Last month, following a regional meeting in Nicosia of the DDB network’s agencies in the MENA region, a decision was taken to create DDB Levant an agency, based in Beirut, that would consolidate its network in the the Levant countries and serve as a regional creative hub. DDB Levant’s management team is formed of Ibrahim Tabet: Chairman CEO, Georges Joujou, COO and Regional Creative Director and Mazen Mehio, Director New Business Development. Strategies DDB will now be headed by Randa Tabet. Ibrahim Tabet spoke to EXECUTIVE about the new corporate entity, it mission and its role in an industry beset by regional and local challenges.
E How, when, where and why was DDB Levant conceived?
We have been trying to set up this new entity for a while. We had a meeting a month ago in Cyprus with the DDB management worldwide where DDB Levant was formed and announced officially. Unlike our competitors, namely Impact BBDO and Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB had agencies operating independently in each country of the region. Up till now, DDB is rather a federation of agencies. We are less integrated than other networks.
E You say that DDB Levant’s mission is to, coordinate and develop the network’s business in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. We know about Lebanon but what can you tell us about the size, level of business potential for the other three markets and DDB Levant’s strategy for them?
I cannot talk about Iraq yet because we haven’t tried to assess the potential there. We have other priorities. Lebanon is our main market for the time being among the three countries. As you know, the consolidated billing of all agencies in Lebanon is $150 million in terms of size, whereas the media market is worth $100 million. Lebanon is a source of talent in the region, and a source of production. It is more interesting to shoot in Beirut than in the Gulf. Regarding Syria, the total media expenditure is around $35 million which is very low if we were to compare Syria to Lebanon, Syria being three times bigger in terms of population. But we feel that we have a potential there. We have been serving the Syrian market for three years and we have big clients such as BEMO Bank and Saudi-Fransi Bank. This gives us a foothold in Syria. From this stepping stone, we had an association agreement with Publivision. We have been satisfied with the collaboration and they have joined DDB to become Publivision DDB. We feel that there is a greater growth potential in Syria than in Lebanon. The links with Jordan are less evident. The Jordan DDB has been running for eight years, but proximity plays a role, meaning we have more business with Syria than Jordan.
E What is the difference between Strategies DDB and DDB Levant?
Strategies DDB is an agency that has been operating only on the Lebanese market. Now we have set up new partners. All the former local accounts will remain with Strategies DDB, while the regional accounts will be moved to DDB Levant. They are two agencies operating under one roof, with joint resources in terms of media, creative, and administrative backup. They are also presided over by one chairman, which is myself.
E Do you see a time where Strategies DDB will be absorbed by DDB Levant?
It is Strategies DDB that founded DDB Levant.
E When Lebanon was a hub, the GCC was not as developed as it is now. In a way, it could be argued that the advertising landscape has changed to such a degree that it is not realistic for Lebanon to try and regain its old position. But Lebanon must carve a new niche of what exists now.
Absolutely. You can never go back to the past. Can Lebanon regain “partly” its former role of regional hub? We can be a regional hub for production. As far as film production is concerned, we are a regional hub. It is definitely the case for TV film production. A small survey conducted by the Lebanese advertising agency association, found out that 80% of the income of film productions companies is from film produced in Lebanon for the Gulf. Regarding advertising per se, we are unfortunately reduced to our local market, which have been stagnant if not shrinking for the past two years.
E So it is not Lebanon that’s the hub, it is Lebanese talent.
Yes of course. Our business depends on where the local headquarters of the regional multinational advertisers is based. All these have chosen Dubai as a center of their operation in the Middle East for various reasons … political stability, services etc … yet after the Syrian withdrawal there is a window of opportunity in Lebanon. We have a competitive advantage different that that of Dubai, namely cost, talent and environment advantages. If a better legal framework is provided, then we can regain the hub.
E Magazines are often forced to include client driven information in their editorial in order to secure ad revenue. Do you think we will ever see the day when clients will advertise in a media, especially print a medium, for the content and readership?
I was not really aware of this situation. It is interesting for me to know that clients are mostly interested in having a biased editorial (line). As far as I am concerned, for the type of clients I handle directly, I am much more interested in having an unbiased, quality editorial content than something led by advertising. The media is also the message in terms of credibility and the quality of readers.
E 2005 was not a vintage year for the advertising sector. In your opinion what have been the highs and lows for the Lebanese ad industry? Were their any bright spots in 2005?
First of all, in 2004, we had a healthy growth, whereas 2005 was a setback. We managed to compensate for the terrible loss of the first six months. The total year losses were about 5%. We tried to cope by convincing our clients that even in difficult times they should carry out brand building. Yet convincing existent clients is difficult, unless you acquire new clients.
E What about now? The country is still living an atmosphere of uncertainty. Do you think ad agencies are tightening the belts?
2006 had a good start but with the national dialogue there is again a climate of uncertainty.
E And the future
DDB is the second or third largest ad agency in the world in terms of size. It is the most awarded agency in terms of creativity. We have figures to support that. However up till now, DDB doesn’t have the same ranking in terms of size and creative reputation in the Middle East as it has elsewhere. One of our challenges is to bring up the ranking and creative reputation in Lebanon and the region to a ranking which is at least comparable to the worldwide ranking. We have a new regional management in London. The Middle East was not a top priority for DDB but I can imagine that now that the price of oil is rocketing to $60 a barrel, they realized that it should be a priority market after Japan and this is good news for us.
