I have worked every side of the agency business.
I am Karim Mneimneh, based in Dubai, with twenty years in advertising and marketing agencies: BBDO, JWT and the agency I ran for eight years. I build the operating model that makes delivery reliable, and I use AI as leverage, so a focused team delivers like a much larger one.
Hi, I am Karim.
across 50+ clients
Two sides of agency life shape how you read an account. One is building it inside a global network. The other is owning it when a client leaves.
BBDO and JWT showed how big accounts are built. Eight years running my own agency showed what it costs to lose one.
That agency meant owning everything: the team, the numbers, the client relationships. A seven-figure profit and loss with no safety net.
Today I lead the client and commercial side of an agency in Dubai, where the team I run turns marketing into pipeline the business can plan around.
I studied at the American University of Beirut and Concordia in Montreal. Both gave me a network I still lean on today.
Twenty years across the region teaches you to read people before you read the brief. What holds an account together usually sits in the relationship.
Briefs that moved the business.
AED 30M+ in sales and 150+ qualified leads a month.
Built and ran a social-led content engine that turned posts into pipeline.
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The challenge. Real estate clients came in for one-off project work. Content was busy but disconnected from sales. Leads arrived in bursts, cost too much, and nobody could trace them to revenue.
What I did. I built a social-led content and lead engine and ran it as one system. I set the platform priorities and the content direction, then designed a delivery model across digital, production and paid so the work shipped faster and cost less. I added a client and partner referral programme.
The results. More than 150 qualified leads a month and over AED 30M in sales. Execution speed up 30 per cent, cost per acquisition down 22 per cent. The referral programme drove a quarter of all qualified leads. Single projects grew into multi-year retainers without a competitive re-pitch.
80% client retention across 50+ healthcare accounts over eight years.
Ran the agency and led the accounts, owning pricing, margin and delivery.
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The challenge. Healthcare marketing across Dubai and Abu Dhabi is crowded, and clients leave the moment results stall. Keeping fifty of them, for years, is harder than winning them.
What I did. I ran the agency and acted as the senior account lead. I owned patient acquisition plans across paid, search, social and content, all external marketing communications. I owned pricing, forecasting and margin, and I built delivery standards across intake, resourcing and approvals.
The results. 80 per cent retention across more than 50 clients, sustained over eight years, on a seven-figure portfolio. The retention came from senior advice clients trusted and delivery they could rely on, not from discounting to stay.
A productised model that cut delivery time 25% and protected margin.
Designed the operating model and ran a ten-person delivery network.
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The challenge. Custom content for every client is slow, and margin leaks as you scale. Growth was pulling delivery out of shape.
What I did. I turned social content into a repeatable, productised programme instead of a bespoke build every time. I designed the operating model across intake, resourcing and approvals, and ran a ten-person remote delivery network against it.
The results. Delivery time down 25 per cent. Margin held as demand rose, and quality and team utilisation stayed steady. The system did the heavy lifting, so growth did not break it.
A 33% seasonal sales lift for Heineken, and a MENA Cristal Gold.
Led the account and oversaw the integrated campaign, brief to delivery.
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The challenge. A seasonal campaign, Light Up Christmas, had to move sales in a busy, competitive window for a global beer brand.
What I did. I led the account, briefed the strategy and creative teams on the objective, and oversaw the integrated digital content from brief through to delivery.
The results. A 33 per cent lift in seasonal sales, and a MENA Cristal Gold for the work. Kept here as pedigree: a named global brand, and a creative award on the board.
Notes on staying necessary.
The clients I did not keep.
Eighty per cent retention has a second half.
Read →Drop the credit and keep the client.
The moment you are proved right is the moment they look bad.
Read →Lead the handoff or lose the renewal.
The handoff is the first test of a relationship.
Read →Own the bit that was never in scope.
Scope is what you were hired for. Ownership is why you stay.
Read →In their words.
Serene Abbas, Integrated Account Director, House of Comms
Clara Maksoud, Account Manager, One Second Agency
Khaled Al Haddad, Media Producer and Cinematographer