Samir Fares insisted that I accompany him to a meeting of the IAA. Since his arrival in Dubai, Samir had worked to establish a local chapter of this New York-headquartered global association, whose objective is the grouping together of advertising agencies, advertisers, and media people to promote the critical role and benefits of advertising. The IAA viewed advertising as the vital force behind all healthy economies and the foundation of diverse independent affordable media in an open society.
Samir had been successful in grooming a wide network of professional friendships that represented the blend of nationalities that had made Dubai their base, and who embraced most communication and business disciplines. The meeting was held at the Dubai InterContinental Hotel and allowed me the opportunity to be introduced to many colleagues from other agencies who had moved to Dubai during my absence. I was also introduced to media people outside the circle of Dubai’s daily press.
The following month, Samir again insisted that I go along with him, which I did. On the agenda was the election of new board members, and this took the form of Samir taking center stage and reminding attendees of the IAA’s mission statement. Local chapters, he said, were not meant to be social clubs, and to my surprise he announced that I was his candidate for the UAE Chapter presidency. Although a group of members had been lobbying to have Hala Chahine Najjar of Publi Graphics run and win. With Samir’s leverage I was voted the third president of the UAE Chapter in March 1986. In my acceptance speech, I committed to transforming the chapter from a lunch club into a dynamic and productive professional association by introducing a code of practice, a program of professional training, group participation in IAA regional and global events, and an annual creative awards competition.
The other members of the board were Fouad Hammad, advertising manager of Al Bayan newspaper, Anil Kapur, general manager of Kangaroo Plastics, Ian Fairservice, general manager of Motivate Publishing, Walid Haikal, chairman of Arab Advertising, and Iqbal Noori, marketing manager of the Khaleej Times newspaper.
At the first meeting of the new board, we had a guest, Fred Pittera, general manager of Sharjah Expo and a past president of the IAA UAE Chapter. Fred briefed us about a code of ethics that had been drafted during his term by a British expert who had been introduced to the chapter by JWT. This lady had spent almost a month in Dubai – at the expense of the chapter – interviewing stakeholders and then writing the draft.
Samir, who was also a guest at this first meeting, suggested that we present the code of ethics formally to the Government of Dubai, and request them to make it official. So, a meeting was arranged with Sheikh Hashr Al Maktoum, to which Samir and Fred accompanied us.
As expected, we were congratulated on being elected to the new board of the UAE Chapter and thanked for producing the code of practice initiative, which we were told would be the subject of a thorough review by Dubai’s Department of Information. The department would then revert to us with its official decision.
After repetitive chasing, we received Dubai Government’s response via a senior officer at the government owned Dubai TV. Our code of practice was not to be implemented by the local authorities, who wished to maintain the open market status of the city. Dubai was known to be an open city for big and small business. The government felt that the code had been drafted for big advertising agencies only, while the city should remain open, even for those who carried around their briefcases looking for business.
After a couple of chapter meetings, we realized that transforming the association from a lunch club into a dynamic professional work group required the removal of its elitist image. We had to welcome all levels of advertising agency staff, media groups and advertisers, and not restrict membership to agency owners and senior officers. This led to the introduction of charter membership (with an affordable membership fee), which quickly caused the chapter’s headcount to multiply. Especially when we awarded every member with a membership diploma that joiners framed and celebrated.
Recognizing that Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry was the official organization that licensed every business in the emirate, and that the Dubai Chamber’s physical identity (logo, branding etc.) had become old fashioned, we launched a proactive initiative amongst all the Dubai-based agencies to design a corporate identity package for the chamber. The response was overwhelming, and we received design proposals from practically all agencies. Even many staff members sent in work on their own. The chapter board shortlisted the best and we met with Mr. Abdel Rahman Al Mutaiwee, the director general of the chamber, to present it. He was pleasantly surprised by the IAA’s initiative, as the chamber had not briefed us, or anyone else, to carry out a new logo design. Nor did the chamber board know that such quality and quantity of work could be done in Dubai. Al Mutaiwee kept the work, as he wanted to share it with the chamber leadership. We begged him not to delay as we were keen to share the outcome and reward the winning agencies.
After almost a month, Abdel Rahman Al Mutaiwee called me to announce that Dubai Chamber’s chairman would like to invite the IAA board of directors and the teams of the three shortlisted agencies to a ceremony to thank us for our initiative. Then, after a short pause, he asked me who would accept the memento from the chairman? As I began suggesting the names of the senior board members, he rejected one after the other. He concluded by bluntly saying that if our chapter was named the UAE Chapter, who was the UAE national amongst the board members? When he explained and insisted that this was a definite requirement, I found myself calling Abdallah Al Ghurair, owner of the Sharjah-based agency TD&A and insisted on him accepting honorary membership the IAA Chapter Board wanted to bestow on him and joining us on the Chamber function to receive the memento from the Dubai chamber President. Abdallah did and this was his initiation into active IAA membership.
Requesting Abdulla Al Ghurair to act as the representative of the IAA UAE Chapter at the meeting with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce’s President; seemed to have sent Abdulla on a journey of self-discovery. His family, Al Ghurairs, being one of the prominent families in the UAE and the richest in Dubai; his fairly young age, his recently received San Francisco University degree; his athletic look and his many other assets – all these made him feel that managing the family grain silos business, was not the job that he wanted to make his lifelong career. This concern made him jump on the advertising agency management opportunity when it posed itself. The instant glamour of the IAA representation made him join the activities of this international organization. When travel became part of the Chapter’s agenda, Abdulla was the first to join.
Getting back to the challenge that was at the heart of Abdulla Al Ghurair’s entry into the world of advertising. This was the advertising agency – called TD&A – founded in 1990, by three young Indians: Ravi Rao, Idris Lien and Babu Subramanian, who approached Ahmed Al Ghurair – Abdulla’s father – to act as their national sponsor as well as their advertising agency’s license owner in adherence with UAE Commercial Law. Later on, Abdulla was assigned to act on behalf of the family in this alien venture to the Al Ghurair Group’s traditional line of business. The announcement that carried the names and personal photos of the 3 partners in Al Ghurair’s ad agency business, declaring that they had been fired, was shocking – to say the least – since it was not common to publish newspaper announcements that made reference to executives of such level of seniority. More so, as it had never been witnessed in the advertising industry before. This announcement had a devastating effect on the business – particularly since the management trio were in complete control. Abdulla Al Ghurair was so hurt to the extent that he did not seem to show any concern – at the time – to the business nor to the change that it could cause to his personal life path.
When hearing the news, I went to our national partner Mr. Jumaa Al Majid and asked for his approval to contact Abdulla Al Ghurair to offer him a merger opportunity, by which we shall manage all the accounts of his agency. Mr. Al Majid said that although his family and Al Ghurair were relatives – by marriage – but they never did business with each other. Anyway he did not stop in our way and gave me the green light to approach Abdulla Al Ghurair. This, I did to be faced by a defiant reaction during which Abdulla told me that he wanted to drop all his other responsibilities. Learn about advertising and manage the agency personally and on his own.
On the other hand, Ravi Rao and his two colleagues soon began working on establishing a new agency, after clearing the legal complications which were thrown at them by the Al Ghurair Group court case. Not before long they announced the launch of their new agency, which after some time signed an affiliation agreement with DDB of the Omnicom Group that got off to a good start. After a year or so, I started bumping into Ravi Rao – and his two partners – at airports when they always seemed to be travelling on golf holidays. Sadly, on the morning of 31st July 2003, we woke up to a headline announcing that Ravi Rao had passed away – the previous day – in a car accident, while on his way back home from the Emirates Golf Club.
Abdulla Al Ghurair proved that he had accepted the challenge and prevailed, proving to the world that he could master the advertising business too. He changed the name of their advertising agency to Pan Gulf Publicity and called on all clients and media, assuring them that it was business as usual. In 1991, he hired Avi Bhojani as CEO and the newcomer capitalized on Al Ghurair family contacts and the inroads that were established by Abdulla, who continued to be perceived as the only UAE national in advertising, to seal monopolistic relationships with Dubai Government entities, at a time when these were lined-up on their launch pads; like the Dubai Shopping Festival, Emaar and others.
In 1998, Pan Gulf Publicity forged a strategic alliance with WPP’s Bates Worldwide, and the name of the agency was changed to Bates Pan Gulf (BPG). Later on, the relationship between Al Ghurair family and Al Shaya family of Kuwait – as well as the newly developed retail business of the two families – all led to the establishment of a partnership for the agency in Kuwait. BPG Kuwait continues to handle all Al Shaya franchised brands – across the entire MENA region – like Starbucks, Mothercare, Boots Pharmacies, Victoria’s Secret, Next, River Island, Cheesecake Factory, Shake Shack, P.F Chang’s and many other brands.