Campaign 19th December 2021

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December 19, 2021

A M OT I VAT E P U B L I C AT I O N

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AED25/USD7/SR25

The Year in Twitter

The Year in TikTok

Review of the Year Top 20 Film Campaigns

Top 10 Cinema Ads of 2021

Top 10 Digital and Social Top 10 YouTube Videos

The Year in Adtech

Top 10 The Spin

Top 20 Movers and Shakers

Top 20 News Stories

Media Milestones

The Year in Social Media

WARC Spend Analysis

Google’s Year in Search 2021

The Year in Podcasts

December 19, 2021

INTRODUCTION

CONTENTS

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t least this year hasn’t been as mental as 2020. In their round-up of the year (page 38), Spotify said, “If 2020 was the year that flipped the world on its head, 2021 was the year we got used to seeing things upside down.”

That puts it well. Last year everything changed, and this year we have been getting used to it.

We’ve added a few lists to our traditional Top-10s this year, including The Year in Social Media and The Year in Ad Tech. Both of these reflect how important all things digital and social are to the entire industry. Look at the WARC adspend forecasts on page 48 and you will see that an astounding 19 per cent of all global ad spend now goes to Google. Meta isn’t far behind, and other platforms are also moving up the priority list for media spend both globally and in the region.

We’ve also reached out to our friends at various platforms and streaming services and they have been kind enough to share their highlights of the year with us. As well as providing a good pop quiz for your colleagues (who was the most streamed artist in the UAE on Spotify in 2021? Take a guess, ask the person next to you, then turn to page 38 to see if either of you were right), these also give a handy insight into what the region is doing online. What videos are they watching? What podcasts are they listening to? What are they searching for, and what music are they streaming? There are cultural insights galore (by which I mean when I read them I feel out of touch and old; bah humbug).

And of course there’s the work. We’ve listed 50 campaigns that caught our eye across film, integrated and experiential, and digital and social. Take a look and see what we liked. Are you in there? If you’re not, you were number 51, I swear. The lists are wholly subjective, but one main criteria is that we had to have seen the work. So if you want a chance to be featured, make sure you keep sending us what you are proud of.

And if you want to win an actual trophy, make sure you enter the Campaign Agency of the Year – Global competition. Look at the ads in this issue; one of them tells you how to enter. When I write this note next year I want to be bragging that one of you reading this now has claimed the title of Best Agency in the World.

So read on. See what caught our eye as we cast our mind back over 2021. And see what we missed. How do Campaign’s memories compare with yours?

We might be getting used to doing things upside down, but in general things are looking up from a year ago. Let’s get used to running and jumping while we are inverted. And see what we can do in 2022.

See you next year!

10 THE YEAR IN REVIEW 14 TOP 20 NEWS STORIES 16 TOP 10 PITCHES 18 MEDIA MILESTONES 24 TOP 20 FILM CAMPAIGNS 26 TOP 20 INTEGRATED & EXPERIENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 28 TOP 10 DIGITAL & SOCIAL CAMPAIGNS 30 TOP 20 MOVERS & SHAKERS 32 TOP 10 YOUTUBE VIDEOS 34 TOP 10 CINEMA ADS 36 THE YEAR IN TWITTER 38 THE YEAR IN SPOTIFY 41 THE YEAR IN SEARCH 24 THE YEAR IN TIKTOK 44 THE YEAR IN ADTECH 45 THE YEAR IN ADTECH 47 THE YEAR IN SOCIAL MEDIA 48 WARC PREDICTIONS

AUSTYN ALLISON

EDITOR, CAMPAIGN MIDDLE EAST

50 TOP 10 THE SPIN

Motivate Media Group Head Office: 34th Floor, Media One Tower, Dubai Media City, Dubai, UAE. Tel: +971 4 427 3000, Email: motivate@motivate.ae Dubai Media City: SD 2-94, 2nd Floor, Building 2, Dubai, UAE. Tel: +971 4 390 3550, Fax: +971 4 390 4845 Abu Dhabi: Motivate Advertising, Marketing & Publishing, PO Box 43072, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Tel: +971 2 677 2005, Fax: +971 2 677 0124, Email: motivate-adh@motivate.ae London: Motivate Publishing Ltd, Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London NW1 3ER. motivateuk@motivate.ae www.motivatemedia.com EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Obaid Humaid Al Tayer Managing Partner and Group Editor Ian Fairservice Senior Editor Austyn Allison Junior Reporter Sofia Serrano DESIGN Art Director Clarkwin Cruz Junior Designer Thokchom Remy ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES Tel: +971 4 427 3000 Chief Commercial Officer Anthony Milne Publisher Nadeem Ahmed Quraishi (+971 50 6453365) PRODUCTION General Manager S. Sunil Kumar Assistant Production Manager Binu Purandaran HAYMARKET MEDIA GROUP Chairman Kevin Costello Managing Director Jane Macken The publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions contained in this publication, however caused. The opinions and views contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. Readers are advised to seek specialist advice before acting on information contained in this publication which is provided for general use and may not be appropriate for the readers’ particular circumstances. The ownership of trademarks is acknowledged. No part of this publication or any part of the contents thereof may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publishers in writing. An exemption is hereby granted for extracts used for the purpose of fair review. Campaign Middle East includes material reproduced from the UK Edition (and other editions) of Campaign, which is the copyright of Haymarket. Campaign is a trademark of Haymarket and is used under licence. The views and opinions expressed within this magazine are not necessarily those of Haymarket Magazines Limited or those of its contributors.

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December 19, 2021

CEO Nassib Boueri is ready to talk about the coming together of two WPP powerhouses to form Wunderman Thompson. By Austyn Allison

TWO BECOME ONE

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n November 2018, agency holding group WPP announced it was to merge the oldest ad agency in the world, J. Walter Thompson, with digital marketing network Wunderman.

The coming-together was rolled out globally, and the Middle East was one of the last regions to be merged. The announcement of that merger was made in March 2020, but played down at the time as it coincided with the introduction of Covid-19 restrictions.

“It was probably a bit inconsiderate or in bad taste at that time to go out [with the news],” says Nassib Boueri, regional CEO of Wunderman Thompson and former head of Wunderman. “We needed to focus on our people, on their mental health, on their wellbeing, rather than just talk about us in general.”

Wunderman Thompson has more than 800 staff spread across 10 offices in the Middle East and North Africa. It took time to merge the regional offices for a number of reasons. The global network prioritised the merger of its flagship US and European territories, and there was also a complicated ownership structure of WPP agencies in the MENA region, a legacy of several founders of agencies having sold percentages of their shareholdings to WPP at different times in previous years.

JWT was owned by WPP and Tihama Al Mona International (TMI, a Saudi company), and Wunderman was owned by WPP and some minority shareholders. Today WPP owns Wunderman Thompson, with “a few minorities left in it,” says Boueri.

December 19, 2021

PHYSICAL PRESENCE Covid-19 slowed down the logistics as well as the announcement of the merger, says Boueri. The pandemic presented “80 per cent of the challenge,” he estimates. “Because you needed to travel to make changes in terms of signatories, in terms of appointing new board members and so on and so forth.”

As well as the paperwork, there were the people: “You need to be physically present in the office to meet people, to talk to people. And it’s not only talking to the MDs or the CEOs or the ECD; you need to bring everyone around, everyone so that they buy in and you know where you are going.”

In the MENA region the two agencies were lucky that they didn’t overlap too much. They “fitted exactly like a puzzle”. In most geographies only one of the pair had an office, and it was only in the UAE, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and that two agencies had to merge. Wunderman was dominant in the former two countries, and JWT in the latter.

Boueri and his team were keen to make sure the merger was not seen as one company taking over another. He says it was “more of a real merger of capabilities, of adding value to our people and clients as well”. He adds: “Today our clients are able to have a wider breadth of disciplines and capabilities across the board. In the same way, our people today are exposed to those capabilities and to those demands.”

JWT was traditionally stronger in creative, data and service design; Wunderman had more capabilities in terms of technology, commerce and digital content creation. “From the client side it is like a yin-yang or a puzzle,” says Boueri. “They will see that whatever capabilities they felt weren’t there before are there now, seamlessly rather than needing a different team.”

BUILDING CULTURE Although three agency heads left, the amount of attrition was limited, says Boueri. Now, coming back to the office will help build agency culture.

One of Wunderman Thompson’s clients is Microsoft, a tech client with a progressive workfrom-home policy, so the agency was flexible about working arrangements long before the pandemic made remote working a necessity.

However, bringing people together is how to build an agency ethos, he says. “The culture cannot be built at home. People need to come in and walk the corridors, talk to each other, sense these things,” says Boueiri. “People who have joined over the last year have never been into the office physically.

They’ve never physically met their manager, their peers, their creative director. They haven’t met a client, even.”

Any move to build shared values is a long-term operation. “Culture, like growth, is not like an on-off switch,” says Boueri. “It will take time to get to the desired culture.”

He adds: “Before you bring in the capabilities you want to rally people around the common denominator. That is first your philosophy or your vision or your mission, and then the culture will blend under that and then the rest of the teams can work together.”

Wunderman Thompson’s official mission is ‘Inspiring Growth for Ambitious Brands’. Boueri breaks it down: “‘Growth’ is a word that everybody is using today. You cannot own the growth; you can be the catalyst for growth. You cannot say ‘I want to grow’ and then everything happens in 24 hours. You need to work for your growth, you need to plan for

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it. You need to strategise. You need to have a path, a plan for your growth, and then you get there.”

Boueri’s personal mantra plays into this. “When we had meetings at Wunderman, management meetings or client reviews throughout the years, I always asked one question: ‘Are we adding value?’” he says. “The moment you add value, everything else falls into place. Clients want to work with you if you add value. People want to remain with you if you add value. You will work for a company if it adds value. And ‘added value’ comes in different ways. It is not only adding value financially; you can add value with a purpose, with a business insight.”

FLEXIBLE FORECAST Boueri says company philosophy is one of the reasons Wunderman Thompson’s clients often stay with the agency for many years. “Ultimately it is not about only the tenure of the client, but in terms of what you’ve done for a client. If you look at Microsoft today, if you look at STC today, if you look at Vodafone today, if you look at a lot of our global clients, be it a GSK, be it a Unilever, these relationships have been there for years and years, and most of them started here even before the global alignment,” he says.

Those names are legacy clients, but it pays to have a good mix of brands – in terms of local and global, and in terms of categories. In terms of where Boueri sees potential for growth, he lists the likes of food delivery and cloud kitchens, and start-ups in general. “Some fail, some succeed,” he says. “The whole business model has changed, and you have to be ready for that and have that mentality.”

The agency itself has to be as flexible as its clients. “You need to be adaptive,” says Boueri.

“Thank God we have been extremely adaptive over the last 18 months and our business is doing well and our clients are doing well as well.” Then he returns to areas of growth: “It’s not like areas will die and others will grow; I think everything is going in the right direction. Some are growing faster.”

He continues: “Everything that is about data is growing faster, of course. Everything that is about commerce is growing faster. Everything that is about service design and customer experience is growing faster. The rest is at its own pace; it will grow, you will always have creative, you will always have social, you will always have media. But anything along these four main pillars now is ‘the new’.”

BUILDING TALENT The array of employers competing for talent has widened. Now agencies such as Wunderman Thompson must go up against other agencies, clients, publishers and platforms. The people in high demand are data scientists, technologists, e-commerce experts and those who have skills in both back-end and front-end service design. “They are all in the same ecosystem because they feed into each other,” says Boueri.

The better an agency does at building up its talent, the more its competitors start to circle.

Growing skillsets is similar to building up Saudi talent in the past, Boueri says: “We were the first to recruit Saudi talent. At the point you have 30-40 per cent you become a poaching pool for everyone.” But Wunderman Thompson is sticking to its guns. He says: “We will not stop this. We will keep doing this in Saudi and we are doing the same here. We are taking people in at a junior level and building them into those capabilities. Today, anyone who has studied statistics or maths, or has a liking towards a

NASSIB BOUERI

“CULTURE, LIKE GROWTH, IS NOT LIKE AN ONOFF SWITCH. IT WILL TAKE TIME TO GET TO THE DESIRED CULTURE.” structured way of doing things, is a good data talent to be looked into.”

Boueri is keen to note how grateful he is to his staff, who have allowed the company to do well through the transition. “I’m grateful to every single person that comes into the office every morning and goes back every evening, Covid or no Covid,” he says. “We’ve been through a lot over the last 18 months, it’s been very challenging. What we’ve done is we’ve tried, like everybody else, to be as close as we can to our people. I’m grateful that they’ve all been here, that they’ve all supported us.”

He’s grateful to the clients who never stopped trusting Wunderman Thompson. And he says that he is grateful to his wife and sons. “20 years in this business was not easy,” he says. “My wife has been my biggest support throughout and my boys have been my lessons.” When pushed for those lessons, he says: “You learn patience. You learn to listen. You learn to be grateful. You learn to accept being challenged. And you take that to the office every day and you become a better person.”

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December 19, 2021

NEW WORLD MANIFESTO Starcom CEO Racha Makarem offers a guide to looking back on 2021 and forward to 2022

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t’s incredible to think that we are a few short weeks away from wrapping up this year and starting another. As is common practice for many of us at this time of year, it’s an opportunity to introspect and reflect on the past 12 months, as well as to start anticipating where we are heading for in the new year.

As businesses, we are always trying to predict ahead, especially in an industry like ours that can be so volitale. So perhaps this year predicting where we are heading is not going to be the biggest challenge, but rather the implications our predictions and actions will have on communities, businesses, culture and the future of growth.

What I want to highlight here is similar to that of a New World Manifesto. The reason I say this is because we live in times when a declaration of some sort that outlines our beliefs, motives, intention and plans is key as we continue to adapt, and is especially important if we want to stay relevant for tomorrow.

If there is anything we have learned about humans over the past few years it is that we are quick to adopt new behaviours. The reason is simple; it’s because we want not only to survive, but to thrive no matter what chaos is thrown our way. Perhaps none of the thoughts I’m sharing are particularly revolutionary to you reading this now. However, the importance of agility and adapting to new ways of thinking as a business are topics resurfacing again as we start closing the chapter on this year.

Take a market like the UAE, for example. The mindset of consumers in this particular region has shifted over the past few years to the point where a recent study showed that 64 per cent of consumers believe they have the power to

force corporations to make change. They also believe that CEOs of businesses should hold themselves accountable not only to their stakeholders, but to the public as well. What these insights tell us is that the consumer mindset and expectations are changing.

This change begs the questions: Do businesses need to start rethinking their priorities? It doesn’t just stop with your consumers, though; activism is also on the rise within the workplace, with one in two of those who are employed agreeing that they are more likely today than a year ago to engage in workplace protests if they strongly disagree with a company action or policy.

What the above really translates into is that in order for companies and brands to grow and stay relevant, they need to build trust and start marketing to the citizen rather than the consumer.

This requires a paradigm shift in thinking and culture. It is moving from short-terms gains and a transactional relationship with consumers to lifetime value customers who are loyal to an organisation and its brands. It gives permission to companies to start being true to themselves, being authentic and marketing with values as well as a sense of purpose.

‘‘FOR BRANDS TO GROW AND STAY RELEVANT, THEY NEED TO BUILD TRUST AND START MARKETING TO THE CITIZEN RATHER THAN THE CONSUMER.’’

The best way to build your brand’s sense of purpose is simply to create your own manifesto. Here are some starters for you

to think about while creating it: 1. Define your purpose. Why do you exist?

Think about your raison d’être and how you want people (consumers, your team, partners) to think about your brand and organisation. Think of how that purpose comes to life in the culture you build and the products and services you offer.

2. Align the organisation’s sense of purpose with its performance. Make sure to set KPIs and success metrics to measure it as well as to hold people accountable.

3. Build a sustainable growth plan by creating meaningful human experiences and connections. Know your customer.

Drive personalisation, relevance and scale whilst leveraging tech solutions to tell your story.

4. Ask why, what and how your brand can add value. A good way to start is by immersing in cultural moments that can help drive conversations and meaning to peoples lives and society at large.

5. Be brave and bold, not to set yourself up for failure but to challenge the status quo and overcome your fears.

As you get ready to reflect on 2021 and start planning 2022, take a moment or two to think about your manifesto. Talk about it with your teams, with your partners and with your consumers, and invite them to take part in the discussion. Start thinking of how you will measure its impact on business performance, and on employee retention and motivation. There is after all a great sense of gratification in contributing for the greater good of society and humanity. Embrace the New World Manifesto.

By RACHA MAKAREM, regional CEO, Starcom

PARTNER CONTENT

December 19, 2021

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Adform prepares for a bright future without thirdparty cookies It is high time for advertisers to start migration to first-party IDs

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oogle’s announcement that it would delay cookie deprecation on Chrome until mid-2023 was welcome news to the industry, as it provided more time to further develop cookie-less solutions. The unspoken truth, however, is that third-party cookies are already barely alive. Today, in most markets, more than 50 per cent of users are on devices, browsers, and channels that do not support third-party cookies. In addition, automated deletion means that cookies, on average, live for only about a week. Such limited availability and lifespan severely affect advertising activities such as audience segmentation, targeting, storytelling and analytics. Consequently, only half of your potential customer base are addressable via third-party cookies, and only within a limited time span. Adform’s in-depth analysis of third-party cookie dependency on common advertising platforms reveals a high dependency on cookies, with the unfortunate consequence that a huge gap exists – regardless of the Google Chrome deprecation delay. Approximately 60 per cent of all day-to-day ad tech features are dependent on third-party cookies across the typical tech stacks of any major brand. The combination of limited cookie support and huge dependency reveals that current ad tech stacks have a huge gap that urgently needs to be addressed.

A high number of adtech functions depend on third-party cookies for targeting, optimisation and reporting for use cases involving audiences, ad frequencies, and conversions.

By contrast, a lot of important areas are unaffected, such as contextual, geo-segmentation, publisher placement and time scheduling. For marketers, the rule of thumb is to examine what does not work on Safari browsers when using their usual platforms.

Based on the exposure advertising ecosystems have to third-party cookies, it is high time for advertisers to start migration, and to begin testing and optimising first-party IDs. Most martech platforms, such as web analytics and web content platforms, already operate entirely based on first-party cookies or identifiers such as email IDs, while virtually no adtech platforms have achieved this transition yet.

First-party solution deployment with global and regional publishers has had surprisingly rapid traction during 2020 and 2021, and first-party IDs and audiences now exist at the same scale as third-party cookies in most markets and on a few platforms.

Adform has been an early pioneer and now trades more media spend based on first-party IDs and data than on third-party cookies. The transition away from third-party cookies, to first-party IDs linked by a proprietary engine called Adform ID Fusion, has enabled a substitution of capabilities.

The rapid adoption of first-party IDs and data capabilities by publishers throughout 2020 and 2021 has again given marketers the possibility of targeting, optimisation, and measurement on Safari and Firefox, two browsers that have long since deprecated third-party cookies. Not only does this increase performance back to the levels of cookie-based environments, but it also provides even higher return on ad spend (ROAS). This can be expected to continue for

“The unspoken truth is that third-party cookies are already barely alive. Today, in most markets, more than 50 per cent of users are on channels that do not support them.”

some time until many more adtech platforms establish first-party support and integrations with publishers.

The average improvement when using first-party IDs and data from publishers is at least a two- to three-times increase in click-through rate and the same in conversion rate on media buying on Safari and Firefox. With these two browsers having a global mobile market share of 30-50 per cent, this represents a significant ROAS improvement opportunity for most marketers.

While the low-hanging fruit of ROAS improvements justifies swift action, the strategic value in building independence from third-party cookies, and the gatekeepers of these such as Google, should not be forgotten.

The transition from third-party cookies from adtech and mar-tech intermediaries to first-party IDs, directly owned by the brands and publishers which customers trust, leads to an improved ecosystem on several fronts since it entails greater transparency, which can help to reduce fraud.

When first-party IDs from publishers and advertisers form the transactional backbone of the supply chain, impressions and data use will become fully traceable. This will increase transparency, helping resolve issues with discrepancies, accountability, hidden fees, arbitrage and ad fraud, and significantly decreasing the risk of data leakage.

Advertisers need to secure efficient and transparent data control. Adform and other industry leaders have been working to execute this substitution as the new industry standard. Meanwhile, some ID solutions or technology providers only promote and support their own first-party ID when in fact the real need of any brand is to have its technology foundation capable of working with all, or at least the wide majority of, ID providers. Adform can, for example, integrate with any proprietary ID in addition to all established ID solutions. In addition to this, Adform has solved the central challenge to link all IDs across publishers, and between brands and publishers, in order to maintain and improve data-driven use cases around marketing campaigns in the future. www.adform.com

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December 19, 2021

PARTNER CONTENT

Reel-y inspiring content

Samsung KSA targeted the Gen Z market using Instagram Reels to show how to make great photos with its flagship S21 smartphone

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onsumer electronics brand Samsung KSA has dived into Instagram Reels for the first time. Reels were introduced in mid-2020 as a way to create short, fun, shareable videos of just 15 seconds. It was a new platform for Samsung KSA, but a wise choice for a brand speaking to a Generation Z audience.

For the first time Samsung partnered with budding content creators and photographers, encouraging them to step outside their comfort zones to create unique, unexpected content. The social-media, user-generated content campaign was called Unexpected Perspective.

Working with media agency Starcom, Samsung KSA’s brief was to generate excitement around its flagship S21 smartphone. Instagram had already proved successful for the brand, with the hashtag #withGalaxy providing the basis for a platform where Samsung users share content they have created with Samsung products. The best work there is selected to be featured on the @SamsungWithGalaxy account and to win prizes.

People were encouraged to use their Samsung phones to

shoot content from an “Unexpected Perspective”.

Samsung decided to add a creative twist, to showcase the S21 phone and inspire users. It used Reels to show how members of the #withGalaxy community had created their inspirational shots using the S21 and some imagination.

The people who participated were mostly Gen Zs and millennials, and Samsung received a great number of submissions from its followers, with remarkable captures through their Samsung devices.

The brand’s influencer team arranged for a content creator to create and post assets in a Carousel format on her page. She made three static images and four how-to videos.

Samsung published the content as Reels, created by the brand and Starcom.

The results were impressive, with users reacting positively and becoming highly engaged.

There was a 6.7-point lift in ad recall; a 3-point lift in consideration; a 3.8-point lift in action intent; a 6.9-point lift in ad recall for Gen Z (aged 18-24); and a 2.8-point lift in action intent for Gen Z.

“ Instagram had already proved successful for the brand, with the hashtag #withGalaxy providing the basis for a platform where Samsung users share content they have created with Samsung products.”

PARTNER CONTENT

December 19, 2021

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Sami Kobayter, vertical lead – technology, energy and real estate, MENA, Meta “Samsung KSA and Starcom decided that the best way to engage with Samsung’s Galaxy and Gen Z audiences was to activate the newly rolled out Instagram Reels ads in Saudi for the #WithGalaxy campaign. This innovative spirit that Samsung KSA adopted across Meta’s technologies guaranteed a great outcome for this campaign across the funnel and a way for Samsung to yet again stand out from the crowd.”

Anas Charif, head of corporate marketing, Samsung KSA “Together with Meta, we’re constantly working on delivering the most engaging creatives through innovative solutions and ad formats, making sure we achieve the required lifts in recall, consideration and action intent.

All while breaking through the clutter to reach and resonate with our Gen Z audience.”

Brand: Samsung Galaxy S21 Platform: Instagram Reels Agency: Starcom

Austyn Allison, editor, Campaign Middle East “Samsung KSA took the bull by the horns and tried out a channel that was relatively untested in Saudi Arabia: Instagram Reels, which is new to the kingdom. The three-way partnership between Samsung, Starcom and Meta obviously worked, creating content that is engaging and inspiring yet succinct and snappy at the same time.”

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December 19, 2021

THE YEAR IN

REVIEW 2021 may not have been as dramatic as the year that preceded it, but with new agencies, institutional changes and a continued acceleration of all things digital it has still been eventful, writes Austyn Allison

Choucair, former CEO of that group’s media agency PHD, was promoted from chief operating officer of OMG to CEO, while Elie Khouri, who had re-assumed his position of CEO after the departure of Nadim Samara in October of last year, has resumed his focus on his role as chairman of OMG. In December, Raja Trad announced that he too was retiring. Trad was the regional chairman of Publicis Groupe, and will be replaced as regional head of the holding company by Bassel Kakish, who has become CEO. Kakish was previously chief financial officer, chief integration officer and co-managing director of Publicis Sapient in the Middle East.

In February, the industry lost a great when Edmond ‘Eddie’ Moutran, the founder of Memac Ogilvy, died at his home in Beirut. Moutran founded his agency in the 1980s and built it up to be the regional powerhouse that produced some of the Middle East’s most iconic work and inspirational talent.

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t least this year has not been nearly as challenging as 2020. We are far from back to normal, and the Covid-19 crisis is far from over, but we have at least begun to get used to it. In the region, if not everywhere in the world, many of us have been back to our offices, and Herculean immunisation drives mean that events have been taking place with less social distancing and more masks.

It seems like a world away, but at the start of the year Donald Trump was still in the White House. Although he was waiting for a grown-up, Democrat Joe Biden, to take over as President of the United States, he was still contesting the outcome of last year’s election. The final attacks of Trump’s presidency on ‘fake news’ and democratic institutions continued to affect the world’s relationship with the media and truth, and reached a nadir when a mob of Trump supporters stormed Washington’s Capitol Building on January 6.

While having mercifully more decorum than Trump, Biden’s presidency has been far from smooth, and his decision to fulfil his predecessor’s promise to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan has continued to shape world events and feed an international refugee crisis.

The global economy has been on a rollercoaster as it recovers from the shock of Covid-19’s arrival. It has been lifted by the success of vaccines, and lowered by the emergence of virus variations that are steadily teaching the world how to recite the Greek alphabet.

Adspend has largely recovered, and marketing intelligence service WARC

Edmond Moutran

predicts it will rise above pre-Covid levels next year. However, some channels such as out-of-home and radio are taking longer to bounce back, and economic sectors including travel and tourism are still dampened by the ongoing effects of lockdowns and health worries.

There is a changing of the guard in advertising, as the founding fathers of the industry are gradually replaced with new faces.

At the end of last year, Roy Haddad, WPP’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, quietly stood down.

Haddad founded the agency that would become J Walter Thompson in the region, and which has now merged with Wunderman Thompson as part of WPP’s ongoing process of consolidation and merging of its portfolio.

At Omnicom Media Group, Elda

FRESH STARTS Last year, 2020, saw a swathe of departures at all levels within the industry, either due to Covid-19 attrition or to the start of the ‘Great Resignation’ caused by the re-evaluation of our priorities brought on by a worldchanging pandemic and the introspection of lockdown. This year, some of those who left their posts have been coming back in new guises, including at the helm of new agencies.

Margaret Flanagan, formerly of Asda’a Burson Marsteller, and Lisa King of BCW launched Tales & Heads communications agency, which was soon working with brands including Euronews, SRMG and Dubai Fitness Challenge.

Lucy and Camilla d’Abo, who sold their agency Dabo & Co to Edelman in 2015, in November launched Together, a consultancy dedicated to workplace culture. Lucy, CEO of Together, had joined Hill & Knowlton Strategies as regional director last January, and Camilla – now non-executive director at Together – had joined Apco Worldwide as managing director in December 2019.

THE SOCIAL SECTOR Remember Clubhouse? At the start of the year it was the social media story that

December 19, 2021

never was. For a few months the industry – and certain sections of society at large – was abuzz with talk of (and on) the channel. Clubhouse offered audio-only chat rooms where people could discuss, well, anything. In a world suffering screen fatigue after a year of Covid-19 restrictions, the option to just talk and listen rather than typing and reading was a strong draw. But much of the chatter on Clubhouse revolved around people trying to sell things, often themselves. An aural meander through the ‘Rooms’ that were active at any one time would provide a zeitgeist eavesdrop into the topics of the day including cryptocurrency trading and artists – whose ego and financial ambition often outweighed their talent – discussing how they would ‘mint’ a new line of NFTs that were bound to make millions for those first-adopters listening in today.

The roar of conversation on Clubhouse has died down to a background murmur, not helped by connection and audio issues in the region, widely assumed to be due to data throttling of a platform where conversations were unrecorded, ephemeral and hard to monitor for voices of dissent.

Twitter launched a similar competitor to Clubhouse in its Spaces service, which had slightly fewer connection issues but has also failed to take the world by storm.

TikTok continued its meteoric rise among social platforms, and two in three marketers surveyed by WARC said they would further increase their spend next year. TikTok’s ad revenue grew 152 per cent in 2021 and is predicted to grow a further 75 per cent in 2022. Campaign Middle East even joined the platform.

Snapchat has been doubling down on video and augmented reality with innovation and research into two of its tightly interlinked core strengths. As a founding supporter of the On The Record with Campaign Middle East podcast, Snap has widely discussed its plans and lessons in these fields and more. You can listen to those conversations on Anghami or wherever you get your podcasts.

Instagram overtook its sister platform Facebook this year to become the world’s biggest social media channel in terms of advertising spend. The company that owns both, formerly called Facebook itself, rebranded to Meta in October. The company said at the time: “Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.” The metaverse, it explained, “will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together – and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world.”

Meta has faced user concerns about privacy this year, after users of its messaging app WhatsApp were asked at the start of January to accept new terms

and conditions that raised issues about the data that would be shared with the service’s parent company and sister platforms. In October a technical glitch took Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp offline for six hours, an outage that affected more than 3 billion users around the world.

MANGA MADNESS There has been a cultural shift to the East in 2021, perhaps driven in part by the Olympics being hosted in Japan.

The biggest TV hit of the year was Netflix’s Korean drama Squid Game, and there are signs that Japanese manga comic books are growing in mainstream popularity in the Middle East.

In May, Vox Cinemas signed a deal with Odex, a Japanese film distributor in South East Asia, to distribute anime movies across the MENA region.

In August Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG) launched Manga Arabia and Manga Arabia Kids, to provide Arabic manga content, designed by local creators, on a digital and monthly print magazine platform.

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CAST PARTY 2021 has been another good year for podcasts. Advertising spend on the medium grew by more than 50 per cent according to WARC. Audio-streaming ad spend was up by 28 per cent.

In January Dubai-based podcast network Rising Giants secured $1m in funding, which it estimated to be the largest investment in a regional podcast network to date.

Another local network, Kerning Cultures, in May made its first acquisition – of year-old Arabic-language show Faslah. The move took the network’s roster of shows to 12, and was described by them as “one of the many moves Kerning Cultures has made towards its vision of building the largest podcast network in MENA”.

Finyal Media, which produces shows including The Code and Millennial Mirrors, signed a partnership with media

‘‘IN OCTOBER A TECHNICAL GLITCH TOOK FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM AND WHATSAPP OFFLINE, AFFECTING MORE THAN 3 BILLION USERS.”

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representative MIS Gulf. Finyal is the first podcast network in the region to have external advertising representation. MIS will give advertisers access to ad spots, sponsorship opportunities, product placement and branded content offerings, including the development and production of podcast shows on a brand’s behalf.

Finyal launched Finyal+ in June on Apple’s new podcast subscription platform. The service allows subscribers to listen to podcasts ad-free.

In July SRMG bought 51 per cent of podcast platform Thmanyah, as part of the group’s new digital-first, multiplatform transformation strategy that it announced in July.

Regional streaming service Anghami continued its growth, and announced it would be moving its headquarters from Beirut to Abu Dhabi. It is due to list on the New York Stock Exchange. With 70 million users, including 1.4 million subscribers, it is estimated to be worth at least $220m. It earlier merged with Vistas Media Acquisition Company to facilitate its listing.

OUT OF BALANCE In September, Campaign published The MENA Power List. The supplement was an evolution of our long-running Power Essays, where industry leaders tackle topics that affect all of us and give their

insights from a position of influence. We limited inclusion on the List to only CEOs and chairpeople of major holding groups, and the heads of major media owners and reps. And although we reached out to the few women who meet these criteria, they weren’t able to participate. The resulting list was all male, and while it hadn’t been our aim to make a point, the preponderance of Y chromosomes drew criticism and debate about the lack of women at the very top.

Luckily, the future looks more balanced than the present, as we are seeing growth in both the number and strength of initiatives to propel the industry’s many talented women to the positions they deserve.

The United Nations’ Unstereotype Alliance is now a year old in the region, in partnership with the Advertising Business Group (ABG), which is itself celebrating its fifth birthday here. In June the ABG released its Ethical Guidelines for Gender Portrayal in Advertising & Marketing Communication to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the UAE. The guidelines address unconscious biases in advertising and how to avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes.

In March, PRCA MENA and Global Women in PR MENA co-launched Taa Marbouta – a unique, women-to-women mentorship programme and campaign. It not only helps support young women in PR, but in May it released a mandate for men to do their part in helping further the cause.

MARS ATTRACTS When things got too bleak and dystopian down here on our plague-ravaged Earth, 2021 was a year to look to the skies for inspiration and escape. Billionaires Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos compared the size of their rockets in an attempt to be the first rich white man in space, and the UAE joined an elite group of interplanetary countries when its Hope Probe arrived in orbit around Mars.

On 9 February Hope reached its destination, and UAE marketers – government and private-sector alike – celebrated its arrival with campaigns involving ink, babies, double moons and more.

Simone Biles

MINDS MATTER The Olympics took place in Japan, delayed for a year by Covid-19 and devoid of spectators for the same reason.

They saw the world’s most decorated gymnast, the American Simone Biles, withdraw from several events citing mental health issues.

Not long before, Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open, having refused to take part in press conferences at the event. She too cited mental health as reasons for those decisions.

The two sportswomen helped give further voice to a topic that has been rising up the agenda and affects the

advertising industry in many ways.

The Covid crisis continues to put focus on self care, and our enforced isolation has encouraged even the most extrovert among us to look inwards. This is reflected in brand messaging encouraging consumers to look after themselves. Brands are striving for ‘authentic’ connections to their customers, which means more messaging in a personal-awareness, ‘we care’ vein.

And within agencies more employers are seeing their staff as fragile humans rather than expendable cogs in a corporate machine. The industry is infamous for its culture of hard work, but moves such as shorter work weeks are signs that these rigours are at least being acknowledged.

In July, Arthur Sadoun, CEO and chairman of Publicis Groupe globally, said he was “extremely worried” about the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on the mental health of staff.

However, the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) MENA Mental Health Report, published on World Mental Health Day on October 10, revealed that 57 per cent of PR professionals in the region feel their organisation is doing ‘not enough’ or ‘much less than is needed’ to support their mental wellbeing.

OPENING HOURS The UAE itself announced a four-and-ahalf-day working week for the public sector and schools at the start of December. For much of the year, news had been leaking out about a shift to a Saturday-Sunday weekend in line with most of the western world, and this was confirmed along with a half-day on Fridays to account for the traditional Muslim prayers.

Private-sector companies are not mandated to follow the same timekeeping, but are likely to follow suit for logistical reasons such as parents wanting to share a weekend with their children. The first companies to announce changes have been split between two-day and two-and-a-half-day weekends. The option of a longer weekend will not only help with work-life balance, but will be seen to do so in a way that can be marketed to global companies looking to invest in the region, and – importantly – to global talent that those companies might be looking to attract.

It will also give the UAE a card to play in the quiet but growing competition for regional talent against Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom, long seen as a hardship posting – if a lucrative one – by many expats, is continuing to reform politically, economically, societally and in terms of its image. This year it joined the Formula One Grand Prix circuit, as well as hosting numerous music and cultural festivals.

The Neom super-city on the Red Sea is taking shape, and government and private sector clients are bringing big business to regional media, marketing, advertising and communications firms.

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“As digital investments continue to grow, so does the need for increased vigilance on ad-fraud, brand safety risk and malware. By supporting this initiative to encourage adoption of TAG’s certifications, we hope to drive a more sustainable, transparent and trustworthy industry where advertisers and agencies can be confident in the investments they are making.”

Elon Musk

In February, Riyadh announced that, from 2024, the public sector would no longer be allowed to contract with foreign firms that do not have their regional headquarters in the kingdom. Despite a fast-growing private sector, the most lucrative contracts within Saudi Arabia are with government entities, so this sends a clear message to international companies wishing to do business there.

It also throws down a gauntlet to the UAE, where Dubai has long been the go-to city to headquarter multinationals in the Middle East.

This year companies that announced they would be opening new offices in Saudi Arabia included Vice Media Group, Emaar Entertainment’s Reel Cinemas, Dentsu’s Merkel MENA and influencer marketing agency Vamp, a sister brand of Campaign. Snap is launching a Creator Studio in Riyadh, and another Campaign sister title, What’s On, launched its Saudi edition this year, first in English and then in Arabic as well.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS In September, the GCC chapter of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released the results of its study into digital advertising spend in the MENA region. It found that the total spent on digital advertising in 2020 was $3.64bn. Earlier in the same month, Publicis Group’s Zenith media agency had released its latest estimates that put overall MENA adspend at $2.4bn in 2020. As with all spend measurement, it is unfair to compare estimates as methodologies, definitions and more differ wildly. Zenith’s digital spend estimates only go back to 2007, in itself an impressively early date for measuring the medium (internet spend back then was $17m; Zenith says that had grown to $1bn by 2020).

The importance of the IAB number is that it was arrived at by an industry-wide body, rather than just one agency or

organisation. This means that the methodology should have had more input and insight into different agencies’ figures and estimates, and that the methodology should be more transparent. It should also be more universally accepted, even if it is accepted as one set of numbers that everyone can disagree with.

The IAB found that social channels account for 47 per cent of regional adspend, which exceeds European benchmarks and reflects the strong social media user base in MENA. Another big measurement story in 2021 was the announcement of Saudi Arabia’s Television Audience Measurement (TAM) project in November. While people meters have been in some other markets around the world for decades, they have been a long time coming to the Middle East.

The first data from research firm Nielsen, which has been contracted to run the project, should be available next year.

The regional industry is also making strides towards combating ad fraud. In August TikTok became the latest publisher to achieve TAG Brand Safety certification in the region. Awarded by the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), the certification is a cross-industry initiative to fight criminal activity and strengthen brand safety and transparency in digital marketing.

In November the IAB GCC and the ABG partnered with TAG. Elda Choucair, CEO of OMG and vice-chair of the ABG, said:

‘‘THE IAB FOUND THAT SOCIAL CHANNELS ACCOUNT FOR 47 PER CENT OF REGIONAL ADSPEND, WHICH EXCEEDS EUROPEAN BENCHMARKS.”

THE HOME FRONT In November, Campaign’s flagship event, Marcomms360 – Predictions 2022 returned in person after a year in the virtual wilderness. A stellar line-up of speakers gave their predictions and forecasts for the year ahead to an engaged audience at Five Palm Jumeirah Dubai hotel. Afterwards, at an Industry Night party, we presented framed mementos for a third year to our Marketing Game Changers, those client-side marketing leaders whose actions and insights have made the greatest impact on their brands, their industries and the region’s marketing community over the past 12 months.

Campaign Middle East is proud to be bringing the global Campaign brand’s Agency of the Year to the MENA region in 2022. Campaign’s Agency of the Year – Globals (AOTYG) recognises that you don’t have to be global in scale to be world-class in stature; these awards are open to agencies of all sizes, anywhere in the world, be it a single shop in Dubai, an agency with multiple offices across the Middle East or a fully networked agency with a truly global spread of employees. If you think the achievements of your agency make you the best in the world, we’d love to see you enter. You can find more details of how to do so on our website.

Crucially, these awards do not focus on the creative output of an agency but reward outstanding business performance, agency culture and individual leadership. There will be awards for Best Network Middle East and Africa as well as Best Global Network.

Individual agency offices will be rewarded on an international level by discipline: Brand Experience Agency, Consultancy, Creative Agency, Customer Engagement Agency, Digital Innovation Agency, Independent Agency, In-House Agency and Media Agency. There are categories for the best people, staff engagement and initiatives, and top clients and partners.

An upcoming MENA Agency of the Year Awards, in line with Campaign Middle East’s sister titles in Asia Pacific, the US and the UK, will be launched next year.

These awards too will be audited by PwC. We will also continue to host our podcasts, events, perhaps some webinars and maybe a drinks night or two. You can read our articles on the website at campaignme.com and in the magazine.

Sign up to our newsletters and follow us on social. We are everywhere the industry is, and we’re grateful that you choose to join us.

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including Asharq Al-Awsat, Asharq News and Arab News, and has a combined monthly reach of 165 million – announced a transformation strategy focusing on platform expansion, international partnerships and strategic investments across five key business verticals. In August it announced the acquisition of a 51 per cent controlling stake in Arabic podcast platform Thmanyah, and in October it launched a publishing arm, Raff Publishing.

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In September the GCC chapter of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released for the first time a study that revealed the investment of digital adspend in the region. The study revealed that the total digital adspend in MENA in 2020 was $3.64bn. Other findings included that the growth of social and video in MENA has led the region to be ahead of other more ‘mature’ markets even though the MENA region is still considered an emerging digital ad market. The IAB GCC study is one of the first to try to size programmatic spending.

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In February Edmond Moutran, the founder of Memac Ogilvy, passed away. Moutran, who was born in 1944, joined Bahrain-based Intermarkets in 1973. In 1984 he left to establish his own agency, Middle East Marketing And Communications (Memac). In 1986 Memac entered into an affiliation with Ogilvy & Mather, and in 1998 renamed itself Memac Ogilvy when the WPP-owned network took a minority stake. In 2014 Ogilvy took a majority stake, but Moutran stayed involved, only stepping aside from his CEO role in 2017 to become executive chairman.

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In July Saudi Research & Media Group (SRMG) – which owns more than 30 major media outlets

In October WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook resumed services after being down for more than six hours in a major outage.

Reuters reported that Facebook blamed a faulty configuration change for this outage that prevented the company’s 3.5 billion users from accessing its social media and messaging services.

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In November Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Meta, which brings together all the company’s apps and technologies under one new company brand.

Meta’s focus will be “to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses,” said the newly rebranded company in a statement.

In February news broke that, after 2024, Saudi Arabia will no longer allow its public sector to contract with foreign firms that do not have their regional headquarters sited in the kingdom.

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In January Publicis Groupe held talks about a possible sale or transaction with a private equity investor. In March Publicis Groupe’s share price rose on fresh M&A speculation, this time involving Havas owner Vivendi. Publicis Groupe’s shares rose 3 per cent to about 52 euros, following a report that said the ad agency group had discussions with Vivendi. In October Publicis Groupe overtook Omnicom and WPP to become the world’s most valuable agency group, after performing better than its two largest rivals since the start of the pandemic. Publicis Groupe’s stock market value had risen to more than $16.3bn. That compared with Omnicom, previously the biggest agency group, on $15.1bn and WPP on $15.4bn.

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In January Cannes Lions announced plans for the year’s International Festival of Creativity to take place at an in-person event in June. However, in April, amid ongoing concerns around the safety of international travel and large-scale events during the coronavirus pandemic, Lions announced that Cannes Lions 2021 would be fully digital, running as Cannes Lions Live.

In June Cannes Lions announced all the winners of the 2021 awards.

The MENA region collected Gold, Silver and Bronze across different categories. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Egypt collected awards.

MEMAC Ogilvy, Dubai won Gold with Buy With Your Time for Ikea in Direct. Leo Burnett Beirut won Gold for Baklava Got Legs for #Safetyforsafekeeper in Entertainment and Impact BBDO Dubai won Gold with The New National Anthem Edition for An Nahar newspaper in Brand Experience and Activation.

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In November at the annual Loeries Awards, held in Cape Town, South Africa, and celebrating the best work from Africa and the Middle East, the MENA region did well. Havas Middle East’s Liquid Billboard for Adidas picked up the Out-Of-Home Grand Prix, and the UAE Media Office’s work with MullenLowe and TBWA\RAAD also picked up a number of prizes. Among

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by a woman, but seeing a list of only men at the top of the industry drew attention to the lack of balance.

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In August Abu Dhabi-based independent music company PopArabia announced the launch of ESMAA, a UAE-based music rights management entity, to facilitate music licensing in the Gulf region.

ESMAA works broadly with both global rights holders and regional businesses to provide Gulf markets with the ability to license music domestically for the first time.

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the other Gold-winning agencies from the Middle East and North Africa region were FP7 McCann and Serviceplan Middle East.

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In June the advertising and marketing industry’s first global diversity and inclusion census got under way. The World Federation of Advertisers organised the census, which was supported by VoxComm and EACA, representing agencies, Campaign, Kantar, Cannes Lions, Advertising Week and The Effies.

Initial results identified key challenges around family status, age and gender as well as ethnicity and disability. It found clear gaps in lived experience when these groups were compared with the industry average, both in individual markets and globally.

four-point mandate outlines a commitment from men to play their 12 part in realising the aims of the programme by tackling the career progression challenges faced by women in PR.

workforce whilst addressing the growing demands of the future of work”.

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In November a consultancy dedicated solely to workplace culture was launched in the UAE, founded by locally based entrepreneur sisters Lucy and Camilla d’Abo, along with employee engagement expert John Hague. The new venture, Together, “aims to inspire brands to make culture their superpower and transform organisations by bringing together leaders and employees to achieve an aligned, effective and engaged

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In September we published the Campaign MENA Power List, a supplement where we offered heads – and only heads – of network agencies and holding groups, and of major media owners and reps, the chance to write an essay next to their profile. Everyone on the List was a man. It is a list of 17 talented men who wield power and influence in the brand communications business, and no one has suggested any of these men individually should be replaced

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In March Motivate Media Group, Campaign Middle East’s publisher, launched a new arm, Motivate Create. Through partnerships and in-house, Motivate Create will offer video services, photography, animation, streaming and studio and equipment rentals across the region. Motivate Create offers clients content and tools across social, print, video and digital to cover wide industry sectors.

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In October Multiply Group, a diversified company and a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-listed International Holdings Company (IHC), took full ownership of UAE marketing and communications firm Viola Communications, as it continues to expand rapidly and broaden its service offering in the marketing sector.

In February UAE-based communications heavyweights Margaret Flanagan and Lisa King announced the launch of their new agency, Tales & Heads. With a combined 40 years of industry experience with global agencies in both London and Dubai, the duo formed Tales & Heads to focus on strategic, insight-driven campaigns that are rooted in great ideas and work across platforms.

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In May, following the launch of Taa Marbouta – a unique women-to-women mentorship programme – PRCA MENA and Global Women in PR MENA called upon men in the PR and communications industry to adopt the Taa Marbouta mandate. The

In November Campaign’s flagship Marcomms 360 conference took place in person, back after a Covid-induced online event last year. An exciting line-up of speakers shared their forecasts at Five Palm Jumeirah, Dubai.

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In October, Expo Dubai 2020 finally opened to the public after a one-year delay due to Covid. Actor Chris Hemsworth invited visitors in an ad for Emirates, and brands including Canon, Pepsi and Mastercard all leveraged their partnerships with the Greatest Show on Earth.

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PITCHES

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Unilever In September the biggest media pitch of the year – for FMCG behemoth Unilever –came to a conclusion. While WPP emerged triumphant globally, Omnicom’s PHD picked up significant pieces of the business, including in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. Incumbent Mindshare retained most of Unilever’s media business across its top six markets: North America, the United Kingdom, India, Indonesia and China.

The pitch was the first open review from Unilever in six years, since 2015.

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L’Oréal In November L’Oréal Middle East selected Accenture to help the beauty group across the GCC use data and advanced technologies to deliver a more authentic and human-centred consumer experience across its brands.

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DTCM In March Wunderman Thompson Dubai was appointed by the Dubai Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing (DTCM) as its campaign creative partner for the next three years. The award concluded a worldwide pitch conducted in the last quarter of 2020.

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Adidas In April Havas Middle East announced the latest addition to its fashion and lifestyle portfolio – globally renowned sports lifestyle brand Adidas.

Havas will lead the communication efforts in the GCC, across Adidas Originals and Adidas Performance.

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Emirates NBD In January FP7 McCann successfully retained the Emirates NBD account following a highly competitive pitch process involving five other network agencies. The same month, it won the creative brief for food delivery service Talabat and The National newspaper.

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Standard Chartered In October Dentsu International was selected as Standard Chartered’s media agency of record for a further five years, having successfully defended the account in a competitive pitch.

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Under Armour In March Under Armour appointed TBWA\ RAAD to lead the creative advertising for its Middle East brand campaign. The new partnership came into effect immediately.

Spotify Premium In September Spotify Premium appointed independent creative marketing and design firm And Us Dubai as its creative agency for its integrated 2021 MENA campaign. The agency worked closely with Spotify and its Premium team to devise and deliver a new marketing campaign called #ShowYourPremium to raise awareness of its Premium offering across multiple segments of the MENA audience.

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Euronews In June new communications agency Tales & Heads was appointed by Euronews, a European international news media company, to handle corporate and consumer communications in the Middle East and the UK, following a competitive pitch. The agency later won Saudi media conglomerate SRMG as well.

Volkswagen In February Indie digital communications agency Create Media Group was appointed to handle the social media accounts for Volkswagen Middle East. The agency will lead content production, paid media and social media management to support the Volkswagen brand and business across GCC markets, Jordan and Lebanon.

PARTNER CONTENT

December 19, 2021

Etihad airways selects Ad-Lib.io to evolve and scale its cross-channel digital marketing Ad-Lib.io’s solutions are user-friendly, scalable and transparent

By Janira Hernandez, Head of MEA, Ad-Lib Digital

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tihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, and Ad-lib.io, the next-generation creative management platform (CMP), have partnered to advance Etihad’s digital advertising capabilities to the next level by leveraging Ad-lib.io’s leading platform for digital-savvy brand marketers. Following a rigorous RFP process, Ad-lib.io’s platform was selected to deliver a user-friendly interface, simple scalability and transparent workflow that would enable teams to collaborate on automated ad production across display, social, and video. The partnership supports Etihad’s mission of digital transformation through advanced capabilities for dynamic creative optimisation (DCO). In addition, Ad-lib.io’s solution fulfilled Etihad’s need for increased personalisation and DCO via an intelligent automation methodology that interweaves the creative expertise of their production partner, EG+, with the trafficking and audience expertise of their media agency, Crossmedia.

Etihad Airways is part of Etihad Aviation Group, a diversified global aviation and travel group headquartered in Abu Dhabi, offering flights to 67 passenger and cargo destinations in 45 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. In conjunction with codeshare partners, it offers access to hundreds of international destinations in just one booking through their network. Etihad Airways has been officially rated a Five-Star Global Airline by the Airline Passenger Experience Association

(APEX) in the APEX Official Airline Ratings 2021. In addition, media monitoring and analytics company TalkWalker has identified Etihad Airways as the leading Most Loved Brand in the Middle East and Africa.

“Our campaigns must easily scale to reach over 20 markets with as many as 25 routes per market, each including multiple cabin classes and pricing,” said Amina Taher, vice-president of brand, marketing and sponsorships at Etihad.

“Add to that complexity the importance of meeting our online customers where they prefer and how they prefer – be that via any channel or creative format – and the challenges of scale and governance increase exponentially. We are looking forward to partnering with Ad-lib.io to easily manage our campaigns to meet these requirements while maintaining a high level of relevance to our customer audiences.”

Ad-Lib.io provides the leading next-generation creative management platform for marketers at the world’s largest brands to enable them to scale their digital creative. Ad-Lib.io connects creative and media workflows using intelligent automation, making it easy and fast to produce and optimise relevant ad creative across all digital channels. These ads are 60 per cent more cost-efficient to produce, according to Ad-LIb.io’s customers, which include 10 of the top 30 global brands.

“With its fingers on the pulse of the market, Etihad has foreseen a resurgence in travel, inspired in part by the trust it has built with its customers during the pandemic. Ad-lib.io is honoured to become an integral part of

Etihad’s initiatives to scale the breadth and depth of the airline’s relationships with travellers worldwide,” said Oli Marlow Thomas, founder and president of Ad-Lib.io. “We look forward to growing our presence in MENA to support world-class brands like Etihad.”

To find out more about Ad-Lib, reach out to janira@ad-lib.io or visit the website at ad-lib.io for more details.

“Ad-lib.io’s solution fulfilled Etihad’s need for increased personalisation and DCO via an intelligent automation methodology.”

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MEDIA

MILESTONES subscription model. Major news websites the world over charge for their content as the advertisementbased model is no longer viable. The international publishing industry has been faced with increasing costs and has seen dwindling ad revenue. News websites have had to change strategy and adopt subscription models that suit their businesses.”

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In March RECMA, the independent research company that reports and tracks the performance of media agencies around the globe, placed Mediabrands first among media agency groups across the MENA region. UM MENA was the secondbest media agency in the world, and the best in MENA for the fourth year in a row.

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In March Mirchi, an Indian music and entertainment company announced its official launch in Dubai. Re-entering the UAE after a “short, strategic break”, Mirchi is partnering with Dolphin Recording Studio to reintroduce its radio and digital platforms.

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In December in Saudi Arabia, after media agencies and media owners joined their voices with advertisers to call for more accountable, transparent, industryled partnerships and initiatives to drive growth, the Media Rating Company (MRC) was announced.

Driven by the goals of Vision 2030 and a call from the industry for greater transparency and accountability, the MRC has announced the launch of Television Audience Measurement in KSA in 2022, as Phase I of its initiatives.

Nielsen is the data supplier chosen to partner with the MRC.

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In January Abu Dhabi Media, a UAE public service broadcaster and media company, appointed MediaSat, a Choueiri Group company, to handle advertising sales for its general entertainment TV channels,

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radio, digital and publishing, across the MENA region and beyond. In February Rotana Audio Visual appointed Digital Media Services (DMS) Saudi Arabia, also part of Choueiri Group, to handle the exclusive advertising sales for Rotana Audio and Video and Rotana FM in the Middle East and Turkey.

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In February Gulf News went behind a pay wall. “Launching a digital subscription is not a trend but reality media houses must accept,” wrote Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Gulf News CEO, editor-in-chief and executive director of publishing.

“Gulf News will soon innovate again and launch an online paid

In March The MediaVantage, a media sales representative based in the UAE and operating the largest portfolio of international media contracts in the region, was appointed by Abu Dhabi-based news outlet The National as its exclusive media sales representative. The MediaVantage will manage commercial opportunities as part of The National’s recently announced international digital expansion, with editions now spanning the UAE, Gulf, MENA, UK, US and international.

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In April Group M’s MediaCom launched MediaCom Creative Systems, a global division that will aim to bring media and creative back together using data and technology. MediaCom had already launched Creative Systems in its Australia and US regions in 2019,

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but now staff with global roles will join a global Creative Systems leadership team.

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In June Media organisations in the UAE were allowed to resume distribution of their print products such as magazines and newspapers at public places, including hotels, restaurants and coffee shops in line with the resumption of most business activities in the UAE.

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In June Motivate Media Group and i24 News, an international 24-hour news and current affairs television channel that broadcasts in Arabic, English and French from studios in Jaffa Port, Tel Aviv, signed a partnership agreement. The partnership comes less than a year after the US-brokered Abraham Accords were signed, normalising relations between the UAE and Israel, and it enables both companies to collaborate on multiple fronts including new forms of content and innovative ways of communications in digital, print and broadcast.

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In September What’s On Saudi Arabia, the mosttrusted resource in food, travel, news and entertainment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, announced the launch of the Arabic edition of its website. Originally launched in January 2021 in English, the website will now be available in both languages, which will appeal to both expat and local markets in KSA. The website content will have a strong focus on Riyadh and Jeddah, while also catering to the rest of the kingdom.

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Oh my Pod, have you heard this?

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Listen to Campaign’s latest podcasts to join in the debate and discussion of the latest developments in the region’s media, marketing and advertising scene www.campaignme.com/category/podcast/

December 19, 2021

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MATTER OF FACT News, views & trends from across the spectrum

TARIQ AL-SHARABI Managing Director of Cicero & Bernay Communication Consultancy

DIGITAL DISENGAGEMENT

Where social marketing was once a one-way tool to inform customers, it has evolved over the years into a juggernaut of data and research, adopting the more apt title ‘digital engagement’ and cementing online presence as a platform in and of itself for businesses to reach and cater to wide demographics with their products and services.

Yet, though online presences and tools continue to demand relevance, with audiences and stakeholders increasingly relying on them, 94 per cent of Forbes Global’s 300 biggest public firms (circa 2000) are still not utilising personalisation tools and a shocking 22 per cent still do not link to any brand social channels. In fact, the Global Marketing Engagement Index from PR and marketing agency Lewis, which gives scores out of 100 for engagement, found that 65 per cent of industries had their scores fall this year.

In a digital world that is continuously adapting and growing, it is no longer optional for businesses to boost their online tool sets or continuously streamline processes. The competition is real, and seamless customer journeys are now a requirement.

45%

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Brands that still do not use video assets on their sites

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Global CEOs who have not been in media interviews for months

SOURCE: PRWEEK

85%

Companies from Forbes Global’s 300 biggest public firms with no chatbots on their sites

CEOs who have social media presences

GAME CHANGER

BREAKING THE NET

#NOT

LikeTube

UpTik your campaign

Mind your nails

Fashion company ASOS worked with influencers to create a series of TopView TikTok ads showcasing its USP and utilising the #AsosChaosToCalm hashtag.

The videos received a total 1.3 billion views since the campaign’s inception in mid-November, with TikTokers posting their own finds from the platform behind a specially designed promotional filter.

A recent video that Jennifer Aniston posted to promote a product on her Instagram page had eagle-eyed viewers calling her and her team out for an obvious continuity mishap due to different coloured nails between shots.

With a person of her calibre and a production team behind her, it’s a wonder how such a clear error still eluded those involved. Worse yet? The video is still live.

YouTube recently updated its interface to hide the dislike counter following an experiment that it held earlier this year. The company claimed it is to decrease negative-review bombing, but the online community is divided on the matter. On one hand, no other platform has a dislike button, but on another hand, with so much content on the platform, a high dislike-to-like ratio will desuade viewers from watching a low-quality or clickbait video.

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ABU DHABI MEDIA The Other Side Production house: TheCompanyFilms Director: Rajeev Thottippully

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THE ROYAL COMMISSION FOR ALULA AlUla – The World’s Masterpiece Agency: Leo Burnett Director: Bruno Aveillan

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ADIDAS WOMEN Beyond the Surface Agency: Havas Middle East Production house: La Cosa

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EMIRATES We’re on Top of the World Production house: Prime Productions AMG Filming company: Choppershoot Event agency: TECS Event Services

FILM CAMPAIGNS

Agency: TBWA/RAAD Production: Camouflage Productions Director: Rodrigo Valdes

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TIMBERLAND MIDDLE EAST #NatureNeedsHeroes Agency: Do Epic Sh*t

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DUBAI TOURISM A Five-Star Mission Agency: Mother Director: Craig Gillespie

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MTV LEBANON #StopTheMyths Agency: TBWA\RAAD Lebanon Production: Wonderful Productions

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PAMPERS ARABIA Behind Every Hero Agency: MSL Middle East (Abla Nari Bennoud, Farah Nezam) Production house: Abdelkarim Djennaoui Director: Abdelkarim Djennaoui

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PORSCHE Drive2Extremes Agency: Keko Dubai Executive creative director: Sandy McIntosh Production house: Stoked Director: Nicholas Schrunk

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CANON Trailblazers PR agency: Shadani Consulting NISSAN Nissan X-Terra: Bond Wherever You Go

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KOTEX Period or Not, She Can Agency: AKQA

SPOTIFY Listening is Everything Agency: FP7 McCann DUBAI DESIGN DISTRICT Rethink the Regular Agency: Memac Ogilvy

LAND ROVER Defender Production house: The Film House Dancer: Nicole Nyemi-Tei Director & EP: Omar Khalifa AL ETIHAD CREDIT BUREAU Majd and The Librarian Agency: Serviceplan Middle East Production company: Hanzo Films Directors: Esfandiar Haji and Shahriar Ghatre

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EMIRATES Chris Hemsworth at the World’s Greatest Show Director: Robert Stromberg Production company: Moving Picture Company

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NEOM Made to Change Agency: McCann London Production company: Joy Films Director: Dave Meyers

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DUBAI SCIENCE PARK Stuck Film production company: Feel Productions Production consultant: Dejavu Healthcare agency: McCann Health Middle East Creative agency: FP7 McCann Dubai

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UAE GOVERNMENT MEDIA OFFICE It’s Possible Creative content studio: Virtue International

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STC Sarha Agency: Wunderman Thompson Saudi Arabia has vast deserts, and many parts of the country are uninhabited, un-survivable and un-reachable by most – except for the desert camel, the only being that can easily get there. Meet Sarha: the first content-creating camel, who helped Wunderman Thompson put STC (Saudi Telcom), the kingdom’s biggest network, to the ultimate test and demonstrate its widest coverage.

With the help of Sarha, global professional photographers were able to connect remotely and join Sarha on a journey of discovery and be among the first group of people to ever witness and capture the land of Saudi Arabia that has opened its doors to tourism for the first time.

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ADIDAS Liquid Billboard Agency: Havas Middle East On June 24, Adidas unveiled the world’s first liquid billboard in Dubai,

Dubai were a part of a campaign organised by the UAE Government Media Office to celebrate the Hope Probe reaching Mars. Phobos and Deimos, the moons orbiting Mars, were projected in the sky using technology that has never been seen in the UAE. Two giant 100-metre cranes and an advanced 40-metre screen were used to make the moons appear realistically in the sky and visible from long distances away.

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MTV #WeAreUnbreakable Agency: TBWA\RAAD On August 4, 2020, Lebanese citizen’s homes were broken, along with their lives, hearts, dreams, hopes and families. The entire country collapsed. But their resilience, their determination to unveil the truth and to see justice take its course remained unbroken. #WeAreUnbreakable is a joint initiative between creative agency TBWA\RAAD and Lebanese television channel MTV, in collaboration with Swiss artist Simon

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in line with the brand’s recent debut of its Burkini Collection. The first-of-its-kind stunt celebrates Adidas’s drive to offer a wider choice of technical apparel for athletes everywhere, simultaneously inspiring confidence in women and building on its commitment to making the future of sports as inclusive as possible.

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LEGO SAUDI STORES Saudi National Day Lego Al Madina Newspaper Agency: Havas Middle East Lego’s Saudi Stores recreated a leading Saudi newspaper on the morning of Saudi National Day to highlight the nation’s pride and progress. On the 90th Saudi National Day, Lego Saudi Stores collaborated with Havas Middle East to take create a newspaper front page in Lego.

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UAE GOVERNMENT MEDIA OFFICE Phobos and Deimos Agency: Mullenlowe MENA The Martian moons that suddenly appeared in the Al Qudra area of

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M.A.L.I. MOVEMENT Traditional Virginity Test Agency: TBWA\RAAD Mouvement Alternatif pour les Libertés Individuelles – Maroc (M.A.L.I. Movement) chose February the 14, Valentine’s Day, a day that epitomises love and togetherness, to launch a campaign against women’s ‘virginity testing’, breaking the myth of the ‘unbreakable’ hymen and shedding light on a patriarchal concept that still exists around the world, even in modern societies: ‘women’s virginity’, a symbol of women’s oppression.

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MOBILY Protectset Agency: MullenLowe

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FRIENDS OF CANCER PATIENTS #YMCASelfCheck Agency: Havas Middle East The Havas team discovered the moves of catchy 1970s anthem YMCA could be adapted to create #YMCASelfCheck, an easy and fun self-check dance – supervised by a medical expert from FoCP – showing people how to perform selfexamination through the four letters of the song title.

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LE CRAN (BLACK ASSOCIATIONS REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL) Invisible Salary Gap Agency: Publicis Dubai “Some salary gaps seem to be more visible than others; there is literally an elephant in the closet that we need to make visible.”

That’s how Louis-Georges Tin, the Prime Minister of the State of African Diaspora and Honorary President of Le Cran (Black Associations Representative Council) briefed Publicis Dubai with the mission to raise awareness on the Ethnic Pay

INTEGRATED AND ACTIVATION CAMPAIGNS

Berger who flew all the way from Geneva to support the cause.

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PLAYSTATION Launch of PlayStation 5 Agency: Lightblue In anticipation of the regional launch of the PlayStation 5, Lightblue conceptualised a series of world-class stunt executions with a diverse audience in mind to bring to life the limitless possibilities of the console.

Lightblue created a campaign with a spectacle including two highly trained wingsuit athletes jumping from the top of Burj Khalifa and soaring down to the landing.

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multi-angled musical and visual showcase was bought to life by the Create Production team and played out across various owned social media platforms of the contributors, free of charge, on February 6, 2021.

DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM AND COMMERCE MARKETING (DTCM) David Guetta United at Home DXB Agency: Create Production This event was the fourth instalment of the world-renowned DJ’s ‘United at Home’ concept, breaking new ground as the first musician to perform live from the helipad of the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel, more than metres in the sky. The seamless,

MullenLowe MENA and Mobily created a headset that protects young gamers from predators by making them sound older. Using cutting-edge, voice-modifying technology, the product helps stave off child abusers acting in gaming platforms and raises awareness about the issue worldwide. A huge spike in children playing online games during the pandemic is seeing experts and charities warn that tighter restrictions need to be put in place to protect kids online ahead of this year’s Safer Internet Day.

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ADIDAS Arwa Al-Banawi’s collaboration with Adidas Agency: Sweetwater Arwa Al-Banawi’s collaboration with Adidas was a big “first” for the Arab fashion world: an iconic Adidas shoe, reimagined by a Saudi designer for a global release. Sweetwater was tasked to launch the drop, celebrating the historic importance of Saudi talent having a global audience.

Gap. The project created a Twitter account, @lonelypaygap, to raise awareness on the issue.

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LAISHA Domestic violence helpline for Israeli women – *6724 Agency: Havas Tel Aviv Since the domestic violence helpline for Israeli women – *6724 – never received a respectable place in the media, most women don’t know it exists. To change this, Havas Tel Aviv partnered with Israel’s most popular women’s magazine, Laisha (‘For the Woman’ in Hebrew).

In order to help save women’s lives, Laisha changed its traditional cover for the first time in 75 years and used the magazine’s cover as a media channel for the helpline’s distribution.

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BURBERRY TB Summer Monogram Agency: Lightblue Lightblue collaborated with Burberry, revealing the next chapter of its TB Summer Monogram

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space for audiences to engage with cultural sites and programmes within Abu Dhabi’s cultural sector.

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SPORTS FOR ALL FEDERATION ‘From I can’t to I can’ Agency: FP7/KSA Sports for All Federation (SFA) sits under the Ministry of Sports, and its main role is to advocate healthy living and physical activity by organising neighborhood and outdoor sports events.

In 2021, and after the great success achieved from launching the ‘Baytak Nadeek’ – ‘Your Home – Your Gym’ campaign in 2020, and since all sporting activities were still on hold due to the Covid-19 situation, SFA launched its campaign to highlight the importance of exercising and practising physical activity.

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campaign, captured through three breathtaking vistas featuring the Thomas Burberry Monogram. In the Dubai desert, multidisciplinary artist Nathaniel A. Alapide created unique sand inscriptions, celebrating the larger-scale Thomas Burberry Monogram introduced in the new collection.

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IKEA Messi Agency: Memac Ogilvy Memac Ogilvy created a post as a reactive piece of social content in response to Messi leaving FC Barcelona. Memac Ogilvy knew die-hard Messi fans would be heartbroken – so the team wanted to help fans always keep a piece of Messi’s legacy. Instead of tucked away in their wardrobes, as a reminder that they could never wear it during another game, the team decided to help fans frame the t-shirt in their homes.

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THE DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE AND TOURISM – ABU DHABI Visit abudhabiculture.ae Agency: Create Media Create Media, with the purpose of creating content that takes the Department of Culture and Tourism’ (DCT’s) cultural venues and programmes online, built a virtual

UAE GOVERNMENT MEDIA OFFICE Martian Ink Passport Stamp Agency: TBWA\RAAD Rocks were collected during a special mission to the UAE’s eastern Al Hajar Mountains and Sharjah’s Mleiha Desert by experts and gemologists.

They were then crushed into a fine paste, dried in the sun and mixed with adhesives to create three separate colours that represent the Red Planet – ready for stamping into the passports of thousands of visitors.

The activation was done in honour of the Emirates Mars Mission’s Hope Probe.

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PIZZA2GO, RED CRESCENT The ¾ Pizza Box Agency: Mullen Lowe MENA The ¾ Pizza Box, launched in a collaborative effort between Red Crescent, Pizza2Go (a local pizza restaurant in Dubai) and advertising agency MullenLowe MENA, removed a quarter of the pizza and its box to effectively eliminate the 25 per cent that would otherwise land in the bin.

However, that’s not the only thing the ¾ Pizza Box does. Customers paid a special price of AED 44 for their orders, with 25 per cent of it being donated to Red Crescent to help those in need. This made it the UAE’s only pizza during Ramadan that doesn’t just taste good, but does good too.

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RECKITT Social Distancing Prayer Mat Agency: Impact BBDO and BBDO Pakistan To help keep Muslims praying in mosques safe from the spread of coronavirus, Impact BBDO and BBDO Pakistan collaborated to introduce an innovative modification in the ubiquitous personal prayer mat to encourage social distancing. To build social distancing, this newly designed prayer mat is a 180cm wide with a message imprinted amidst its motif that reminds worshippers to maintain a safe distance.

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DIGITAL AND SOCIAL 2

PEUGEOT Disconnect Before You Drive Agency: Science and Sunshine Production house: Sensa Digital Peugeot launched its new campaign, titled “Disconnect Before you Drive”, aimed at identifying distractions motorists face on the

road. The French automotive manufacturer is embarking on its second road safety campaign, which was launched following a study conducted by Peugeot showing that more than a third of drivers conduct meetings and conference calls whilst driving.

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TENA Age of Despair Agency: Impact BBDO In response to International Women’s Day 2021 #ChooseToChallenge, Tena launched a regional campaign to remove the stigma associated with menopause and suggest a new phrase in place of the term “Age of Despair”. The term “Age of Despair” has been used to describe menopause over generations, and Tena’s survey has revealed that an overwhelming majority of women would prefer a new and more positive phrase to define this physical and psychological stage of a women’s life.

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OREO #TreatFails Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai This Halloween, Oreo celebrated all cake fails, or #TreatFails. This is the campaign the brand released to promote Oreo’s cake recipes. The premise?

While your cake may look like a nightmare, rest assured it’ll taste great. Gautam Wadher, ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai, said: “Cake fails are a part of pop culture. With this Halloween campaign, we’re making sure Oreo celebrates every baker even if they are a beginner who creates tasty nightmares.”

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YAS ISLAND ABU DHABI Stayin’ On Yas Creative agency: Momentum Media agency: Starcom Production house: Dejavu Dubai Yas Island Abu Dhabi launched its marketing campaign Stayin’ On Yas, based on the 1977 Bee Gees hit single Stayin’ Alive. It encourages staycationers and vacationers to ‘break like you mean it’ in a new integrated roll-out.

The Stayin’ On Yas creative executions feature three holidaymakers channeling the Bee Gees on a staycation like no other as they experience the wide range of activities on Yas Island in style.

The campaign is styled in the format of a music video, taking viewers on a lyrical journey with the new Yas Island anthem, Stayin’ On Yas, a modern-day tribute to holidays.

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KFC Shift+KFC Agency: TBWA\RAAD KFC unveiled a cheat code to let gamers power up with a limited-edition menu item. Everyone could use the “Shift+KFC” code to score the all-new KFC Gamers Meal,

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a rare new collectable specially created to be a fuss-free, fast and easy power-up to fuel all your gaming sessions.

It was done by logging on to the KFC KSA website www.saudi.kfc.me and entering “Shift+KFC” to place the order.

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ALULA The Living Museum Agency: Create Media Group The Living Museum is an online constellation of stories of the AlUla area of Saudi Arabia that takes audiences from around the world on an immersive digital journey, inspired by the region’s geography, arts, heritage and nature. The website experience journeys through time, creating audience connections to AlUa’s past, present and people.

The site lives through its content; rich visuals, mobile-first video, and 360-degree immersions. Through an acknowledgement of the deep importance of storytelling to the region, it builds a narrative for its audience.

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SNAP INC. ‘Open Your Snapchat’ Snap Inc. recently kicked off its new B2B global marketing campaign, ‘Open Your Snapchat’, in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, showcasing the exceptional results and reach that businesses can achieve through the Snap Camera.

The campaign showcases how brand partners across different verticals in the region are leveraging the full power of augmented reality (AR). On the campaign landing page, visitors can try out sponsored Lenses from 16 brand partners, including regional activations done by Adidas, Ounass, Nestle, STC and StarzPlay.

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THE RAS AL KHAIMAH TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY Live the destination Agency: Sputnik Floyd Creative The Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority has revealed a new identity with a new vision and strategy to portray Ras Al Khaimah as a place live the destination, with the aim to appeal to a more diverse and younger audience, including eco and adventure tourists. The creatives behind the campaign include Sputnik Floyd Creative, Beautiful Destinations and ASDA’A BCW to bring the whole campaign to life.

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DHL ESHOP APP Agency: Horizon FCB Dubai DHL launched its Eshop app for the GCC markets with an online campaign that takes the idea of tapping your finger to buy to a whole new level. Horizon FCB Dubai took its insight of the finger tapping action and recreated an American shopping street diorama in perfect miniature form and made an actual finger the ‘face’ of the DHL Eshop experience. The campaign was launched with one main film and three personalised films showing different shopping situations.

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MASTERCARD MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA #FeminineArabic Agency: Publicis. Sapient and Carat In collaboration with Twitter MENA, Mastercard Middle East and North Africa launched its #FeminineArabic campaign to mark Twitter’s new language setting – Arabic (Feminine). The campaign coincided with Mastercard’s Global Community Day and leveraged inclusion as a narrative. The brand engaged with its audience on a topic that is close to their heart and top of mind. @MastercardMEA pledged to support the initiative with an engaging animated video ad, followed by a Trend Takeover in the UAE, securing a top spot-on Twitter’s Explore tab for 24 hours. Over the year other brands have also supported the cause, including Aramex.

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In April Publicis Groupe announced that Bassel Kakish has been promoted to CEO, Publicis Groupe Middle East & Turkey. Prior to his appointment as CEO, Kakish held the positions of chief financial officer, chief integration officer and co-managing director of Publicis Sapient in the Middle East. In December Publicis Groupe announced that Raja Trad, executive chairman Middle East & Turkey, had decided to retire after more than four decades with the Groupe. He will continue his association with Publicis Groupe in a new capacity as senior advisor to Kakish.

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In June Omnicom Media Group MENA announced the promotion of Elda Choucair from COO to CEO. The previous CEO, Elie Khouri, will now concentrate on his role of chairman.

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In January Ogilvy announced that David Fox would assume the role of CEO for Memac Ogilvy in the MENA region. Based in Dubai, Fox will lead the creative and strategic regional agency powerhouse that counts 11 agencies in nine countries. The move to a new regional position follows six and a half years for Fox as CEO of Ogilvy Australia, having spent 10 years in global client roles with Ogilvy in London. Fox’s predecessor and long-serving senior Ogilvy executive Patou Nuytemans, was promoted to global chief growth officer, growth and innovation for the global creative network. In September Ogilvy announced that Nuytemans would assume the role of CEO of Ogilvy EMEA, taking over from Paul O’Donnell, who will continue as regional chairman and partner.

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In August Impact BBDO announced the appointments of Syed Azeem Afzal as CEO of Impact BBDO Dubai and Samantha StuartPalmer as COO. They will work with Dani Richa, group CEO of BBDO MEAPAK.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

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In February Omnicom Media Group MENA appointed Luca Allam as its new CEO for media agency PHD. Previously, Allam held the role of managing director for PHD UAE.

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In July McCann Worldgroup announced that Ghassan Harfouche, group CEO of the Middle East Communications Network (McCann Worldgroup and Interpublic Group’s partner network in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey), will now oversee APAC as well.

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In June Memac Ogilvy named Till Hohmann as its new chief creative officer for the MENA region.

Hohmann rejoins the agency, having served as its UAE executive creative director from 2007 to 2010. He replaces Juggi Ramakrishnan, who served as chief creative officer for three years.

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In July DDB Middle East appointed Ramsey Naja as regional executive creative director. Naja will join Firas Medrows the current regional ECD, at the helm of DDB’s creative departments. Naja spent more than 20 years with JWT. He worked with both Medrows and regional CEO Hubert Boulos there.

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In October it was announced that Chadi Farhat, chief investment officer of Omnicom Media Group MENA, would be leaving the company at the end of the year to pursue new opportunities. Wissam Najjar, currently chief operating officer of OMD MENA, will now take on the role of COO at OMG MENA.

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In February in a bid to drive its business globally, ArabyAds appointed Gulrez Alam as chief investment and strategy officer to be based out of UAE. Alam has nearly two decades of experience across the USA, APAC and the Middle East, and has been a successful entrepreneur

who founded Resultrix, a digital marketing company, in 2008, which Publicis Groupe later acquired.

global development of EVE, the first 3D virtual events platform in the region.

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In March TBWA\RAAD announced the appointment of Joe Lahham as its managing director.

Lahham will be leading the Dubai operations of the agency and will continue to report to Reda Raad, group chief executive officer of TBWA\RAAD. In March UM announced the appointment of Rasha Karim as managing director, UM Egypt. She joins UM with a strong track record in organic and new business growth, having worked with a vast portfolio of global clients such as P&G, Nestle, T-Mobile, Microsoft and Jaguar Land Rover, as well as having led media for Vodafone Egypt.

In August UM appointed Maria Poulton as managing director, UM UAE. With a renewed approach to talent and an operating model that intends to “flip the legacy model on its head”, UM says it is “looking through a future-facing lens” at some of the cultural and ethical issues affecting the media and advertising industry today.

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In December Grey Group announced the appointment of Pablo Maldonado as the new ECD of Grey Dubai. Maldonado joins from Wunderman Thompson Dubai, where he spent the last few years repositioning the agency in MENA and was most recently the ECD.

In May Omnicom Media Group MENA appointed Chris Solomi as its new chief digital officer. With nearly 20 years of experience in media, Solomi had previously held digital leadership roles in performance, programmatic, analytics and e-commerce including six years at OMG MENA overseeing its performance and programmatic offering.

In May Alanna Turpin was promoted to director of sustainability and culture at Omnicom Media Group MENA. In this new regional role, she will propel OMG MENA’s culture whilst building on strategic sustainability and corporate wellness initiatives across the group. She will lead on employee engagement programmes and internal communications, and support on the renewal of various talent management processes to enhance OMG’s employee offering.

In April TBWA\RAAD announced the appointment of Jim Robbins as its new executive creative director. In September the agency announced the promotion of Alex Pineda to the same title.

Pineda, who has been part of the company for more than seven years and previously held the role of creative director, will be co-leading the agency’s creative workforce and output with Robbins.

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In April Philippe Berthelot was announced as the new managing director (MD) of Grey Dubai. He joins from Entourage Middle East, where, as MD, he oversaw the integration of that agency’s marketing solutions and the

In July Wunderman Thompson announced that Paul Shearer has been appointed global creative client leader, with the title CCO global clients. Shearer joins from his role of CCO of Impact BBDO, where he was based in Dubai.

In September Faisal Al Ayyar, chairman of OSN (Panther Media Group Ltd) announced that Sangeeta Desai has been appointed as interim CEO. Desai had served as a non-executive director on the board for more than a year.

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Channel: Anasala Family Title: Anasala’s Official Labour and Delivery Following the world’s biggest gender reveal on Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Anasala family finally welcomed their long-awaited son Noah, born on New Year’s Eve.

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Channel: Assomi & Waleed Title: Touching Feelings the Moment Papa Left the Hospital – Thank God The Miqdad family celebrates the return of Khalid Miqdad – the Toyor Al Jannah channel founder – after nearly a month in the hospital.

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Channel: Abdo Asalsily Title: When your mother makes an Indomie Suhoor Waking up for Suhoor can sometimes be challenging, but what if the Suhoor meal was Indomie noodles? That is the basis for Asalsily’s sketch.

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Channel: Alkasir Title: When You Go To the Market With Your Mother Going to the market with your mother is not always as straightforward as you would think.

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Channel: AboFlah Title: On the Occasion of 12 Million – Jumps From a Plane AboFlah celebrates reaching the 12 million subscriber mark by skydiving from a plane at 13,000 feet.

Channel: Kadosha Title: Ramadan Reception Join Kadosha on her new adventure, filled with fun and relatable situations, as she prepares for the

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(TRENDING IN THE REGION, RANKED BY GOOGLE)

Holy Month of Ramadan with her family.

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Channel: Joe Hattab Title: The Giants of Egypt From Ash Sharqia, Egypt, Jordanian travel vlogger Joe Hattab uncovers the story of two of the world’s tallest people, Huda and Mohamad.

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

Channel: UTV Title: Iraqi Series: Virus – Season 1, Episode 1 The first episode of the Iraqi youthfocused show Virus.

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Channel: Arabic Mo Vlogs Title: I Made the Biggest Pizza in the World With Chef Burak. I Challenged YouTubers to Eat It With Me Mo goes ‘supersize’ with the help of Chef Burak, making the biggest pizza in the world.

Channel: Ramez Galal Title: Pro Ramez – Ramadan 2021 on MBC Egypt Ramez returns for Ramadan and another prank show with celebrity guests.

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CINEMA ADS OF 2021

Yas Island Abu Dhabi

Cartier

To celebrate the return of the big screen, Motivate Val Morgan has picked 10 of the best cinema ads in 2021 – in no particular order

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he pandemic shuttered cinemas in Q2 2020, followed by a staggered reopening between June and September with cinemas operating at 30-50 per cent capacity. Fast-forward to 2021, and cinemas are now fully operational across the region, with capacities ranging between 50-100 per cent.

A far more consistent and steady content pipeline holds optimism among cinemagoers, and brands too are back to believing in the unparalleled power and effectiveness of the medium. Cinema advertising representative (and Campaign sister brand) Motivate Val Morgan (MVM) has selected 10 blockbuster ads that have lit up the big screen so far during a year of recovery for cinemas.

“While cinemas across the GCC have already welcomed more than 25 million visitors in 2021, our resilience as a cinema advertising business is largely thanks to our management and a team that has unshakable belief in the power of cinema,” says MVM chief operating officer Avinash Udeshi.

NEOM

He adds: “Choosing a Top 10 is always difficult as it boils down to numerous factors, including one’s personal emotion and state of mind, but we sure had fun re-watching every ad, back-to-back, on the cinema screen where every sense and emotion gets heightened.

Cinema has always been the right medium to showcase commercials made in their full length, and though it is a genuine coincidence that many of the ads featured in our Top 10 have a longer run time, every single ad looks and sounds magnificent on the big screen. We hope you enjoy this selection, and a special thanks to all our returning and new advertisers for including us, cinema, in their media mix.”

Brand: Cartier Title: Expo 2020 Women’s Pavilion Agency: MediaCom MENA MVM chose this ad because… cinema is great at driving conversations, and the narrative of this ad highlights a pertinent topic the Middle East is presently placing focus on: recognising the central role women have played throughout history, leading up to the present day.

Agency view: Why cinema for this campaign?

The Women’s Pavilion campaign is very emotional, and Cartier through this campaign wishes to connect with a wider audience to spread its message, “When women thrive, humanity thrives,” and what is better than cinema to reach out to everyone in our region? With a penetration of

82 per cent in the UAE and 78 per cent in KSA (according to Global Web Index 2021), cinema was the best place to run this campaign.

Emeline Thomas, media director – MENA business lead, MediaCom Brand: Yas Island Abu Dhabi Title: Stayin’ On Yas Agency: Starcom MVM chose this ad because… some of the biggest ads in recent decades involve music, and while the creative itself is fun and retro, the catchy soundtrack – inspired by the Bee Gees’ classic ‘Stayin’ Alive’ – over a 7.1 surround sound speaker system in cinema makes this ad more impactful and memorable, one that makes those watching it definitely feel the vibe.

Agency view: Why cinema for this campaign?

With the positive recovery of cinema capacity post the Covid-19 restrictions, we selected cinema as one of the main channels for this campaign as we believed there’s no better way to have the content come to life than to see it on the big screen.

Not to mention that moviegoers go to cinemas to have fun and enjoy themselves, and the ‘Stayin’ on Yas’ film will have them entertained.

Mark Dabu, media manager, Starcom Brand: stc Title: Our Culture is Our Future Agency: Universal Media KSA MVM chose this ad because…this ad was aired in celebration of Saudi Arabia’s 91st National Day, and uses local

footage covering various aspects of the Saudi culture, woven together to create an inspirational story of how the country’s heritage plays a huge role in the sculpting of its future.

Client view: Why cinema for this campaign?

Every Saudi brand has something to say on National Day, so the challenge was to stand out from the crowd. To do this, stc aimed to connect with the Saudi people on an emotional level, by creating a unique community activation campaign through different media channels for which cinema was considered as it’s one of the best platforms to showcase long-form content and narrate a story to audiences.

Mohammed Abaalkheil, vice-president of corporate relations, stc Brand: NEOM Title: Made to Change Agency: Starcom MVM chose this ad because…of its production quality that was on par with big budget movies. The ad’s narrative is absolutely on point for what this futuristic city aims to become.

Agency view: Why cinema for this campaign?

This ‘Made to Change’ ad is a wonderful production, and the strong and compelling long video showcases the power of what NEOM is and will be for the future of cities. Following Covid-19 and lockdowns, cinemas in the UAE have gone back to the old habit of attracting people through the launch of multiple blockbusters. We

December 19, 2021

35

Etisalat

Hermès

TRA Bahrain

Porsche

Mercedes

knew that the new 007 and Eternals – from the Avengers series – were long awaited and that the footfall would be high. Cinema is a great medium to deliver such a highquality production from NEOM with a highly focused audience. It almost feels like a short movie by itself for people daring to dream big.

Sami Sabbagh, business director, Starcom KSA Brand: Hermès Title: The Legend of Hermès Della Cavalleria Agency: Havas Media ME MVM chose this ad because… it is bespoke cinematic content that encapsulates the true essence of cinema. The ad weaves a magical story centred around the Della Cavalleria bag, taking audiences back to medieval times through its beautifully crafted storytelling – similar to a movie trailer.

Agency view: Why cinema for this campaign?

To celebrate the launch of the Hermès Della Cavalleria bag, and to follow on from the success of the Kelly films in 2019, Hermes created a new cinematic trailer as part of an integrated campaign, which was perfect to air in cinema.

Jade Pow, senior media manager, Havas Media ME Brand: Mercedes Title: The New Mercedes-Maybach S-Class Agency: OMD MVM chose this ad because… it is

stc

unlike any other automobile ad – a unique animated visual masterpiece scripted to emphasise everything the Maybach has to offer: exclusivity, excellent comfort and ultimate luxury.

Agency view: Why cinema for this campaign?

We found the perfect place to air our opulent film in the lavish VIP cinemas at premium locations across the UAE and KSA, where we could reach our exclusive clientele.

Aliaa Abdelsalam, media planning manager, Team X Middle East, OMD Brand: TRA Bahrain Title: Digital Theft MVM chose this ad because… of its comedic take on digital prudence, a great example of a public awareness message delivered in a humorous manner.

Client view: Why cinema for this campaign?

We have a very important message to spread about online safety, and we wanted to tell that in a story format that people will remember. The cinema is the perfect venue to spread this message, as the number of people that go to the cinema is significant, and it reaches our target audience in an environment where they are more likely to be receptive.

We’ve been very happy with the reactions we’ve been getting so far and see ourselves using cinema advertising in future campaigns.

Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamoud Al Khalifa, director of consumer affairs and media, TRA Bahrain

Gulf Bank

Brand: Etisalat Title: #TogetherMeans Agency: Initiative Abu Dhabi MVM chose this ad because… of its great copy, suited to the times when the world went into isolation due to the pandemic. This ad reinforces that the world is better together, and what better place than cinema to experience the power of shared experiences?

Client view: Why cinema for this campaign?

The campaign was designed to target audiences of different ethnic backgrounds, which we achieved through playing different videos among foreign and international films in cinema.

Mahmoud Farwiz, director of brand and consumer campaign management, Etisalat UAE Brand: Gulf Bank Title: AlDanah Agency: Wavemaker MENA MVM chose this ad because… it is absolutely over the top. Amazing use of colours, costumes and props, while the soundtrack is also catchy. It looks like the actors had too much fun filming this commercial.

Agency view: Why cinema for this campaign?

Cinema was chosen because the song has proven to be extremely popular amongst the younger generation and the timing was just perfect because cinemas have reopened to the public in Kuwait.

Soha Ashmar, trading manager, GroupM MENA

Brand: Porsche Title: Macan – Your Sidekick, Everywhere Agency: BPG Kuwait MVM chose this ad because…the inspiring copy makes this an atypical automobile ad, where the spotlight is not on the vehicle being advertised. We liked the fact that the focus is on the hero of the story – the owner of the vehicle – and the lifestyle she lives with her sidekick, the Porsche Rapture Macan, always by her.

Client view: Why cinema for this campaign?

Porsche Centre Kuwait identified the Rapture brand and its owners as passionate local partners with aligned philosophies in the attention to detail and devotion for the craft. Such communities dream as big as their passion, with an aspiration to be the heroes of their own stories. Naturally, Porsche Macan’s personality fits with their accord; it is powerful, luxurious, trusted and tested. The reception of the concept was overwhelmingly positive and the sidekick concept was loved. It was then taken to cinema for a wider reach that taps into the younger generation, with a focus on the female entrepreneurial side. The move to cinema has solidified the message of the Macan being a reliable, everyday vehicle, with a flair of customisation packaged in unique local collaboration.

Hany Marie, general manager, Porsche Centre Kuwait

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December 19, 2021

THE YEAR IN

TWITTER A

s 2021 draws to a close, Twitter’s end-of-year reflection showcases the unique way the year unfolded across the platform. Through a data pull of Tweets, hashtags and handles, Twitter highlights the stories that led public conversations across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

UAE In 2021, following the an analysis of data, Twitter revealed that government-related topics were among the most popular conversations in the UAE. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (@HHShkMohd) once again led engaging Tweets; here is a glimpse of His Highness’s most liked Tweets throughout the year: HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s most engaged Tweets 1 January: The year kicked off with a celebration of His Highness’s 15th Accession Day as Ruler of Dubai, and his 15th anniversary as Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE. 2 February: February saw the success of the UAE’s first mission to Mars, as the Hope Probe entered orbit on its first attempt. The most liked Tweet in the UAE for 2021, the triumphant mission was also celebrated by NASA’s own Mars Rover, which congratulated the arrival with the words of poet Al Mutanabbi.

3 March: Following the death of the United Arab Emirates finance minister and deputy ruler of the emirate of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum, His Highness shared his condolences as he publicly mourned the loss of his colleague.

4 April: His Highness shared that the first megawatt from the first Arab nuclear plant has entered the national power grid.

5 May: His Highness celebrated Eid Al-Fitr with the world, sharing his blessings for the future.

6 June: HH Sheikh Mohammed continued his #LifeHasTaughtMe series, sharing his knowledge and experiences with the public, and the importance of growing together as a united community.

7 July: July also saw His Highness impart further insight to his followers,

sharing his goals and the challenges faced in building a greater life for the future.

8 August: Highlighting the strength, and kindness of the community, His Highness shared a video of a cat rescued from an apartment building, calling for the details of the people involved to thank them.

9 September: As the UAE celebrated the opening of Expo2020, His Highness shared photos from the opening ceremony, welcoming the world to Dubai and the UAE. 10 October: With the launch of one of the UAE’s largest events of the year, His Highness shared a behindthe-scenes look into his life, with a photo of his favourite encounter at Expo2020 so far. A young girl had been featured in a video upset at the fact she was unable to meet His Highness. After seeing the video, HH Sheikh Mohammed invited the seven-year-old to Al Wasl Plaza for an impromptu meet and greet, posing for photos with her, and turning her dreams into a reality.

11 November: His HIghness shared his congratulations with the UAE for the successful bid to become the hosts of one of the world’s most important global climate conferences, COP28, in 2023.

Most Engaged UAE Leader Tweets The year also saw continued interest in Tweets from the wider UAE leadership. Here are some of the most liked leadership Tweets of the year: 1 HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces (@MohamedBinZayed), penned a heartfelt note for his mother on the occasion of International Mothers’ Day. 2 HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, (@HamdanMohammed), shared a heartwarming picture of his newborn twins.

3 Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, celebrated the successful mission to Mars.

4 HH Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed, Deputy Ruler of Dubai (@MaktoumMohammed) thanked leadership for his appointment as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

The most used event-related hashtags From celebrations of key milestones, through to regional cultural moments, here are the top event hashtags of 2021: 1 #Expo2020 2 #‫( رﻣﻀﺎن‬Ramadan) 3 #‫( ﻳﻮم_ﻋﺮﻓﻪ‬Day of Arafah) 4 #‫( ﻋﺎم_اﻟﺨﻤﺴني‬Year of the 50th) Most mentioned UAE leaders 1 HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (@HHShkMohd) 2 HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi (@MohamedBinZayed) 3 HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai (@HamdanMohammed)

SAUDI ARABIA His Royal Highness King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s most retweeted Tweets His Royal Highness King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (@KingSalman) drove high engagement across Saudi Arabia, particularly when celebrating cultural moments from Saudi National Day to Ramadan. Here are his most engaged Tweets: 1 King Salman celebrated Saudi National Day, sharing his thanks for security, stability, prosperity and development being felt across the country.

2 Marking the start of Ramadan in 2021, His Royal Highness shared his best wishes with the community.

3 On the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr HRH King Salman celebrated the end of Ramadan, heralding a time of blessings for the country.

4 HRH King Salman shared his prayers for Eid Al-Adha, celebrating the occasion with the Saudi community.

Most mentioned Saudi singers In the place to connect, when it comes to celebrities, people from across the world can directly reach out to their favourite celebrities on Twitter, jumping into conversations or sharing their admiration. Here are the most mentioned Saudi singers of the year: 1 Abdul Majeed Abdulla (@Abdulmajeed6531) 2 Mohammed Abdu (@Mohammed_ Abdu)

3 4

Rashed Al Majed (@RashedTV) Rabeh Saqer (@RabehSaqer)

The most used event-related hashtags As 2021 saw a return to in-person events and celebration, so too did Twitter’s most used hashtags in Saudi Arabia. Here are the top tweeted event hashtags: 1 #‫( رﻣﻀﺎن‬Ramadan) 2 #‫( اﻟﻴﻮم_اﻟﻮﻃﻨﻲ_اﻟﺴﻌﻮدي‬Saudi National Day) 3 #‫( ﻣﻮﺳﻢ_اﻟﺮﻳﺎض‬Riyadh Season) 4 #‫( ﻳﻮم_ﻋﺮﻓﺔ‬Day of Arafah) 5 #‫( ﻋﻴﺪ_اﻟﻔﻄﺮ‬Eid AlFitr) Most retweeted football Tweets As fans continued to take to Twitter to celebrate their love of the game, here are the most retweeted moments from 2021 per month: 1 January: Al-Nassr FC’s former president celebrated the club’s Saudi Super Cup win.

2 February: Al Shabab Saudi FC shared a stunning picture of its stadium.

3 March: Al-Nassr FC shared the news of Mohammed Al-Suwailem’s contract renewal.

4 April: Al-Nassr FC announced Mesli Ben Mahdi Al-Muamar as the chairman of the club.

5 May: Al-Hilal celebrated its 17th win of the Prince Mohammad Bin Salman League.

6 June: Al Hilal SFC welcomed Leonardo Jardim as their coach.

7 July: Al-Ittihad Club celebrated its newest attacking midfielder, Brazilian Igor Caique Coronado.

8 August: Al Hilal SFC welcomed Brazilian footballer Matheus Pereira as an attacking midfielder.

9 September: Al-Ittihad Club praised its goalkeeper Marcelo Grohe, one of the best keepers in the league.

10 October: Al Hilal SFC celebrated its win against Al-Nassr FC in the AFC Champions League semi-final, paving the way to the final match of the tournament.

The most used football club hashtags 1 #‫( اﻟﻬﻼل‬Al Hilal SFC) 2 #‫( اﻟﻨﴫ‬Al-Nassr FC) 3 #‫( اﻻﺗﺤﺎد‬Al-Ittihad Club) 4 #‫( اﻻﻫﲇ‬Al-Ahli Saudi FC) The most mentioned football players Finally, 2021 revealed the most mentioned Saudi League footballers driving conversations across Saudi

December 19, 2021

Arabia. Here are the most mentioned players: 1 Al Hilal SFC’s Matheus Pereira (@MatheusPereira) 2 Al-Nassr FC’s Fahad Al Hurifi (@Fahadalhurifi) 3 Al Hilal SFC’s Salman Al Faraj (@salman_f13) 4 Al-Ittihad Club’s Fahad Al Muwallad (@fahad_almowalad )

EGYPT Most mentioned celebrity handles When it comes to celebrities, people from across the world can directly reach out to their favourite celebrities on Twitter, jumping into conversations or sharing their admiration. Here are the most mentioned Egyptian celebrities of the year: Most mentioned actors and actresses 1 Nabil ElHalfawy (@nabilelhalfawy) 2 Yasmine Sabri (@yasminesabri) 3 Youssef El Sherif (@ElSherif) 4 Ahmed Helmy (@ahelmy) 5 Mohamed Ramadan (@Mohamed_ Ramadan) Most mentioned singers: 1 Amr Diab (@amrdiab) 1 Tamer Hosny (@tamerhosny) 2 Hamza Namira (@HamzaNamira) 3 Mohamed Mounir (@Mounirofficial) 4 Mohamed Hamaki (@Hamaki) Egypt’s fastest growing celebrity handle goes to actress and singer @somayaelkhashab.

Most Liked Tweets by Mo Salah Egyptian footballer Mohamed Salah once again stole the show on Twitter in 2021. Here are his most liked Tweets, with pictures: 1 @MoSalah shared an old photo of him visiting Al-Aqsa Mosque.

2 @MoSalah shared a photo celebrating a moment of joy with his daughter.

3 @MoSalah showed off his physique with a photo of himself at the gym.

4 @MoSalah wished his followers Ramadan Mubarak.

5 @MoSalah tweeted a photo of himself and football players Hossam Ghaly, Mahmoud Trezeguet and Mohamed Hany.

6 @MoSalah shared a photo of himself at a stunning beach in Egypt.

7 @MoSalah tweeted his arrival back in Egypt, with a photo of himself at the airport.

8 @MoSalah showed team pride, sharing a photo of himself on the field during a game.

9 @MoSalah tweeted about a match he they lost back in October, with a rallying message reminding fans and followers that the team is going for the title and has what it takes to win.

10 @MoSalah tweeted a photo of himself enjoying his time in a pool.

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December 19, 2021

THE YEAR IN

SPOTIFY

I

f 2020 was the year that flipped the world on its head, 2021 was the year that we got used to seeing things upside down. With “normal” thrown out the window, we embraced the unknown and championed all the things that make each of us unique. Audio streaming service Spotify’s 2021 Wrapped is a celebration of this – the millions of weird and wonderful ways to listen and live in a world that continues to keep us on our toes. Spotify unveiled the top MENA artists and songs from the creators that helped soundtrack the year for more than 381 million users worldwide.

So, how did the Arab world listen this year? Here’s what Spotify saw: Most streamed Arab artists in MENA: 1 ElGrandeToto 2 Wegz 3 Inkonnu 4 Amr Diab 5 Tagne 6 Marwan Pablo 7 Mohamed Hamaki 8 Didine Canon 16 9 Stormy 10 Marwan Moussa Most streamed Arabic songs in MENA: 1 ElGrandeToto – Mghayer 2 Tagne – Nadi Canadi 3 Issam Alnajjar – Hadal Ahbek 4 Abdullah Al Farwan – ‫ﻟﯾﮫ اﻟﺟﻔﺎ‬ 5 Abdullah Al Mukhles – ‫اﺷﻛر ﺟﻣﺎﻟك‬ 6 Inkonnu – 7ali Ya 7ali 7 ElGrandeToto – Haram (Pablo II) 8 Marwan Pablo – Ghaba 9 Hamza Namira – Fady Shewaya 10 ElGrandeToto – Aloha!

December 19, 2021

SAUDI ARABIA

Saudis love international music, with Masked Wolf’s ‘Astronaut In The Ocean’ becoming the most-streamed song of 2021 and BTS becoming the most-streamed artist this year. But beyond international music, Sheilat – a traditional genre that has been evolving recently – has been striking a chord with local listeners. Abdullah Alfarwan, an eminent figure in the genre who is leading the way with bringing poetry that was sung amongst tribes in previous generations to an upbeat beat that is enjoyed by the youth, has earned his spot as moststreamed Saudi artist in the country for Wrapped 2021. He also bags two spots in the most-streamed songs top 10 list with ‘Leh El Jafa’ coming in second and ‘Wesh Ozark’ coming in ninth.

Commenting on the news, Abdullah Al Farwan said: “I want to thank my fans for their support and love. I am thrilled to be the most-streamed Saudi artist for Wrapped 2021 on Spotify.”

KSA’s most streamed artists: 1 BTS 2 Abdullah Farwan 3 The Weeknd 4 Travis Scott 5 Drake 6 Doja Cat 7 Xxxtentacion 8 Justin Bieber 9 Ariana Grande 10 Gharib Al Mukhlis KSA’s most streamed songs: 1 Masked Wolf – Astronaut In

UAE

For the second year in a row, the globally beloved K-Pop group BTS is the moststreamed artist in the UAE and the third most-streamed worldwide. Canadian powerhouses Drake (who released Certified Lover Boy in September), Justin Bieber (whose 2021 album Justice featured collaborations with artists from across the globe) and The Weeknd take spots two, three and four, respectively. They are swiftly followed by singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, whose Red (Taylor’s Version) gave old and new fans alike a reason to relive the artist’s early groundbreaking work and who is the second-most streamed artist globally.

The top song of 2021 in UAE is Lil Nas X’s viral ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’.

Masked Wolf’s ‘Astronaut in The Ocean’ comes in second. The Kid Laroi enters the ranks for the first time, with his Justin Bieber collaboration ‘Stay’ taking third place both in the UAE and globally. The fourth spot is Dua Lipa with ‘Levitating (feat.

DaBaby)’, and Olivia Rodrigo comes in fifth, with ‘Good 4 U,’ which also earned the title of 2021 Spotify Song of the Summer globally.

UAE’s most streamed artists: 1 BTS 2 Drake 3 Justin Bieber 4 The Weeknd 5 Taylor Swift UAE’s most streamed albums: 1 Sour by Olivia Rodrigo 2 Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa 3 Justice by Justin Bieber 4 Planet Her by Doja Cat 5 “=” by Ed Sheeran UAE’s Most Streamed Songs: 1 Montero (Call Me by Your Name)’

by Lil Nas 2 ‘Astronaut in The Ocea’ by Masked Wolf 3 ‘Stay’ by The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber 4 ‘Levitating’ (feat. DaBaby) by Dua Lipa 5 ‘Drivers License’ by Olivia Rodrigo UAE’s most popular podcasts: 1 The Joe Rogan Experience 2 Audice Wellness Services 3 TED Talks Daily 4 The Mindset Mentor 5 Let’s Find Out ASMR

39

The Ocean 2 Abdullah Al Farwan – Leh El Gafa 3 Lil Nas X – Montero (Call Me By Your Name) 4 Abdullah Al Mukhles – Ashkor Jamalik 5 Tom Odell – Another Love 6 Doja Cat – Kiss Me More (feat. SZA) 7 The Kid Laroi – Stay (with Justin Bieber) 8 Måneskin – Beggin’ 9 Abdullah Al Farwan – Wesh Ozark 10 Bader el Ghazi – El Donia Dawara KSA’s most streamed albums: 1 Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa 2 Planet Her by Doja Cat 3 Sour by Olivia Rodrigo 4 ? by Xxxtentacion 5 After Hours by The Weeknd 6 Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon by Pop Smoke 7 Justice by Justin Bieber 8 Positions by Ariana Grande 9 Be by BTS 10 Map of the Soul by BTS KSA’s mostpopular Spotify playlists: 1 Best Sheilat 2 Top Khaliji Songs 3 Top Gaming Tracks 4 Today’s Top Hits 5 Top Iraqi songs 6 Hot Hits Gulf 7 Soft Pop Hits 8 90s Love Songs 9 Chill Hits 10 Hip Hop Controller

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40

THE YEAR IN

Comedy

PODCASTS

A

udio streaming service Spotify has shared the most popular podcasts among the platform’s UAE user base.

MOST POPULAR PODCAST GENRES IN UAE (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER) Society & Culture Education Comedy Health & Fitness

POPULAR PODCASTS PER GENRE IN UAE (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER) Society & Culture Anything Goes, with Emma Chamberlain Skypodcast Teenager Therapy Between Us Queens Barangay Love Stories

Comedy The Joe Rogan Experience Call Her Daddy Boiling Waters PH Impaulsive, with Logan Paul The Daily Show, with Trevor Noah: Ears Edition

Education TED Talks Daily Speak Better English with Harry The Tony Robbins Podcast The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast Let’s Find Out ASMR

Health & Fitness The Mindset Mentor On Purpose, with Jay Shetty Superhuman with Wil Dasovich 7 Good Minutes Daily Self-Improvement Podcast Daily Motivations

Society & Culture Health & Fitness

Education

December 19, 2021

GOOGLE’S

YEAR IN SEARCH 2021 These lists were generated by Google, by looking at the most trending queries in the United Arab Emirates between January 1, 2021 and December 10, 2021

TOP 10 QUERIES 1. India vs England 2. Euro Cup 3. Ramadan 2021 4. Tropical Cyclone Shaheen 5. Expo 2020 6. Iphone 13 7. ‫( فلا ةصنم‬Alef, an educational portal) 8. Squid Game 9. Olympics 2021 10. ‫( لمالا رابسم‬Hope Mission to Mars) TOP SHOWS & MOVIES 1. Squid Game 2. Eternals 3. Fast And Furious 9 4. Cruella 5. Godzilla Vs Kong 6. Shang Chi 7. Wrath Of Man 8. Bridgerton 9. Venom 10. Malik

TOP HOW-TO 1. How to check visa status 2. How to delete Instagram account 3. How to change mobile number in Emirates ID 4. How to calculate gratuity in UAE 5. How to pronounce…

6. How to recall email in Outlook 7. How to check individual police fine 8. How to solve a Rubik’s cube 9. How to register for Covid vaccine in Dubai 10. How to lower blood pressure

Top Shows & Movies

TOP DESTINATIONS & EVENTS 1. Expo 2. Global Village 3. Al Baik 4. Gitex 2021 5. Dubai Airshow 2021

Top 10 Queries

Top Destinations & Events

Top How-To

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December 19, 2021

THE YEAR IN

TIKTOK I

n celebration of a one-of-a-kind year, made possible by community-driven entertainment, TikTok unveiled ‘A Year On TikTok 2021’. The year-end report looks back on the trends, creators, movements and moments that made this year one to remember in the Middle East and around the world.

TikTok said: “From global phenomena such as #FetaPasta being the only dish we made in 2021 to border-transcending soundtracks such as Hadel Ahbek (I Love You)

by Issam Najar, as well as moments where the TikTok community shared their stories, 2021 has been brought to life in full-screen, sound-on mode on TikTok, touching lives and cultures along with it.”

“There is something really special about the global community on TikTok that people just can’t find anywhere else. For us, 2021 was a year for connection and we’ve seen people on TikTok laughing together, entertaining us, starting cultural phenomena and teaching us new things,” said Vanessa Pappas, chief operating officer of TikTok. “It has been incredible to see the depths of entertainment and creativity from this community, and we’re delighted to celebrate all the ways we have come together this year on TikTok.”

POWERED BY JOY: VIDEOS THAT BROUGHT MUCH JOY 1. @noorstars – Taking things a step too far.

2. @9.um – The adrenaline will have you head over heels.

3. @iimeeto – Practise makes perfect, or does it?

4. @majedjehani – A coming of age story.

AROUND THE WORLD 1. @k_passionate – Wonder what a sea otter and you smiling sounds like? Watch this.

2. @jongraz – Was it a bones or no-bones day?

Only a pug can tell.

3. @edsheeran – Rehearse for the Euros or make a TikTok? 4. @randyfeltface – Only on TikTok will you find a puppet feeding a giraffe carrots.

5. @noorstars – Visiting a family with too many house rules.

FYFAVES: POPULAR VIDEOS 1. @eliefeghaly7 – Sweeping views of a cloud-kissed Dubai skyline.

2. @waelontour – Exploring the sites, sounds, thrills and tastes of Dubai.

3. @saadradio – Taking on the top five things to do in Amman.

AROUND THE WORLD 1. @totouchanemu – Dancing with a drone made us stay for this one.

2. @nathanevanss – There once was a man... The Sea Shanty heard around the world.

3. @youneszarou – A tasty take on photography.

4. @cunhalucass – A casual trip to the aquarium.

5. @a.z.yx - BRB, changing my PFP.

December 19, 2021

43

ONLY ON TIKTOK: TRENDS POWERED BY TIKTOK FEATURES 1. Transitions – @remiesalloum 2. Slow zoom – @leesaseeal 3. Duet – @alideryan BREAKTHROUGH STARS: CREATORS, CELEBRITIES AND PUBLIC FIGURES ON THE RISE 1. @xzit_thamer 2. @minaalsheikhly 3. @abas.iiii

AROUND THE WORLD 1. Inverted Filter – @livbedumb 2. Versailles Run – @hilaryhyra 3. Retro-Vintage DV – @alexmapeli 4. Duet – @andrewlarranaga 5. Buffering – @robothighway

AROUND THE WORLD 1. @khaby.lame 2. @abbyroberts 3. @BTS_official_bighit 4. @thedutchgoalkeeper 5. @angryreactions

THE PLAYLIST: POPULAR SONGS 1. Hadal Ahbek – @issamalnajjarr 2. Talking to the moon & Fi Hagat – @elyanna 3. I Love You Mama – @alideryan AROUND THE WORLD 1. “Astronaut in the Ocean” – Masked Wolf, @jayprehistoricpets 2. “Beggin’” – Måneskin, @therealmaneskin 3. “Adderall (Corvette Corvette)” – Popp Hunna, @justmaiko 4. “SugarCrash!” – ElyOtto, @zuro_xuro “Stay” – The Kid aroi & Justin Bieber, @luckythirteenz

EATS ON REPEAT: #FOODTOK TRENDS AND OTHER FAVORITES 1. Tarte à la poire by @toomacooks 2. Lunch box by @afnanrecipes 3. Pizza by @muhammed.alba AROUND THE WORLD 1. Feta Pasta by @d_shaba 2. Ratatoutille by @samseats 3. Fried Cheese by @rafael.nistor 4. Egg Mastery by @omuraisupuro 5. Supersized cheeseburger by @cznburak

VOICES OF CHANGE: CREATORS, CELEBRITIES AND PUBLIC FIGURES AT THE FOREFRONT OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND MOMENTS 1. @monkyseemonkydo 2. @lio.coach 3. @mani.rostom 4. @ghadighali AROUND THE WORLD 1. @shinanova 2. @benjy_lookbook 3. @paballokgware 4. @francetvslash 5. @hunterprosper

#Anghami2021inMusic

ON

ANGHAMI

That’s

and

18,779,242,986

10,279,769,513

Top Arabic Artists

Top Intl Artist

minutes of streams in total

Amr Diab

Mohamad Hamaki

Wegz

among them are streams for local artists

The Weeknd

Drake

Billie Eilish

24 Million Users started their day with Fayrouz this year

Rising Artists

Al A5rass

Big Sam

Podcasts Editors Choice 2021

Overnight Hits

Muslim

Weekly Motivation

by Ben Lionel Scott

Love Nwantiti CKay

‫ﺑﻮدﻛﺎﺳﺖ‬ ‫ﱠﺲ‬ ْ ‫ﺗَﻨﻔ‬

Telepatía Kali Uchis

Akhbar el Tech

‫أﺧﺒﺎر اﻟﺘﻚ‬

Beggin'

Måneskin

‫ﺳﻮاﻟﻒ ﺑﺰﻧﺲ‬ ‫ﻣﻊ ﻣﺸﻬﻮر اﻟﺪﺑﻴﺎن‬

December 19, 2021

45

THE YEAR IN

ADTECH 1

In February Huawei Mobile Services announced the expansion of its advertising business into overseas markets including the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan. Huawei Ads is a supply-side and demand-side, real-time advertising marketplace. In March Huawei Ads announced that Connect Ads is now its Premium Partner in MENA, responsible for advertising sales and account management to customers across several sectors.

2

In March the adtech ecosystem got a rude awakening from Google. In a blog post, the tech giant dropped a bombshell that firmly states it will not allow ad tech companies to replace cookies with hashed email addresses or other independent identifiers that track user-level browsing when it removes support for third-party cookies.

3

In May DoubleVerify, a software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics, announced the expansion of its business into the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.

4

In May Majid Al Futtaim, a shopping mall, communities, retail and leisure conglomerate, implemented its own adtech solution to boost supplier sales and profitability further and to drive greater customer satisfaction through increasingly personalised, recommended product offers across its growing e-commerce platforms. The technology ensures Carrefour online customers on its website and smartphone app receive the most relevant and appealing advertised promotions.

5

In June the adtech industry breathed a sigh of relief after Google announced it would extend support for third-party cookies until 2023, one year longer than its original expiration date. In a blog post, Google said it would begin the cookie phase-out process in stages, starting in late 2022.

Following testing, in phase one, publishers and advertisers “will have time to migrate their

services” over the course of nine months. In stage two, beginning in mid-2023, “Chrome will phase out support for third-party cookies over a three month period finishing in late 2023.”

6

In July Aleph Holding, a global partner to some of the world’s biggest digital media players, announced its acquisition of 86 per cent of Connect Ads in a cash and shares-swap transaction. The acquisition saw Aleph Holding entering the MENA market as it continues its drive to expand globally and increase its presence in new territories, now reaching 90 markets and territories.

7

In September global advertising technology company The Trade Desk announced a new partnership with Choueiri Group, the largest media representation group in the Middle East which has close ties with many of the region’s largest broadcasters and publishers. The partnership will open greater access to programmatic ad inventory across the Middle East region. The move will allow advertisers to launch and manage their digital campaigns across multiple channels, including desktop, mobile, connected TV and digital out-ofhome (DOOH).

1

8

In October Dubai-based FoxPush, a regional company providing a full-stack solution for publishers and digital advertisers, announced the launch of its supply-side platform (SSP), built in the Middle East. The platform provides publishers access to available premium demand, delivers on requests from advertisers for more transparency and visibility of the marketplace, and helps to maximise the revenue that buyers and sellers have made towards the brand management of their companies.

9

In November the Advertising Business Group (ABG) and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) GCC partnered with the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) – a cross-industry self-regulatory initiative to fight criminal activity and promote brand safety in the digital advertising supply chain – to launch TAG’s international standards in the GCC.

10 8

In November WebEngage, a full stack retention operating system, announced its expansion into the Middle East and Africa, after successful operations across Asia, to address the increasing demand the company has witnessed in the region. The martech company set up a dedicated local team for sales and customer success management in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and Qatar.

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December 19, 2021

47

THE YEAR IN

SOCIAL MEDIA 1

In February WPP and TikTok announced a global partnership.

The partnership allows WPP clients to benefit from unique access and capabilities on the TikTok platform.

WPP will have early access to advertising products in development, ensuring WPP and its clients remain at the forefront of innovation as TikTok further develops its suite of products for brands.

2

In March Instagram launched its popular short-form video-sharing feature, Reels, in the Middle East. The news followed the introduction of Music on Instagram Stories earlier in the month.

3

In April YouTube announced the launch of YouTube Kids in Arabic in 15 countries across the Middle East and North Africa. YouTube Kids makes it easier for families to find videos that children enjoy while offering parents easy-to-use tools to customise their family’s experience.

In July the video streaming platform announced the arrival of the beta version of YouTube Shorts in the UAE, its new short-form video

experience to create short, catchy videos from mobile phones. In September it announced the launch of YouTube Charts, listing the top songs and artists in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE on a weekly basis.

4

In April Facebook announced a new ad solution — Dynamic Ads for Streaming — to help video streaming brands highlight their entire content library so they can showcase the right titles to the right audiences.

With Dynamic Ads for Streaming, when people see an ad of any service in their feed, they can swipe through the ad to see personalised, relevant titles they might be interested in, based on interests they’ve shown on Facebook and Instagram.

5

In May, Twitter brought Spaces to all accounts with 600 or more followers, featuring new updates based on feedback received after months of testing. In August it launched a pilot of its Shop Module, a dedicated space at the top of a profile where businesses can showcase products. In September Twitter’s tipping feature – now called Tips –

launched to everyone, with more payment options to choose from, including cryptocurrencies.

6

In May Snap launched its new entertainment platform Spotlight in markets across MENA, enabling its audience of approximately 75 million users in the region to shine a light on the most entertaining Snaps created by the Snapchat community.

7

In May Twitter announced it would be rolling out its new verification application process and reviewing public applications for verification on Twitter. The latest milestone in Twitter’s plans to provide greater transparency, credibility and clarity to verification on Twitter, the announcement followed the development and launch of a new policy shaped by public feedback in Arabic, English, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese.

8

In June, Google introduced a suite of new features with an emphasis on shoppable content. One such tool, Product Feeds, allow advertisers to link products to an

existing video or image ad campaign on YouTube. Product feeds can also air during skippable video ads adjacent to or underneath the video.

9

In August TikTok announced its partnership with Shopify in the region, which will help thousands of merchants create and run campaigns directly geared towards TikTok’s highly engaged community. In a global study, 88 per cent of TikTok users said they discover new content that they enjoy while using the app, and about half of users said they discover new products through advertisements posted by a product or brand.

10

In October Snap launched its in-app mental health portal, ‘Here for You’, in the UAE in partnership with the UAE Digital Wellbeing Council to enhance the digital wellbeing of individuals and communities in general. ‘Here for You’ is a platform that provides proactive support to Snapchatters who may be experiencing a mental health or emotional crisis, or who may be curious to learn more about such issues.

48

December 19, 2021

WARC SPEND ANALYSIS Global advertising market sees record growth in 2021 – up 23.8 per cent to $771bn

Global, Media investment in 2022 % of marketers Stay the same

Increase 77%

Social media

68%

Mobile

66%

Online search

61%

Podcasts

54%

Online display

47%

Sponsorship

31%

OOH

24%

TV

18%

Cinema

14%

18%

Radio/audio (excluding podcasts)

14%

41%

Prints

Decrease

We do not spend on this channel

26%

4%

27%

6% 3%

33% 4% 16%

26% 39%

23%

37%

16% 15%

26% 27%

41% 27%

18%

55%

26% 10%

0%

9%

20%

41%

5%

20%

30%

4%

10%

39%

13%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Global, Advertising spend by product category Year-on-year % change, nominal 2021

2022(f)

2023(f)

7.3%

5.1%

Fo od

-0.7%

2.3%

8.1%

12.4%

13.1% 9.4%

7.7%

9.1%

2.7%

6.6%

10.8%

15.1%

18.2%

19.9% 7.1%

5.8%

10.1%

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bl is

ilit

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m

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&

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rt po

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7.7%

13.4%

11.3%

13.4% 8.7%

9.6%

10.9%

20.0%

24.6%

26.2%

27.0%

27.1%

27.9% 12.4%

9.2%

5.5%

4.7%

1.9%

0%

11.0%

12.6%

10%

10.9%

17.4%

15.8%

20%

14.8%

30%

30.3%

33.4%

40%

38.2%

41.0%

50%

-10%

TRENDS BY ONLINE MEDIA AND FORMAT E-commerce: The sector is expected to lead growth to 2023, by when the market’s value will have more than doubled from 2020’s level to a total of $137.2bn.

Growth in China’s advertising market is cooling, but

4%

18%

Online video

2.0%

N

ew advertising spend forecasts for 100 markets worldwide show that the global ad market has largely weathered the impact of Covid-19, so far, and is on course to reach a value of $1 trillion in 2025, with more than half of this money paid to just three companies: Alphabet, Meta and Amazon. This is according to WARC, the international marketing intelligence service.

Following on from a meteoric 23.8 per cent rise to a total of $771bn this year – the strongest growth in WARC’s four decades of market monitoring – advertising investment is forecast to rise by a further 12.5 per cent and 8.3 per cent in 2022 and 2023 respectively, with e-commerce platforms set to lead this growth.

The findings are accompanied by a proprietary survey recently carried out by WARC, of more than 1,500 marketing practitioners, which shows that two in three already committing budgets to Amazon are intending to increase that spend. A full 66 per cent of advertising professionals are planning to up spend on TikTok next year, while YouTube (61 per cent of surveyed practitioners), Instagram (60 per cent) and Google (57 per cent) are also set to benefit from higher spend in 2022.

Currently, though, WARC finds that all product sectors are projected to top pre-Covid investment next year, while most sectors were able to record a full recovery this year. Notable exceptions include transport & tourism, which led growth with an absolute increase of $12.5bn this year but is still almost $2.9bn down on pre-pandemic spending levels.

James McDonald, director of data, intelligence and forecasting at WARC, says: “Despite potential headwinds, market data shows that we are currently witnessing a boom in advertising trade like none seen before, led by increased demand for retail media and ancillary publishers such as Google and Instagram, which is now the world’s largest social platform. Our projections show that this trend is set to continue, with Alphabet, Meta and Amazon now on track to account for more than half of an advertising market worth $1 trillion in 2025.

“New coronavirus variants – such as Omicron – may have a negative impact on our current outlook, and while our base scenario assumes that impact is muted, we will continue to review that position each quarter.”

December 19, 2021

to offset the 28.2 per cent decline recorded in 2020 as the coronavirus outbreak first brought the world to a standstill. The sector’s fortunes are heavily dependent on the possibility of future social restrictions in response to emerging variants, though currently growth of 13.3 per cent is expected in 2022.

Cinema: Spend was heavily curtailed in 2020 as cinema chains had to shutter in response to the outbreak, resulting in a 71.2 per cent fall in advertiser investment. Spend rebounded strongly this year, buoyed by a new James Bond film, to record a rise of 149.9 per cent. Further growth, of 26.1 per cent, is currently projected for 2022 but, as with the OOH sector, this is provisional.

Broadcast radio: Investment in broadcast radio ads rose by 8.4 per cent – or $2.5bn – this year and is set to grow by 3.5 per cent in 2022 and a further 1.5 per cent in 2023, by when the market will be worth $34.3bn.

Consequently, it is the only legacy medium set to record continuous growth over the forecast period.

Newsbrands: Advertising spend on print and online news dipped by 4.0 per cent this year, with an 8.9 per cent rise for online platforms negated by a 7.4 per cent decline among print titles. These trends are set to continue to 2023, resulting in online platforms accounting for 42 per cent of total newsbrand ad revenue, up from a share of 31 per cent today.

Magazine brands: As with the news sector, investment gains for online titles were not enough to stymie print losses. Consequently, the total market was down 6.6 per cent in 2021, with a 6.1 per cent dip forecast next year and a 5.2 per cent fall expected in 2023. The online component of the total will grow continuously, however, to command a 49.6 per cent share of ad revenue in 2023.

GLOBAL, ADVERTISING SPEND BY ONLINE PROPERTY US$ billion in 2022(f), nominal Google

YouTube

Amazon

Instagram

168.0

Baidu

35.2

43.6

78.1

15.3

Alimama

42.1

Weixin/WeChat

Facebook 57.6

Twitter

9.3

5.7

Kuaishou

4.6

Snapchat

5.4

Douyin

41.6

8.4

QQ/Qzone

Global, Advertising spend by medium Year-on-year % change, nominal 2021

2023(f)

8.7%

6.2%

3.7%

5.5%

3.3%

-3.4%

-3.8%

-4.0%

ds

-1.8%

Ne w sb ra n

br an ds

M

ag a

lin

zin e

e

di sp la y

TV On

ifi ed Br oa dc as tr ad io

cl as s

e On

to Ou

in the west it is booming, with Amazon on course to amass more than $57bn in advertising revenue by 2023 (up 72 per cent from this year and 308 per cent from 2019, prior to the pandemic). Two in three practitioners already committing budgets to Amazon are intending to increase that spend, while heightened advertiser demand is pushing up the average cost-per-click.

Social media: This was the fastest-growing online sector in 2021, with spend rising 41.9 per cent – or $55.7bn – to a total of $188.8bn this year. Instagram grew to become the largest social media platform in 2021 after overtaking the core Facebook platform for the first time. Instagram is forecast to grow to control over a third of the global social media market in 2023.

TikTok saw ad revenue rise 151.5 per cent this year and is expected to record growth of 75.4 per cent in 2022. Two in three marketers surveyed by WARC say they intend to up spend on TikTok next year, the highest rate across all online platforms.

OTT video: Premium online video platforms – aka over-the-top (OTT) – such as YouTube and Amazon Prime Video, were worth a combined $63.7bn to advertisers in 2021, up 41.6 per cent from a year earlier. Further growth, of 19.7 per cent and 14.2 per cent, is projected during 2022 and 2023 respectively, with YouTube leading the charge and set to be worth $41.4bn by the end of the forecast period.

Paid search: Alphabet is the world’s largest media

lin e

fh

om

To ta l

au di o

On

lin

e

er ce m m co

eo vid OT T

Se ar ch

e-

So

ci

al m

ed

ia

-10%

-2.3%

-2.7%

0.2%

3.5%

0%

1.5%

5.6%

4.4%

6.7%

8.4%

15.5%

21.8% 13.3%

12.5% 8.3%

8.8%

10%

23.8%

25.8% 21.8%

22.5% 13.9%

14.2%

15.9%

20%

19.7%

23.1%

26.8%

30%

2022(f)

33.9%

36.0%

39.4%

41.6%

40%

41.9%

50%

49

owner and Google the largest individual platform.

Its advertising revenue rose by 40.6 per cent to $146.3bn this year, taking 79.7 per cent of all search spend and 19.0 per cent of all advertising spend worldwide. Google’s growth is set to ease to 14.8 per cent in 2022, though 57 per cent of practitioners surveyed by WARC are planning to increase spend on the platform next year.

Online audio: Advertising spend on online audio rose by a third to $5.4bn in 2021, with podcast spend up 50.9 per cent and streaming up 28.4 per cent.

Both formats are expected to see gains to 2023, by when the online audio sector as a whole is expected to be worth $8.3bn. Spotify is one of the main players, set to see ad income top $2bn for the first time in 2023.

TRENDS BY LEGACY MEDIA AND FORMAT TV: Advertiser spend – inclusive of linear TV and broadcaster catch-up services – is projected to grow by 3.3 per cent to $184.7bn in 2022 following a 5.5 per cent rise this year. Linear TV is set to remain larger than OTT – services such as YouTube and Amazon Prime Video – for the duration of the forecast period, though its share of global adspend will dip below a fifth as broadcasters’ video-on-demand (BVOD) services attract incremental dollars.

Out of home: The market recorded a recovery of 21.8 per cent this year, though that was not enough

TRENDS BY PRODUCT CATEGORY (FIVE LARGEST IN 2022) Telecoms and utilities: Helped by its doubledigit growth in 2020, telecoms and utilities is the first category to record advertising spend above the $100bn mark in a single year (2021). Strong investment in online advertising will help fuel further rises, leaving the vertical’s total level of spend in 2023 more than double the pre-pandemic figure in 2019.

Business and industrial: Spend grew by a quarter in 2021 and a further increase of 13.4 per cent to a total of $94.1bn is expected in 2022. Growth from business advertisers in 2023 will be the second-quickest rate across all categories, behind telecoms and utilities, and this brings total spend above $100bn. The sector includes a substantial amount of classified advertising within real estate and recruitment – two bellwethers of wider economic health.

Media and publishing: Advertising investment was largely flat in 2020 but surged in 2021, rising by 33.4 per cent to take total spend to $83.6bn. Double-digit increases in the next two years will push investment above the $100bn mark by 2023.

Retail: A cut of $5.4bn in 2020 will more than be recovered this year – investment will rise by 20.0 per cent before easing to 10.1 per cent growth in 2022.

A further increase in 2023 will lift total spend to $89.5bn, by which point online media will account for more than three-fifths of all investment.

Financial services: Mild growth in 2020 coupled with steep cuts to automotive advertising has pushed financial services into the top five largest categories. Total spend rose by almost one-third this year and this will take total spend to $63.9bn.

Double-digit growth is expected in 2022 and 2023, by when investment will be two-thirds higher than in 2019.

50

December 19, 2021

10

TOP

THE SPIN 8

4

Remember the almost poetic levels of purple prose that would accompany real-estate announcements in the good ol’ boom days? Well, Omniyat is bringing superlatives back: “The Opus by Omniyat is a shining example of a luxury lifestyle retreat created to perfection. From a world-renowned architect to celebrity chefs and fine dining, a design hotel experience to now a limited collection of luxury residences that offer an ownership of history, this iconic property has become one of the most sought-after destinations in the UAE. The Opus by Omniyat offers a work, live, stay, eat, play opportunity to all those entering its undulating curves.” That’s a lot to live up to.

8

3

1

9

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say. But perhaps not when your brand is Lego and the company imitating you makes hand guns. The Danish toy manufacturer sent a cease-and-desist notice to US armourer Culper Precision for making this pistol that looks like it’s meant to be played with. We can see why.

10

9

1

If you want an example of why typography matters, look no further than this appetising sign offering delivery of… what?

We present this ad for a UAE cake delivery service without comment.

don’t need heroes!” it proclaimed (sender’s exclamation mark again). It then leapt into the assertion that “Moral leadership is a verb”.

“I moral leadership”, “you moral leadership”, “he/she/it moral leaderships”… Nope, The Spin isn’t sure we agree.

3

6

2

We’re not too sure what ‘NonceBlox’ is. But anyone familiar with UK prison slang (don’t ask; it was a long time ago, and we’ve gone straight now) probably isn’t putting their trust in it.

4

Much of the talk about Apple’s iOS recently has revolved around the removal of ad tracking. People don’t want their phones to know too much about them. The Spin is terrified after the latest update to our iPhone that it knows something really important that we don’t.

5

“Avoid the HERO trap!” (sender’s capitals, sender’s exclamation mark) was the headline of a frankly perplexing email (not pictured). “We

When we clicked on this article about trouble on a plane, The Spin was disappointed to find out that the people detained were more wannabe terrorists than wannabe octopuses.

This airline may be the largest carrier in Kazakhstan, but that doesn’t stop The Spin sniggering at its name.

7

7

The act of fasting through Ramadan is traditionally a way for those of us who are more fortunate to feel solidarity with those who can’t afford to eat well. It helps us appreciate what we have, by going without food through the day and then being grateful that we have the means to break our fasts at sunset. So the Spin feels this company offering the opportunity to experience “Iftar in the Sky”, billed as “the most expensive Ramadan experience” (AED 66,000, thanks for asking) might be missing the spirit of the season a little.

2

10

6

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