The Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA) announced the speaker line-up for its annual REMAP Communications Festival, which will be hosted virtually this year over two afternoons on 7th and 8th December. Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland, Geometry’s Roy Armale and Snapchat’s Vishal Badiani will headline the event, which focuses on the theme ‘Creatively Brave’.
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Unlike any other MEPRA event, REMAP aims to bring together the best minds, innovators, drivers and leaders in marketing and creative strategy, in the hope for a paradigm shift in communications within the Middle East PR industry. The festival will precede the 2020 Virtual MEPRA Awards on 9th December.
Rory Sutherland, who is often labelled as marketing and advertising’s most original thinkers and influential speakers, is set to deliver a talk on ‘why it’s time to hype up marketing’. The Ogilvy UK vice chairman, creative director, behavioural science lead + author will argue how many of today’s problems, which are currently treated as problems of economic efficiency, are really marketing problems in disguise.
Another keynote will be delivered by Geometry’s global chief innovation officer, Roy Armale. Described as a ‘brilliant mind’ by his global CEO, Roy has been credited with bringing new and disruptive platforms to the WPP creative commerce agency. His talk will focus on disrupting commerce through technology and how we use technology to understand and connect with people as they decide on when and what to buy.
Vishal Badiani, creative strategy lead for the Middle East & North Africa, Snap Inc. will join the virtual stage to discuss how the region’s young and highly creative population are pushing the boundaries when it comes to engaging consumers through organic and sponsored augmented reality (AR) experiences with Snapchat. Vishal will draw from his dealings with progressive CMOs from leading brands and disruptive creative leaders from top agencies, who devise campaigns that win an unfair share of attention.
Continuing on the theme of immersive storytelling, Andrew Elia, managing director of the AR and virtual reality (VR) agency Arishi will showcase how AR and VR campaigns lead to the most effective and engaging form of content that has a more significant impact on the hearts and minds of consumers. The UK agency which recently opened its doors in Abu Dhabi, has been credited with bridging the gap between tech and creative. Andrew developed some of Europe’s first AR experiences in 2008 and started Arishi, at the age of twenty-six.
YouGov MENA will launch an original piece of research, examining what consumers in the Middle East want to hear from brands, delving into the role of purpose and how this influences brand loyalty. They will also reveal their new audience segmentation and planning tool, YouGov Profiles, which empowers clients to deep-dive into consumer segments. Hill+Knowlton creative strategist Arne Mosselman will join the session to discuss how these insights contribute to the creative process and how data can dictate the overall success or failure of a brand campaign. The two-day virtual event will end with a case study presentation by Mubadala Investment Company’s head of digital and corporate marketing, Mohammed Al Siddiq who will discuss Mubadala’s social engagement campaign #WeAreDedicated.
MEPRA Chair, Jonty Summers said:
“Each year we aim to bring the most creative thinkers and influential speakers to REMAP, to inspire our communication practitioners to push boundaries and think outside the box when it comes to brand strategy, storytelling and campaigns. We are thrilled with the lineup this year and look forward to tapping into their innovative minds to unleash an undiscovered realm of creative thinking amongst our profession.”
The 2020 Virtual Festival is supported by corporate and agency partners including, Acorn Strategy, Brazen MENA, CARMA, Emirates Global Aluminium, Emirates Water and Electricity Company, Hanover Middle East, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Travelport, Nunify Networks Unified, Mubadala Investment Company and YouGov MENA and Zayed University.
