It takes optimism to open an ad agency in today’s depressed advertising market. Hani Haddad, manager of the newly set up Spirits agency, has plenty. “I have 17 years experience in advertising in Lebanon. I know exactly what the market needs,” he declared. “We have a totally new perception, and big aims. We’re going to tackle matters completely differently,” he declared.
According to Haddad, there is a niche in Lebanon’s advertising market for a firm that offers only high-quality, top-level services to demanding clients; something akin to a private bank in the finance world.
“For the moment, ad agencies don’t provide this in Lebanon,” he observed. “Clients are hassled with very bad quality services. They have to deal with a number of different people at agencies, and get confused. You can’t find, anywhere, good handling of accounts. Our agency, on the other hand, will have no junior account managers. Clients will be handled by one person and everyone will have an international background.”
Haddad has spared no cost packaging his agency in an air of exclusivity – he is renting expensive high-tech offices in downtown Beirut and has spent big bucks acquiring the right staff. “It was a big investment,” said Haddad, who spent $200,000 setting up the agency. “But since we’re honest and ambitious, we can go a long way.”
So far, the company counts 10 employees and 12 existing clients spanning the fast-moving consumer goods, banking, insurance and services.
