Flower Power

What is Flowers.ae and what is your vision?

Flowers.ae is a purpose-driven flower brand that stands for luxury, quality, and exceptional customer service. Flowers.ae has built a stellar reputation in the U.A.E. over the last decade. With a passion for extravagant flower arrangements, it quickly established itself as a leading flower delivery service, with a wide selection of arrangements for any occasion. Flowers.ae follows a customer-centric strategy that focuses on creating the best purchasing experience. A key aspect of our service is sending videos of our arrangements prior to delivery, and this has been hugely popular with customers.

My vision is to further elevate the brand positioning in the flower industry and strengthen our core brand values. We aim to be known as the go-to and most trustworthy flower delivery service in the U.A.E.

How would you describe the company’s performance to date?

Flowers.ae has achieved substantial growth, placing the company in a profitable and financially sound position. Over the past three years, our resilient marketing strategy has given us consistent 40% year-onyear growth, with over 100,000 loyal customers. In addition, Flowers.ae has established a prominent social media presence with an average reach of 2.5 million and a 2.7% engagement rate. We also have 6,000+ five-star Trustpilot reviews in the U.A.E.

What defines your marketing strategy at Flowers.ae?

Content marketing is the essence of an effective marketing strategy that allows brands to connect directly with the consumer. Our marketing strategy reflects the popular saying “content is king” and is defined by content that delivers and provokes emotions. We adopt a customer-centric approach in everything that we do, and our content is highly tailored to trigger engagement and interaction.

We emphasize on creating high quality, well-researched content that is particularly relatable and relevant to the consumer. Effective storytelling is also key; we address social media content with a story-driven approach to attract the attention of our customers and increase engagement with our brand.

Our investment in high quality content reflects the standard of our flower arrangements and the value in the moments they represent. More broadly, Flowers. ae’s marketing strategy is designed to facilitate the brand’s growth and escalate its position as the region’s go-to luxury florist.

How are you embracing social media and digital technology? We utilize the power of data analytics to develop a better picture of our customer base and their behavior, allowing us to tailor our marketing initiatives more directly. Additionally, we adopt a data-driven strategy to create highly customized content and marketing campaigns. This enables us to deliver higher levels of engagement and elevate the customer experience whilst offering a seamless ecommerce service.

At Flowers.ae, we utilize the most popular digital platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube. Simultaneously, we place high importance on other digital channels including our e-commerce store, SEO, email newsletters, and digital ads.

13 Dalia El Baz

• Executive Deputy Chairman Company: National Bank of Egypt (NBE)

Nationality: Egyptian

Sector: Banking and Financial Services

El Baz has over 28 years of risk and corporate banking experience. She joined NBE—the largest bank in Egypt in terms of assets—in 2008 as head of the operational risk management group. She became COO in December 2015 and took on her current role in September 2017, becoming the first woman to serve in this position. She oversees risk, banking operations, information technology, internal control, project management, business process optimization, debt recovery, and credit administration. She has been a member of the bank’s executive committee since 2016.

14 Ebru Pakcan

• Managing Director Head of EMEA Emerging Markets Cluster Citi

Company: Citigroup Nationality: British

Sector: Banking and Financial Services

Pakcan has been at Citibank for 25 years. She assumed her current position in 2021, having previously been head of global trade and head of treasury and trade solutions for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. She serves clients across 59 markets and oversees more than 4,800 people. Pakcan is also actively engaged with the payments and trade industry. She served on the boards of CHAPS Clearing Company in the U.K. and the Board of the Clearing House Payments Company in the U.S. She currently sits on the board of Citigroup Saudi Arabia.

15 Sima Ganwani Ved

• Founder & Chairwoman

Company: Apparel Group

Nationality: Indian

Sector: Retail

Ved founded the Apparel Group in 1996. Today, the retail conglomerate has over 2,010 stores across 14 countries. In April 2022, the group launched 20 new brands in Place Vendôme in Qatar. In October, it gave $10,000 in grant money through TOMS to 10 mental health organizations each to commemorate World Mental Health Day. The group also announced the launch of the Apparel Digital Learning Academy in October to offer bilingual courses in the GCC. In December 2022, the Apparel Group’s TOMS Middle East launched an NFT collection, with proceeds going to TOMS’ Impact Partner, International Medical Corps.

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