Page 51 - Gulf Marketing Review

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“We’re going to see an and their adjacency to that platform. And changes and trends? Also, what were your
exciting number of next everything that we did, the ROI was meas- expectations for 2017 and how much of those
generation start-up brands ured in real-time. expectations came true?
come from the Middle East, 2017 was a year of contrast for us. We had
and especially the UAE.” McLaren was part of the recent Abu Dhabi a very high expectation in terms of our com-
Grand Prix. How did McLaren plan to capitalize petitiveness in Formula-1 but, very quickly, we
on that mega sporting event? What was your realised that it was going to be a very different
digital campaign, the target audience and marketing strategy for this sporting event? year in terms of performance due to our un-
how did you measure the ROI? Our strategy for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was competitive Honda engine.
Our most recent digital campaign was around really dominated by the strategies of our sponsor Having said that, on the upside, it was
the e-gaming initiative that we’ve undertaken partners. We’re changing engine partner to a year in which we completely restructured
over the last 12 months which is the world’s Renault for 2018 and finishing our relationship our business, brought in an amazing team
fastest gamer. Although it has been the e-sport with Honda here in Abu Dhabi. of new professionals, and undertook a num-
series based around real people doing real Formula One, like any sport, is cyclical; you ber of innovative marketing initiatives, such
things to compete to become a member of our can’t go from being at the bottom of the pile as the world’s faster gamer, frustratingly in a
Formula 1 team, underneath all of that has been to the top of the pile in a short space of time, period when we were uncompetitive on track,
a very strong and powerful digital campaign so 2018 will be a building year for us and we but it provided us with a massive amount of
to drive value of the sponsor partners who’ve definitely expect to be competitive. In 2019 and learning, knowledge, and resources for 2018
been a part of that platform. beyond we expect to be well and truly back to and beyond.
We haven’t just undertaken that initiative our winning ways.
for fun. Instead, we’ve taken that initiative (GMR caught up with John Allert at a recent
to drive value to our partners and custom- Do you agree with the view that in 2017 event organized by The Marketing Society
ers through their adjacency to our brand marketers were constantly exposed to new in Dubai)

DECEMBER 2017/FEBRUARY 2018 I GULF MARKETING REVIEW I 51