Between 1982 and 1988, when Intermarkets was engaged to Saatchi & Saatchi, almost all the global agencies found partners amongst the Middle East agencies. When Saatchi opened on its own and took the BA and P&G accounts along with it, we at Intermarkets found ourselves without an international partner.
The Intermarkets London presence had been reduced to one person and who was tasked with quickly finding an agency that aspired in the Middle East. The first response was from a non-British and unfamiliar name – BDDP, which was founded in 1984[1] by Jean-Claude Boulet and Jean-Marie Dru, both of whom had left Y&R Paris, taking 150 employees with them. The two were joined by creative directors Marie-Catherine Dupuy and Jean-Pierre Petit, who left their agency, SNIP. BDDP instantly entrusted Intermarkets with TAG Heuer, which was very active in Dubai and allowed us the opportunity to Arabize the brand’s great selling line, “Don’t crack under pressure” and give it the same image boost amongst Arab watch buyers. We also worked with BDDP on the Hertz car rental account and Michelin.
BDDP added a marketing services specialization to its offering, which it labelled Tequila, in 1985. Tequila was globally managed by an Englishman named Tom Wass, who was extremely active in spreading this discipline, and we were lucky to employ experienced European marketing services practitioners at Intermarkets to train and develop the business.
In 1998, following the acquisition of a stake in Batey Ads, the creators of the “Singapore Girl” campaign for SIA, with whom we had been cooperating for many years, and in the wake of the partnership that BDDP had signed with the American agency Wells, Rich, Greene, BDDP invited us all to a global network meeting in Cannes.
I arrived in Cannes late at night and was early to wake up, so I went for my breakfast and morning coffee in the Tequila conference section on the hotel terrace. None of the conference participants were there, but soon a well-dressed, white-haired gentleman appeared carrying an attaché case, indicating that he had just arrived at the conference. He walked towards my table and, after greeting me, asked if he could join me. He looked at the name tag hanging around my neck and introduced himself as Michael Greenlees. This proved to be a great opportunity to meet the new group CEO before many of the other participants.
The next two days were an interesting learning experience with BDDP and Tequila, which introduced me to many colleagues whom I was meeting for the first time. People like Jean-Marie Dru, Marie-Catherine Dupuy, Tom Wass, Rod Wright, Cem Topçuoğlu, Philip Brett and many others, who became lifelong colleagues and close friends.
On the third day, all the Tequila people got on a coach and drove all the way to Marseille, where we cheered the Netherlands and Brazil in the semi-final of the 1998 FIFA World Cup. That was a truly memorable bonding experience.