10 CEO MONTHLY / GLOBAL CEO EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2019 , May19581 Based in the heart of the bustling city of Dubai, Plan A Agency is a full-service digital marketing and branding boutique agency. We caught up with CEO Mohammed Jarkas to learn more about the firm and how he constantly leads it towards even greater renown in this competitive market. Best Digital Marketing CEO 2019 - UAE Initially, PLAN A came to life as a living example of what a marketing agency should be and do to help their clients achieve their desired goals and exceed them on the long run. Over the years, the firm has had the great pleasure of working with extraordinary clients representing a wide range of businesses, from start-ups to market leaders, in Dubai, the MENA region and beyond. Mohammed explores the firm’s service offering in more detail. “Plan A is two and a half years old and is catering to international brands and local start-ups in the UAE, KSA and the Middle East. Besides being a digital marketing boutique agency, we offer social media services and application design, beside small-level productions through our sister company, Overlight Productions. We make sure that we touch-base with our clients continuously and listen to their needs to see if we can help further. We also make sure that each member at Plan A is up to par with the latest technologies and trends while identifying any gaps and suggesting solutions for them.” Leading the company to success is Mohammed, who works hard to ensure every stakeholder, from staff to clients, feels at home in this unique organisation, as he highlights. “Here at Plan A, we truly are a big family. Many companies say this, but we mean it. As CEO I make sure that my team is growing with both seasoned professionals and aspiring budding talents. From what I hear in other agencies and our clients, we are creating great work dynamics and making an enjoyable place out of Plan A. This directly reflects the type of ideas we come up with and the pace of turnaround tremendously. We also stress on communication and continuous education. We do it not only because it keeps employees around, but also because these are the things I need to harness myself to keep my sanity in a field that often oversees employees’ wellbeing and work culture for the sake of clientdriven results. “Following that principal, we make sure that our clients are in line with this ideology, and that they have in their understanding the ability to give us space to create and expand based on their needs. We work so closely with our clients to the point of becoming their partner while fulfilling the digital marketing needs for which they have initially approached us. We focus on acquiring a client base of brands and start-ups that are looking to penetrate the regional market and speak its cultural language. We do this well through diligent research and on-ground surveys. The professionals in my team come with a deep expertise in the Arabic language and the subtle nuances within the MENA that international agencies sometimes fail to capture. Hence, we guarantee our international clients that wish to expand into the region a smooth roll-out and a scalable digital marketing plan. “Thanks to our supportive approach, Plan A now works with a wide array of clients from start-ups to global market leaders in the fields of government, hospitality, F&B, skincare and digital innovation. All of these clients know that when they work with Plan A they will receive the support and solution they need to drive their brand forward.” For all of these clients Plan A provides an innovative, client-focused approach, as Mohammed explains. “When working with a new client, the first thing we do is study the brand, its competitors and what we can bring to the table as insiders to the region, because it’s very important that we can make a difference. After that we start gradual implementation and establish a close relationship with all our clients. We treat them as partners and their success becomes ours. We offer our insights as consultants on the opportunities that would optimize their expansions and efforts. This approach ensures we meet every clients’ exact needs.” Looking to the future, Mohammed foresees even greater success for Plan A, as he is proud to conclude. “Moving forward, at Plan A we are taking steady but quite ambitious steps towards setting ourselves as leaders in the field, working at the level of an international agency while maintaining the private and highly personalized boutique experience. We are looking to include clients from different fields now that we have the internal capacity for it, but are very clear about what type of fields we would like to get into to diversify our experience and flex our tech/creative muscles. “Overall, the whole world is noticing a great appetite for visual content, so as soon as we had the means to open a production company we did. We named it Overlight Productions and it has proven to be a step in the right direction since it gave us the creative freedom to offer professional photography and videos services. In all, at Plan A our eyes and ears are always able to identify problems and solve them better than anyone else. This is a skill we keep harnessing and reinforcing.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTY1MjI4