The Beirut and Amman offices of Saatchi & Saatchi are making lovemarks no more. In a press release at the start of last month, Saatchi EMEA confirmed that the agencies were to withdraw from the network.
Saatchi’s CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Simon Francis, said, “We’d like to thank Eli Khoury [CEO of the two agencies] and his team for their successes and contributions over the last 18 years, and wish them continuing success in the future.”
Everyone insists the split is “amicable,” but both sides claim to have initiated it. Khoury thanked Francis and Saatchi & Saatchi for their support to the agency’s success, and said the withdrawal is part of his agency’s wider plan for the greater Middle East.
Ibrahim Lahoud, director of strategy and brand communication at Brand Central, the PR arm of Saatchi Beirut, tells Communicate, “The reason we decided to withdraw from the network is so that we can expand at our own pace and manner. In addition, we have plans to introduce new norms of business conduct that address changes in the global media scene and clients’ requirements. This has been on the tables of most seasoned agencies around the world for quite a while now.” He adds, “Any decision we take – now or in the future – is solely based on that fact, and on what’s best for our people.” None of the agency’s employees will move, he says.
Although Saatchi will retain some of its internationally aligned accounts, Khoury says, “The Beirut and Amman agencies will retain 95 percent of accounts, which are mostly homegrown.”
Elias Ashkar, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi MENA, meanwhile, implies his network initiated the split. In a statement, he says Saatchi wants to continue expansion of wholly owned units in the region, and has plans to open offices in Beirut, Amman, Damascus and Baghdad.
Saatchi & Saatchi Levant will open within the first quarter of 2010, says Ashkar. Based in Beirut, it will initially handle accounts across the Levant and Near East region until more offices come online. “Our agency needs to be in control of its own destiny,” he says.
The Beirut office stayed largely silent as rumors grew that it was Saatchi EMEA who had ejected them. Lahoud, however, says, “We don’t want to take any part in the vicious circle of justification.”
“When we see on Twitter that Saatchi ‘sacks’ Saatchi Beirut, it’s completely untrue and unfair,” he says. “Now, there are facts and opinions. Saatchi may claim that they wanted to have complete ownership of the network, but it’s their opinion and nothing more. The facts are clear: It was our initiative, 100 percent.”
Isobel Kerr-Newell from SweeneyVesty, the London PR firm representing Saatchi EMEA, calls the split a “mutual decision.”
“The new structure is designed to reflect the needs of clients and consumers in their local markets as well as possible,” she says. “We are in the process of a business hand over. Such matters will be handled properly throughout the process. This is to ensure that all our clients – especially clients like P&G and Cadbury – are transitioned smoothly and serviced excellently.”
Lahoud says the brands his agency brought in want to stay with the Beirut agency. “Most of them were with us since the beginning,” he says. “Saatchi will keep the global clients that came with the network. However, that doesn’t mean that we won’t have international clients. ‘Homegrown’ doesn’t automatically mean ‘local.’”
“I know that many people simply can't imagine that a small agency such as Saatchi Beirut would want to part with a global network,” he adds. “But in this crisis, global networks are the ones most hit, not local agencies. … And with the region being split between us in the Levant and Saatchi Dubai, we had no room for expansion. We were bound to remain as we were, and this we didn’t want.”