Nominated by Neal Patel, managing director, Bruce Clay Middle East
“Since re-joining Bruce Clay in the capacity of social media director, Tala has turned the division around, taking it into profit through multiple pitch wins, including Dubai Smart Government and Al Rawabi, as well as retaining key partners such as LG. Department revenue has grown six-fold, and team size has doubled during her tenure, firmly making her one of the rising stars not just in the agency but within the region.”
Career path
“I started my career in market research but quickly moved to social media and joined Bruce Clay on their first social media account back in 2015. I then stayed for a couple of years with them and grew from social media executive to account manager. After that I left to a different agency for a few months, only to come back to head the social media department at Bruce Clay back in 2017. (I couldn’t find the same environment anywhere else so had to come back!)
Guiding principles
Everyone is knowledgeable; try to involve the full team for brainstorming and decision making. More brains are better than one. Stay up to date. Social media is constantly evolving, and algorithms are always changing. For us to be able to provide the best recommendations to our clients, we must always be on top of current trends. Have fun. For someone to survive in an agency, they must be willing to have fun. I used to stress over the smallest things, but after working with Neal Patel, he taught us to enjoy what we do and to have fun with it.