September 2008
Mazoon Blacksheep, Jamil Sultan, director of the WJ Towell Group, will tell you, is the result of three years of relentless search.
Sultan has been on the lookout for a good agency for quite some time now as part of the group's move to trifurcate its Mazoon Printing, Publishing and Advertising.
This will lead to three separate entities - Mazoon Printing and Press, Mazoon Publishing and Mazoon Blacksheep Advertising.
One of the key concerns was to find the right partner for what was initially planned as Mazoon Advertising and Marketing. He checked out several agencies but wasn't fully satisfied with the work of any.
That is when he came across a pitch made by Blacksheep, a one-year-old Bahraini start-up, to a company entering Oman to launch its service.
He liked what he saw - it was very different from what he has seen in the local market. "I was not looking for large advertising agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi. What I wanted was a small, good agency with creative work that appeals to and satisfies me.
When I saw the work done by Alaali and team, it clicked instantly. It was very different." Sultan says even before he called Moosa Alaali, CEO and executive creative director of Blacksheep, he knew this was the company he wanted to collaborate with. To cut a long story short, Alaali was equally excited at the prospect of a tie-up with a respected company like WJ Towell and the deal was done in two days.
Sultan says the group also plans to enter the publishing industry soon with specialised magazines, targeting a niche segment. "I want to enter the business covering areas where I see big potential. I have no intention of competing with the big sharks of the industry."
Coming back to Mazoon Blacksheep, the agency has already finished work on a campaign that will hit the market just after Ramadan and is in the final stages of negotiations with three medium-sized companies. It is also in talks with eight more companies, of which two are big clients and three are government related.
Alaali and his team have spent the last three months interacting with the Omani public belonging to different age groups to understand the market. Oman, he says, is an emerging market that can be very strategic. He has seen so much potential that he has relocated to Oman as the managing director responsible for the day-to-day running of Mazoon Blacksheep, leading new business initiatives.
"I will now dedicate 30 per cent of my time to the Bahrain and Doha operations. The plan is to recruit a managing director for the Oman operations within a year. I will focus on signing a regional account for a multinational brand, which will require me to play more of regional role in Blacksheep as our regional presence strengthens."
Alaali says there may be some who see Blacksheep's tie-up with WJ Towell as an unlikely union. "One is a traditional family group and the other a maverick small agency. But we see them as the wise elder brother and us as the wild younger brother."
Blacksheep had gained much visibility and some brickbats in Bahrain when it hijacked and twisted the tagline of the Villamar at The Harbour, which showed an affluent Bahraini saying, "My address is Villamar."
Blacksheep's client, Alargan International was just launching its Saar Gate project with a limited budget for advertising. A few days later right opposite the Villamar ad was the Saar Gate ad, which featured a middle class Bahraini proudly declaring, "My address doesn't break my back."
Needless to say the client received 3,000 enquiries in two weeks and the Saar Gate project was fully booked. So much so that Alargan is launching phase II of the project now. Sultan says Alaali and he share the dream to have an agency with homegrown talent. "My aim for this company is to have 95 per cent Omani workforce."
That's a belief mirrored by his partner. "I believe no advertising agency can be truly successful if you don't have local talent. And when I say local talent, I'm not talking about mediocre people, I am talking about talented, professionally qualified people." Mazoon Blacksheep has started with a six-member team in place and hopes to add four more soon. According to him Blacksheep has done phenomenally well in Bahrain because they are a Bahraini agency run by Bahrainis. That is what he and his team hopes to achieve in Oman, too.
Sultan says another differentiator for Mazoon Blacksheep will be a focus on branding. But is there a scope for more agencies? He says there is a big market here at the medium and small client level that has not been tapped. "I'm looking at this market. I have long-term plans. I would be satisfied if we serve 10-12 companies with quality creative work. We want to be unique. If someone looks at an ad done by Mazoon Blacksheep, they should be able to recognise it as ours."
What does Blacksheep hope to bring to the Oman market? Alaali says from whatever he has seen of the advertisements here, if one were to remove the logo and the details at the bottom, the consumer most probably won't be able to identify whose ad it was. Why?
"Because the main communication of the advertisement doesn't have the differentiation associated with that brand. It is this scene that we hope to change."
It is hogwash to say the agencies here don't come up with outstanding ideas because the clients don't like it, says Alaali. "Believe me, world over clients are conservative. The difference is to come up with an idea that is creative but not shocking. For many people coming up with a creative idea means something that is off-beat and controversial. That is the problem. You don't have to be controversial to be creative." Some of the simplest ads, he says, are the hardest concepts to come by.
Mazoon Blacksheep has a team that has worked with some of the biggest agencies. "We have made our mistakes there and learned from those. So we won't be wasting clients' money now," the MD signs off in jest as to why companies should choose his agency.
Mazoon Blacksheep, Jamil Sultan, director of the WJ Towell Group, will tell you, is the result of three years of relentless search.
Sultan has been on the lookout for a good agency for quite some time now as part of the group's move to trifurcate its Mazoon Printing, Publishing and Advertising.
This will lead to three separate entities - Mazoon Printing and Press, Mazoon Publishing and Mazoon Blacksheep Advertising.
One of the key concerns was to find the right partner for what was initially planned as Mazoon Advertising and Marketing. He checked out several agencies but wasn't fully satisfied with the work of any.
That is when he came across a pitch made by Blacksheep, a one-year-old Bahraini start-up, to a company entering Oman to launch its service.
He liked what he saw - it was very different from what he has seen in the local market. "I was not looking for large advertising agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi. What I wanted was a small, good agency with creative work that appeals to and satisfies me.
When I saw the work done by Alaali and team, it clicked instantly. It was very different." Sultan says even before he called Moosa Alaali, CEO and executive creative director of Blacksheep, he knew this was the company he wanted to collaborate with. To cut a long story short, Alaali was equally excited at the prospect of a tie-up with a respected company like WJ Towell and the deal was done in two days.
Sultan says the group also plans to enter the publishing industry soon with specialised magazines, targeting a niche segment. "I want to enter the business covering areas where I see big potential. I have no intention of competing with the big sharks of the industry."
Coming back to Mazoon Blacksheep, the agency has already finished work on a campaign that will hit the market just after Ramadan and is in the final stages of negotiations with three medium-sized companies. It is also in talks with eight more companies, of which two are big clients and three are government related.
Alaali and his team have spent the last three months interacting with the Omani public belonging to different age groups to understand the market. Oman, he says, is an emerging market that can be very strategic. He has seen so much potential that he has relocated to Oman as the managing director responsible for the day-to-day running of Mazoon Blacksheep, leading new business initiatives.
"I will now dedicate 30 per cent of my time to the Bahrain and Doha operations. The plan is to recruit a managing director for the Oman operations within a year. I will focus on signing a regional account for a multinational brand, which will require me to play more of regional role in Blacksheep as our regional presence strengthens."
Alaali says there may be some who see Blacksheep's tie-up with WJ Towell as an unlikely union. "One is a traditional family group and the other a maverick small agency. But we see them as the wise elder brother and us as the wild younger brother."
Blacksheep had gained much visibility and some brickbats in Bahrain when it hijacked and twisted the tagline of the Villamar at The Harbour, which showed an affluent Bahraini saying, "My address is Villamar."
Blacksheep's client, Alargan International was just launching its Saar Gate project with a limited budget for advertising. A few days later right opposite the Villamar ad was the Saar Gate ad, which featured a middle class Bahraini proudly declaring, "My address doesn't break my back."
Needless to say the client received 3,000 enquiries in two weeks and the Saar Gate project was fully booked. So much so that Alargan is launching phase II of the project now. Sultan says Alaali and he share the dream to have an agency with homegrown talent. "My aim for this company is to have 95 per cent Omani workforce."
That's a belief mirrored by his partner. "I believe no advertising agency can be truly successful if you don't have local talent. And when I say local talent, I'm not talking about mediocre people, I am talking about talented, professionally qualified people." Mazoon Blacksheep has started with a six-member team in place and hopes to add four more soon. According to him Blacksheep has done phenomenally well in Bahrain because they are a Bahraini agency run by Bahrainis. That is what he and his team hopes to achieve in Oman, too.
Sultan says another differentiator for Mazoon Blacksheep will be a focus on branding. But is there a scope for more agencies? He says there is a big market here at the medium and small client level that has not been tapped. "I'm looking at this market. I have long-term plans. I would be satisfied if we serve 10-12 companies with quality creative work. We want to be unique. If someone looks at an ad done by Mazoon Blacksheep, they should be able to recognise it as ours."
What does Blacksheep hope to bring to the Oman market? Alaali says from whatever he has seen of the advertisements here, if one were to remove the logo and the details at the bottom, the consumer most probably won't be able to identify whose ad it was. Why?
"Because the main communication of the advertisement doesn't have the differentiation associated with that brand. It is this scene that we hope to change."
It is hogwash to say the agencies here don't come up with outstanding ideas because the clients don't like it, says Alaali. "Believe me, world over clients are conservative. The difference is to come up with an idea that is creative but not shocking. For many people coming up with a creative idea means something that is off-beat and controversial. That is the problem. You don't have to be controversial to be creative." Some of the simplest ads, he says, are the hardest concepts to come by.
Mazoon Blacksheep has a team that has worked with some of the biggest agencies. "We have made our mistakes there and learned from those. So we won't be wasting clients' money now," the MD signs off in jest as to why companies should choose his agency.
By Letha Jose
© businesstoday 2008
