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A TALE OF TWO NARRATIVES
This is our story. The story of our birth, our growth and evolution. The story of how we pioneered the use of modern digital web technologies in the UAE at a time when few knew what digital was all about.
This is also the story of some of the biggest innovations and transformations that took place in global tech during the past two decades.
This is about how these two stories are intertwined so closely in values and purpose.
2001
The start of the
digital revolution
It begins with a dream. As all great things do. The year was 2001. We had just entered the new millennium. Y2K had just happened. It was a time of great possibilities. Google was picking up momentum, with search becoming the core of the internet. Wikipedia had just launched, pooling the power of worldwide collaboration to put information at people's fingertips. A new digital age was about to dawn.
That same year in the UAE, two digital entrepreneurs, Francis and Elizabeth were quietly dreaming up another innovation on the internet. Why not bring together the power of the internet and their expertise in advertising so companies in the region could benefit? That dream became GMI. It was a revolutionary step at the time - moving away from paper and focussing entirely on digital. But, as history would prove, it was also a visionary step and a major milestone in the UAE’s digital history. Online Advertising was GMI’s first division. We launched our first regional online media campaign nine months later.
Thus was the beginning of the first digital advertising agency in the Middle East.
2002
Building digital identities
in a changing landscape
These were still early days on the internet. Everyone knew the potential. The important thing was to ensure that your brand had prime real estate here. But just how to do it was still a mystery for most people.
This is when GMI took a bold leap and set up a creative team specializing in website development to help companies build their digital identities. What emerged was a team that delivered sleekness of design, strong brand messages, and compelling stories for brands across fortune 500 companies and government bodies all across the Middle East.
This was also the year that Google introduced AdWords. This would go on to revolutionize digital advertising. Even today, putting your brand at the top of Google’s results page is one of the best ways to market your brand.
2005
The search
revolution was here
Social media had arrived! Big time! Facebook had been launched just two years ago. YouTube had arrived and was powering up its engines to become the second largest search engine in the world. Video content was just starting to become the great big thing that it is today. People were watching more, sharing more and searching for more. What showed up in the search results and where it showed up mattered a lot.
So, as a company, if you had to be noticed you had to be up there in those first few results. SEO or search engine optimization isn’t easy, but in 2005, GMI had already mastered this fine art. We launched our SEO division at a time when a lot of people didn’t even know what it was. A lot of our clients from across the region saw multifold increase in their internet traffic and conversions. And it didn’t stop there.
2009
From conversations to
conversions
In 2009, the world exploded into a zillion conversations and more. Emailing, though popular, was becoming Palaeolithic. WhatsApp had just launched. It was the age of instant messaging and social media. Every Tom, Dick, Harry and their uncles were talking and texting and sharing like never before. With all this buzz, companies realized they had to put their money where their customer’s mouth was. But just how to do it? That’s where we came in.
With a wealth of experience and expertise in social, we set up our new social media division this year. Through targeted social campaigns, we showed how conversations could become conversions, and interactions could become income. The bottom line - the brands that worked with us, boomed.
2012
Listening In Online -
Gangnam Style!
In 2012, 2.4 billion users were on the internet and millions were messaging and tweeting and sharing – Gangnam style! This was the year that the famous South Korean song came out. It was the first major example of the extraordinary reach that virality could achieve. The song went on to become the first video to cross a billion views on YouTube. And why not? The tunes were catchy and dance moves unconventional. Everyone watched - and listened.
At GMI, we were listening as well. In fact, that was the year we formed a separate division called Listening! Again, at a time when most of our competitors and customers didn’t even understand what it was. Here we tracked online conversations to understand customer perceptions about our clients. Insights from this data helped some of the biggest brands in the Middle East better understand what users wanted. When they understood better - they strategized better.
2014
Snackable videos
With the number of internet users rising, attention spans kept shrinking. “I will watch anything that doesn’t challenge my attention”, said the average online content consumer – and the team at GMI understood. What emerged was GMI’s very own video production unit. We made videos that were short and engaging. Everyone could snack on them and they loved it.
At Facebook, they were doing the exact same thing. In 2014, they introduced the autoplay feature in the newsfeed. This was also the year that they bought WhatsApp, recognising the potential of community sharing. Soon, everyone had a shutter speed view into the lives of their friends and families.
2015
Big data, big profit.
By 2015, life was moving more into the internet. More precisely, it was becoming a series of Facebook and Instagram moments and tweeting galore. Facebook introduced its 360-degree videos and suddenly everyone was up close and personal with the bears in Kamchatka or swimming with sharks in the Pacific.
This meant that half the world’s population was leaving some kind of digital data trail. Companies were beginning to realize they could use this vast amount of data to advertise and connect better with customers. But who could help them?
We could. At GMI, our team of experts in the newly-launched Analytics division showed companies how to make the right marketing decisions through proper quantitative and qualitative analysis of the gathered data. Our data analytics teams helped turn our clients’ big data into big profit.
2016
Digital deep diving
The digital world was drawing closer to people’s lives, like right up against our faces. Facebook launched the Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets in 2016, offering an immersive experience for the user. You could float around among the galaxies or deep dive into the ocean and dodge big sharks that swam right up to your face. With the digital world so close to us, marketing also needed to be integrated closer into people’s lives.
GMI had already started working with e-commerce businesses in the Middle East. In 2016, we dove even deeper. We started our e-commerce development division, leveraging the power of dedicated e-commerce platforms to deliver industry-leading e-com solutions at a time when few understood the power of these platforms.
Using a host of cutting-edge tools and services like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, e-commerce analytics and social media analytics to name a few, we were also deep-diving into the consumers’ psychology to give brands a really immersive experience into the purchasing habits of their customers.
2018
Programmatic Media Buying
More than half the world’s population was on the internet now. Life happened on a smartphone and most of our time was spent scrolling. People were constantly on e-commerce sites like Amazon, shopping for cosmetics, devices, food – anything and everything.
Here was a gold mine, if only you knew whom to target. This year, we started our programmatic buying services. We helped companies understand how much ad mileage they got with every penny spent. They could understand their key customers right down to their individual preferences and behaviour. With our programmatic buying strategies, companies in the Middle East got easy and direct access to their customers’ digital purchasing decisions.
2020
New challenges and
new possibilities
This new decade came with a lot of new challenges - the kind that was unprecedented in recent human history. But it also helped us come together as a community. Digital technologies became tools to prevent and fight against an invisible global enemy. Through all of these, we evolved, we adapted and we learned.
Today, we look at this new decade with hope and prayer. It is going to be a time of possibilities and advancement. And we will be right there to help you and your brand leverage these possibilities best.
A TALE OF TWO NARRATIVES
This is our story. The story of our birth, our growth and evolution. The story of how we pioneered the use of modern digital web technologies in the UAE at a time when few knew what digital was all about.
This is also the story of some of the biggest innovations and transformations that took place in global tech during the past two decades.
This is about how these two stories are intertwined so closely in values and purpose.
2001
The start of the
digital revolution
It begins with a dream. As all great things do. The year was 2001. We had just entered the new millennium. Y2K had just happened. It was a time of great possibilities. Google was picking up momentum, with search becoming the core of the internet. Wikipedia had just launched, pooling the power of worldwide collaboration to put information at people's fingertips. A new digital age was about to dawn.
That same year in the UAE, two digital entrepreneurs, Francis and Elizabeth were quietly dreaming up another innovation on the internet. Why not bring together the power of the internet and their expertise in advertising so companies in the region could benefit? That dream became GMI. It was a revolutionary step at the time - moving away from paper and focussing entirely on digital. But, as history would prove, it was also a visionary step and a major milestone in the UAE’s digital history. Online Advertising was GMI’s first division. We launched our first regional online media campaign nine months later.
Thus was the beginning of the first digital advertising agency in the Middle East.
2002
Building digital identities
in a changing landscape
These were still early days on the internet. Everyone knew the potential. The important thing was to ensure that your brand had prime real estate here. But just how to do it was still a mystery for most people.
This is when GMI took a bold leap and set up a creative team specializing in website development to help companies build their digital identities. What emerged was a team that delivered sleekness of design, strong brand messages, and compelling stories for brands across fortune 500 companies and government bodies all across the Middle East.
This was also the year that Google introduced AdWords. This would go on to revolutionize digital advertising. Even today, putting your brand at the top of Google’s results page is one of the best ways to market your brand.
2005
The search
revolution was here
Social media had arrived! Big time! Facebook had been launched just two years ago. YouTube had arrived and was powering up its engines to become the second largest search engine in the world. Video content was just starting to become the great big thing that it is today. People were watching more, sharing more and searching for more. What showed up in the search results and where it showed up mattered a lot.
So, as a company, if you had to be noticed you had to be up there in those first few results. SEO or search engine optimization isn’t easy, but in 2005, GMI had already mastered this fine art. We launched our SEO division at a time when a lot of people didn’t even know what it was. A lot of our clients from across the region saw multifold increase in their internet traffic and conversions. And it didn’t stop there.
2009
From conversations to
conversions
In 2009, the world exploded into a zillion conversations and more. Emailing, though popular, was becoming Palaeolithic. WhatsApp had just launched. It was the age of instant messaging and social media. Every Tom, Dick, Harry and their uncles were talking and texting and sharing like never before. With all this buzz, companies realized they had to put their money where their customer’s mouth was. But just how to do it? That’s where we came in.
With a wealth of experience and expertise in social, we set up our new social media division this year. Through targeted social campaigns, we showed how conversations could become conversions, and interactions could become income. The bottom line - the brands that worked with us, boomed.
2012
Listening In Online -
Gangnam Style!
In 2012, 2.4 billion users were on the internet and millions were messaging and tweeting and sharing – Gangnam style! This was the year that the famous South Korean song came out. It was the first major example of the extraordinary reach that virality could achieve. The song went on to become the first video to cross a billion views on YouTube. And why not? The tunes were catchy and dance moves unconventional. Everyone watched - and listened.
At GMI, we were listening as well. In fact, that was the year we formed a separate division called Listening! Again, at a time when most of our competitors and customers didn’t even understand what it was. Here we tracked online conversations to understand customer perceptions about our clients. Insights from this data helped some of the biggest brands in the Middle East better understand what users wanted. When they understood better - they strategized better.
2014
Snackable videos
With the number of internet users rising, attention spans kept shrinking. “I will watch anything that doesn’t challenge my attention”, said the average online content consumer – and the team at GMI understood. What emerged was GMI’s very own video production unit. We made videos that were short and engaging. Everyone could snack on them and they loved it.
At Facebook, they were doing the exact same thing. In 2014, they introduced the autoplay feature in the newsfeed. This was also the year that they bought WhatsApp, recognising the potential of community sharing. Soon, everyone had a shutter speed view into the lives of their friends and families.
2015
Big data, big profit.
By 2015, life was moving more into the internet. More precisely, it was becoming a series of Facebook and Instagram moments and tweeting galore. Facebook introduced its 360-degree videos and suddenly everyone was up close and personal with the bears in Kamchatka or swimming with sharks in the Pacific.
This meant that half the world’s population was leaving some kind of digital data trail. Companies were beginning to realize they could use this vast amount of data to advertise and connect better with customers. But who could help them?
We could. At GMI, our team of experts in the newly-launched Analytics division showed companies how to make the right marketing decisions through proper quantitative and qualitative analysis of the gathered data. Our data analytics teams helped turn our clients’ big data into big profit.
2016
Digital deep diving
The digital world was drawing closer to people’s lives, like right up against our faces. Facebook launched the Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets in 2016, offering an immersive experience for the user. You could float around among the galaxies or deep dive into the ocean and dodge big sharks that swam right up to your face. With the digital world so close to us, marketing also needed to be integrated closer into people’s lives.
GMI had already started working with e-commerce businesses in the Middle East. In 2016, we dove even deeper. We started our e-commerce development division, leveraging the power of dedicated e-commerce platforms to deliver industry-leading e-com solutions at a time when few understood the power of these platforms.
Using a host of cutting-edge tools and services like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, e-commerce analytics and social media analytics to name a few, we were also deep-diving into the consumers’ psychology to give brands a really immersive experience into the purchasing habits of their customers.
2018
Programmatic Media Buying
More than half the world’s population was on the internet now. Life happened on a smartphone and most of our time was spent scrolling. People were constantly on e-commerce sites like Amazon, shopping for cosmetics, devices, food – anything and everything.
Here was a gold mine, if only you knew whom to target. This year, we started our programmatic buying services. We helped companies understand how much ad mileage they got with every penny spent. They could understand their key customers right down to their individual preferences and behaviour. With our programmatic buying strategies, companies in the Middle East got easy and direct access to their customers’ digital purchasing decisions.
2020
New challenges and
new possibilities
This new decade came with a lot of new challenges - the kind that was unprecedented in recent human history. But it also helped us come together as a community. Digital technologies became tools to prevent and fight against an invisible global enemy. Through all of these, we evolved, we adapted and we learned.
Today, we look at this new decade with hope and prayer. It is going to be a time of possibilities and advancement. And we will be right there to help you and your brand leverage these possibilities best.
