Chapter 114\ Introducing Carlos Ghosn

Neither our direct client, Nissan Middle East FZE, nor Nissan Motor Company’s Japanese agency of record, Standard Advertising, seemed capable of understanding the value of my suggested brand campaign for the Arab markets. I had to sleep on my idea for a couple of years until I parted ways with Intermarkets. Then, as mentioned previously, Kyosuke Miyoshi decided to fire his agency of 22 years and appoint TBWA\RAAD.

As soon as Nissan Middle East was announced as TBWA\RAAD’s first client, TBWA Worldwide group invited me to an important Nissan meeting in Tokyo. All the agencies handling Nissan at the time were represented at this global gathering, which included a meeting with the new CEO at 11am on the first day. In the meeting room of TBWA\HAKUHODO were TBWA’s representatives and Jean-Marie Dru, our global CEO, who was chairing the meeting. At 11am sharp, the lift at the end of the corridor opened and a dark suited gentleman walked towards Dru, shook his hand, and took his place behind the lectern. He then addressed the meeting in English, with a slight French accent.

Carlos Ghosn introduced himself and shared his background with Michelin Tires and Renault. He assured us that he is a great believer in the power of dynamic marketing and told us that he would be counting heavily on TBWA’s support. At 11.30am sharp he wished us all luck and left the room. To our surprise, none of TBWA’s seniors escorted him to the elevator. At lunch we excitedly exchanged our impressions and we all seemed to agree that the new CEO appeared to be super punctual, although he did not look at his watch once. Jean-Marie Dru explained that no one had met him or walked with him to the elevator because he had insisted that the agency not waste its time on such courtesies.

Early in June 2000, Kyosuke Miyoshi called me to say that the newly appointed Nissan Motor Company CEO, who he referred to as my countryman, was planning to embark on his first visit to the Middle East later that month. Miyoshi-san (as he was called by the Japanese) requested that I personally head TBWA\RAAD’s task force in preparing for this visit. Miyoshi further explained that Ghosn wanted to visit Lebanon first, then come to Dubai for half a day to meet the GCC dealers, before leaving for Japan the same evening. He would not have time to go to Nissan Middle East’s offices in Jebel Ali, so both his press conference and his meeting with the GCC dealers needed to be planned in Dubai. This led us to agree to hold the meeting at TBWA\RAAD’s offices in Deira before taking the lift to the top floor, where the press conference would be held in the auditorium of the Dubai Press Club.

On 20June, Miyoshi and I travelled to Lebanon and awaited the arrival of Ghosn, who flew in from Paris accompanied by an entourage of Nissan’s senior executives. On 22 June, we hosted a press conference at the Phoenicia Hotel, which was chaired by Melhem Karam, the head of the Lebanese Press Syndicate, who introduced Ghosn via a prepared TBWA\RAAD script. The conference was attended by most Lebanese media, who showed pride and great excitement at meeting a fellow countryman at the helm of a giant Japanese automaker. All the senior Rasamny and Younis family members (Nissan’s dealers in Lebanon) were at the conference as well. Mohammad Al Hamrani, Nissan’s Saudi dealer, also flew in from Jeddah aboard his private jet so he could participate in the press conference and meet the new CEO.

Immediately after the press conference, Ghosn and the Japanese team accompanied Mohammad Al Hamrani to Saudi Arabia, while Miyoshi and I rushed back to Dubai to get ready for the next day. The Dubai agency team did a perfect job converting our compact office into a large meeting room. A welcome team lined up at the entrance to greet Abdel Wahid Al Rostamani and Michel Ayat of the Arabian Automobiles Company, the Dubai and Northern Emirates Nissan dealers; Abdallah Al Masaood and Samer Boustany of Al Masaood Automobiles, Abu Dhabi; Faisal Al Babtain of Abdel Mohsen Abdul Aziz Al Babtain in Kuwait; Farouk Al Moayyed of Y.K. Al Moayyed & Sons in Bahrain; Hisham Al Manaa of Saleh Al Hamad Al Manaa, Qatar; and Saeed Bin Nasser Al Hashar and Abdel Wahab Itani of Al Hashar Automotive, Oman.

The meeting of all these GCC dealers with Ghosn was warm and amicable, at the end of which Ghosn laid down the Nissan brick in TBWA\RAAD clients’ wall.

Then we all went up in the lift to the Dubai Press Club, where I (in my capacity as consultant to the club) introduced Ghosn to an auditorium packed with UAE media.

The chief guest and his Japanese entourage then descended to the basement garage where a fleet of Nissan Patrols was waiting to whisk them to the airport. They quickly entered the cars, which started to move, but then the front car suddenly stopped, and Ghosn got out and walked towards the group of well-wishers. He pointed to me to step aside to have a private chat. He explained that he appreciated my personal efforts in making his whirl-wind tour so efficient. However, he wanted to let me know of his disappointment, since his friend, the editor-in-chief of L’Orient Le Jour, the leading French language daily had called him to complain about not being invited to the Beirut press conference. I assured him that I had personally been to the office of Michel Helou and delivered a verbal invitation to his secretary, which I followed up with a faxed invitation, since Helou was unavailable. I assured Ghosn that he would have a copy of this invitation on his desk when he arrived in Tokyo. Before heading back to the car, Ghosn said he would be in contact, since he would like us to have a proper chat when the opportunity arose.