Interesting Times has won the creative advertising account for Ooredoo Kuwait following a competitive pitch at the tail end of last year.
The independent Beirut- based agency is expanding its operations into the coun- try as a result of the win with a new Kuwait office to be fully operational by the beginning of February. The agency is also expanding its United Arab Emirates oper- ation with the opening of an office in Dubai to comple- ment its existing presence in Abu Dhabi.
The Ooredoo Kuwait account includes above and below-the-line advertising, as well as digital. The account, which was previously held by Impact & Echo BBDO, does not include social media.
“We are launching in Kuwait, firstly because of the win, and secondly because the Kuwaiti market is one of the most digitally-driven consumer markets after the UAE. So it made lots of sense for an offering like ours,” said Wassim Bassil, managing partner at Interesting Times. “We were chosen by Ooredoo Kuwait because of our ability to bring disruption into the market and category and our strong digital capabilities.”
The new Kuwait City office will be headed up by general manager Assaf Semaan, who has been with Interesting Times in Beirut as a business director since 2012. The office will initially have 10 members of staff with six more to be recruited during the second quarter of the year. In Dubai, Ashraf Mansour – who is already based in the UAE and is one of the founders of Interesting Times – will be joined by chief creative partner Mo Al-Ghossein with both heading up the new office. It will be fully opera- tional during the first quarter of the year with some staff moving from Beirut and others being recruited locally.
“Somehow our agency seems to thrive when the times are changing,” said Bassil. “In such times, companies tend to step our of their comfort zone and look for alternative ways to make an impact on their busi- ness through marketing communications. This is where we come in. We are an agile, effective creative mar- keting solution company driven by innovation and busi- ness results. That’s why we believe 2016 will be a great year for us.
“Our ambition? Create a multicultural, borderless agency under the Interesting Times brand and culture. Not a network made up of differ- ent offices. We have started doing that by ensuring that all operations work on any busi- ness of Interesting Times regardless of where they sit. Financially as well, offices will be operating under one regional profit and loss. This will ensure that all our offices are seamlessly integrated to provide our clients access to the best talent in any Interesting Times office.”