Samar Yahya
Saudi Gazette
Interested to have a more sound and rounded footprint in local culture, Horizon FCB increasingly needs more Saudi talent within their ranks, and Lui?s Silva Dias, Chairman of FCB Lisbon and Chief Creative Officer of FCB International said: “We are investing in the future; we are making sure that we are connected to the place, where they coming from, which is the university, to identify the best talent and to make sure we have to for them to work with us.”
He was expounding on the objectives of the lectures given to UBT girls’ students. “On the other side, we want to give back to the market. We’ve been in this market since 1984, we are part of the advertising landscape of the Kingdom, and at some point, as a main contributor, we need to give back and make sure we give the best we can to the next generation in FCB and the industry in general. There is also a personal objective where I want to know more because I have an international responsibility in my role in FCB. I can only do my job well if I know the markets, the countries, and the teams.”
On more Saudi females joining the field of advertising, Dias said: “I believe that Saudi females entered the advertising industry since there was a product out for sale, because they are in the advertising industry on the side of consumers. On the side of products being bought and brands being consumed, it’s mainly females who are responsible for the ultimate decision. So it is safe to say that they have been in the game.
“However, what’s happening now is we’re going to have more female professionals on the side of marketing, advertising, and creativity, as well as deciding on the best way to engage with the female consumer. We’ve pretty much covered the masculine side of things, now we are making sure we correct the feminine side. Who knows best about female motivation and reasoning than females? Therefore, they should be part the advertising creative process.”
“My advice is to look at advertising as a wonderful career, because it is. On the other hand, don’t expect an easy life. This was my main advice in the lectures and it’s a truthful one. Advertising is a career that needs passion and if you have the passion, it will give you a lot of life. If you don’t, it will be a whole lot of work and nothing much. Therefore, it is kind of divides between those who have passion and those don’t.”
On the Saudi advertising market and if it is up to international standards, Dias said: “There are many filters we can use to answer this, one of which is already in the question. That is the value of the market in price and it’s the biggest in the region and a considerable size even on an international landscape. The Saudi market is a really serious market. If you look from a creative standpoint, being that creativity the main tool of advertising, now you’re starting to have a creative expression closest to the market side of things. So the value and creativity are now getting closer than they used to be.”
On how he sees the next five years in Saudi advertising market, Dias stated: “With a huge sense of opportunity I would say, it’s a huge market. People take brands seriously here and there are positive signs regarding this new generation of consumers.
“So there’s a lot of engagement with digital and social media and a lot of respect for brand. This is going to be a very interesting evolution, and I think you can do a quantum leap because of social and digital media. I think the next generation will be as advanced as anywhere in the world, whether it was from the consumer side or creative/advertising side.”
Asked about the main challenges in Saudi advertising market, Dias said that challenge and opportunity walk hand in hand. There challenges in Saudi advertising as there are challenges in advertising in general. “I would say the biggest challenge is making good use of your biggest opportunity, and you biggest opportunity right now is in a storytelling point of view. From that point of view, Saudi Arabia is one of those places in the world that still has many new stories, many new points of view, and a lot of unknown interest to the rest of the world.
“As the world became more and more global, everything has become more generic, even the most untouched places on earth have become something more generic. There are very little things nowadays that we can use to surprise people and give them a sense of newness. In this territory, I think there are many untold stories. A great culture and great philosophy, those together with the people’s will to express themselves individually I think will give us a huge opportunity. In 5 to 10 years we will see if the challenge was well observed and taking this opportunity was well observed as well.”
On the Saudi market needs, Dias said; “What every country and market need, which is brave clients, brave brands and brave talent. I would also say there’s a huge fear of change all around the world. If you work in marketing then change is a difficult thing. At the same time I think it’s our obligation as brands, marketeers, creative and advertising people to give exciting developments to the society in general. Much of what the pop culture is all around the world comes also from advertising, there’s a responsibility to it because if we don’t do that, other forms of content and other forms of media will also fall back, so there’s a responsibility to keep on feeding this will. People need to have conversations; they need to talk about things. If you don’t give them new things to talk about they’ll always talk about the old things and they’ll become boring and bore each other. So there’s a huge responsibility for us to do that; Saudi in specific can look at this creativity from this angle and progress immensely. I think they need to trust creativity more.”
