Over the past twenty years, the UAE has seen the world’s fastest immigration rates and some of the strongest population growth. Dubai in particular has grown exponentially to become a major international business and tourism hub. Moreover, the country is going through a sustained phase of economic diversification as it moves away from its traditional energy extraction base to an economy fuelled by knowledge. As more local enterprises are established, and major international companies set up in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the market for branding work is evolving from brand creation to a focus on turnkey brand management.
However, many customers are frustrated that branding agencies in this region focus on brand identity and design, and really have very little idea about the complexities of holistic brand management. Furthermore, even some of the major agency players in the market lack the training, international perspective, and skillsets to manage complex brand management briefs across disciplines. Instead they still take a siloed approach to their work. This is often cited as a cause for concern that agency departments don't talk to each other, that their teams require separate briefs for each discipline, and therefore the output is often below par. This is exactly why Driving Growth always tries to make life simpler for its customers, no matter how complex their problems are, by maintaining complete transparency. “At Driving Growth, we believe firmly in one brief, one set of objectives, one face to the customer, and one bottom line. That means we can deliver work that is more effective, faster and more efficiently, with minimal customer-side intervention”, says Robert Mitchell, Managing Partner and Strategic Lead, Driving Growth.
Sound Leadership
The partners at Driving Growth all have deep international experience from working at senior level in international network agencies, business consultancies, and clientside marketing positions. The leadership team at Driving Growth has worked in around 65 countries around the world, which gives the company a unique and important perspective on the melting pot cultures of the Gulf region. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the region’s other major markets, all have fast-growing, young populations combined with huge numbers of expat residents, creating a unique sociodemographic market profile. Driving Growth combines the rational approach of a business consultancy with the creative flair of a full-service agency. Some customers don’t have the resources to handle branding and marketing themselves, so they outsource their complete turnkey requirements to Driving Growth. While other customers have their strategy solved and need help to ensure the execution lives up to the brand goals. Whether they require fractional B2B marketing or complete support, Driving Growth provides high-quality communications with senior level, hands-on attention to detail.
Uniqueness in Approach
At Driving Growth, the brand name is also the company’s purpose as it strives to drive growth in its customers’ brands and businesses by creating more effective marketing. Driving Growth always ensures that preagreed and relevant benchmarks are put in place to measure the output and outcomes from work, and track how that helps to build brand equity over time. “We always try to help our customers determine how their brand is perceived, both within their own organisations and externally in their target markets, and how those perceptions also change over time”, says Elcel Arroyo, General Manager and Business Head.
Driving Growth offers fractional marketing for several international organisations. It acts as a completely insourced marketing department to those companies, where it manages every aspect of brand and marketing and reports back to their owners and CEOs. This gives these companies a depth of global experience that would be difficult for them to find or hire in the local markets, and it’s more cost-effective than setting up a department of their own. It also gives immediate access to a whole team of international specialists across a broad range of disciplines - including branding, marketing, web and digital, PR, and live events - rather than hiring only one or two marketing people.
Elcel Arroyo, General Manager & Business Head
Future Endeavours
Driving Growth originated as a consultancy in Germany in the early 2000s, with an impressive roster of some of the country’s leading blue-chip brands, from Deutsche Bahn and Lufthansa to Mannesmann and Siemens. At various times it had offices in Frankfurt, Munich, London, and San Francisco. The company has been working in the Gulf since 2006, and the team at Driving Growth was responsible for branding many of the region’s leading organisations. A significant amount of the company’s current work is in Saudi Arabia, a country that is currently modernising itself and implementing a far-sighted and exciting Vision 2030 programme.
At driving growth, the brand name is also the company’s purpose as it strives to drive growth in clients’ brands & businesses by creating more effective marketing
“Vision 2030 entails a huge shift in the Kingdom’s economic base, away from energy extraction and towards a modern and multidiversified series of sectors, including some of the world’s most amazing tourism infrastructure. Its young and growing population is also creating an unprecedented demand for new housing, transportation, logistics, entertainment, healthcare, education, and sustainable energy. All these amazing projects need professionally developed, strategic branding and marketing plans and implementation”, concludes Robert.
Robert Mitchell, Managing Partner, Robert began his career as a photographer and later held creative management positions at agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, JWT, Springer & Jacoby, and Scholz & Friends. He played a key role in developing global brands such as BMW, Jeep, Volkswagen, and Samsung. In 1999, he joined Foote Cone Belding and served for eight years, leaving as Worldwide Creative Director. In 2007, he set up a boutique agency group in the Middle East under Dubai ownership. In 2016, Robert founded his own Dubai-based agency, Driving Growth, specializing in integrated Digital, Live Events, and PR services.
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