In the Middle East advertising landscape, the portrayal and participation of men and women are not just reflections of cultural norms, they have become catalysts for change. Just as the saying goes, “Culture is to humans as water is to fish”, we often swim in strong currents of societal norms without realising their pull. It’s only when someone spots a shark in the water that we start to identify the implicit bias or stereotypes that have gone unattended.
Today, the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) narrative has created many such eye-opening conversations within the industry. In the coming days, we welcome you to delve into the insights of industry leaders, who call a spade a spade. They have come to a consensus that while significant strides have been made, there’s still a long way to go. The industry faces the challenge of not just acknowledging the gaps but actively addressing them. The hope is to herald a future where DE&I is so ingrained in our culture that the changes we request today are foregone conclusions.
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The needle has definitely moved, but a sense of equity and normalcy hasn’t quite settled in. Read what the leaders had to say:
Lara Arbid, CEO, Initiative and Magna MENA
What would an ideal world in the coming years look like?
A world in which we have reached a point where DE&I no longer needs fixing, and we focus more effort on critical topics, including ending world hunger and ensuring peace and safety of people around the world.
If there’s one barrier you would break down, what would it be and why?
Systemic and unconscious bias; these biases can influence hiring, promotions, and everyday interactions, leading to inequities in opportunities and treatment without even knowing it, based on practices that are ingrained into a personal or organisational approach.
The biggest danger is to do things the way they have always been done. These barriers are difficult to breakdown because a lot of individuals and companies don’t even know they exist. It requires a lot of effort to educate and train individuals to raise awareness and regularly reviewing policies and procedures to ensure the criteria and process is updated, and diverse perspectives are encouraged.
How in your opinion can collaborative campaigns – and their visible, tangible impact – further the cause for DE&I in the industry?
Collaborative campaigns, if done right, can help support and raise awareness of underrepresented voices, and encourage change to seamlessly adopt DE&I practices. What is critical is to measure impact and results in order to understand and showcase the added value this brings.
How has diversity and inclusion improved on the ground within the industry?
We have seen notable improvements in our industry, with agencies increasingly creating conversations, awareness, and initiatives to ensure more diverse representation across leadership and teams.
Within MCN, we are committed to conscious inclusion and collaboration and have invested in training, initiatives, and metrics to ensure we consistently build awareness and equality across areas including gender, culture, and nationality.
What steps would you advise to prevent “DE&I washing” within the industry?
This comes down to training and setting clear and measurable goals for the agency and the team that embeds DE&I in its core values and ensures accountability and ownership in seeing them through. As leaders, it is our responsibility to continuously engage, build relationships with and hire from diverse communities to ensure the added value and enrichment to our teams, environment, and work.
At MCN, we also have a sustainability committee that trains, educates and helps set the agenda across our agencies. Having expertise like this at hand ensures all teams across the group can draw on insight and advice from this committee.
What allyship message would you share with your colleagues in the industry?
Start from within, reflect on yourself and continuously educate yourself about different perspectives, listen with empathy and an open mind to build genuine connections, use your voice to influence and challenge discrimination and advocate equality, create a safe space for others to speak up and finally support the career growth of individuals based on merit and amplify their contributions.
Can you share some personal habits or routines that have helped you embrace your authenticity and express yourself?
I’m a people person, if you keep me away for too long from being around people, it kills my flame. The best part of my day is when I make time to go around the offices and connect with my teams on everything but work.
These conversations remind us that we are all people, running to achieve our goals and aspirations in our different ways and allow us to be personal and connected at a different level. We ultimately spend more time together at work than we do with our own families and friends, so these connections are very important.
What words of wisdom would you share with women new to the industry and/or the Middle East region? Do you think the advertising industry needs newer, more relatable mentors? Why?
Speak up, always. Your opinion is what makes you different and special, and don’t be afraid of being wrong, nobody learned anything from being right. Yes, the industry needs more mentors, needs more people to share their stories and their failures and hardships. We are always told that we need to celebrate our success and only talk about what we achieved.
But we often forget that the road that got us here was bumpy and included mistakes and unfortunate situations that we learned from, and that is what truly helped us get here. People should be aware of this and not just the final shiny successful outcome, so they can have more faith in themselves and their capabilities and be motivated to do and achieve more.
What were some pivotal points in your career that contributed to your success within advertising?
At the age of 28, I represented a group of agencies, working with a governmental entity in KSA to manage the brand and product launch successfully. Four years later, I accepted the challenge of establishing the Magna Global office in KSA, becoming the first female to launch and lead a media agency in the country.
Can you share a particularly memorable campaign or project that you’ve worked on and its impact on the brand?
The first White Friday campaign we launched for Amazon after onboarding the business. Along with our clients, we took a bold decision to change the usual strategy.
We worked on a digital set-up run 24/7 by teams to ensure continuous optimisations as we realised many of the sale transactions actually happened between 12-3 am in the UAE and KSA. This improved top-of-mind awareness and ultimately delivered higher sales than previous years.
