approach.

MENASEARCHAWARDS EAT.SLEEP.SEARCH.REPEAT. BEST ARABIC SEO CAMPAIGN Chain Reaction & Zid SUMMARY

FINALISTS Chain Reaction & Zid Growing the Ecommerce ecosystem in Saudi Arabia WebQuest Joi Gifts SEO Campaign

At Chain Reaction, we treat our clients as partners. Our clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goals are our goals. As well as helping them outperform their rivals in very competitive markets and sectors, we prioritise communication and collaboration, and ensure that we deliver strong performance results and an outstanding customer experience. Established in 2017, Zid is a Saudi holding company that aims to enable the retail sector in the Saudi market to enter the world of electronic retail in a seamless and professional way. In 2019, Zid enlisted Chain Reaction to optimize its website, to improve organic visibility and keywords rankings. Thanks to strong strategic and technical expertise, we have significantly improved keyword rankings and generated sales revenue of $792k, which represents a projected ROI of 6500%! Winning this award would mean everything to us. Gaining recognition on the biggest stage, in front of our peers and rivals, would be the perfect way to celebrate the hard work of our team in a year where the coronavirus has caused serious disruption throughout our industry.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The implementation for the campaign was fantastic and the results showed great ROI for the customer. Very well done!

CATEGORY SPONSOR

FINALISTS

Best PPC CAMPAIGN UNiversal Media Seven UM MENAT & Johnson&Johnson SUMMARY

Artefact & Ooredoo How we used GA360 beta funnels to change users buying habits

Neutrogena is one of the biggest volume drivers of Face Care within Skin Health at Johnson & Johnson. However, the brand’s range of portfolio (Wipes, Moisturizer, Face Cleansing, Mask, Anti Age) caters to different skin types & audiences and requires a sophisticated approach to paid search given the above complexities.

Chain Reaction & Mlabbas Thriving a Local Business During Covid-19

Therefore, we needed to lean on 3 success parameters to tackle these complexities. Targeting, Communication and Optimization. Our approach focused on:

Initiative Project Jamnagar: Refining the Moments That Matter for Etisalat Customers Jellyfish & ASQ The smart use of technology, data and excellent paid search management Universal Media Seven UM MENAT & Johnson&Johnson Neutrogena: Scaling personalization via High Value Audiences on Search

• 1. Become more relevant to audience personas and their life stages, • 2. Drive Website Engagement as a key goal for quality traffic • 3. Achieve optimal performance in terms of both pre-click & post-click. We took this a step further by leveraging audience personalization via High Value Audiences by customizing our text ads to relate better to Neutrogena’s segmented personas. Our strategy paid off as we were able to exceed all our expectations achieving a lift in CTR +61% and a lower CPC -55%. This strategic approach also allowed us to drive better post-click performance, website bounce rate improved by -52% and increased time spent on site by +25%. By winning this award, it will validate even further the creative solutions we tested and new innovations we brought in this case study but also shows that personalization doesn’t need to be limited to just a few digital channels.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS We thought this was absolutely fantastic work. Clear objectives, outcomes, and targeting made for a really thoughtful campaign. We appreciated the level of detail as far as the audience targeting and segmentation for personalisation opportunities. Great work!

CATEGORY SPONSOR

MENASEARCHAWARDS EAT.SLEEP.SEARCH.REPEAT. Best SEO CAMPAIGN Chain Reaction & ADCB SUMMARY

FINALISTS Artefact & Dubai Tourism How Dubai Tourism has won the battle of Zero Clicks

Chain Reaction & ADCB SEO is the Currency that Brings in more Business

ADCB enlisted Chain Reaction to optimise its UAE website, with the goals of increasing traffic and creating an engaging, high-quality UX.

Home of Performance & Gymnation Keeping The Uae And Serp In Shape

We are pleased to report that all campaign targets have been significantly outperformed, with organic website visits increasing to 618k (vs. target of 480k) and the organic goals value reaching $46k/month (vs. target $20k/month).

SEO Sherpa Yellow Branding SEO Campaign WebQuest & Joi Gifts English & Arabic eCommerce Campaign

Winning this award would mean everything to us. Gaining recognition on the biggest stage, in front of our peers and rivals, would be the perfect way to celebrate the hard work of our team in a year where the coronavirus has caused serious disruption throughout our industry.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The banking industry is particularly challenging, therefore it is impressive to see what they have achieved. They exceeded the performance and took an integrated approach with the organisation, educating them on the contingency plan. Brilliant work!

BEST USE OF CONTENT MARKETING IN ARABIC Tidal Digital & Muscat Livestock SUMMARY The strong partnership between Tidal Digital and Muscat Livestock has allowed us to transform MLS into the first online butchers in Oman. Our strategically led digital marketing approach was met with a high-quality customer service at the customer facing side, thus creating an unparalleled game changing service led by a dream team. Omanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s meat industry will never be the same again.

NO SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

Launched mid-2020 just before Oman went into lockdown, Muscat Livestock was an immediate success, reaching over 100k visits in just 2 months and becoming one of the top performing stores on Shopify within its category. With our multi-channel approach gaining thousands of sales already, the brand has successfully positioned itself at the forefront of a rapidly changing market, and as the future of meat retailing. Muscat Livestock is certainly one to watch out for. An award from the MENA Search Awards would recognise the phenomenally successful launch of the brand as a result of the strong campaign run by both teams!

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS It was great to see a business launch in the midst of the pandemic enjoy such great success. Also refreshing to see the use of an influencer as part of the strategy for this kind of business. They were creative with the budget and the ROI is commendable. A thorough submission from a passionate team, very well done!

BEST USE OF CONTENT MARKETING Tidal Digital & Chaps and Co SUMMARY

FINALISTS Chain Reaction & ADCB SEO is the Currency that Brings in more Business Tidal Digital & Chaps and Co Barbershop Brilliance

Tidal Digital are proud partners of Chaps and Co, a successful brand (favoured by celebrities such as Steven Gerrard) offering the best barber services in Dubai. Chaps and Co provides its clientele with a luxury cut and treatment without the luxury price tag. With an unparalleled commitment to excellence, we have loved getting the opportunity to work on a unique digital marketing campaign with them, delivering consistent growth over the past 18 months. We even coined the term “Once you choose Chaps, you don’t go back” because what sees clients return time and time again is the brand’s commitment to high-quality service; a service that we have been very proud to help thrive in these uncertain times. An endorsement from the MENA Search Awards would recognise the good work that has been invested into driving customer loyalty towards this revered brand.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS We appreciated that this has been pitched as a content-led campaign, with other activity built to support that. It’s clear that this was content marketing not just for links but for actual brand-oriented engagement. That’s what it should be. The objectives were met, they understood the audience really well and have worked hard on working with them. Excellent work!

MENASEARCHAWARDS Best use of Social Media Chain Reaction & Dubai Opera SUMMARY FINALISTS All Response Media Virgin Mobile UAE: Sim to Home Campaign Artefact & Laguna Waterpark Safety First Chain Reaction & Dubai Opera From Home to Stage

When Covid-19 hit it changed the world, and what was meant to be a busy season quickly became a very quiet and worrying time. As a major entertainment venue, Dubai Opera was faced with the challenge of maintaining a connection with its audience during the pandemic, despite the fact that all shows were cancelled. After reaching out to Chain Reaction for help, we proposed “From Home To Stage”, a unique social media campaign that would call on people to video their talents and share them with Dubai Opera via social media. To further inspire the audience, we collaborated with popular performers to hold live Instagram concerts to maintain viewer engagement. We are delighted to say that the campaign has performed phenomenally well. We have smashed our engagement targets, achieving over 500K in engagement and attracting over 800 entries, not to mentioned >3.3M impressions, >400K video views and >47K likes! Winning this award would mean everything to us. Gaining recognition on the biggest stage, in front of our peers and rivals, would be the perfect way to celebrate the hard work of our team in a year where the coronavirus has caused serious disruption throughout our industry.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This entry showed a really strong pivot around brand engagement. They did an amazing job leveraging Instagram to drive brand awareness and keep people engaged with the brand.

MENASEARCHAWARDS EAT.SLEEP.SEARCH.REPEAT. Best use of DATA Artefact & Ooredoo SUMMARY FINALISTS Artefact & Ooredoo How we used GA360 beta funnels to change users buying habits Chain Reaction & LG UAE Unleashing The Real Power Of Data Initiative Project Jamnagar: Refining the Moments That Matter for Etisalat Customers

Amid the coronavirus pandemic in Qatar and the mandatory closure of stores, it was extremely challenging for Ooredoo to maintain revenue targets from prepaid and postpaid plans sales, since the majority of customers in Qatar prefer the traditional in-store shopping over buying online from e-stores. This in fact severely affected business sales, and no short-term solutions seemed to be in sight. In this case study we will detail how we managed to change user buying habits, capitalizing on GA360 beta funnels to track the full purchase journeys, ultimately overachieving total sales targets, with a 121% increase in prepaid plans sales and 178% increase in prepaid to postpaid migrations!

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS A perfect entry for the category. Super strategic segmentation of the audience, thorough step by step implementation very relevant to this year and they showed the challenges imposed by the pandemic. It was a thorough approach and a great use of data. Well done!

FINALISTS All Response Media Virgin Mobile UAE: Sim Home Delivery Campaign Boosmart & Penti Yellow Friday Campaign Chain Reaction & Al Nisr Al Arabi Insurance Delivering Leads Generation into Another Level Home of Performance & Gymnation Increasing The Quality Score And Heart Rate Initiative Project Jamnagar: Refining the Moments That Matter for Etisalat Customers

MENASEARCHAWARDS Best PERFORMANCE CAMPAIGN Initiative SUMMARY Etisalat have a rich history of striving towards excellency and this mentality does not stop when it comes to Search. The UAE’s leading Telco generates millions of clicks to their website on a yearly basis through Paid Search, so our mission was to streamline and personalize the user experience while keeping in line with Etisalat’s eCommerce approach. Therefore, we came up with Project Jamnagar - Refining the Moments That Matter for Etisalat Customers. What is Jamnagar you ask? The city of Jamnagar is home to the largest oil refinery on the planet and this epitomized the strategy and approach for Etisalat’s Always On 2020 Search Campaign where we challenged ourselves to refine our Search account to cope with the ever changing landscape on Search; to drive Etisalat’s eCommerce proposition and to give our customers a tailored and flawless experience. To win this award would be an incredible and proud feat for both Etisalat and Initiative, especially with the change of consumer behaviour during the midst of 2020 all while driving forward in our quest for Digital Transformation.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This reads as a solid and successful restructuring of a large scale account, connecting various key data sources to help optimize everything, with good results. It delivers a clear narative of how everything was tied together, and their use of data was cool. Great work!

MENASEARCHAWARDS Best VIRAL CAMPAIGN Chain Reaction & Dubai Opera SUMMARY When Covid-19 hit it changed the world, and what was meant to be a busy season quickly became a very quiet and worrying time. As a major entertainment venue, Dubai Opera was faced with the challenge of maintaining a connection with its audience during the pandemic, despite the fact that all shows were cancelled.

NO SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

After reaching out to Chain Reaction for help, we proposed “From Home To Stage”, a unique social media campaign that would call on people to video their talents and share them with Dubai Opera via social media. To further inspire the audience, we collaborated with popular performers to hold live Instagram concerts to maintain viewer engagement. We are delighted to say that the campaign has performed phenomenally well. We have smashed our engagement targets, achieving over 500K in engagement and attracting over 800 entries, not to mentioned >3.3M impressions, >400K video views and >47K likes! Winning this award would mean everything to us. Gaining recognition on the biggest stage, in front of our peers and rivals, would be the perfect way to celebrate the hard work of our team in a year where the coronavirus has caused serious disruption throughout our industry.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This was a creative campaign that increased the reach for the opera when there were no shows on! It was a massively successful awareness campaign for a very challenging market in extremely difficult times. A truly worthy winner!

MENASEARCHAWARDS EAT.SLEEP.SEARCH.REPEAT. Best Software Innovation OnCrawl SUMMARY

FINALISTS DeepCrawl Automator SEO QA OnCrawl Technical & Data SEO Platform

OnCrawl is a technical SEO platform powered by data science to help you make smarter SEO decisions. We help e-commerce websites, classifieds and online publishers to improve their organic traffic, rankings, and online revenues by opening Google’s black box. Driven by a strong tech spirit, OnCrawl gives search marketers easy access to the data they need by providing actionable dashboards and reports to support the entire search engine optimization process. Winning this award would be a huge achievement for our teams. It would highlight our dedication to make data science and AI a key asset for technical SEO and to show that it is not just another buzzword from the search industry.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This is a very robust tool with many applications. It handles a lot of hard to manage SEO issues with a useful dashboard. There is clear innovation in the product, and it is really advanced.

MENASEARCHAWARDS EAT.SLEEP.SEARCH.REPEAT. BEST SEO SOFTWARE SUITE DeepCrawl Platform SUMMARY DeepCrawl is the world-leading technical SEO platform that enables businesses to accelerate growth and mitigate losses in organic search performance.

FINALISTS DeepCrawl Platform

SILVER AWARD OnCrawl Technical & Data SEO Platform

With offices in 3 countries (New York, London (HQ), Krakow), DeepCrawl serves more than 1700 clients across the globe, including eBay, Ikea, Microsoft, and GSK. Our platform crawls almost 7 billion URLs per year with the availability of 200+ reports. DeepCrawl crawling solution effectively translates website code & architecture into: • Insights & opportunities for SEO and Marketing teams; • Actions & issues automatically created in JIRA & fixed by Engineering teams. Our vision is to create deeper technological integration between the key SEO stakeholders: marketing and engineering. This award will be an enormous help in evangelizing this vision.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This is an impressive example of a great technical SEO. It is one of the best crawling tool available in the market and the customer support is also excellent.

MENASEARCHAWARDS BEST SEARCH SOFTWARE TOOL OnCrawl SUMMARY

FINALISTS Artefact Data SEO Solution Increase the efficiency of SEO by integrating data science OnCrawl Technical & Data SEO Platform

OnCrawl is a technical SEO platform powered by data science to help you make smarter SEO decisions. We help e-commerce websites, classifieds and online publishers to improve their organic traffic, rankings, and online revenues by opening Googleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s black box. Driven by a strong tech spirit, OnCrawl gives search marketers easy access to the data they need by providing actionable dashboards and reports to support the entire search engine optimization process. Winning this award would be a huge achievement for our teams. It would highlight our dedication to make data science and AI a key asset for technical SEO and to show that it is not just another buzzword from the search industry.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS This is a robust, user-friendly tool. It is very comprehensive in the insights it gives to advanced SEOs. It has come such a long way and offers so may comprehensive features now!

MENASEARCHAWARDS EAT.SLEEP.SEARCH.REPEAT. BEST LARGE PPC AGENCY ForwardPMX SUMMARY ForwardPMX is a global data and technology driven marketing services company, designed to help brands find the change that fuels meaningful growth to their businesses. Paid Search is a focal part of that approach.

FINALISTS Boosmart Marketing Intelligence Agency ForwardPMX

The Middle East has become one of the fastest growing markets for us and our clients; proving itself to be scalable and rich with innovation, especially for retail, travel and luxury sectors. ForwardPMX acts a differentiated force in the MENA market, which has been predominantly made up of small independent agencies and big players who don’t specialise in digital, nor bring our unique “think local, go global” approach. After recognising this gap in the market, we opened our first MENA office with just one employee, Faisal Dean, who is now Head of our MENA hub, a quickly growing and thriving portion of our global business. Clients and platforms alike, including search giant Google, saw the benefits of our offering and partnered closely with us when we first opened our doors in 2017. Since then, ForwardPMX’s presence in MENA has grown significantly to a headcount of 48 in just a short 43-month period, outgrowing five office spaces during this period! Our Dubai office has pivoted from servicing global clients such as ASOS and Hilton to now activating a host of “MENA-first” clients such as Landmark Group and Dubai Tourism, with a 90% retention rate thanks to our best in class digital skill set and our unique way of fostering client relationships.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS They showed really great growth in the last year and a clear display of number of clients and projects. Along with an excellent balance of high-level and specific detail to showcase the company, the ethos, and the performance. We also particularly liked the strategic focus on being the “big local” MENA agency.

MENASEARCHAWARDS EAT.SLEEP.SEARCH.REPEAT. BEST LARGE SEO AGENCY SEO Sherpa SUMMARY SEO Sherpa is the organic SEO service that helps fast-growth companies and world-leading brands win more customers by getting them found first in Google search.

FINALISTS Chain Reaction SEO Sherpa

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The overall presentation is very impressive, and we were inspired with the companies empathy. Focusing on how they helped customers and employees during Covid really won us over, especially with the complimentary audits and other free elements for their clients.

MENASEARCHAWARDS BEST LARGE INTERGARTED SEARCH AGENCY Chain Reaction SUMMARY

FINALISTS Chain Reaction ForwardPMX

At Chain Reaction, we treat our clients as partners. OXU clieQW¶V goals are our goals. As well as helping them outperform their rivals in very competitive markets and sectors, we prioritise communication and collaboration, and ensure that we deliver strong performance results and an outstanding customer experience. The last 12 months, in fact, have seen us go even further in our commitment to deliver best practice. Not only have we pulled together during Covid-19 — i.e. making an historic reduction to senior salaries to protect our workforce and creating a business continuity plan to ensure excellent customer outcomes — but we’ve also increased our workforce, turnover and client base, along with conducting a customer survey which revealed that 90% of our customers agree that Chain Reaction delivers more value than its rivals. Winning this award would mean everything to us. Gaining recognition on the biggest stage, in front of our peers and rivals, would be the perfect way to celebrate the hard work of our team in a year where the coronavirus has caused serious disruption throughout our industry.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS They have shown Impressive team growth and have demonstrted a solid reputation. Outstanding work during Covid and great way of collating clients testimonials. Full marks on bagging some great new clients!