Advertisers Business Group appoints Louis Hakim as the new chairman

Louis Hakim, Vice President of Royal Philip Electronics and CEO of Philips Middle East was elected last month, as chairman of Advertisers Business Group (ABG), formerly known as GCC Association of Advertisers (GCC AA).

Louis replaces former Unilever Chairman, Jan Zijderveld, who is departing from the Middle East on to a new opportunity at Unilever based in Singapore.

Alongside Louis Hakim’s election, the newly appointed members of the committee include Sara Sahely, Manager of Group Advertising of Emirates, who was re-elected as Vice Chair, Raef Labaky from Nestle, Mark Butterfield from Unilever, Margie Gilbride from Beiersdorf, Chareeka Jolly from Kraft and Fadi Ghosn from General Motors.

‘We will cooperate together to form a strong representation of the brand community at large, ensuring the implementation of the ABG’s vision of taking the lead in setting global best practice standards in Media and Advertising’, says Louis Hakim, Chairman of ABG. ‘We will also develop communication campaigns to raise awareness and drive interest around ABG.’

Through his new role, Louis together with the team aim to keep the momentum on People Meters and constantly evaluating the regular updates on the progress and results, in addition to pushing forward a quantifiable auditing process of print publications using Castor.

‘As an association, we will work on building bridges with large organizations on common topics of interest where learnings and successes can be shared. Moreover, ABG will also seek to enhance its membership by providing quarterly or semi-annual forums to give marketers the opportunity to discuss issues and challenges facing them in the Middle East. These forums will be followed by workshops where potential solutions can be generated in addition to promoting cross learning between brands through sharing challenges and best practices’, added Louis.

Tags: ABG, Advertisers Business Group, Chareeka Jolly, GCC AA, GCC Association of Advertisers, Jan Zijderveld, Louis Hakim, Margie Gilbride, Mark Butterfield, Raef Labaky, Sara Sahely, Unilever

Brandcom Middle East aligned as regional partner for Lipton account

DDB Worldwide, part of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC), has appointed Dubai Media City-headquartered Brandcom Middle East as its key regional communication development partner for the Lipton Tea account for the Africa, Middle East and Turkey.

DDB Worldwide was earlier awarded the global Lipton Tea alignment by Unilever (NYSE:UL).

The appointment of Brandcom Middle East does not effect any other DDB global or pan regional accounts in the market. TD&A DDB continues to work with DDB global clients.

‘The Middle East is an increasingly important region for DDB and our clients with significant growth anticipated in the future,’ Patrick Ehringer, President of Middle East & Africa said.

‘Our decision to partner on Lipton Tea with Brandcom Middle East stems from the agency’s proven track record with Unilever brands in the region.’

Brandcom Middle East is an award winning full service agency which received four awards for Unilever’s Axe brand at this month’s Dubai Lynx Awards.

‘We are delighted with our appointment to the Lipton Tea account and look forward to this opportunity to expand our portfolio of work for Unilever,’ Ajay Shrikhande, CEO of Brandcom Middle East, said.

Tags: Ajay Shrikhande, Brandcom, DDB, Patrick Ehringer, TD&A DDB, Unilever