Then one day, Juma Al Majid dropped by to visit Intermarkets accompanied by a Japanese gentleman, whom he introduced as Tetsuji Yamada, head of the Citizen Watch Division. Our two visitors had come to award Intermarkets, the advertising account of Citizen Watches in the UAE. A brand that the Juma Al Majid organization had recently acquired. Juma Al Majid had met Yamada-san when he was employed at National Electronics. When the Juma Al Majid organization got awarded the Citizen dealership, Abou Khaled looked for Yamada and persuaded him to take this leap of faith. Yamada-san proved to be a wonderful client to work for and before long he became a family friend.
Citizen was competing with Seiko in medium-to-low-price watches, particularly amongst buyers from the Indian subcontinent. All TV commercials in this sector were produced in Japan and Hong Kong with scenes and backgrounds that were aliened to watch buyers in the UAE. Yamada-san agreed with this observation, which was brought to his attention by the agency, and supported our recommendation to produce a television commercial in Dubai with the objective of bringing the Citizen brand closer to local buyers. We had noticed that Dubai International Airport’s departure hall had a limited number of retail counters scattered around, which were owned and managed by the private sector. These counters sold watches, calculators, electronic organizers, and cameras. At that time, there was no duty-free facility within the airport.
This led us to plan a commercial using Focus Studios, which was the only production company we knew in Dubai at the time. It was a studio recently started by Bassem Issa, the in-house photographer at McDermott, whom we had initiated into freelancing. Bassem, realizing the opportunity, finally decided to open his own studio.
The TV commercial featured an Indian, working in Dubai, rushing into the airport on his way back home carrying a bulky box-type attaché case that was heavily loaded. He was seen tilting to one side, while his other hand was pulling an even heavier suitcase on wheels. All the time he was struggling to keep his balance between the two heavy loads. He also had a camera dangling from a thick strap around his neck and his passport was protruding from the pocket of his checkered shirt. Our hero was only left with his teeth to bite on his airline ticket. Suddenly, he halts at one of the retail counters, which happens to be a Citizen counter. He looks at the salesman and mumbles incomprehensibly.
The salesman, who notices his predicament, removes the airline ticket from between the traveler’s teeth, thus allowing him to loudly say: “I am about to miss my flight! What is the time?” The salesman pulls out a velvet-padded tray, displaying a range of Citizen watches, puts it on top of the counter and tells the traveler: “You are always on time with Citizen.” The commercial ends with an attractive watch being strapped around the wrist of our hero by the salesman. Then the logo and selling line are super-imposed on the end frame.
The commercial did a fantastic job, as sales of Citizen watches increased, so Juma Al Majid and Yamada-san planned a visit for the two of us to Hong Kong to meet with Citizen’s regional management. The plan was to try and sell them a pan-Arab campaign, which would be orchestrated by Intermarkets.
We were joined by Youssef Habbab and we met with the entire Citizen export team, who were mostly Japanese based in Hong Kong. It was a strange visit, as hospitality was the prime item on the agenda; from the first night at the Volvo Nightclub to the very lengthy lunch at one of the largest Chinese restaurants in Kowloon. Finally, when the time came to discuss regional advertising, a heated argument – in Japanese – took place amongst the Citizen team, while Youssef Habbab and myself sat watching in silence. At the end, Saito-San, export director and head of the Hong Kong office, announced – as if under the influence of another member of the Citizen team who was not introduced to us – that their agreements with all the dealers in each of the GCC markets was to handle advertising on their own, thus encouraging the Juma Al Majid organization to use the services of Intermarkets in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman, where this organization was the sole dealer. We unfortunately failed to add Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar to our portfolio.
Juma Al Majid’s corporate assurance of the latest product availability and after sales care; Yamada-San’s marketing acumen and his alertness to changes in buyers’ preference; and Intermarkets’ strategic thinking and creative support; all resulted in boosting Citizen sales to the never-before seen level of $60 million across the three markets.