About Reine Hammoud, Business Director, Boopin KSA

Born and raised in Beirut, Reine always had a flair for marketing & advertising. Graduating with an Honors Degree in Marketing from the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Reine moved to Riyadh in 2010 to start her Media & Marketing career with GroupM. Reine accumulated an immense experience in FMCG’s which helped her move up the ladder to spearhead the planning & client leadership on the F&B unit in Mindshare Riyadh.

Recently, Reine has decided to take on a new challenge by entering the world of independent agencies & join Boopin KSA, helping build the team & navigate clients through their media, digital & content quests.

About her thoughts for the industry 

Saudi is not looking back: There’s a massive social and economic development happening in Saudi Arabia creating a utopian urban infrastructure that is future ready in addition to changing the face of entertainment as we know it among many things. But what does that mean on a marketing and advertising level? And how can advertising and media agencies react? 

I remember when I first moved here, I said this will be a cultural adventure – 13 years later, it still is. Saudi Arabia is full of contrast: the old and the new, the traditional and the modern, the past and the present. Absorb it, understand it, and build on the nuances – don’t just be an observer, be part of it. It’s what makes this market so unique!

Be your client’s consultant: One thing I learned through my career is that clients look for the consultant and partner in the agencies they work with. Ever so, the definition of a SM agency, a digital agency or a performance agency is becoming blurred & intertwined. 

Clients want to see an extension of their own team in the agency, a team that understands their needs and helps them meet goals. Sometimes asks them to define their own business challenges even. 

This goes beyond the traditional definition of client-agency relationship and the classic “let’s spend a day at the client’s office” saying. It’s truly understanding your client’s business, strengths, and weaknesses. I can’t count the times where the problem was beyond a “good creative” or an “optimized media plan” and was merely a misplaced shelf presence, a poor in-store display, or an unexciting sampling. Agency work in not an add-on, it’s the fruit of a deep and relevant business, market, and consumer understanding. Once we’re in that place, the solution will come naturally. Be a perpetual student, always!

Challenge is an opportunity: I love pitches, there I said it! It’s an opportunity to reset, rethink and reassess. We get extremely sunk into the day to day that we sometimes become robotic in how we run the business. A pitch, or a business review, should be an opportunity for internal review and reassessment. Learning equally from everything that went well and wrong. There’s nothing more satisfying in earning a new business than retaining an existing one!

Finally, to the women in the industry, you are your own motivator and your worst enemy at the same time. Don’t get carried away with words like women empowerment and women enabling. Empowerment comes from within you first. I’ve had worse setbacks from women in the business than men; believe in yourself, your choices, and the path you draw to yourself, and do it no matter what!