Copywriter Journalist

Advertising blog by Farrukh Naeem, journalist and copywriter in UAE (Abu Dhabi, near Dubai)

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English copywriter job position in Dubai, UAE for award-winning advertising agency April 16, 2008

A hot and creative advertising agency based in Dubai, with a wall full of creative awards and a regional and multinational presence is looking for a full time English copywriter to join them immediately.

You need to have a stunning portfolio of ads across all media, and be an expert in BTL. Long copy should come easy to you. Brochures, leaflets, posters, direct mailers should be your forte.

The agency started out as a creative hot shop around 10 years ago. Swept quite a few coveted awards as it grew, adding PR, events into its portfolio. And very soon, you could be at a good position in its own independent BTL division as its chief copywriter?

Interested?

Rush you CVs to farrukh.copywriter(at)gmail.com and I’ll forward them on to one of the founders of the agency who’s looking to meet the prospective copywriter in Dubai asap.

NOTE: To keep track of new posts and advertising jobs in dubai and uae that I put up on this blog, you can bookmark it, favourite it or scribble www.copywriterjournalist.com on your wall. Best thing to do however is just fill in your emailin the ‘Get email updates FREE!’ box on the left hand side panel and click ‘Subscribe’. You’ll get automated email notifications when I put up a new post. Cool, innit?

Creative BTL advertising visualiser cum designer vacancy in Abu Dhabi March 30, 2008

One of the most creative advertising agency networks in the world is looking for a creative visualiser cum designer for its Abu Dhabi office.

You need to be passionate about BTL stuff. Everything from brochures and leaflets to website design and emailers.

The ideal candidate would be young and hungry to prove that BTL has as much award-winning potential as ATL. Of course, if you’ve already proven your mettle, you’ll sail through the shortlisting with your portfolio.

You’d have the ability to take a brief and deliver to it. On time. On quality.

Of course, you’d be fluent with designer things like Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator - the works.

What you’ll get is a warm and progressive agency atmosphere. Young and driven team mates. Focused and motivating creative direction. And a chance to grow as fast as you can take it.

If your mom and dad don’t allow late nights, or if you look down on BTL - this post is not for you.

But if laying out long copy as well pages, if designing brochures and publications, direct mailers and collaterals is your game, this is the opportunity you could be waiting for. In Abu Dhabi - the city that’s buzzing with activity minus the diversions and jams.

Rush your CV/portfolio to farrukh.copywriter(at)gmail.com and let me know why you think BTL rocks!

The position is full time, based in Abu Dhabi and needs to be filled immediately.

Business writer / reporter wanted for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) October 4, 2007

If you’re a freelance writer, reporter or journalist willing to take up an assignment in Saudi Arabia, this post is for you.

(more…)

Advertising sales job in Dubai, UAE at an internet advertising firm. Interested? March 11, 2007

An Advertising Sales job in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is up for grabs at alClick Advertising, an internet advertising and market intelligence firm that provides businesses access to the largest network of online publishers in the Middle East.

alClick Advertising is looking for people who:
* Have previous sales experience in advertising
* Bring in new clients and sales to drive revenue growth
* Maintain the existing clients and convert incoming leads

The Director of alClick advertising tells me that the advertising sales person will be given a 10% bonus on all profits generated, in addition to a host of other benefits. Arabic language skills will be an advantage.

Do note that this is a purely sales and business development role and the managing of campaigns (post sales) will be handled by an existing internal team.

To apply to this position in advertising sales, readers can post their CVs to jobs10@alclick.com

Technorati Tags:
Advertising Sales Job, Jobs in Advertising, Marketing, Business Development Job, Internet Advertising, Jobs in the UAE, Jobs in Dubai, alClick, Sales Job
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Advertising account manager from the UK on why he loves us creative people so much March 7, 2007

Creative people in advertising agencies usually share a love-hate relationship with their client servicing counterparts, also called account executives or simply ’suits’. I had blogged about this in my post titled ‘Advertising account executives I fall in love with‘ (yeah, if people can love chihuahuas… suits are people too).

Mark Hutchinson, a senior account manager from the UK with accounts like Procter and Gamble in his CV, has responded after reading that post, on behalf of the suits of the world. I thought it’d be interesting to post his perspective.

If you are a creative reading this, I’d love to know what you feel about the relationship we have with the suits and whether you agree with Mark (he’s mostly written the good stuff, anyway). If you are a suit reading this, now you know I don’t really hate the suits, specially now after reading that part about ‘grating’ of the soul (see below).

If you are an account director reading this, and wondering how this suit looks in a suit, let me know in the comments section. (Mark’s got a ’special’ someone in Dubai… he he.) Over to our guest, Mark:

In my experience, most of the time creatives and suits simply just don’t like each other.

A lot of suits simply don’t appreciate or value what creatives do and I’ve seen some of them even trying to design the work themselves, giving them a 5-year-old’s sketch version of what they want to see, not what the brief necessarily dictates.

Who are we to tell you guys what to write or design? I’m not a creative, what the hell would I know?

All I know is that I know good creative when I see it and there is nothing that makes me more enthusiastic, or more desperate to sell this idea to the client.

There is a flip side though, in that there are creatives who don’t respect what the suits have to do or who they have to deal with. It is often a pride swallowing role that often grates against the soul, no matter how high (or low) your personal levels of integrity are. Sometimes it’s forgotten that we are all on the same side. Thankfully I haven’t come across many of those in my career so far and those that I have, have often had more wrong with them than just getting on with people.

I have always had a great relationship with the creatives I work with, simply because I respect what they do and respect their views, even when they differ with mine. You guys are the ones that win the awards, not us.

Looking at the list of qualities, I’d consider all those points essential to a good account exec and certainly like to believe that I posses most of them.

As told to Farrukh Naeem by Mark Hutchinson

Technorati Tags:
Advertising, Client Servicing, Advertising Account Executive, Creativity, Creative, Copywriter, Art Director, Advertising in the UAE, Advertising in Dubai, Advertising in the UK, Mark Hutchinson, Creatives Vs. Suits

Technorati Tags:
Advertising, Client Servicing, Advertising Account Executive, Creativity, Creative, Copywriter, Art Director, Advertising in the UAE, Advertising in Dubai, Advertising in the UK, Mark Hutchinson, Creatives Vs. Suits
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Jobs for advertising professionals at YouTube - the third top brand in the world February 28, 2007

YouTube, the video-sharing site named by TIME magazine as ‘Invention of the Year‘ for 2006 and ranked by brandchannel.com as third in the world’s top brands, is looking for advertising professionals.

With a recruitment ad like the one below, it’s hard not to get interested.

The vacancies currently open at YouTube include those for content editor, product manager, senior account executive, senior flash developer, etc. So, if you would like to work for one of the world’s fastest rising brands, look for more info here:

http://www.pcrecruiter.net/pcrbin/regmenu.exe?uid=youtube.youtube 

Though these jobs are not based in the UAE or the Arabian Gulf, this post is for people who admire successful brands, and of course, watch YouTube when no one’s watching (much to the annoyance of their IT manager who’s forever whining about the bandwidth slowdown on the office network).

Are you good at pulling rabbits out of the hat?

Technorati Tags: YouTube Jobs in Advertising, Advertising, Marketing, Creativity, Content Editor, Product Manager, Account Executive, Recruitment Ad

Web copywriter job at WSI Dubai, UAE February 10, 2007

Creative advertising copywriters looking for a job in Dubai or UAE - here’s an interesting Web Copywriter vacancy in the Dubai office of WSI, ranked the #1 Internet Services Business in the world by Entrepreneur magazine.

Here’s what they have told me they are looking for:

Web Copywriter job profile
The Web Copywriter would responsible for the editorial development of Search Engine Marketing campaigns. This includes writing keyword rich and marketable titles, descriptions, Web content, articles, and news releases.

Web Copywriter skills needed
Candidates must have a strong interest in search engine marketing, enjoy internet research and demonstrate solid writing skills. A basic knowledge of HTML is preferable. Also, strong learning skills are a must, as the company will be providing a full learning program covering writing for the web in general, and for search engine marketing in specific. As this is an entry level position, they do not require long experience record. Fresh graduates are welcome to apply. Main language is English, but being bilingual (+Arabic) would get you extra points.

Interested?
Rush your CVs to copywriter@ezwsinet.com

[If you are an advertising agency recruiter looking for creative directors, copywriters, art directors, graphic designers, account servicing or account planning people, I'd be happy to post your vacancy on my blog like the post above and take your message to many thousand ad agency people who visit my blog. Mail me at farrukh_copywriter@yahoo.com with your advertising vacancy details or call me at 00 971 50 7151722 for a chat. I reserve the right to publish a vacancy. Any ads asking for specific nationalities or ethnicities will be rejected outright.]

Technorati Tags:
Advertising, Copywriting Job in the UAE, SEO, Copywriter, Job in Advertising, Web Copywriter, Copywriter Dubai, Copywriter UAE

Perceptgulf’s vacancy ad for copywriter, art director and account manager November 16, 2006

There was recently a flood of recruitment ads by advertising agencies in Dubai looking for copywriters and art directors. Perceptgulf’s ad made me smile a wicked smile.

I talked to Prashant Sankhe, the Creative Director at Percept Gulf who made this ad happen.
“I think nobody has portrayed the pencil like this before,” he said.

As you can see, this ad shows a pencil labelled with ad vacancies on its various parts. The lead tip invites English copywriters and proofreaders to apply, the sharpened end calls art directors and graphic designers, the middle part is labelled for production coordinators, and the punchline…

The eraser is labelled ‘client servicing’ - Arab and European - for account manager and account executive posts. Clever!

And he’s been asked more than once: “Why did you put the eraser like that?”

“That’s the interesting point,” is Prashant’s answer. You bet!

Perceptgulf is affiliated to Hakuhodo which is among the top ten advertising groups worldwide. You can mail your CVs to prashants@perceptgulffz.com for creative positions and to cheriank@perceptgulffz.com for client servicing positions - you erasers (sorry, couldn’t resist that.)

If you are a creative reading this - tell me why this ad makes you smile. And if you are a ’suit’ reading this - tell me why you don’t love me anymore (wicked me). The comments are open.

Technorati Tags:
Advertising, Marketing, Copywriting, Art Direction, Client Servicing, Copywriter, Creative Director, Jobs in Dubai, Advertising Jobs in Dubai, Copywriter Job, Art Director Job, Percept Gulf

Does age matter in advertising agencies? May 28, 2006

Can one be too old to be in advertising? Or too young?

Advertising is a young person’s business, we are being told by some. The new age advertising agency needs to have ideators who know their ipods. Age and experience can be a disadvantage in the digital mindscape, some are saying. The need for “intellectual curiosity” is being stressed.

Matthew Creamer’s feature in AdAge few days back mentioned an agency executive seeking $30 million in damages from the advertising agency for valuing “youth instead of experience” and “terminating older persons because of their age”.

And here I am, someone who grew up feeding on the advertising knowledge and insights from the wizened ones like Ogilvy and Bernbach and Claude Hopkins. Contrasting that reverence for advertising legends had been my secret wish to become the youngest creative director around. I did rise up to lead a team of 8-10 creatives, help start the company’s web division, and work with the creative team to win some of the most coveted accounts in the market that made other bigger agencies see green. Clients were asking for me at the agency briefings, and expecting me at the creative presentations. I have always found it fun to be presenting our agency’s creative concepts to a room full of marketing managers from the client side, many of whom are my father’s age, and managing to make sense to them and win the account. But this was in a country that had the guts to let talent mow down the conventions.

So what is the reality in the market? Who is advertising fortune favouring today here in the Middle East? The GCC? The UAE? Young or old?

If this thing about agencies valuing youth over experience is true, show me a creative director in his teens in this region. Ok, show me one in his early twenties. And I am not talking of associate, assistant, almost creative director. I am talking regional, national, group creative director. Where are these virgin saviors of the digital era?

From my personal opinion, the scales are still in favour of the wizened viziers when it comes to the top positions - not the young Turks. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Because knowing new technologies is not the same as being firmly grounded in the intricacies of human behaviour. And making it dance to your tune.

Yet, I say, if young Turks can, with their work, prove the ability to lead the agency’s teams and take the advertising agency places - give them the toys to play - the corner office, the fancy designation, the reserved car park. And don’t just pack the old geezers off because they have more candles on their birthday cake than the bubbly intern. Not age, but work that works should be the criteria in deciding who stays, and where.

I was once refused an interview for a creative position in Dubai because the minimum requirement was TEN years of experience, and I had just two. I applied anyway. Showed my portfolio anyway. Tried to convince the agency that it’s the work, not the age, anyway. They were amused at my guts. But persistent about the 10 year experience minimum qualification. Much water has flowed under the Garhoud bridge but things haven’t changed much.

At least I can speak for Dubai, for this region. Agencies aren’t going to launch a firing frenzy throwing off their grey-haired VPs to substitute them for the tattooed kid on the skateboard, any time soon. We’re not in London or New York, habibi. Maybe I can aim to be the youngest VP in the meanwhile. No, no… more like the “chief conceptual officer” (CCO) of a creative hotshop in Media City. In a pair of bermudas. Is it allowed?

Bilingual copywriter job in the UAE April 27, 2006

Good news for my copywriter friends - an MNC in the UAE has a vacancy for a bilingual copywriter.

The languages, of course, that you are fluent in, would be Arabic and English.

Interested?

Mail me on farrukh_copywriter@yahoo.com

If you are an account executive, you could try your luck too.

And puhleeez… do not paste your entire CV in the comment box. I am just a copywriter, not an agency boss, just yet.

Copywriting jobs in the UAE January 31, 2006

If you’re looking for a job in advertising in the UAE, these are the usual routes:
1. Spot the vacancies in the local newspapers
Gulf News and Khaleej Times are good places to start. The print editions have supplements dedicated to ‘Appointments’, while the usual classified ads can be browsed online.

2. Look for your dream job in an advertising/marketing community website

My friend Zeid Nasser’s mediame.com is a good place to begin.

3. Go through recruitment agencies and headhunters
Most advertising vacancies are posted in the papers through recruitment agencies. Many advertise the jobs available on their own sites and you can apply online.

SOS and Kershaw Leonard are currently looking for copywriters. You can visit them online and apply.

4. Contact your dream agency directly
Sometimes, the best thing to land a good job in advertising is to meet the Creative Director of your dream agency directly. Even if a CD does not have a copywriting position waiting to be filled, a few minutes with a good one can get you valuable feedback on your portfolio.

Visiting an agency and meeting its creative head helps you understand the agency and its expectations better.

But be warned: CDs are very busy souls and you must not be pushy in trying to arrange a meeting with them. Most will be happy to give you a few minutes of their time, when they have a few to spare. Which is rare. It rhymes, eh?

5. If you apply everywhere and nothing seems to work, don’t get mad…

Get even. Start your own agency. Or freelance copywriting business.

Dubai Media City and RAK Free Zone can help you establish your own advertising/copywriting operation with minimum red tape.

There are many other ways to stay in touch with the advertising world.

Networking helps. Knowing people in the industry will keep you updated on the trends: who’s moving, who’s scouting for talent, etc.

In a multicultural place like Dubai, a few advertising decision makers have a tendency to try and pull in their ex-colleagues from back home, whichever country they are from. Unfortunately, I have seen this sometimes leads to groupism in the agency, so this is an option I do not personally admire or encourage.

Even though I usually have a friend or two in most top agencies but I don’t use friends to pull any strings. Because if one is good at what one does, getting spotted in a crowd of applicants isn’t usually a problem.

Of course, there are Murphy’s laws. And luck too.

• About...

  Farrukh Naeem is an advertising copywriter and journalist based in Abu Dhabi, right next to Dubai, UAE.

  
  This blog aims to highlight news, views and opinions on advertising, marketing, corporate communication, PR and creativity in business.

  
  Feel free to email Farrukh at farrukh.copywriter(at)gmail.com or have a friendly chat with him on his cellphone at 00 971 50 7151722 if you are:

  * an editor or journalist looking for insightful coverage of the advertising and marketing scene in the UAE and the Middle East

  * an eccentric creative director who believes good soulful copy isn't dead, yet

  * a brand manager or marketing communications chief wishing to have coffee with a copywriter who's studied Philip Kotler, heard Tom Peters, and can understand marketing strategies and annual reports

  * an advertising, marketing, media, or public relations professional with some hot, sizzling news, event or opinion you want me to feature on this blog

  * a young, enthusiastic person looking for simple tips for your advertising or journalism career but being brushed away by those who have made it big but forgotten how they, once upon a time, were like you too...

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• Copyright (c) 2008 Farrukh Naeem. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  No part of this blog including text, pictures, opinion, quotes, ads, illustrations may be reproduced, posted or published without the expressed written consent of the author. For permission to republish this blog's content, please write to farrukh.copywriter(at)gmail.com. If you are in a rush, you can speak to me on +971 50 7151722. You are welcome to cite or quote text excerpts (not images) of this blog under Fair Use conventions provided that you credit the source as Farrukh Naeem and link back to www.copywriterjournalist.com.

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