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I spend my professional life convincing data streams to behave and consumers to click…
Articles by Don
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Don Sajith shared thisThe Global Cost of a Plate: Where Macroeconomics Meets the Kitchen Table We are perpetually obsessed with reducing the human experience to a comparative bar chart.Take the latest viral infographic from Visual Capitalist mapping the global cost of a simple restaurant meal. On one end, Switzerland demands a sobering 31 dollar$ for the privilege of a casual bite; on the other, Bangladesh offers nourishment for a little over a dollar. The global median sits neatly at 9.35 $ It is a striking illustration of planetary disparity, packaged neatly for LinkedIn scrollers looking to feel worldly between meetings, or water cooler chat if you are working in the restaurant industry. Yet, looking at these green bars stretching across a graphic misses the quiet, grinding human theater underneath. A 31$ bill in Zurich or a 2$ bill in Dhaka does not simply reflect input costs, local taxes, and exchange rates. It represents the invisible poetry of local survival, the unspoken pact between what an hour of human labor is worth and what a plate of food costs to keep that labor breathing for another day. What the data sheet so neatly conceals is the starkly divergent psychology of guilt and status attached to spending that money. In low-cost economies, a restaurant meal is frequently a rare, highly deliberate family/friends celebration where every cent spent is weighed against household utility. In ultra-high-cost markets like Switzerland, that thirty-dollar casual meal is often purchased out of sheer urban exhaustion, bought by a professional too drained to cook, serving as an expensive band-aid for the alienation of modern desk labor. We love to treat macroeconomic data as a pure science, a frictionless exchange of purchasing power parity. But behind every digit in the dataset is a restaurant owner sweating over utility bills, a line cook calculating rent, and a customer deciding whether a modest meal out is a small celebration or an emotional ransom. The global median of 9.35 Dollar$ is not just a statistic. It is the planetary pulse of working-class economics, vibrating quietly beneath our sophisticated debates on global trade and inflation. We can slice the world into tidy comparative indexes all we want, but commerce always boils down to a very human transaction: someone trying to feed a stranger without going bankrupt, and someone else wondering if they are paying to nourish their body or merely to quiet their exhaustion. And someone else wondering if they're getting their money's worth for a plate of food. #Macroeconomics #Food #Inflation #eatingout
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Don Sajith shared thisThe Architecture of 96: When Civic 🇸🇦Pride Becomes the Ultimate Pricing Strategy The annual Saudi National Day rhythm STARTED on the 1st of Sept for most brands: its a unique intersection of commerce and national jubilation where the entire market synchronizes its heartbeat to a single, powerful integer. 96. Suddenly, everything from a premium dining experience to an automotive service package is artfully anchored at 96 SR, 196 SR, or 296 SR. Far from a mere promotional gimmick, it is a masterclass in cultural resonance, a collective expression of belonging where brands lock arms with the national milestone. 🟢The Semiotics of a Shared Milestone To view this through a sterile financial lens is to miss the human element entirely. Anchoring a price to a milestone year isn't about cutting margins; it is about participating in a living, breathing cultural moment. 🇸🇦 Instant Cultural Harmony: In moments of national celebration, consumers aren't looking for a sterile spreadsheet calculation pricing that pretends to be a deal, they are looking for shared experiences. The "96 pricing matrix" acts as an immediate, joyful signal that a brand is part of the community and country's fabric. 🇸🇦 The Power of Resonance: Notice how powerfully this connects. The consumer isn’t just evaluating a discount; they are engaging in a festive retail tradition where the product, pricing and the occasion become one. 💰 When Commerce Meets Culture 🇸🇦 There is a profound lesson here about modern brand strategy. For the rest of the year, organizations obsess over hyper-differentiated value propositions and clinical positioning matrices. But when a historic national celebration arrives, the most successful brands understand that people don't want a cold, corporate transaction. They want to belong to something larger than themselves. It turns out that exceptional regional marketing isn't always about shouting the loudest discount. Sometimes, it’s about listening to the pulse of the country, respecting the moment, and gracefully joining the celebration. Is this brilliant localized contextual marketing at its finest, or is it the ultimate proof that the best business strategies are the ones that speak human first? Here’s looking forward to National Day 97 in 2027, and hopefully 197, if I'm still lucky enough to be kicking around to witness it. Happy Saudi National 🇸🇦 Day ❤️ #SaudiArabia #Advertising #Marketing
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Don Sajith shared thisIf an ad existed anywhere near your field of vision before you bought something, the platform gets to claim full credit for your life choices. For years, this has been the digital advertising ecosystem's deeply convenient fiction. Every major ad platform uses its own proprietary definitions, customizable attribution windows, and wildly subjective "viewability" requirements to cook the books. When Google Meta, LinkedIn, and TikTok all define a "view" differently, ranging from a fleeting two-second autoplay on TikTok to a fractional pixel flash on a display banner, comparing performance across channels becomes the statistical equivalent of comparing chalk and cheese. The Three Horsemen of Platform Attribution When every walled garden gets to write its own rulebook for what counts as a conversion, the business suffers in predictable ways: The Multi-Channel Blindspot: It becomes nearly impossible to understand true channel performance or figure out whether your ad spend is actually driving incremental growth or just taking credit for organic demand. The Apples-to-Oranges Trap: Because attribution windows and viewability standards vary wildly from platform to platform, cross-channel comparison is a complete illusion. The Return of the Gut Instinct: When corporate dashboards become untrustworthy funhouses of inflated vanity metrics, data-influence plummets. Frustrated executives throw their hands up and retreat to the dangerous comfort of "gut instinct," leaving the business bleeding budget on algorithms designed to praise themselves. Until we stop treating analytics like an expensive corporate rain dance, the boardroom will forever remain a place where everyone agrees on the KPI, pretends to understand the attribution model, and quietly hopes nobody asks what the control group was actually doing while the budget went up in flames. #Attribution #AdvertisingDon Sajith shared thisMethodologies matter more than metrics. Challenge yours, please. Exhibit #4981: How VTC is calculated by Ad Platfforms. Every platform has slightly different variation of what the metric's definition is, with different (and configurable!) attribution windows, and dramatically different "viewability" requirements to compute the result. End results: A. It is very hard to understand performance in a single channel (and if that is solving for you or the Ad Platform). B. It is impossible to compare the performance across channels (chalk and cheese). C. Intelligently reallocate your budget. This leads to data-influence lowering, the undesirable "gut instinct" rising, and in the end the business losing. In this instance, I simply take the metric and the methodology out of the hands of the Ad Platforms, and do it myself inside my own company. You might choose a different path. Either way... torture the methodologies behind the metrics and God will smile on you. 💸 #analytics #marketing
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Don Sajith shared thisEpic Campaign with Epic Deals! Flights + Hotels packages in One Easy booking with massive discounted value! Fly with ease and safety and enjoy your Saudi National Day holiday! 🇸🇦Don Sajith shared thisCelebrating Saudi National Day with Saudia Holidays! 🇸🇦 Excited to share the launch of our Saudi National Day Offers for Saudia Holidays bringing together an all-in-one landing page featuring our Flight + Hotel packages across 60+ destinations worldwide, with amazing savings and extra benefits. ✈️🌍 The campaign offers up to 50% off + an extra 10%, making it easier to turn National Day celebrations into the next getaway. From the offer strategy and content to the landing page experience, it’s been an exciting project to bring together and I’m proud to see it live! 💚 A special campaign for a special occasion. Happy 96th Saudi National Day! 🇸🇦💚
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Don Sajith shared thisMeta Ads Library is useless, untill it starts giving gold insights... Most media buyers treat the Meta Ad Library like a basic creative swipe file; decent for checking hooks and visual styles, but totally useless for actual media planning. You get zero spend, zero targeting parameters, and no idea what’s actually moving the needle.Unless your competitor is scaling in the EU. Thanks to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), Meta is legally required to pull back the curtain on any ad served in member states. Hit "About this ad" on an EU placement, and the black box opens: Audience Demographics: Exact age and gender distributions receiving budget. Geographic Concentration: Country-by-country delivery splits across the bloc. Impression Volume: Actual reach brackets instead of blind guesswork. Targeting Parameters: Specific targeting criteria selected at the ad set level. Instead of burning five figures of test budget to identify whether a competitor’s winning angle is hitting Gen Z women in Germany or 40+ men in France, you can pull their exact distribution data in 30 seconds. This is a delicious ad by Burger King with amazing data attached to it. It’s effectively free media intelligence handed to you by EU compliance. If you’re planning international rollouts or reverse-engineering a global brand's localized creative strategy, stop guessing their audience settings and just read their DSA receipts
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Don Sajith shared thisWalled gardens are getting far more pragmatic.. Historically, Google and Meta treated each other like sovereign hostile territories. The idea of Google Ads natively routing high-intent search traffic straight into a Meta-owned messaging channel like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger would have been treated as heresy in Mountain View a few years ago. Yet, user behavior dictates platform evolution. For high-consideration lead-gen businesses (like automotive, real estate, or complex B2B services), forcing a user to click an ad, load a clunky, slow mobile landing page, fill out a static form, and wait for an email response is an absolute conversion killer. By integrating messaging features like WhatsApp and Messenger directly into the ad asset at the account, campaign, or ad-group level, Google is recognizing that speed-to-conversation beats form-fills every single time. Consumers don't want to fill out web forms anymore; they want instant, friction-free chat. The fact that Google expanded these message asset integrations, including native WhatsApp routing starting around late 2024 through 2025 with test markets, proves that user experience and conversion optimization are finally overriding corporate vanity. If it reduces drop-off and shortens the sales cycle, even fierce rivals will happily play in each other's sandbox. The irony? Most media buyers are still completely clueless about it. While agencies continue obsessing over traditional landing page tweaks and standard form optimization, powerful native messaging assets sit underutilized in account settings because most media buyers haven't bothered to look past standard click-to-site metrics.Don Sajith shared this🚨 Google Ads just entered Meta’s territory 😳 Google Ads + Meta Messenger? This is interesting. Google Ads is reportedly testing a Beta feature that allows advertisers to add Facebook (Meta) Messenger or text messaging as a messaging option directly from Google Ads campaigns. And it can be configured at: → Account level → Campaign level → Ad group level Think about the journey: Someone searches on Google → sees your ad → clicks → starts a conversation. No unnecessary landing-page friction. For lead-gen businesses, this could be a pretty interesting shift. And honestly… Google sending users into Meta’s ecosystem is NOT something I expected to see. 👀 Still Beta, so let’s see how widely Google rolls it out. Would you test this if it becomes available on your Google Ads account? #GoogleAds #MetaAds #DigitalMarketing #PerformanceMarketing #PPC #Marketing #LeadGeneration
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Don Sajith shared thisWhy Your Business Class Seat Is Just a Suggestion.. If you spend enough time staring at airline seat maps, inventory management curves, and the quiet psychological carnage of consumer travel, you start to view commercial aviation not as a mode of transportation, but as a sophisticated gaslighting operation with wings. Take the latest dispatch from The The Wall Street Journal unfortunate travelers dropping small-fortune sums on business class, like the poor soul who shelled out over $5,000 to fly from North Carolina to Europe, only to be blindsided by a last-minute "equipment swap" and dumped into a middle seat in economy. Why does this happen? Because in the cold calculus of airline revenue management, your meticulously selected lie-flat seat is never an absolute contract, it is merely a high-stakes option contract traded on human anxiety and digital cash. When an airline faces a mechanical glitch, a scheduling cascade, or a "downgauge" to a smaller aircraft to save on fuel costs, they don't see a human being who valued a decent night's sleep over vertebral misalignment. They only see statistics. They see a mathematical spreadsheet puzzle. They swap the tail numbers, shrink the premium cabin footprint, and shove you back into the steerage substitute zone, offering a hollow refund of the fare difference as if cash back could somehow resurrect your shattered dignity. It’s a magnificent metaphor for modern corporate life, you can optimize your metrics, use points, buy the ticket, board your metadata and frequent flier status, and still find yourself sitting under a closed window shade, contemplating why a decimal point on a terminal in Chicago or Riyadh decided that your lumbar support should be sacrificed for quarterly yield management.
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Don Sajith shared thisFor years, the loudest critique leveled against platform attribution architecture has focused on its extended windows. Marketers and media buyers have endlessly complained that multi-day view-through or click windows are nothing more than a platform trick designed to inflate dashboard numbers and capture credit for conversions that would have happened anyway. Yet, as the default attribution window for emerging AI-driven advertising formats like ChatGPT settles cleanly at a 30-day click and 1-day view, since then, a great silence has fallen across the timeline. The sudden acceptance of a 30-day window on chat-based ad networks exposes a hilarious hypocrisy in how the digital marketing community judges platform mechanics. When social platforms use an expansive window to capture multi-touch consideration, it is treated as a predatory illusion. But the moment a shiny new AI interface rolls out an identical, or even wider window, those same skeptics embrace it without batting an eye. The underlying reality is that every performance channel needs a wide attribution window to survive. Human beings rarely buy high-consideration products or services in a single session. a person's natural state is not "BUY BUY & BUY" state. To put the absurdity of strict window policing into perspective, consider the physics of fast-moving consumer goods and QSRs. Back when I managed digital media operations for McDonald's, overseeing massive foot-traffic and mobile order-and-pay campaigns, we regularly wrestled with these exact platform reporting dynamics. If you tried to evaluate a fast-food consumer journey on a hyper-strict, same-day conversion window, you would look at the data and assume advertising had zero impact on human appetite. People don't see a digital video for a burger at noon, sprint to the drive-thru lane in three minutes, and check out & get out. They absorb the prompt, marinate on the craving for days, encounter a dozen competing stimuli, and eventually pull into the lane a few days later. Great if they do on the same day. But that's always the audacious goal. That is precisely why I used to deliberately enforce a 1-2 week attribution window, not because it was a magical accounting truth, but because it reflected the actual cognitive lag of human desire. Attribution windows are not moral documents or absolute accounting ledgers; they are probabilistic tools designed to manage algorithmic momentum and handle complex consideration journeys. If the market is ready to accept a 30-day click window for an AI chatbot interface, we can finally stop pretending that extended attribution is somehow a malicious invention unique to traditional ad networks. It’s time to stop whining about the window and start focusing on the actual quality of the traffic and creative. #Attribution #MMP #Performance #Advertising #ChatGPT #OpenAIDon Sajith shared thisI don't want to hear anyone complaining about Meta ads attribution pulling in fluff conversions ever again. The default attribution window for ChatGPT ads: 30-day click 1-day view
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Don Sajith shared thisIf you want to understand how cultural attention is bought and sold in Saudi Arabia, you have to look past digital performance dashboards and examine the heavy artillery of regional broadcasting: Bein Sports Holding the crown jewels of live sports broadcasting rights across the MENA including exclusive rights for the English Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, and continental championships, beIN is not just a television network; it is the central nervous system of live engagement in the Kingdom There is a reason why advertising spots during marquee beIN broadcasts command eye-watering budgets. Premium television inventory in the Gulf is expensive precisely because it captures undivided, high-intent collective attention. While digital ad networks flood screens with fragmented impressions that users scroll past in milliseconds, a live football match or a prime-time Ramadan broadcast commands absolute immersion albeit the fact that people will still be double screening with their phone. Brands pay a massive premium because they aren't buying passive background noise, they are buying entry into a synchronized cultural moment where millions of consumers are tuned in simultaneously. This massive reach operates across a dual-screen reality that defies Western definitions of "linear" viewing. During a high-stakes Premier League fixture or a Champions League night, neighborhood shisha lounges and local cafes across Riyadh, Jeddah & Kingdom wide, transform into open-air arenas. Massive screens light up packed rooms filled with groups of friends, functioning as the exact Saudi equivalent of a bustling American sports bar. Simultaneously, this engagement spills directly onto personal devices. Platforms like beIN's TOD and telecom streaming apps like STC TV mean consumers are seamlessly shifting from watching a match on a massive cafe screen to streaming it live on their phones during a commute, or catching serial dramas on smart screens at home. For brands and operators navigating this landscape, treating TV as an "old-fashioned" medium is a costly mistake. When a population consumes over 5 hours of media daily, anchored by massive communal viewing rituals around live sports and religious peaks like Ramadan, television provides a scale that lower-funnel digital channels simply cannot replicate on their own. It commands a premium price tag because it delivers what performance marketing chases but rarely captures: true cultural Ubiquity and Effervescence.Don Sajith shared thisEvery year, someone declares television dead in the GCC. Every year, the data tells a more nuanced story. In 2026, estimated TV advertising spend across the GCC grew by more than 12% year-on-year. But the growth itself isn't the most interesting part. The real story is who chose television. Between January and August, an estimated 374 brands advertised on TV that were absent during the same period in 2025, with nearly half of the advertiser base made up of new entrants. Among them were businesses from the Websites & Digital Services category, brands built around search, social and performance marketing that increasingly turned to TV when the objective was broad visibility and rapid reach at scale. Confidence among local brands also continued to strengthen. GCC-origin advertisers increased their share of television spend from approximately 56% to 63%, highlighting the growing role of regional brands in shaping the media landscape. A closer look at the data reveals a more selective investment pattern. Excluding major viewing moments such as Ramadan and the FIFA World Cup, baseline TV expenditure declined year-on-year. Advertisers are focusing their investments around periods where television delivers its strongest reach and impact. But that selectivity is precisely what makes these shifts noteworthy. A channel that attracts hundreds of new advertisers, increases participation from regional brands, and draws investment from digital-first businesses is not simply retaining relevance. It is demonstrating a distinct role within today's media mix. The opportunity for 2027 will be converting event-driven usage into longer-term behaviour, particularly with the AFC Asian Cup and Ramadan both arriving in the first quarter. Television in the GCC isn't thriving because advertisers have failed to evolve. It's thriving because they have become increasingly deliberate about where scale, attention and cultural impact matter most. #Advertising #Television #GCC #Media #Marketing #TVAdvertising #MediaStrategy #IpsosMedia #MENA
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Don Sajith liked thisDon Sajith liked thisA new chapter begins. After 12 memorable years with Nissan across the Middle East and AMIEO—and a lifetime in Dubai, the city that built me and will always be home—I have relocated to Japan to take on a dual remit as Head of Communications at Nissan Motorsports & Customizing (NMC) and Global Head of Communications for Motorsports at Nissan Motor Co. From driving product communications and regional launches to being at the heart of our electrification and high-performance storytelling, this journey has been shaped by extraordinary colleagues, mentors, and teams whose support made every milestone possible. Stepping into this space—leading global communications across NISMO, our international racing programs, and vehicle customizing at such a pivotal time—is an absolute honor. There is an extraordinary heritage here, and even greater momentum ahead. Looking forward to the road, the tracks, and the journey ahead. 🏁🇯🇵
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Don Sajith liked thisDon Sajith liked thisIt’s one of my favourite seasons of the year. It’s the time when we celebrate the graduates of McDonald’s Vocational Academy who received their Sijil Kemahiran Malaysia (SKM), accredited by the Ministry of Human Resources. This year, we celebrated 369 graduates - bringing the total number of graduates from McDonald’s Vocational Academy to more than 5,500 since 2018. “Poverty ends where opportunity begins - create one chance, and you rewrite a generation.” I am a testament to how education can break the cycle of poverty in a family, and that’s why I get very emotional sitting on the stage, looking at students walking up to receive their scrolls, and seeing proud parents hugging their children, children giving their robes to the parents for a photoshoot. They’re not just any other students - they’re students from rural and underprivileged communities; and you can only imagine how proud their family members must feel. And imagine how this could potentially change their lives. Some of them never imagined that they would one day attend a convocation ceremony. “Saya tidak pernah terfikir akan berpeluang menghadiri majlis konvokesyen.” One of the graduates said - an Orang Asli youth who did not complete his schooling, but successfully completed his SKM Level 3... probably at the start of the journey of changing his family's life. I’m reminded to not take what we have today for granted, and I'm extremely grateful to be serving a brand and organisation that believes in giving back to the community.
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Don Sajith reacted on thisDon Sajith reacted on thisAt the Mountain School, families pay $40,000 a semester for their teens to do chores on a farm in rural Vermont. Their goal: Students learn to appreciate the people doing these tasks in every community. Some students and alums consider the Mountain School a secret path to top colleges. Other families are seeking a wider perspective beyond traditional schooling and a rare reprieve from technology. Read more: https://on.wsj.com/4jpzLCl
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Don Sajith reacted on thisDon Sajith reacted on thisVanderbilt building leverage before the language for it existed. Franklin designing his own cognition like a system to be debugged. Munger inverting the question until the answer changed shape. Dalio writing his failures into operational doctrine rather than letting them quietly expire. Leonardo drawing what was physically in front of him instead of what anatomy was supposed to look like. Grant holding conviction and correctness apart as though they were different things, which they are. Karp asking not whether people are talented but what they are actually aimed at. None of these people shared a field, a century, or a set of foundational assumptions. What they shared was a refusal to accept the inherited version of something they could examine themselves. That is what wide reading actually produces. Not quotes. Not frameworks to apply in the next planning cycle. Distance. Distance from the unexamined beliefs of your own moment, which are invisible precisely because every person around you holds them too. Every strategy function is operating inside a set of those beliefs. About how consumers decide. About how categories behave. About what the organization is actually for. They feel like facts because everyone in the room learned them the same way, in the same era, from the same sources. The only reliable way to see them is to spend serious time inside a mind that never held them. Across my 36 markets, the most expensive errors were never failures of intelligence or effort. They were assumptions carried in from somewhere else, adopted without examination, and treated as the floor of the conversation rather than the subject of it. The good news is that the correction requires no budget, no restructuring, no permission from above. It requires reading things with no obvious connection to your industry and being willing to sit with the discomfort when they contradict something you had stopped noticing you believed. That discomfort is the point. It is the sensation of a ceiling becoming a doorway. The people who will think most clearly about the next five years are probably already doing this. They just aren't calling it a methodology. Hopefully, some of them are doing it this weekend.
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Don Sajith reacted on thisDon Sajith reacted on thisA retail director with 800 stores reports to the CEO. A head of ecommerce with more revenue than 300 of those stores reports to the CMO, who reports to the CEO, and who would rather not own the platform at all. Physical retail never reports into marketing or IT. Digital retail almost always does. In February I wrote that ecommerce directors are the most complete executives in retail: technology, operations, marketing, data and customer service under one role, plus the number. I said I would die on that hill. This is what happens to the role when a business decides it does not need one. The ecommerce director leaves. The seat is not refilled, because a senior vacancy looks like a saving. The function is placed under marketing. Within months the CMO, who never asked for a platform and has nobody who can read a roadmap, hands development and the product manager to IT and keeps digital marketing, which it understands, and trading, which it assumes it does. Nobody in this story is incompetent, and this is not an argument about rank. Gartner found 62% of companies rolling digital commerce up to the CMO a decade ago. By 2024, 22% of CMOs reported gaps in the digital commerce capability their business needs, up from 14% the year before. One in five, on the record, does not have the capability to run it. IT cannot run it either, and not through any fault of its own. In a multichannel business IT's largest customers are the tills, the ERP, the warehouse system and the wholesale order book. Ecommerce is 25 to 30% of revenue and about 90% of the change requests. It becomes the noisy minority customer of a function measured on uptime and cost. Nobody has to decide to slow the roadmap down. The queue does it on its own. I have watched this exact sequence twice in my own career, in the same order. Both times the round trip took about three years and ended the same way: a new ecommerce director was appointed and development came home. The business paid for three years of a channel worth tens of millions developing at the pace of the change calendar, to avoid one salary. The businesses that avoid this treat online as a division with an owner. Next has reported Online as its own business with its own profit line, alongside Retail, for years. Holland & Barrett put its ecommerce director on the board in 2016 and, in Anthony Houghton's first month as group CEO last September, moved Jacopo Mor from digital director to chief digital officer. So the question for any board with a store estate on one line of the org chart and a website three layers down on another: which director owns the online conversion rate, and can that person change the code? If the answer is two different people, the three-year clock is already running.
Experience
Education
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Lincoln University College
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Reading for a PHD in the field of Media, Marketing & Advertising & Attribution
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Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
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Judge
MENA Effie Awards
- Present 2 years
Education
This year, I had the incredible opportunity to volunteer as a judge for the prestigious Effie Awards, which celebrates and recognizes the most effective marketing campaigns in the industry. It was truly inspiring to evaluate and engage with campaigns that push the boundaries of creativity, strategy, and impact.
As a marketer, it was an enriching experience to witness firsthand the brilliant ideas and hard work that go into crafting campaigns that not only capture attention but also…This year, I had the incredible opportunity to volunteer as a judge for the prestigious Effie Awards, which celebrates and recognizes the most effective marketing campaigns in the industry. It was truly inspiring to evaluate and engage with campaigns that push the boundaries of creativity, strategy, and impact.
As a marketer, it was an enriching experience to witness firsthand the brilliant ideas and hard work that go into crafting campaigns that not only capture attention but also deliver real business results. The depth of talent and innovation displayed by the entries was nothing short of impressive. -
Book Seller
Oxfam
- 3 months
Education
Volunteered and sold books at the Oxfam Charity Bookstore in Greenwich. Was responsible for donations, pricing, tagging and cataloging as well as providing friendly literary advice about good books.
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Store Assistant
British Heart Foundation
- 3 months
Health
It was profoundly amazing helping to arrange everything in the shop and pricing them so we can collect money for Cardiovascular research.
Courses
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Advertising Campaign Management
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Contemporary Issues in Marketing Communications
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Customer Insights & Research
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Events Management
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Global Marketing Management
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Integrated Marketing Communications Management
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Marketing Principles and Planning
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Marketing Research Tools
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Personal and Professional Development 1 & 2
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Public Relations Management
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Strategic Brand Management
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The Marketing Profession
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Projects
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Mobile Order & Pay | Mass Roll Out
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The key challenge was to demonstrate how McDonald’s Order Ahead service not only offers convenience but goes above and beyond the offerings of competitors. In a market where front counter and drive-thru pickup are standard across major QSRs, McDonald’s needed to showcase its superior functionality, including table service, curbside pickup,and seamless payment options/UX, as the ultimate solution for a stress-free and modern dining experience.
We launched a campaign to Communicate the…The key challenge was to demonstrate how McDonald’s Order Ahead service not only offers convenience but goes above and beyond the offerings of competitors. In a market where front counter and drive-thru pickup are standard across major QSRs, McDonald’s needed to showcase its superior functionality, including table service, curbside pickup,and seamless payment options/UX, as the ultimate solution for a stress-free and modern dining experience.
We launched a campaign to Communicate the Benefits of McDonald’s App Order Ahead Feature.
We launched a 360 campaign that included Video, OOH, Social & Digital to communicate and drive awareness of the Benefits of using Mobile Order & Pay.
The campaign was titled “Order Ahead, Stay Ahead” & Beyond the Campaign period, it was sustained with Various Tactics untill the end of the year, till all set KPIs were exceeded by 34% with re-calibration of tactical comms. -
McDonald's App X Minecraft Movie | Activation
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Orchestrated a highly successful, multi-phase digital and social campaign to drive McDonald’s app acquisition and loyalty engagement through exclusive Minecraft Movie collectibles.
Social-Led Phased Rollout: Kickstarted Phase 1 by rewarding user engagement. Generated over 4,000 user-generated content submissions (Minecraft builds) in exchange for exclusive app codes, before opening the offer to all app users in Phase 2.
Targeted Gen-Z Pricing: Strategically priced the promotional…Orchestrated a highly successful, multi-phase digital and social campaign to drive McDonald’s app acquisition and loyalty engagement through exclusive Minecraft Movie collectibles.
Social-Led Phased Rollout: Kickstarted Phase 1 by rewarding user engagement. Generated over 4,000 user-generated content submissions (Minecraft builds) in exchange for exclusive app codes, before opening the offer to all app users in Phase 2.
Targeted Gen-Z Pricing: Strategically priced the promotional meal at an accessible 20 SR to maximize engagement with the Gen-Z demographic.
Loyalty App Integration: Drove loyalty program participation by offering digital in-game character unlocks for just 10 points and launching an exclusive line of physical merchandise (apparel and accessories) directly on the app.
Record-Breaking Results: Sparked a massive surge in app downloads, registrations, and redemptions. The campaign was so successful it sold out of collectible toys and concluded a full week ahead of schedule due to overwhelming demand. -
Shawarmer New Website Deployment in to Saudi-Arabian Market
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https://shawarmer.com/en
Launching of new web platform designed to complement the Shawarmer app and provide an additional touchpoint for our valued customers.
This expansion allows Shawarmer to:
Increase customer engagement
Offer a wider range of ordering options
Showcase our menu and promotions in a new light
Reach customers who prefer browsing on web rather than app.Other creators -
Self-Ordering Kiosk Deployment for Shawarmer
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Led the strategic deployment of self-ordering kiosks for Shawarmer, focusing on enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency. This comprehensive project encompassed:
Strategy & Ideation: Designed and spearheaded the strategy for kiosk deployment, ensuring alignment with customer needs and business objectives, CAPEX & OPEX management.
Location Scoping: Conducted detailed analysis to identify optimal locations for kiosk installation, prioritizing high footfall and…Led the strategic deployment of self-ordering kiosks for Shawarmer, focusing on enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency. This comprehensive project encompassed:
Strategy & Ideation: Designed and spearheaded the strategy for kiosk deployment, ensuring alignment with customer needs and business objectives, CAPEX & OPEX management.
Location Scoping: Conducted detailed analysis to identify optimal locations for kiosk installation, prioritizing high footfall and operational feasibility.
Technical Integration: Collaborated with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless integration with Shawarmer's existing systems, including POS and CRM platforms.
Analytics Enablement: Established robust tracking and reporting mechanisms to analyze kiosk performance and customer usage patterns, driving data-backed decision-making.
This initiative positioned Shawarmer at the forefront of QSR innovation, kicking off Digital transformation at restaurant level, improving service efficiency and elevating customer satisfaction.Other creators -
Shawarmer Attribution Layer Set-up & Execution for Paid Media with Tracking
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1️⃣ Attribution Layer Setup: We’ve implemented a robust attribution layer to track, measure, and optimize the performance of all marketing campaigns across different channels. This allows Shawarmer to gain deeper insights into user behavior, track & improve ROI of paid media, and fine-tune our strategies for even better results.
2️⃣ iOS 14.5 ATT Tracking Prompt: With the new privacy changes introduced by Apple, ensuring that Shawarmer comply with AppTrackingTransparency (ATT)…1️⃣ Attribution Layer Setup: We’ve implemented a robust attribution layer to track, measure, and optimize the performance of all marketing campaigns across different channels. This allows Shawarmer to gain deeper insights into user behavior, track & improve ROI of paid media, and fine-tune our strategies for even better results.
2️⃣ iOS 14.5 ATT Tracking Prompt: With the new privacy changes introduced by Apple, ensuring that Shawarmer comply with AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) requirements was a top priority. Prior to June 2023, this was never done by Shawarmer. Head of E-commerce, working successfully with Kochava team integrated the iOS 14.5 ATT tracking prompt, giving users clear options for data privacy while enabling Shawarmer to maintain valuable analytics for marketing effectiveness.Other creators -
McDonalds X Google App Optimization & Revenue Driver
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This project was a collaboration with Google to unlock a greater number of Google Touchpoints, and drive greater more Macro + Micro Segmentation, with Firebase integration tracking, GTM, Customer Journey Mapping, and Launching PMAX & DV360, helping to drive Installs/Registrations/ Deal Redemptions, increasing overall KPIs of App Guest Counts & Sales.
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App-Exclusive Product Launch & Market Test | Black Pepper Burger
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Objective: Spearheaded the launch of a pilot app-exclusive value burger in Western & Southern Saudi Arabia to gauge digital demand and analyze customer preferences.
Execution: Aligned operations for the app-only rollout, deployed targeted in-store and digital merchandising, and introduced strategic meal variations to drive average check size.
Impact: Generated overwhelming demand, rapidly selling out initial inventory. The pilot's success validated the product's viability…Objective: Spearheaded the launch of a pilot app-exclusive value burger in Western & Southern Saudi Arabia to gauge digital demand and analyze customer preferences.
Execution: Aligned operations for the app-only rollout, deployed targeted in-store and digital merchandising, and introduced strategic meal variations to drive average check size.
Impact: Generated overwhelming demand, rapidly selling out initial inventory. The pilot's success validated the product's viability, prompting leadership to scale it to an all-channels rollout to maximize transactions and footfall. -
McDonald's App Deployment in to Western & Southern region of Saudi Arabia
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To modernize the McDonald's digital experience further through contemporary and intuitive design, the Local instance of Global Mobile Application for McDonald's was launched in to the market on 22nd of August, 2017. The app deployment process took 21 days and broke the McDonald's systems record for the fastest deployment of an app.
The app allows a customer to redeem great offers, discounts & deals in the Front Counter & Drive Thru of any participating McDonald's restaurant…To modernize the McDonald's digital experience further through contemporary and intuitive design, the Local instance of Global Mobile Application for McDonald's was launched in to the market on 22nd of August, 2017. The app deployment process took 21 days and broke the McDonald's systems record for the fastest deployment of an app.
The app allows a customer to redeem great offers, discounts & deals in the Front Counter & Drive Thru of any participating McDonald's restaurant
Along with the launch a communications strategy was built around the consumer that represents the journey a customer will likely have with GMA (Global Mobile Application). The framework was designed to drive two main objectives: app downloads & app usage and redemptions of offers at McDonald's restaurants.Other creatorsSee project -
Basket Analysis | Architecting McDelivery's Data-Driven Demand Generation
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As the leader responsible for McDelivery (MDS) App and Web demand generation, I faced a significant uphill battle: accelerating growth in an already surging channel amidst fierce competitive pressure. While MDS boasted a 25% year-over-year revenue growth and a 34% increase in Q1 2017 order volume, our Average Cheque Value (ACV) had dropped by $1.10 due to promos, representing a missed opportunity of $3 million in additional revenue.
Simultaneously, competitors across the QSR category…As the leader responsible for McDelivery (MDS) App and Web demand generation, I faced a significant uphill battle: accelerating growth in an already surging channel amidst fierce competitive pressure. While MDS boasted a 25% year-over-year revenue growth and a 34% increase in Q1 2017 order volume, our Average Cheque Value (ACV) had dropped by $1.10 due to promos, representing a missed opportunity of $3 million in additional revenue.
Simultaneously, competitors across the QSR category were aggressively launching and scaling their own delivery channels. To maintain our market edge and reclaim lost margin, I instigated a first-of-its-kind data science project to deeply understand our consumers' basket breakdowns and uncover high-propensity product pairings.
Executed in an era before artificial intelligence could instantly synthesize consumer behavior, this project required commissioning a specialized data science team. To understand "what goes with what," the team had to manually parse massive amounts of transactional data and calculate the mathematical probabilities of joint product occurrences based on support, confidence, and lift constraints. Pulling these insights required serious computational heavy lifting and a visionary approach to business intelligence
This rigorous analysis yielded actionable insights that fundamentally shifted our marketing and operational strategy:
The Unbundling Strategy: The data proved Chicken McNuggets were the ultimate complementary add-on, appearing with incredible frequency alongside meals. Armed with this knowledge, I made the strategic call to stop bundling Nuggets with core products, knowing consumers already had a high propensity to add them independently.
By looking beyond top-line growth and leveraging rigorous, manual data science to combat intense competitive pressure, this project successfully optimized the McDelivery channel for higher profitability, smarter product placement, and sustained market dominance. -
Peel & Win | Fries Celebration & Sweepstakes
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For the longest time, we realized that we hadn't celebrated the Iconic Fries. We wanted to bring excitement to one of the most iconic products, McDonald’s Fries!
As Fries goes with everything and are something everyone wants to NOT share. We wanted to focus on our essence by positioning them as hard to share, simply because McFries will now make everyone a winner at McDonald's.
The Mechanics of the campaign was as follows;
Customers buy a large Extra Value Meal,
Customers…For the longest time, we realized that we hadn't celebrated the Iconic Fries. We wanted to bring excitement to one of the most iconic products, McDonald’s Fries!
As Fries goes with everything and are something everyone wants to NOT share. We wanted to focus on our essence by positioning them as hard to share, simply because McFries will now make everyone a winner at McDonald's.
The Mechanics of the campaign was as follows;
Customers buy a large Extra Value Meal,
Customers peel off the game label on the large Fries box,
Customers redeem the prizes in-store through the restaurant manager or manager in charge or by contacting the head office via a dedicated number.
As consolation prizes there were food prizes and we also partnered with Coke for Free Drink Giveaways. These were redeemed instantly in store by simply presenting the wining label.
Objective of the Campaign:
Incentivize current customers with alluring prizes
Increase frequency and penetration
Attract new customers by focusing on the valuable prizes and position that everyone is a winner with McDonald’s during the campaign, measured by Uplifts in Fries UPT / Average Daily Traffic Increase in-store vs a baseline figure.
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Lunch Value Platform to All Day Value Platform Launch | Test Market Rollout prior Mass Market Roll out
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When it was revealed that McDonald's West & South was under-indexing on lunch day-part, we introduced a lunch offer that will focus on providing superior value and drive day party traffic. The initiative was first trialled, in the regions of Tabuk, Aseer & Jazan in Saudi-Arabia 🇸🇦, selecting these regions as trial markets.
Overall this new tier has created a positive impact on lunch sales.
• The testing stores that were below the system average prior to this initiative managed to…When it was revealed that McDonald's West & South was under-indexing on lunch day-part, we introduced a lunch offer that will focus on providing superior value and drive day party traffic. The initiative was first trialled, in the regions of Tabuk, Aseer & Jazan in Saudi-Arabia 🇸🇦, selecting these regions as trial markets.
Overall this new tier has created a positive impact on lunch sales.
• The testing stores that were below the system average prior to this initiative managed to equalize the system averageof 19 % with an increment of 4.2 %
• Lunch contribution to total sales in South region was historically below the system average. Thanks to this initiative this region equalized the system average of lunch contribution (19%)
• In terms of the lunch GC increase it exceeded the system increase by a significantly bigger margin (50% increase compared to 30%)
• The target was to increase the lunch sales by 10% and we achieved 24% increase exceed the expectation (after removing seasonality)
• Following this test, the initiative was rolled out across the entire Western & Southern region markets with 360* ATL / BTL support establising the first ever Value Meal Platform in Saudia Arabia for McDonald's.
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Mcdelivery Service Web & App Deployment
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Worked with a cross functional team to launch the Mcdelivery app (android & iOS) in to the Western & Southern region of Saudi Arabia as the marketing communications lead. Created awareness for it with various digital marketing and advertising activities.
Other creatorsSee project -
New Coffee Range Launch in to the Market
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McDonald's only served Brewed Coffee until 2015, This changed with the introduction of new Espresso based Coffee Machines in to the stores. This project needed a Visual strategy to communicate the 5 new flavours that will be available at McDonald's. During this period, I worked with the Advertising agency to come up with a launch strategy, get alignment from the top leadership and create a full 360 Launch across ATL / BTL on OCT 2015.
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Advertising Portfolio | Y&R
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Working as Communications Planner / Copywriter / Creative - I worked on several flgaship brands in Sri-Lanka, working on Copy / Creative and Planning Communications across ATL & BTL. The Portfolio showcases some of the Print Ads across Magazines & Newspapers, I had the prvilege to ideate, create and plan communications for.
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Digital Literacies in Higher Education
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I was esponsible for drawing up questionnaires and surveys and getting public opinion on how digital skills are influencing the student experience, team work and collaboration; information retention and idea dissemination.
Other creatorsSee project
Languages
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English
Native or bilingual proficiency
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Arabic
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Sinhalese
Native or bilingual proficiency
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Hindi
Limited working proficiency
Organizations
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Chartered Institute Of Marketing
Member
- Present
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Adnan Edinat
#Feedback #Pulse #Ramadan #2026 📈 Egypt leads with 83% spending more on groceries 🍴 UAE favors dining out 💄 KSA boosts personal care purchases Different markets, different baskets, same seasonal momentum. Grab your copy of the full report here: https://lnkd.in/dMnANsRt #RamadanInsights #MENAInsights #FMCGTrends #ConsumerBehavior #FeedbackMR #Tawasol #FeedbackPulse
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David Do Rosario
Thanks for the opportunity Campaign Middle East Digital Essays 2025: “Automation without blindfolds” — how marketers can reclaim strategic control As automation becomes central to modern media delivery, the real opportunity is not simply to “do more with less,” but to ensure AI is applied with clear strategic intent, strong governance, and measurable outcomes. In this piece, I outline practical principles to help teams scale automation while preserving transparency, accountability, and long-term effectiveness. Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/dDkR29y5 #Marketing #MediaStrategy #Automation #AI #PerformanceMarketing #Measurement #DigitalMarketing #havasmedia Havas Middle East
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Curtis Schmidt
Thanks Campaign Middle East for letting me voice my POV on this increasingly 'hot' topic - CX optimization via feedback loops. Very relevant for todays marketeers, in particular as we enter 2026 budget (CAP/OP EX) conversations. But to add a twist, not all feedback loops ask the right question to help fix / optimize the experience in question. 💡
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