Ahmad Abu Zannad, Regional Strategy Director at Leo Burnett MENA, discusses key learnings from the agency’s recent ‘Tropa for Life’ industry wins

Dubai, 19 November, 2017:  Today, Leo Burnett Dubai spoke at the inspiring strategic showcase at the WARC Event: MENA Strategy Works, which took place at the Choueiri Group Building, in Knowledge Village. During the event, Ahmad Abu Zannad, Regional Strategy Director at Leo Burnett MENA, discussed key learnings from the agency’s recent WARC wins. The agency’s du campaign ‘Tropa for Life’ was a double winner at this years’ awards, taking home a Golden WARC MENA Strategy Award and a Special Award for Research Excellence, as such Ahmad spoke about how Leo Burnett achieved such successes through its strategic tools. 

Abu Zannad opened the presentation by discussing purpose in strategy, followed by how Leo Burnett uses strategic tools to measure a brand’s performance. Furthermore, he presented the Skeptic and Enthusiast Brand Strategist, a new practical tool to help strategists identify brand purpose. 

“As an organisation, we are delighted to have been invited to showcase our strategic thought process and demonstrate how it was the driver of our award-winning ‘Tropa for Life’ campaign. As an agency we not only believe in the power of creativity but also the imperative to be both strategic and effective in our marketing and communication efforts. Our du campaigns have been recognised across the industry and they have won multiple awards for creativity, effectiveness and strategy,” said Kamal Dimachkie, Executive Regional Managing Director at Leo Burnette.

Furthermore, Abu Zannad enlightened the audience with how the award-winning campaign started as a BTL brief for a new mobile package targeted at the Filipino demographic. However, Leo Burnett and the du marketing team spotted a bigger opportunity within this brief, elevating a seemingly tactical outreach into a much more transformative brand engagement.

Overall the successful ‘Tropa for Life’ campaign helped du achieve a 110% increase in revenue per day, a 24% increase in subscribers within 6 months and a 300% increase in online engagement. The Leo Burnett and du team’s great wins at the WARC MENA awards were also followed by a recognition at the WARC Global Awards, where the du ‘PostWisely’ campaign won Silver for Content Strategy. 

Winners and judges from the recent WARC awards also attended the MENA Strategy Works sessions, witnessing Leo Burnett capturing the audience’s attention and inspiring their agency peers to deliver even more impactful and strategic campaigns for their brands.