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Katia Yasmine, Managing Director at TRACCS Lebanon, speaks of the “survival of the fittest” mentality her team adopted in order to overcome the challenges they had to face in 2022; she also elaborates on what the TRACCS team is made of, how they handled the successive crises, and the reason of the success of the network agency, which is celebrating its 25 years anniversary this year.

What are the efforts that have been deployed all through the year to keep your business alive amid the successive crises and stay inspired in an environment that doesn’t help creative inspiration to flow naturally?

The past few years have been a whirlwind but Lebanon is a country entirely made up of resilient people. At TRACCS Lebanon, we had adopted somewhat of a “survival of the fittest” mentality in order to roll with the punches/ cope with the difficult situations and continue to come out on top. However, 2022 proved to be quite different, as the shift was obvious with everybody’s eagerness to be back in the game. To me, it all actually reminds me of a football game. When I think of how we handled the successive crises last year, I believe we were playing defense. We were providing support to one another as a team in the midst of it all; we had to read the game well, be brave and decisive in making triumphant decisions for the fate of our work. This year, we’ve progressed in the game and are currently playing in attack position. We constantly created goal-scoring opportunities using all we had acquired during our adaptation period (control and technical skill…) and began striking and leveling up.

Clients have become very smart with whom they work and where they place their advertising. Where does “new business” typically come from today?

Although there’s definitely been a huge shift in the market since the crisis in Lebanon, we didn’t experience a huge shift when it comes to acquiring new clients. Life as we once knew it has changed, which obviously prompted people’s priorities to take a turn as well. This resulted in an evolution in the market, a change in demands, and thus different projects and campaigns to work on and bring to life. While we had previously been working mostly with luxury brands, consumer products, and retail, today, we have shifted to corporate companies, mostly focusing on awareness campaigns rather than consumption. 

With the rise of Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) across the world, and in the MENA region, and people being more aware on the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility, we also took a new turn regarding corporate communication and PR, incorporating sustainability campaigns to our scope of work, especially with our clients in the Gulf region, as ESG is today at the core of the 2030 vision of the UAE and KSA.  

“Last year, I believe we were playing defense. This year, we’ve progressed in the game and are currently playing in attack position.”

Many network agencies and even smaller local ones currently service the Arab region from their Beirut offices. Do you think that companies in the Gulf are taking advantage of the low-priced local services? 

Our work requires people to be on the ground, as for PR and communication to be effective and successful, understanding the culture is essential, whether we’re talking about local culture or even company culture. TRACCS is a regional agency with offices across the MENA region, and each of our offices caters to the needs of its local clients, since understanding the ins and outs of each country is indispensable in order to get the right messages across. And so, Egypt works for Egypt, Oman for Oman, Lebanon for Lebanon, and so on. Of course, we do work with clients who are not local as well, but as our network is connected and our work deeply intertwined, we guide each other through any work-related matter, which is what makes us a reference in communication and PR in the region. Unity is our strong suit. 

We are celebrating 25 years of TRACCS in 2023, and employees from over 15 countries will all be meeting in Jeddah for that occasion. We are all connected. This is the whole concept of TRACCS, and it is how we’ve always operated. And I think it’s safe to say that it is part of the reason we are such a success. Unity is strength, and I cannot stress this enough!