1. After six years with Havas, the media account for Emirates Airline has been up for pitch in recent months. Havas CEO Dany Naaman told Campaign in October that “it’s obvious that [what Emirates requires] is getting more and more complicated, and Emirates has the right to see if we are the right partner and if we continue to deliver the solutions that are relevant in the marketing realm”.
2. Accenture Interactive was appointed by Infiniti Middle East in November to handle the carmaker’s
digital marketing duties across 11 markets. Accenture said: “The collaboration will assist Infiniti Middle East to continue to innovate in new ways by using digital channels and position the company as a leader in the ever-changing automotive world.”
3. In August Publicis Media won the EMEA media account for luxury goods and fashion conglomerate LVMH. The pitch covered 15 markets in EMEA, including the MENA region but excluding the UK and LVMH’s home market of France. In the MENA region, Omnicom’s OMD was the incumbent.
4. FP7 McCann was named lead strategic and creative partner for Dubai Holding, which has diverse operations in 12 countries and aportfolio of assets worth about AED130bn. In April FP7 had announced it was the lead agency for Dubai Holding subsidiary Dubai Properties.
5. Multinational tech company Lenovo in January appointed Leo Burnett MEA as the ad agency for its PC business in the Middle East and Africa. Lenovo is one of the top five PC manufacturers in the world.
6. Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo in May appointed M&C Saatchi as its new creative agency to launch its new handset across the region. Oppo is the fifth largest handset manufacturer globally, and the fastest growing.
7. In April, French automotive brand Peugeot revamped its GCC agency line-up. It appointed Science & Sunshine as its creative agency, Performance Communications to handle media relations and Socialeyez to manage its social media.
8. Another big win for M&C Saatchi came in March, when it was named creative agency of record for Pizza Hut in the GCC. The pitch took place over several months, with two finalist agencies working with Pizza Hut for a month and the winner taking the account.
9. McDonald’s Egypt awarded its digital and social media account to OMD in January, the first time the fast food giant has worked with the agency in Egypt.
10. McDonald’s was the second notable win for the Omnicom agency in January. OMD also won Zain Group’s media portfolio in Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Zain Kuwait had previously announced that it would reappoint its incumbent creative agency, J. Walter Thompson.
