"You brought that on yourself!"

Justified or not justified Campaign ME has repeatedly slapped the Middle East ad industry in the face. The spin has become the allegorical Wednesday detention that now makes copy writers think twice before typing on their superfluous Macs. Their awards, though pompous resonated in the industry’s Creatives minds leaving them all plotting next years scheme to become the person whose direction the cheap Champaign glasses are raised in.

So we are slowly but surely getting somewhere with the priority number 1: Creative work, which now brings me to the priority number 2: Brand planning. In a region that is booming with new corporations opening their doors over night and existing corporations having the opportunity to really take off, planning is integral.
Rarely do any local brands think long term. Sure there are a couple of pretty pictures here and there but I have to rack my brains to think of brand ideas that have any staying power…I doubt we’ll see anything remotely close to the BBH’s ‘Keep Walking’ or Chiats “Creative Tools for Creative Minds” in the near future. However, developing an advertising or brand idea to control and propel the overall direction of a campaign might be a good start prior to actually firing out executions.

I know we have the GMR awards but isn’t it time we get some APG, IPA and Effie activity in the region to slap the sh*t out of the industry brand planning as well?