M+C Saatchi Middle East kickstarts new era of cultural power

Zawya

18-03-2025

M+C Saatchi Group, the world's largest independent creative network, unveils its transformative new strategic proposition, Cultural Power, alongside a newly branded M+C Saatchi Group and the Cultural Power Index—an AI-powered diagnostic tool designed to help brands drive growth by harnessing the power of culture.
This milestone marks a significant evolution for the group, introducing a refreshed brand identity and a fully integrated new website that showcases the agency's breadth of capabilities across its six regions.
The case for Cultural Power
The modern brand landscape is in flux, with tighter budgets, fragmented media, and increasingly splintered audiences.
$400B in value was lost from the world's top 100 brands over the last 2 years due to macroeconomic shifts (Kantar BrandZ).
By 2025, consumer time spent on new media will more than double traditional media (Statista).
Over 1 billion ad-blockers have been installed globally, making it harder than ever for brands to reach audiences (Statista).
But brands that understand and harness cultural forces are outperforming their competition:
Brands with strong cultural relevance grow 6x faster than those with low cultural engagement (Kantar).
Brands perceived as 'changing culture' are trusted 38% more than those seen as merely 'functional' (Edelman Trust Barometer).
What is Cultural Power?
Cultural Power is the advantage M+C Saatchi Group creates for its clients, helping them harness cultural forces to fuel desire, drive demand and deliver brand growth.
'Cultural Power has the ability to influence society in many ways, from shaping governments and government policy, to changing consumer behaviour, building brands and transforming organisations' said Scott Feasey, CEO, M+C Saatchi Middle East.
'We've been doing this for years, cultivating it and perfecting its mastery. Cultural Power is the one thing that all of our clients' need in order to have the impact they desire in today's world. Culture Power is at the core of M+C Saatchi's offering, and for brands, companies, and governments, strengthening this power is more crucial than ever before.'
Introducing the Cultural Power Index: a new way to define a brand's cultural impact.
At the heart of the launch is the Cultural Power Index, a proprietary AI-powered, diagnostic tool that helps brands drive growth by harnessing the power of culture.
Created by the group's Consulting division, the Cultural Power Index analyses billions of data signals from across media, social, and cultural landscapes to measure a brand's Cultural Power in real-time.
The Cultural Power Index's unique and proprietary methodology enables the group to identify where there are opportunities to build Cultural Power for its clients, allowing them to:
Understand clients' current cultural relevance compared to competitors.
Pinpoint specific levers they should pull to enhance their Cultural Power and drive growth.
Track shifts in cultural perception to stay ahead of trends.
Cultural Power in action: Transforming global brands
M+C Saatchi Group has historically always been at the forefront of culture, working with some of the world's most influential brands.
From turning Earth Hour into a global digital movement with Pizza Hut's Offline Hour to igniting conversations on social inclusion with Mobily's The Incomplete Anthem. From shaping the brand identities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi to celebrating legends with Atlantis' Where Legendary Lives campaign featuring David Hasselhoff and a host of cultural influencers.
Internationally, bridging pop culture and play with LEGO x Pharrell for an era-defining collaboration, to creating powerful public engagement campaigns with the NHS that drive real-world impact, the Group has consistently demonstrated the power of creativity as a force for societal change.
M+C Saatchi Group's new identity: A bold step forward
The refreshed M+C Saatchi brand identity includes replacing its traditional ampersand with a + symbolising the power of cultural collaboration and the advantage for clients of a bespoke integrated team, focused on creative solutions for growth.
The visual refresh, created by the group's brand-led experience design agency Re, includes new logos for all its agencies, as well as new fonts, colour palette, and bespoke Cultural Power idents, in addition to a new global website, created by its digital agency MCD.
M+C Saatchi Group: Leading the future of brand growth through culture
'We believe Cultural Power is the most significant driver of brand growth today. With the Cultural Power Index, we're not just defining what makes a brand culturally relevant - we're providing a roadmap for them to harness and scale that power,' said Zaid Al-Qassab, CEO M+C Saatchi Group.
'This is more than just a rebrand - it's a bold statement of our ambition,' he continued. 'Our new visual identity and the Cultural Power Index mark a defining moment in our journey to help brands turn cultural relevance into real business growth.'
Chief Creative Officer, M+C Saatchi Middle East, Ryan Reed, said: 'Building your Cultural Power is key to any brand or business looking to create influence and meaningful change. It is the true driver that shapes behaviours and delivers the commercial results clients need'.
'Culture is where the heart beats strongest! Creativity and Communities will both take centre stage in defining the success of brands and their campaigns. Culture Power harnesses the forces of culture, the rhythm of life, to create campaigns with raw, authentic impact, that moves people. It's an exciting time, and we're eager to shape the incredible stories that will unfold this year.'
About M+C Saatchi Group:
M+C Saatchi Group is a global creative solutions company and the world's largest
independent creative network.
We connect specialist expertise, powered by creativity, data and technology, to help build famous brands, solve the most complex business and societal challenges, and create and curate Cultural Power for our clients.
Our capabilities encompass marketing and communications; experience, technology and consulting; media and sponsorship; and specialist services like global and social issues, sport and entertainment marketing and talent management to help brands connect, influence, and thrive in a rapidly changing and complex world.
M+C Saatchi delivers Cultural Power for our clients through:
Constant Creativity Ideas that make an impact in the world.
Brutal Simplicity of Thought We make the complex simple with incisive, innovative solutions.
Cutting Edge Tools We have a suite of tools that help us understand Cultural Power and how to harness it to grow our clients' businesses.
Growth Engineering We build agile, channel agnostic teams with the sole objective of driving brand growth.
Cultural Connectivity Our team of diverse thinkers, who are experts in their fields, live and breathe all areas of culture.
Headquartered in London, operations span 23 countries with major hubs in the UK, US, Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa.
M+C Saatchi Group
Creators + Curators of Cultural Power