1 Unilever
In September the biggest media pitch of the year – for FMCG behemoth Unilever –came to a conclusion. While WPP emerged triumphant globally, Omnicom’s PHD picked up significant pieces of the business, including in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. Incumbent Mindshare retained most of Unilever’s media business across its top six markets: North America, the United Kingdom, India, Indonesia and China. The pitch was the first open review from Unilever in six years, since 2015.
2 L’Oréal
In November L’Oréal Middle East selected Accenture to help the beauty group across the GCC use data and advanced technologies to deliver a more authentic and human-centred consumer experience across its brands.
3 DTCM
In March Wunderman Thompson Dubai was appointed by the Dubai Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing (DTCM) as its campaign creative partner for the next three years. The award concluded a worldwide pitch conducted in the last quarter of 2020.
4 Adidas
In April Havas Middle East announced the latest addition to its fashion and lifestyle portfolio – globally renowned sports lifestyle brand Adidas. Havas will lead the communication efforts in the GCC, across Adidas Originals and Adidas Performance.
5 Emirates NBD
In January FP7 McCann successfully retained the Emirates NBD account following a highly competitive pitch process involving five other network agencies. The same month, it won the creative brief for food delivery service Talabat and The National newspaper.
6 Standard Chartered
In October Dentsu International was selected as Standard Chartered’s media agency of record for a further five years, having successfully defended the account in a competitive pitch.
7 Under Armour
In March Under Armour appointed TBWA\RAAD to lead the creative advertising for its Middle East brand campaign. The new partnership came into effect immediately.
8 Euronews
In June new communications agency Tales & Heads was appointed by Euronews, a European international news media company, to handle corporate and consumer communications in the Middle East and the UK, following a competitive pitch. The agency later won Saudi media conglomerate SRMG as well.
9 Spotify Premium
In September Spotify Premium appointed independent creative marketing and design firm And Us Dubai as its creative agency for its integrated 2021 MENA campaign. The agency worked closely with Spotify and its Premium team to devise and deliver a new marketing campaign called #ShowYourPremium to raise awareness of its Premium offering across multiple segments of the MENA audience.
10 Volkswagen
In February Indie digital communications agency Create Media Group was appointed to handle the social media accounts for Volkswagen Middle East. The agency will lead content production, paid media and social media management to support the Volkswagen brand and business across GCC markets, Jordan and Lebanon.
