Watermark Marketing Management is a Dubai based, award-winning boutique agency offering creative, advertising and marketing services to a select group of prestigious clients. The rich experience of our management across various categories and markets, coupled with the enthusiasm of a young and raring team, ensures our clients always get a creative, committed, result-oriented and prompt service. With big agency ideas and small agency advantages, at Watermark, customer service is not just a department, but an attitude. Origin of our name: A watermark is a faint impression used to identify a brand and validate its authenticity. Originating in Italy in 1282, a watermark was used to brand the products of individual master papermakers within paper mills to protect their interests. Similarly, we at Watermark strive silently behind the scenes to protect the interests of our clients by providing effective support for all creative, marketing and communication needs. I am the general manager of the company and a partner. When I am not taking care of my passion of running the agency, I am chasing my other passion of flying. With a pilot’s license under my belt, the weekends are spent soaring the skies in a Cessna 172. Being up there amongst the clouds and the vast expanse of the skies surely revitalizes the creative cells and ensure a steady flow of good ideas.

We are an advertising agency but consider ourselves more as an extension of our clients' marketing department. Our management and team members are highly specialized in multiple disciplines, and while we have dedicated client servicing, creative and production team, when duty calls each can take on the other's role. We ensure a single point contact for our clients “from pin to plane” and thus ensure that their dollar goes longer than a mile. It also helps our clients save on valuable executive time as our project management skills ensure that they can rely on our team to deliver right from creative/concept stage to the final execution – be it designs, retail executions, exhibitions, events or ATL campaigns. An agency that is its own biggest competition, we drive ourselves to continuously better our own selves with every assignment. Being a founding member and the general manager of the company, I oversee all departments. While my primary role is client servicing and business development, I have a keen creative sense and double up as the agency’s creative director.

We believe that when you hold up a trophy, you hold aloft the aspirations of your teammates, the confidence, and trust of your clients and the dreams of the founders. That is why it gives us so much of joy and sense of achievement to be recognized and assures us that our efforts of providing nothing but the best to our clients are headed in the right direction.

The advent of the internet and the digital platform has redefined the delivery platforms and the reach for a marketer. The easy of distribution and the high level of interactivity has provided the creative industry to provide solutions and communications that can be more engaging and interactive. 3D Printing, holograms, augmented reality, large format digital screens, smartphone penetration etc have ensured that we can now be more involved with the customers and engage with him across various levels and customization. Technology will keep opening new doors and enable more low cost, high impact and highly creative messaging to be delivered. I personally still believe print will see a revival, albeit not to its original level.

• Creativity. • Opportunity to gain so much knowledge as clients are from a diverse range of industries and when you work with them you get to learn so much about various industries. This also helps us plan cross promotions as well as to bring best practices from non-related industries into our campaigns. • There is never a dull moment. With every assignment being different, you never have to go through the boredom of a 9 to 5 job. The tight deadlines and the opportunity to outperform ourselves and the expectations of our clients keep the environment charged and exciting.

• George Bernard Shaw’s through his famous quote - “There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” • My father, a tough army officer who inspired a “never say die” attitude. Watching his discipline, a high sense of responsibility and integrity through the years have taught me that values, positive attitude, and determination are the greatest assets you can possess to overcome any obstacles.

Dubai and UAE offer a huge opportunity to be creative. • The Government has provided inspiring platforms by setting up various free zones where creative talent can flourish in an ideal environment. • Being a cultural hub, the exchange of ideas amongst various cultures, nationalities and professional streams broaden the horizon and enable “out of the box” thinking through interaction with one another, exhibitions, plays, cinema and cultural shows. • Being a relatively smaller place, we are not hampered by huge operational hurdles in executing creative ideas across various touch points. This really allows us to come up with a high degree of creative execution on assignments.

You need to be passionate about creativity. It is only then the deadlines, pressure, and lack of fixed working hours will not bother you. If you love what you do, then it will not seem like a regular job. Don’t treat the advertising industry as just another job.

Read a lot, especially comics. Watch a lot of cinema. Google random topics on the net. Watch programs like National Geography and Discovery. Take up a hobby. Watch live debates on TV. Engage in conversations, even with strangers. Travel as much as you can. This will help you broaden your creative horizon, and provide valuable insights and open up a whole new world of ideas.

Well, there is a reason why it has never been told.

Passion, conviction, and integrity.