On my first visit to Sudan, I drank water from the Nile and spent hours drinking brandy with Swar and Hassan Issa from the end of their business day until midnight. At that late hour and on the last night of my visit, they and all the other people at the restaurant they had invited me to, remembered to order food. This was their custom and the ultimate gesture of their hospitality.
As the proverb goes, the Nile water that I drank on my first visit brought me back to Sudan many times in the following three years. For on the last day of my first visit, both client and agency agreed to prioritize the many pressing brand and product challenges Shell Sudan was facing at the time. This required rigorous follow up.
Ahead of every return visit I had to plan; the usual cheese shopping list arrived on my desk at HIMA in Ras Beirut. Farwaji was a heavy traveler, and this meant that I had to personally go to Arlequin, Aziz and Dfouny in search for every type of cheese on the list. Learning about the different kinds of cheese was a challenge, as I did not want to look uncultured in the eyes of the Von Buren family and their guests. However, this proved to be a welcome asset as I added the title of cheese connoisseur to my credentials in the ad world.
In all the other Shell markets we were responsible for, the concentration was on pushing gasoline sales via the additives route and promoting premium multi-grade car lubricants. But the challenge in the Sudanese market was very different. Shell Sudan wanted the agency to handle the task of keeping their Rotella truck lubricant brand top-of-mind amongst truck drivers and fleet owners. Bedford trucks were the backbone of most fleets as they were known for their strong engines that allowed them to keep moving despite the unrealistic distances they had to cover, the poor condition of the rural roads and the harsh climate.
In the client brief was a mention that past campaigns concentrated on billboards placed at the forecourts of most Shell stations on truck routes, and classic giveaways like baseball caps printed with the Rotella logo, which were whimsically offered by the station staff to truck drivers. Both Swar El Dahab and Hassan Issa conveyed to me the company’s frustration at continuing to pour money into this campaign and failing to see any tangible results.
Nahi Ghorayeb, my boss in Beirut, made sure to hold the brainstorming meeting following my return from Sudan at Ferdie Farwaji’s office, since Ferdie knew about that market more than most. In the meeting, we found out that in the UK, Shell had just concluded an agreement with Bedford trucks – not only for Sudan – but a pan-Commonwealth agreement by which the truck manufacturer would physically announce, via metal plates stuck to its engines and within its door panels, that Shell Rotella was the lubricant recommended for long-term protection of the engine, guaranteeing the best performance. This endorsement was also to be found in operating manuals and all its sales showrooms and after-sales-service bays. Ferdie also put us in contact with a Chinese thermos flask manufacturer, so when I went back to Khartoum, I was loaded with a comprehensive plan to announce Bedford’s endorsement on the station billboards, the diesel-pump crowns, and a plan for a loyalty program that allowed truck drivers to collect colorful thermos flasks carrying the Shell logo. Also, as we did not want to alienate the drivers of other truck models, we had a campaign planned for them, which ran together with the Bedford endorsement campaign.
Jack Von Buren, Hassan Issa, and Abdel Rahman Swar El Dahab were all thrilled with the work of their new advertising agency. Messages of thanks were sent to Ferdie Farwaji complimenting his agency choice and I became the prime beneficiary of their delight, being the agency man with whom they continued to be in face-to-face contact. This was the launch pad for the establishment of a dynamic image for Lebanese advertising practitioners in Sudan, and it made me proud and humbled to be spearheading it.
Soon after, I accompanied Swar on market visits to the various regions of this vast country. We drove to Juba and flew to Port Sudan. He even planned a Thursday visit that allowed us the opportunity to spend the weekend at Dinder National Park. We stayed the whole of Friday next to a watering hole waiting for a lion, who only came to drink – accompanied by his pride – well after sunset. This was the exciting news that I carried back home. However, my father corrected my claim that this was the first time I had seen a lion, reminding me that I had already seen one – at Giza Zoo in Cairo – when I accompanied him and my mother to the Arab Pharmacists Convention when I was only two years old.
I went back to Khartoum once carrying the complete decoration for a large showcase at the entrance of the Shell building. I shipped this from Beirut as accompanied luggage and had to hire Sudanese carpenters to help me put it together. The result was the pride of Shell Sudan’s management, and every time they had an important visitor while I was in their company, HIMA and I were introduced with the spirit of these being new business leads, offered in continued appreciation for my agency’s quality work.