Spine wins hasenkamp Middle East account after pitch of over six months.
Spine Marketing Consultancy has won the communications, content, social media and strategic marketing account for hasenkamp Middle East, Campaign Middle East reported on 2 November. The pitch ran for more than six months and included several multinational agencies.
hasenkamp is a family-owned logistics company that specialises in fine art, museum services and the transport of cultural heritage items, and in the GCC it also offers high-tech logistics and high-end relocations, with storage, installation and conservation support. Spine's brief covers strategy, social channels, content and how the brand is positioned in the Gulf and the rest of the region.
Ina Wrzesinsky, hasenkamp Middle East's regional marketing manager, said the company was looking for an agency that grasped both the niche nature of its operations and its family ownership, and that Spine stood out for turning a complex business into a clear story for the region. Saad Gharzeddine, Spine's founder and managing director, said the agency was drawn to the purpose behind the work of moving and protecting cultural assets.
Spine's existing work centres on automotive and luxury clients, and the agency called the win a milestone in moving into other industries. Neither side has disclosed the value or length of the contract, the agencies it beat, or when the first work will appear.
Our read: the account is small next to the region's big media pitches, but it may point to specialist suppliers to the culture sector investing in their own marketing as Saudi Arabia and the UAE build museums and cultural programmes. It also suggests a smaller agency can beat networks in a long pitch on sector understanding.
Why it matters
A specialist agency beating networks for a culture-sector account suggests the Gulf's museum and heritage build-out could create new B2B marketing briefs.
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