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 TBWA\Raad is the latest company to announce its occupancy at Abu Dhabi’s up-and-coming media zone twofour54, according to a report in The National.
The ad agency will move its Abu Dhabi offices to the zone, and will be sharing space with fellow Omicom agencies OMD and PHD. It will also be able to service its Abu Dhabi-based clients, including Etihad Airways, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management and Ferrari World.
The National’s report says TBWA’s twofour54 presence will be a “regional creative hub” of up to 70 people – which to our ears (eyes?) seems to imply the Abu Dhabi office will be the agency’s main site. In fact, the firm’s Dubai 160-strong offices – located in Emaar Square, in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa – will remain as its regional HQ.
Nevertheless, TBWA’s new Abu Dhabi office sounds like something approaching an advertising-focused paramilitary unit, judging from boss Ramzi Raad’s comments about a “swat team” of creative planners – who will presumably swoop in to any emergency pitches and blow the shit out of them with high-calibre sharpies.
“It’s the environment that we would like to be in,” said Raad in The National, speaking of the twofour54 move.
“It’s an environment of communication and of creativity, and being there will stimulate our creativity because they are all the time interacting with people who think the same way,” he added.
To date the Abu Dhabi freezone has seen more action on the media end of the equation, with new broadcasters and publishers settling in regularly. TBWA\Raad is the first big advertising player to sign up, and – apparently – had to convince twofour54’s management that it would contribute, according to The National.
Personally we’d accept “contributions” in the form of a large cheque quite happily, but maybe that’s just our shallow, mercurial natures revealing themselves.
The National quoted freezone boss Tony Orsten as saying it only wanted partners which could add to a “content creation ecosystem”, and accepted TBWA on the basis that it committed to doing creative work with Arab talent in its twofour54 offices.
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