International communications company Aegis Media, is all set to welcome Antonio Boulos as its CEO for the Middle East. Boulos, who was earlier heading Promoseven in Saudi Arabia, says that he is looking forward to his new job.
“I bring with me a wider spectrum of experience because I have been working beside media services – in brand advertising, corporate identity and PR,” he says.
Aegis Media, which operates through Carat, its subsidiary, in the region, has been putting more focus on the Middle East in the last two years because of the tremendous growth here, says Boulos. And for now, the company has a two-point plan for the future.
“[The plan is] firstly to expand the network and the presence in the region, and secondly to expand the value of communication services that we can offer to our clients.”
Boulos, who has been part of the regional communications industry for more than a decade, says that he has seen it develop tremendously over the last few years.
“Clients today are very much international when it comes to their expectations. They expect agencies in the region to deliver the same quality product as they have seen in other regions of the world,” he says.
A few years back company brand managers and marketers came from a multinational background, but most of them nowadays are basically local managers, he says. “This changes their outlook to life, to the way they see their product being managed, their know-how of the cultures, traditions, and consumer behavior.”
If you agencies fail to be aware of the local particulars of the market, they will fail to deliver to them, says Boulos.
On the agencies side, in the past, all the marketing communications services were handled under one umbrella. But in the last few years, says Boulos, specialized disciplines have been formed as PR agencies, agencies specializing in corporate identity, and media agencies have spun off from all-in-one agencies.
“Of course that brought a different extension into the advertising industry in terms of better expertise, more in-depth knowledge of the industry, and providing a higher quality product to our clients. It also offered agencies the chance to spread the product portfolio.”
As a counterpoint to these advantages, specialization also demands more investment, and this put pressure on some agencies’ margins and revenues. “So the transition was a bit strenuous on revenues, but eventually every entity has become independent,” he says.
Another change Boulos has seen in agencies came with the introduction of new technology. “Now we can produce faster,” he says. “It does not affect the quality of the idea, because ideas come from people. It just helps to implement those ideas.”
Boulos says technology has also made deadlines more rigid – and shorter – because clients’ expectations became higher.
The market has also changed since Boulos began in the Middle East, he says. “When you compare budgets five, six, or seven years ago with today, we are in a different stratosphere altogether,” says Boulos. Inflation on all fronts, including the cost of manpower, rents, lifestyles, etcetera, has also put more pressure on the advertising industry to become more efficient in terms of managing their resources and meeting their clients’ expectations, he says.
“Again we have all gone through a transition period where clients had to get used to the new inflationary factors. And in the meantime agencies were left to fend for themselves.”
And the future of the industry is not going to be easy, says Boulos. While the current financial slowdown has not affected all the regions in the Middle East equally, places like Dubai have been hit. Until the economy gets back to normal, agencies based in the city may have a hard time. “I think some of the small players, or those who don’t have deep pockets or good resources, will probably disappear,” he says.
But the industry needs to go through this transformation, says Boulos, so that it will emerge leaner, streamlined and more efficient.
So is Antonio Boulos looking forward to coming to Dubai? “Yes,” he says, but explains it’s the job not the city that has drawn him to the UAE. Although he’s looking forward to starting in a new city, “What triggered the whole move is really the job. So, I was not planning to relocate,” he says.
