Ever since Fastlink rebranded to Zain, rumors and speculations about this huge account started to fill the air, which agency will be lucky enough to handle Jordan’s biggest media spender?
Now the heroes of these rumors are Saatchi & Saatchi, MindShare, and some unknown Tunisian agency, in addition to Publicis Graphics & ZenthOptimedia – Zain’s current Advertising agency & Media-Buying-Unit in Jordan.
Publicis Graphics and Saatchi & Saatchi are part of the Publicis Group worldwide, but in the Middle East I guess owners are not the same, however in Jordan their media operations run through a joint company – ZenithOptimedia.
Saatchi & Saatchi handles this account across the region, which made the movement of Zain Jordan to their office in Amman a bit natural, and that’s what we have been hearing since the rebranding process that was carried out by Publicis Graphics, the agency that has been handling the creative work of Fastlink/Zain for the past couple of years.
In mid 2008, a new rumor found its way claiming that Saatchi & Saatchi is setting up its own MBU to split its media operations from ZenithOptimedia, the rumor also claimed that Zain has terminated its contract with Publicis Graphics and is heading to Saatchi, but nothing really happened.
Then I heard a bizarre rumor about a Tunisian ad agency that figured out a meaningful rationale for Zain’s slogan, a wonderful world, and so it is going to nail the account. Some people said that agency was in Algeria, but nothing changed.
Surprisingly MindShare appeared out of no where, and apparently has already won the account, they are going to handle the media buying/planning work for Zain, but still few people are so positive that Zain is moving to Saatchi next month, at least for the creative work.
Losing Zain might not be that bad to Publicis Graphics, it could leave the door wide open for them to win Orange, which is a Publicis client in France. So these rumors could shape the future of advertising in Jordan.
For Y&R, losing Orange means losing the first spot, while for Publicis, losing Zain without winning Orange means a disaster, while winning Zain will boost either Saatchi & Saatchi, or MindShare.
Earlier this year, almost 30 people lost their jobs in Publicis Graphics Amman, UPDATE (the number is not correct according to a comment below) we heard about such layoffs in few big agencies in the region as part of credit crunch effect, but will it stop there?
