From left, Onur Kece, Founder and Creative Director, and Alix Petit, Design Director, The Refreshment Club.Founded in Paris in 2019, creative agency The Refreshment Club is set to officially open its Middle East hub with an office in Dubai in September 2025.
The creative agency – whose work spans across communication, brand, and platform design for a new generation of luxury and lifestyle brands – will look to enable closer collaboration and faster implementation of adaptive campaigns, retail transformation and culturally relevant creative production in the MENA region through its new office in Dubai.
With a portfolio spanning fashion, beauty, retail, and purpose-led ventures, the agency partners with clients including Louis Vuitton, Westfield, Elie Saab, and the No More Plastic Foundation.
Experts running The Refreshment Club agency
The Dubai office will be led by Onur Kece, Founder and Creative Director, The Refresh Club, and Design Director Alix Petit, who bring together strategic vision and refined creative craft to shape The Refreshment Club agency’s presence in the region.
Kece is the multi-award-winning founder of The Refreshment Club. With more than 20 years at the intersection of advertising, design, and brand strategy, he has delivered transformative work for global clients across Australia, the USA, and Europe, merging cultural insight with technological innovation.
A global voice in generative AI creativity, Kece lectures at SCAD and Istituto Marangoni, sits on the board of Parsons Paris, and founded The School of Future Fundamentals, an AI-education initiative shaping the next generation of creative thinkers.
As Design Director, Alix Petit brings a refined approach to storytelling through design – crafting visual identities and experiences that resonate on both emotional and aesthetic levels. With more than 15 years of leadership in fashion design and brand building, she has developed a unique ability to translate strategic ideas into crafted, human-centered outcomes.
A frequent speaker and masterclass leader in generative AI and business strategy, Alix is also a partner at The School of Future Fundamentals, helping shape the creative education of tomorrow. Her perspective ensures that AI-enabled innovation remains grounded in cultural relevance and design integrity.
Together, Onur and Alix lead The Refreshment Club’s Dubai team with a focus on disruptive thinking, strategic design, and AI-enabled creativity, positioning the agency as a partner for brands seeking cultural and technological relevance in the region.
What the agency brings to the Middle East market
The agency employs an evolved communications framework that merges the fundamentals of traditional advertising with AI-enabled workflows – from strategy to creative production – giving brands new agility to respond, adapt, and move at the pace of culture.
This approach, which it calls the MicroVerse Method, combines identity-based insights with cultural intelligence and future-focused craft to deliver campaigns that feel timely, relevant and emotionally resonant.
The Refreshment Club enters the Middle East with a clear point of difference: bold creative thinking fueled by what’s possible in an AI-driven world. It uses AI not as a backend tool, but as a catalyst for creative transformation, delivering work that builds brand equity and cultural resonance through:
- Precision identity mapping: Deep audience and cultural segmentation to uncover hyperlocal drivers across the region.
- AI-driven campaign systems: Strategic frameworks that synchronize creative, media, and data in real time.
- Premium AI production workflows: Tailored for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle, blending generative tools with expert craft.
- Adaptive campaign models: Built to flex seamlessly across GCC markets while maintaining brand DNA.
- End-to-end execution: Through-the-line services delivered via a new, collaborative model of client partnership.
- Human-AI creative fusion: Custom workflows that merge cutting-edge generative AI with senior creative direction to produce work that’s innovative, culturally tuned, and emotionally resonant.
“Partnering with The Refreshment Club has revolutionised how we build campaigns across every region. Their AI-enabled approach hasn’t just streamlined our process, it has unlocked a new realm of creative possibility and elevated our execution to a standard we hadn’t imagined,” said Tristin Eringher, Group Marketing Director, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.
In parallel with its agency work, The Refreshment Club has also launched the School of Future Fundamentals — an educational platform and transformation consultancy designed to help marketing leaders navigate the evolving world of AI.
“We felt that creating this education platform was absolutely necessary. Marketing teams are being asked to work with AI, but until now, no one was offering a way to understand how AI can truly empower a brand. Most platforms push optimisation or acceleration. The SFF is different — it’s built to educate teams on how AI can amplify brand values and emotional connection,” said Edward Mills, Chief Learning Strategist, SFF.
With a hybrid offering that blends creative strategy, AI-enabled production, and human insight, The Refreshment Club aims to help brands operating in the Middle East create relevance, loyalty, and long-term love not just short-term efficiency.
