This feature is part of a series highlighting some of the most prominent Jordanian businesswomen who managed to climb to the top of the corporate ladder in their respective fields in the Kingdom.
Managing Partner at AdPro Communications
Rana Hamarneh, managing partner at Amman-based advertising agency AdPro Communications, sees challenges as opportunities to boost creativity and tackle obstacles from a different perspective.
After graduating with a degree in Communication Art from the United States, she returned to Jordan to help kick start the country’s advertising and communication scene.“Back then, the advertising field was slowly starting, with only a couple of agencies in the country, and not many understood what we did exactly. Today, some of the best international communication brands are represented here and the sector as a whole has seen a gigantic leap in the past 10 years,” Hamarneh told Venture.
While AdPro serves media clients and brand clients under one umbrella, the media services that they provide help them to continually rank among the top agencies. According to international research company Ipsos, AdPro tops the brand agencies with a total monitored billing of JD21 million, as of November 2014.
With international and local clients like Pepsi, Umniah, and Housing Bank, Hamarneh’s task is to come up with the best strategic positioning for the agency’s brands, through insightful narratives that influence consumers. “The communication model has been transformed completely in the past few years with the digital, the social media, and the mobile,” Hamarneh said. “Therefore it is crucial for us, as an agency and as communication experts, to stay relevant and ahead of the game. We are challenged everyday by new technologies and the constant emergence of new consumers, who live seamless multiple screen experiences. This keeps us wired and pushes the boundaries of our creativity.”
According to Hamarneh, challenges enhance the company’s ability to create better strategies and insightful stories for the brands they represent. “It has always been the big idea, the story we tell, but now it has to be activated across different types of platforms, and this makes it even more exciting.”
She also believes that digital advancements have helped evolve the communication industry. “The digital world did not minimize the importance of advertising agencies. On the contrary, our work has become more important. There is a lot of clutter and noise out there. We need to work with our brands to create compelling stories that stand out and connect better to make the needed behavioral shift.”
Working within the advertising and communications sector is not an easy task, but Hamarneh doesn’t believe hardships are related to her gender. “Running an advertising agency is very challenging, competition is high on all fronts, but I cannot say that it is more challenging for me because I am a woman. I feel that women in our field have been excelling because we are natural communicators and we love storytelling.”
Being confident about the future, Hamarneh also sees a great potential in Jordan itself. “I am confident that despite all the negative factors surrounding us, Jordan will continue to develop. As an agency I believe we are well positioned to tap into new opportunities for our clients and for ourselves,” she said, adding that she was a firm believer in Jordanian youth. “Although as an industry we are suffering from an increase in brain drain, as good talents will always be the driver behind our business.”
The market, the region, the world, is becoming more and more unpredictable in every way, stressed Hamarneh, adding that advertising agencies needed to look at things from a different perspective every time. “If we always look at things in the same way, we will always come up with the same solutions. Look, and look again. Change perspective and change the business model when necessary. We need to have a global mindset with a local perspective.”
Articles in the series of Jordan’s Top Businesswomen:
