Tahaab Rais, Chief Strategy Officer at Publicis Groupe MENAT was awarded the Strategy Leader of the Year honour at Campaign Middle East’s Agency of the Year Middle East awards in December 2024.
The award recognised an individual who has made the biggest impact on clients’ businesses through the development of breakthrough consumer strategies, brand and communications.
The judges chose the winner based on clear evidence of the individual’s contribution to both agency and clients. They also acknowledged clear, insightful and change-enabling, innovative approaches to problem solving, and recognised demonstrable ability to develop creative and commercially effective solutions to the clients’ complex challenges.
Publicis Groupe MENAT’s Rais shared his thoughts after lifting the Strategy Leader of the Year award for the third consecutive year.
What does winning this award mean to you?
It’s fantastic validation from our clients and partners that what we are doing is worthy of being recognised and celebrated. Credit goes to my brilliant ‘strategy garage’, to our company’s talents across the board, our partners everywhere and my biggest supporters, including the one and only Bassel Kakish along with Basho and Houda.
Winning this for three consecutive years, across all three years these awards have existed, feels awesome. And as they say, ‘leave on a high note’, I’m retiring from this category of Strategy Leader at the Campaign Middle East awards so we can nurture and give upcoming leaders, from the industry and our agencies, the chance to shine as well.
Can you share some strategies that contributed to your success?
Outthink. Invest in thinking differently and distinctively from others, more than others.
Outwork. Work harder than everyone else through time, effort and perseverance.
Outcare. Care about the people you work with, the clients you work for, and the people you create work for, more than others.
These principles are more than strategies – they are commitments, not only to achieve success but to also build a legacy that inspires others.
What is your proudest moment from 2024 and what’s your key takeaway from it?
Coming back from personal travesties in life last year (they happen) and overcoming mental health struggles to lead the company – strategically – to its best year yet.
Takeaway? We all get knocked out, but we can all get back up again. Never give up. Believe in yourself. And be your own biggest cheerleader.
Has the business case for investing in creativity and disruptive strategies strengthened in 2024?
Creativity is going to be the way for us to last. In a world where AI and automation will be the norm, the way to stand out will be by bringing human intelligence, intuition and hence, human creativity to the fore.
So, investing in it is not just a nice to have but a business imperative. It’ll be the edge that is needed in the upcoming era of thinkers and creators versus doers and makers.
How do you envision the demand for cost, speed, and quality being balanced in the months to come?
To rephrase Frankie Costello from The Departed, we should not be a product of our environment. We need our environment to be a product of us. Speed doesn’t have to come at the cost of quality. Neither does cost effective output. We have got to make our work into products. And we’ve got to show the value behind those products on the business by correlating creativity with impact vs the impact without that creativity. It’s easy, but no one does it.
And so, we need to price those products properly – with costs that are fair to us and to our clients, with the timelines needed to create those products effectively being balanced by planning in advance, courtesy of long term visions and plans versus short term and ad-hoc thinking we often tend to see. This will help us cultivate environments where such a balance is more of the norm and not the exception.
How can marketing be a genuine force for good? And what will it take for brands and agencies to drive real change?
For me, the answer is personal. Anyone who truly knows me knows that I entered this field to harness the immense power and influence of brands to do good in the world – a power I lacked when I first started out. Marketing sits at the intersection of creativity, connection, and impact, offering a unique opportunity to reach the very people we set out to serve.
The products we market, the brands we champion, and the causes we support all share a common purpose: to make people’s lives a little better, a little happier. That’s what makes this profession so rewarding on a personal level. It’s not just about selling or promoting; it’s about creating moments of value, joy, and connection in a world that often feels overwhelming.
As marketers, we are part of a fortunate few who get to shape narratives, craft experiences, and introduce products and brands that enhance lives. If we remain anchored in that mission – to bring positivity and improvement to those we serve – marketing will continue to be a force for good. In a tough world, the work we do has the potential to spark hope, happiness, and even lasting change.
It takes intention, accountability, and purpose, but when we approach marketing with these principles in mind, we affect not just the stuff we make, but also lives.
