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 After splitting with its Levant agencies last week, Saatchi & Saatchi is now planning a regional expansion and refocusing operation, including opening new offices for Beirut and Amman, according to Elias Ashkar, the agency’s regional boss.
The major shift will be away from joint ventures, such as the now-split Levant offices. According to Gulf Marketing Review (which scooped the rest of us with the news on Sunday), Ashkar said Saatchi’s relationship with the Al Sayer Group in Kuwait is “due to change”.
He also said the agency planned to open offices in Qatar, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.
This is apparently part of Saatchi’s global strategy to move to wholly-owned offices, and away from partnerships, according to a statement from the agency.
“Fully-owned Saatchi & Saatchi offices across the region will maximise our network resources and creative energy for clients with interests in multiple countries in the Middle East and North Africa. They will also provide a strong offering to specifically local interests, consolidating our continuing drive to create compelling content solutions that build Loyalty Beyond Reason,” said Saatchi global CEO Simon Francis in the statement.
Weirdly, despite asking, Saatchi declined to get back to AdNation. Whatever could be behind that, we wonder...
In an interview with Emirates Business 24/7 Ashkar – described as “brimming with confidence” – also said branches in Damascus and Baghdad were on the cards in the longer term. As with other planned openings, the Saatchi boss declined to give a timetable.
“At Saatchi & Saatchi, our dream is to be revered as the hothouse for world-changing ideas that create sustainable profitable growth for our clients. This is a dream that shares its vision with the future of the Middle East as a whole,” said Ashkar, quoted in EB 24/7.
“We want to be at the forefront of a cultural refocus that celebrates the values, energy, business aptitude and creativity that have thus far made our region a success, and will continue to sustain us long into the future,” he added.
Well, that’s lovely.
The EB24/7 interview with Ashkar is quite extensive, although without a vast amount of substance, beyond “we’re gonna open offices” and “we’re gonna be great”.
When the expansion/refocusing actually gets going next year, we’ll be interested to see what shape Saatchi MENA ends up in, and if the agency can shed its current rep as one of the more troubled creative houses in the region.
Watch this space.
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