Multinational skin care company Beiersdorf has handed its regional digital account to OMD following a competitive pitch.
The account covers the Middle East and North Africa region and will see OMD create and run a digital strategy for Beiersdorf, which has brands including Nivea, La Prairie and Labello.
OMD has partnered with digital agency Flip Media to use an existing integrated model, which they have used previously on other shared clients. Haytham Zoghby, director of innovation at OMD, is set to lead the creative strategy for Beiersdorf.
Naheel Abdelall, marketing communications manager at Beiersdorf Middle East, said: “OMD has not only demonstrated a great passion for and understanding of our brand, as well as very robust digital expertise, they’ve also surprised us with their ingenuity and resourcefulness.
“Together with Flip Media, they’ve demonstrated they have the kind of leadership, talent and performance to help us meet the goals we’ve set for ourselves, both qualitatively and quantitatively.”
Nadim Samara, managing director at OMD UAE and Lower Gulf, said: “This appointment is a significant marker for us at OMD and, potentially, for the industry
at large. Beiersdorf’s progressive view on pursuing a full-service digital solution across media, creative development, content generation, curation, operation and overall brand leadership, required us to organise ourselves, internally and externally, to lead the process. We expect to see more advertisers follow Beiersdorf and adopt a fully integrated media-first model for their digital communications.”
Beiersdorf is headquartered in Germany and has around 17,000 employees worldwide. Its sales in 2013 amounted to $8.4 billion and it was listed by Forbes as the 24th most innovative companies in the world.
OMD was already the incumbent agency for Beiersdorf’s media planning and buying, social media and performance marketing briefs.
As part of the decision by Beiersdorf, Buzzman Middle East has been placed in charge of developing Beiersdorf’s main digital campaigns for the region.
