Dear Sir,
Owing to being largely on travel in the past weeks, it is only now that I have seen the feature on Bahrain advertising in the January issued of ArabAd.
As one of the key pioneers of Middle East advertising and first-hand witness, allow me to add some elements - especially that Intermarkets is mentioned in a context that needs to be historically clarified.
As MEMAS (Mid-East Marketing & Advertising Services), prior to the merger with Hima in 1971 to form Intermarkets, we opened our first Middle East office in Kuwait in 1968, thus starting the advertising pioneering of the area.
At that time, Kuwait was the leading sophisticated business centre and Bahrain, the relaxed lifestyle hub. We opened our second office in Bahrain in I973.
Our regional coordinator in charge of Middle East development was then Nabil Nahas. He is the one that organised our basic structure in this market and led Edmond Moutran's first steps. Edmund Moutran had freshly joined our Beirut headquarter with a view of managing our Bahrain office. From 1971 to 1975 Edmond contributed greatly to servicing clients on the UAE and Saudi Arabia together with Ramzi Raad.
In 1975 due to the continuous insecurity in Lebanon, we decided to transfer our Corporate Headquarter from Beirut lo Bahrain. As Vice-President on International, in charge of coordinating regional accounts, Samir Fares moved to Bahrain as avant-garde, followed a few weeks later by over 30 staff and senior management.
Al that lime, I recall that on my arrival to Bahrain, Edmund and I were invited to a meeting at the Ministry of Information. "The government of Bahrain," said our interlocutor, "welcomes new and big companies. We trust that with your bigger means you will not fight our local agencies." Our answer was that our vocation was to service our international clients and bung our modest know-how to develop advertising standards.
We have kept our promise, not only in Kuwait and Bahrain, but throughout in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, that were the next links in the Intermarkets Gulf area network.
Best regards,
Erwin Guerrovich
Chairman Emeritus
Intermarkets Group
(ArabAd)
