Unlike what we had seen with competitors who had partnered with other global agencies, TBWA’s spontaneous ongoing initiatives made us feel like genuine members of the worldwide family.
TBWA made sure to establish frequent contacts between us and its financial people, which was in line with its intention from the very early days of our association to move into an equity arrangement. It insisted on not wanting a non-committal affiliation to drag on, and it seems it had noticed that Intermarkets’ history was loaded with aborted affiliations. Our first contact on this front was with TBWA Worldwide’s chief financial officer, David Lake. Then his replacement, Jonathan Ramsden, flew into Beirut, where he had several meetings with Erwin Guerrovich and our own chief financial officer, Khalil Bitar, during which the next steps for the financial audits and due diligence were defined and agreed. Following this, TBWA appointed auditors and lawyers to conduct both processes. To accompany and supervise this work, which spread across all the Intermarkets agencies, an Italian chief financial officer by the name of Giulio Cimato spent many days in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, and Egypt, concluding each of these visits at the Intermarkets head office in Beirut.
The audit took much longer than expected because the prospective buyers realized they had been auditing the wrong books in Egypt. The due diligence revealed that the Saudi agency had not settled its zakat (religious tax) since its establishment, while in Kuwait it was discovered that the agency was registered in the name of Erwin Guerrovich and not in the name of the company, due to legal complications in that market. Last, but not least, the Syrian agency was registered as fully owned by the son of Abdel Halim Khaddam, the Syrian prime minister. At that stage, the purchase negotiations came to a standstill, as TBWA insisted that all these irregularities be rectified.
When Intermarkets was eventually sold to Talal Makdissi of Team Advertising in December 1999, I immediately stepped out and quickly toured my clients to inform them of my decision. As a result, Nissan Middle East sent an official notification to Intermarkets informing the agency that it was instantly cancelling its 30-year-old contract.
When I announced that I was setting up an agency in partnership with TBWA, Nissan invited me to pitch for its MENA business. On this occasion, the spirit of the TBWA network was brought to life when a support team flew in, led by Robert LePlae, the worldwide account director on Nissan. He was accompanied by a young Japanese whom he introduced as Hidenori Miyoshi. This witty account director, who was seconded from TBWA’s Japanese agency, would later prove to be the person to call on every time we needed guidance or support on servicing Nissan Middle East. The support team also included TBWA’s regional director, Reg Lascaris, and their presence, as well as my own personal experience on the account, resulted in us winning the pitch before our agency had even obtained a trade license from the government of the UAE or secured an office.
At the launch of TBWA\RAAD on 22 February 2000, Michael Greenlees, the president and CEO of TBWA Worldwide, attended our party accompanied by his wife. So did Reg Lascaris, Giulio Cimato, Gary Wenzel the new Global Account Director on Nissan, Cem Topçuoğlu the CEO of TBWA Istanbul, and Rod Wright, the worldwide director of development.
TBWA had been continuously and actively present at all the activities of TBWA\RAAD, including the Disruption Day we organized for Emirates Airline, which resulted in our winning the launch of the Lahore route and then regular projects from the airline in Dubai. Soon we introduced Emirates to TBWA in Hong Kong, so they began handling their advertising for Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Russia became a client for TBWA too, just before we were invited to pitch for the global launch of Etihad, which we won in 2005. This led us to resign the Emirates business and establish our agency in Abu Dhabi. Etihad became an active account across the global TBWA network, while the airline acted as a catalyst for our expansion in the UAE capital. It served as TBWA\RAAD’s reference for the winning of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority account, which gave us the opportunity to win the first Cannes Lion for Abu Dhabi. We also won the Abu Dhabi Airports Company business, the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Ferrari World and Louvre Abu Dhabi. In fact, TBWA\RAAD became the first agency to set up office at twofour54, the Abu Dhabi media free zone.
As I began to expand the TBWA\RAAD network across the MENA region, TBWA Worldwide added global clout every step of the way. Reg Lascaris and Giulio Cimato joined us in Kuwait in March 2001 to sign an affiliation agreement, followed by Lebanon and Jordan. Then Giulio returned – in April to Cairo and in September to Oman – to celebrate these additional affiliations to TBWA\RAAD’s Middle East Network.
TBWA\RAAD signing affiliation agreements in:
