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Dubai: Many advertisements in the region are failing to establish a bond between brands and consumers because clients here are not willing to take risks and cash in on creative campaigns, industry experts said on Wednesday.
Officials from leading advertising agencies Saatchi and Saatchi Dubai, Leo Burnett Lebanon and Impact BBDO Saudi Arabia gathered in Dubai yesterday for the first Dubai Lynx debate.
They agreed that the region's advertising industry has enough creative talent that are on par with their international counterparts, but most of the ads reaching the consumers are lacking creativity. Agencies also took the blame for failing to convince investors to take the creative path.
The debate was one of the highlights of the 1st Dubai Lynx International Advertising Festival. The festival has showcased the best works of the advertising region, as well as the works of winners of Cannes Lions and its European festival.
The Middle East and North Africa is gaining popularity for creative endeavour in many areas. But some people say the creativity in the region's advertising fails to match this.
"The problem is not that we lack creativity. I think that the works displayed [at the festival] clearly demonstrate that the level of creativity here is on par with international level. The problem is we are failing to expose that level of creativity to the consumer," said Walid Kanaan of Impact BBDO Saudi Arabia.
According to Ed Jones of Saatchi & Saatchi, investors in the region are willing to pay handsomely for tangible things, but they are not willing to pay as much for advertising.
"The works you see in the exhibition are very nice but you don't see them every day. There's plenty of advertising around but very little of what you see on Shaikh Zayed Road is in the exhibition. I think the clients like to invest in buildings, but they won't invest in brand building," said Jones.
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