Last month, we broke the news that Careem was looking for a creative agency. More than eight creative agencies including TBWA/RAAD, J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett are said to be participating in the pitch.

[Tweet “Now Careem has announced that it has appointed TBWA/ RAAD as its global agency of record to lead brand advertising strategy and creative campaigns.”]

Ian Pate, Careem’s new vice-president of brand marketing, says: “We’ll be partnering with TBWA / Raad for this as we believe they truly understand both the depth of our ambition, and the challenges of building a world-class brand from the region, we also loved their tangible sense of excitement and enthusiasm for the Careem brand.”

Launched in Dubai in 2012, Careem has grown to have operations in more than 100 cities across 14 countries, and brand building is an important objective of the company. That is why it worked with brand agency BellWether Brands to refresh its branding last year and appointed and new vice-president of brand, Ian Pate from PepsiCo Europe/ Sub-Saharan Africa and more recently brought on board Anas Sarraj, ex JWT, Dubai, as creative director.

Reda Raad, Group CEO of TBWA / Raad, adds: “Careem epitomizes the type of 21st century company that we as an agency have always wanted to work with. It has technology and innovation at its core, is run with dedication and passion by people who believe in the power of the brand, and it embraces the virtues of disruption, which is at the heart of everything that we do at TBWA / Raad. What’s more, we are partnering with Careem at a time when we at TBWA / Raad have turned on our own disruption mirror. We are no longer just disrupting on behalf of our clients but are disrupting our very own operations – our own DNA. When we find a strategy that works extremely well, we are sure to apply it to our own business. We believe that we have now proven that data-driven creativity can work wonders when implemented by those who believe passionately in what they do. We greatly look forward to a disruptive and innovative relationship with Careem”.