A veteran of the advertising business in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Samir Ayoub has held the position of Mindshare MENA CEO for 17 years before he decided to resign from the post earlier this year. He continues to be affiliated with Mindshare MENA till July 2016 as its Board Member. In Mr Ayoub’s reign, Mindshare not only grew its product from traditional media planning and buying to newer products and services in areas including data analytics and luxury as alternate revenue streams but also expanded in all markets in the region. Mr Ayoub is confident of the structure Mindshare has created for itself to face the challenges of a tough year, and advises the industry to see downturn as an opportunity to invest.
In a conversation with Arabian Marketer, he says that the best way to face a tough year is by learning from past mistakes. Excerpts:
Will MENA lose its place as a growth market given the economic forecast and political turmoil in the region?
Most international companies perceive MENA as a growth region even though Middle East is facing more than its share of crisis. Falling oil prices, lack of political stability, power struggles and impact of global economy among other factors made 2015 a tough year. 2016 will be even tougher. I am confident that in 2017, the markets will pick up and there will be benefits for all. The downturn is an opportunity to invest. Companies should take the right steps to settle and establish themselves so that they can avail these benefits.
What are some of these steps?
To begin with, it is important to be efficient and well structured across the region, because then the structure can deal with challenges. Mindshare has a very efficient system across the region. We don’t have to downsize and we look for opportunities outside the box like data analytics, activation that can add to our revenue streams. Whatever does not kill you makes you stronger. This phase is a good learning experience that is making us stronger.
How do you see the growth in technology impacting the business in 2016?
The fast development in technology is not only affecting consumer’s lives but also the way they interact with brands and consume media. Digital is growing at the expense of other media such as print and to some extent, television. When you look at our offering in digital as an agency today versus what we offered three years back, we have tripled headcount, increased investment and attention to cope up with this emerging trend. And digital will continue to evolve at high speed. Three years ago, it was considered niche and today, it is mass. Everyone is online.
What does that lead to?
The growth of social, search, programmatic, display and such is impacting traditional display. Buying banners for the sake of awareness is history because the way people will buy digital cannot be based on leads or acquisitions. Now we have data to track what is performing and what is not. Marketers’ view of digital will change moving forward because of accountability and how digital is delivering. Banners on the net will stop and even on social media. Look at the change in social media, for instance. Twitter is more popular in Middle East than Facebook. In future, there will be a question mark on the performance of such social platforms and new platforms will come up.
What is your advice to agencies to make MENA a growth market?
Learn from the mistakes of the past – everyone makes a mistake but the better company is the one that has taken its lessons from it. We have to constantly look at ways to attract and develop clients because that is the only asset we have as an agency. We need to see how to keep the upper hand in competition. It is becoming more important than ever to have credible research data to know what works and what doesn’t work when we invest clients’ money. Finally, as an industry, we also have to see how we minimize, if not stop, the price fall that is affecting everyone.
