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?
Thanks for this post! very insightful
Interesting post, thanks for sharing it with us!
Seem that the competition is very high in Amman communications!
Thank you guys for dropping by!
Correction: Zain is JWT in Bahrain and Kuwait.
Dear Samer:
Hope all goes well. Sorry havent been on your blog for a while. Just read through the above point, very insightful. Would like to give you a few corrections to your piece:
A. ‘Earlier this year almost 30 people lost their jobs at Publicis Graphics Amman’ that’s actually kind of surprising since it would be so easy for you as a friend of the agency to know the accurate number there. It is very unfortunate and almost heart breaking that 6 people left Publicis Graphics and 2 people left ZenithOptimedia.
B. To reassure you, yes it stops there for us and all efforts are being exerted to try and bring back anyone that left.
C. Orange is a Y&R account in Jordan and PG will not be approaching this account, if we were ever invited to pitch, yes we would be delighted to do so, but that wont be happening anytime soon.
D. Mindshare has won the media contract for ZAIN regionally, so it was not coming out of number, my understanding is that they have been working on this for sometime.
Keep up the great / interesting pieces my friend.
Best Regards,
Amre Husseini
Amre, you guys lost it? khalas?
Yes we lost it as of December 31, 2008
Correction: In Saudi Arabia its Karoui & Karoui and thats the Tunisian agency you mentioned and trust me they are very well known… you can check their website http://www.karouikaroui.com
Now K&K in KSA, but soon there will be other markets to say.
Is the advertising industry so cloak and dagger that industry professionals dont know what is happening with the top account in Jordan?
While i m here, and i admit i dont know much about the industry in Amman, why do respected leading agencies in Amman run FP4C ads in the dailies congratulating and bigging themselves up while attacking their competitors?
Amre why doesnt your website work? why not have a “we are renovating page” or something rather than “If you are the owner of this web site you have not uploaded (or incorrectly uploaded) your web site.” Fancy bumping into you online
Hi Samer,
Can you give us an update on how recession has affected the advertising agencies in Dubai man? We have been hearing rumors of expats fleeing the country.
Cheers
th14 – yes fancy bumping into you online…but who are you? so I can fancy it too…
so who runs the account now?
th14 stop asking me for amre number as in private msgs