Business & Money | Tuesday 31 March, 2015 6:32 am |

• Labstore MENA set to become the first digitally and socially driven shopper marketing agency in the region
• Launch of regional operations marks Y&R MENA’s commitment to retail and shopper marketing expertise and the latest in Labstore’s global expansion plans

Y&R MENA, the Middle East’s leading creative agency, today further strengthened its commitment to the region with the launch of Labstore, a digitally led retail and shopper marketing network.

Headquartered in Dubai, Labstore MENA will service accounts across the Middle East and North Africa, offering an integrated approach to retail marketing as the first digitally and socially driven shopper marketing agency in the region.

“Retail today is globalised, digitised, polarised and increasingly personalised – and the shopper is in control. The launch of Labstore MENA offers an exciting new opportunity to make an impact where it really counts. Labstore MENA sits at the perfect intersection of Y&R’s core brands, which ensures that it will be highly strategic, creative and digital, and perfectly attuned to the challenges of the local retail environment,” said Jon Bird, Global Managing Director, Labstore.

“The launch of Labstore is key for our clients. There has been a real shift in the last few years for brands to embrace shopper marketing as much as consumer marketing and now more than ever, Y&R has the capability to help clients with both disciplines. We are delighted to have the team on board to build this business,” said Nadine Ghossoub, Managing Director, Y&R Dubai.

Business Director, Zaakesh Mulla, and Executive Creative Director, Joseph Bihag, will lead Labstore MENA. The retail subsidiary is already well established in the local market with current clients including Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Biddi.com, Chevron and Mall of the Emirates.

The team also recently launched the #WishUponACoke campaign, which delighted travelers at Dubai International Airport with a personalised Coca-Cola bottle that doubled up as an excess baggage tag. This was followed by a nationwide promotion, including a “Wish Booth” activation that saw the wishes of people from India, Pakistan and Philippines being granted by Coca-Cola and Labstore.

Labstore MENA’s launch is the latest in a string of openings around the world since Y&R consolidated its 20 shopper and retail capabilities under the Labstore banner in 2014. The retail arm, one of the largest networks of its kind, now has a presence in Europe, Asia, Latin America, North America and South Africa.

ENDS
Notes to editor

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About Y&R MENA
Y&R is a full-service creative powerhouse and is considered one of the most strategic and most awarded advertising agency networks in the world. In MENA, we are 150-people strong, across agencies in Dubai, Amman, Beirut, Cairo, Doha, Casablanca, Jeddah, Muscat, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. We are guided by a philosophy to ‘Resist the Usual’; using the power of insight, ideas and impact to inform everything we do. It has seeded an agency culture that values change, and one that is driven by creative ways of thinking and working. Our capacity to reinvent – for our clients and for ourselves – is one of the reasons we are among the very few global agency networks still operating almost a century later. Y&R is part of the WPP network of companies.

About Labstore MENA
Labstore MENA is a full-service home to store shopper marketing agency that focuses on connecting with shoppers at key touch points to ensure that brands resonate where it really counts: at the shelf, in the basket, and at the till. Labstore understands that social media and mobile technology have become integral to the path to purchase, and that every effective shopper strategy must incorporate digital and social thinking. We also understand that communication must be relevant to the shopper environment if it is going to impact behaviour, and that simply replicating above-the-line work will not work in a retail environment. We balance long-term strategy with short-term responsiveness, assess and interpret shopper data to cultivate long-term growth, while at the same time adapt to changing market conditions. If it works, we replicate that success. Shopper is something the MENA region is excited about, and we are now taking it to the next level.