Media and AI advisory for owner-led UAE businesses
I find where your business is losing money.
Usually in the same two places: marketing nobody is steering, and daily work that is still done by hand. I find where the loss is, fix the worst part in 30 days, and can stay on as your part-time director.
Slingshot Media is me, Fouad Annous, working on my own from Abu Dhabi and Dubai for owner-led businesses across the UAE.
15 years planning and running media across the GCC and wider MENA, working from Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, at four multinational agency networks.
Those fifteen years are mine, and they are what Slingshot Media sells: one senior planner and buyer, not an agency with a bench.
- Networks
- Four multinational agency networks, on the planning and buying side.
- Markets
- The GCC and wider MENA, run from Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, in English and Arabic.
- Range
- Global brands, small local businesses, and government and semi-government bodies.
- Awards
- Four award winning campaigns, named below, won with teams at previous agencies.
Where that was
StarcomCaratInitiativeSaatchi and Saatchi
Prior agency experience. They are not Slingshot Media clients.
Brands worked on
- Automotive
- General MotorsJeepValvoline
- Technology and telecoms
- SamsungMicrosoftMobily
- Consumer, food and finance
- AlmaraiNestleAmerican ExpressBupa Arabia
Worked on at previous agencies, for those agencies' clients. They are not Slingshot Media clients.
The four campaigns
Call of Adventure
MENA Effie Gold
Jeep 2022
Selling the Best Car from the Worst Seat
MENA Effie Silver
Stellantis 2025
S5 Brings You the Weather
Dubai Lynx Bronze, Media
Samsung 2015
Galaxy S5 Dynamic Creative
MMA Smarties EMEA Silver and Bronze
Samsung 2014
Won with teams at previous agencies, for those agencies' clients.
Where businesses leak
- Where UAE marketing budgets leak
- Five areas, ten sectors, clinic to property
The leak is usually in one of these five.
These are the five places Slingshot Media looks first in a UAE business, from a Dubai clinic to a property brokerage to a retailer.
These are patterns, not case studies. If one of them is familiar, that is the leak to look at first.
The same five areas turn up in clinics and dental, property and developers, retail and e-commerce, food and beverage, education and training, fitness and wellness, automotive, logistics, professional and B2B services, and hospitality and travel. What changes is which one costs most.
Pick an area
Marketing spend
Ads point at a homepage, and nobody can say which ad produced a sale.
Clinics and dental
Ads for every treatment point at the clinic homepage.
A page per treatment with the booking form on it, and spend moved to what fills chairs.
Property and developers
Portal spend rises every year and cannot be separated from what the ads produce, and nobody can say which ad produced a sale.
Cost per enquiry, per viewing and per deal by project, portal against your own ads, joined to the CRM, every week.
Retail and e-commerce
Every ad, whatever the product, lands on the shop's front page, and the marketplace spend on noon and Amazon.ae sits outside the count altogether.
Each ad lands on the product it advertises, tracked from click to checkout, with marketplace spend and sales reported beside your own site.
Food and beverage
An ad set has been running since last Ramadan with the same offer.
A calendar built around Ramadan, Eid and the summer, with spend turned down when the city empties.
Education and training
Enrolment ads run in the term you need the students, not the term parents decide.
A calendar built back from the enrolment decision, which happens months before the first day.
Fitness and wellness
Spend runs flat all year and the peaks are left to chance.
Spend built around January and the November fitness month, when the city is already looking.
Automotive
The same offer runs in two emirates and nobody can say which showroom it filled.
Tracking by showroom, with budget moved to the one that converts.
Professional and B2B services
Marketing is a LinkedIn page and a website nobody measures.
One page that says what you do and for whom, tracked from first visit to first meeting.
Hospitality and travel
Rooms and covers sell through booking sites and the direct channel is an afterthought.
Direct bookings tracked against the commission you pay, with spend moved to whichever is cheaper.
Every sector
The Arabic ad is the English one put through a translator, and it shows.
Arabic written, not translated, by someone who reads the market it runs in.
Lead follow-up
Enquiries wait hours for a reply, and half of them never book.
Clinics and dental
A booking request arrives on Instagram after hours and is answered the next afternoon.
Automatic first reply with the next three slots, routed to reception, with a reminder.
Property and developers
A portal lead form lands in a shared inbox and reaches an agent an hour late.
Routing to the agent on duty in minutes, with a reminder if nobody has replied.
Automotive
A classified enquiry reaches a salesperson's personal WhatsApp and nothing is logged.
One routed number, the conversation logged, a reminder if nobody has replied.
Education and training
An open-day registration sits in a spreadsheet until somebody opens it.
Automatic reply with the next date, routed to admissions, with a reminder before the day.
Fitness and wellness
A trial sign-up gets a reply after the week the trial was good for.
Instant reply with a booked slot, routed to the duty trainer, reminder the night before.
Logistics
Website enquiries go to a shared inbox nobody owns.
Routing by lane and load to the right desk, with a reminder.
Quotes and tenders
Every proposal is rebuilt from scratch, and it takes days.
Professional and B2B services
Every proposal is rebuilt from the last one that was nearly right.
An assistant that drafts from your own past proposals, checked by a person.
Professional and B2B services, public work
Government work is chased across three separate portals with three separate registrations, and deadlines live in somebody's calendar.
One register of the portals, the registrations and the dates, with drafting from past submissions.
Logistics
A rate quote waits two days while three people agree on it.
A quote drafted from the rate card and past jobs, checked by one person, out the same day.
Education and training
A corporate training proposal is retyped for every enquiry.
An assistant that drafts from your past proposals, checked by a person.
Reporting
A manager spends two days a month building a report by hand.
Property and developers
Listings, portal stats and the CRM are reconciled by hand into a weekly sheet, and the sheet stops at viewings.
One page every Monday: enquiries, viewings, offers and deals by project, portal against your own ads, joined to the CRM.
Retail and e-commerce
Branch takings arrive by email on different days, and the noon and Amazon.ae numbers are read in each marketplace's own dashboard, gross of its fees.
One page, built automatically: store, your own site and the marketplaces side by side, net of marketplace fees.
Food and beverage
Aggregator sales, walk-ins and delivery sit in three dashboards and meet in a spreadsheet.
One page a week: covers, delivery orders, and what each one cost.
Logistics
A manager spends two days a month building the volume and cost report by hand.
One page, built automatically, every Monday.
Automotive
Platform numbers and the showroom log are reconciled by hand at month end.
One page a week: enquiries, test drives, sold, and what each cost.
Fitness and wellness
Joins, cancellations and class attendance sit in the booking system and never reach the owner.
One page a week: trials, joins, cancellations, cost per join.
Hospitality and travel
Occupancy, spend and bookings live in three systems and are typed into a spreadsheet each month.
One page a week: bookings, direct share, cost per booking.
Customer service
The same ten questions are answered by hand, every day.
Clinics and dental
Prices, insurance cover and parking answered by hand, one message at a time.
Drafted answers for the common ten, with a person approving anything clinical.
Retail and e-commerce
Where is my order, answered by hand all day.
Drafted replies wired to the order status, with a person on the exceptions.
Food and beverage
The same questions about branches, delivery and bookings, every day, in two languages.
Drafted answers in Arabic and English, with a person on allergies and complaints.
Hospitality and travel
Check-in, parking and cancellation questions answered by hand in two languages.
Drafted answers, with a person on complaints and refunds.
Scope
I keep to the revenue side of a business: marketing, sales, tenders, reporting and customer service. That is where my experience is. I do not offer finance, HR or logistics work.
How it works
- Marketing audit, 30-day sprint
- Fractional marketing director in Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Each step is useful on its own.
Slingshot Media sells three things in the UAE and nothing else: a Bottleneck Audit at a fixed AED 15,000, a 30-Day Sprint at AED 25,000, and a fractional marketing director at AED 15,000 or 28,000 a month.
The same three steps work on a marketing leak and on a process still done by hand. You can stop after any of them.
“Every brief has a comfortable answer and a true one. The comfortable answer is another platform and a bigger budget. The true one is almost always a single point of friction: the one place where what the business wants and what the customer actually feels pull against each other. I find that first. What comes after it is shorter, and usually cheaper.”
Fouad Annous
Founder, Slingshot Media
Find the leak. Fix it. Stay to run it.
Step 1 · Find
Bottleneck Audit
AED 15,000fixed
Two weeks. I look at where money or time is being lost.
- What you get
- The leaks ranked, and the three fixes that pay back fastest.
- What comes next
- The fee is credited in full if you go on to step 2 or 3 within 30 days.
Step 2 · Fix
30-Day Sprint
AED 25,000per sprint
One bottleneck, fixed in 30 days. For example: tracking that works, an ad account rebuilt, or one manual process automated.
- What you get
- A working result in 30 days, and a short handover.
- If it works
- I stay on one or two days a week to run it.
Step 3 · Run
Fractional Director
AED 15,000 or 28,000a month
I act as your fractional marketing director, or your AI director, part time. One day a week for 15,000. Two days a week for 28,000, which adds day to day management of your team and suppliers.
- What you get
- Every Monday, one page with the week's numbers.
- Terms
- Three months minimum, then 30 days' notice.
Before any of it, the first look is free. Get your free first look
The alternatives
- Freelancer, agency or Slingshot Media
- What each gives a UAE business owner
A freelancer will run the ads. Nobody will tell you when to stop.
Slingshot Media sits between the two: one senior person on the work, at a published price, starting with a step small enough to buy on its own.
Most owners here have already tried both of the obvious options. This is what each gives you.
Freelancers
Cheap, but nobody sets targets, tracks leads through to sales, or moves budget to what works.
Big agencies and consultancies
A director wins the account and a junior runs it. Minimum fees are set for multinationals.
Slingshot Media
One senior person does the work and the prices are published. The first step is small, fixed and useful on its own.
How one person delivers
- How the audit, the sprint and the director run
- What I check before you see it
I check everything before it reaches you.
Every audit, sprint and weekly report Slingshot Media sends to a client in Abu Dhabi or Dubai is produced and checked by me before it leaves.
My time goes on the judgment: what matters, what to fix first, what to tell you. The scope is narrow on purpose, the prices are published, and I have been planning and running this work for fifteen years.
Audit
- How it runs
- Two weeks on your ads, your website and your tracking, with the wording read against the published rules.
- What I do
- Decide what matters, rank the fixes, present them.
Sprint
- How it runs
- Thirty days on one bottleneck, built and tested before anything goes live.
- What I do
- Design the fix, check every result, train your team.
Director
- How it runs
- One or two days a week, with the week's numbers on one page every Monday.
- What I do
- Make the decisions, manage the suppliers, keep the relationship.
Two rules.
I check everything before you see it. Your data stays in your accounts. If a piece of work needs a tool of mine to touch it, I tell you which tool and what it sees, and you approve it before it happens.
What the Monday page looks like.
Pick a sector
Clinic
Your Monday report · week 6
Sample
your two branches
Cost per booking
AED 212
- New leads
- 64
- Booked
- 31
- Turned up
- 26
Leads are followed through to the chair, so the cost is per person who turned up, not per click.
What I'm changing: one sentence on where budget moves this week and why
Property
Your Monday report · week 6
Sample
your three projects
Cost per deal
AED 9,400
- Enquiries
- 214
- Viewings
- 58
- Offers
- 12
- Deals
- 4
By project, portal listings against your own ads, joined to the CRM, so a deal traces back to the ad that started it.
What I'm changing: one sentence on where budget moves this week and why
Retail
Your Monday report · week 6
Sample
store, site and marketplaces
Cost per order
AED 38
- Store
- 186,000
- Own site
- 94,000
- Marketplaces
- 61,000
Revenue in AED for the week. noon and Amazon.ae are shown net of marketplace fees, so the three columns can be read against each other.
What I'm changing: one sentence on where budget moves this week and why
At a previous agency
At a previous agency I built a reporting dashboard that saved the team six hours every week. That was for that agency's client, not for Slingshot Media, and it is the kind of thing a Sprint does.
What I can take on
- Media planning, buying and measurement
- Four kinds of work, one UAE price list
The work changes. The prices do not.
Slingshot Media takes on media planning and buying, measurement, creative and owned channels, and the slow manual work behind them, on the revenue side of a UAE business only.
Fifteen years of planning and running media across the GCC and wider MENA covers more ground than three product names suggest. A Sprint fixes one of these. A Director runs as many of them as a day or two a week allows. Either way the price is the one on the list.
Plan and buy the media.
Media strategy and annual plans, audience and market research, budget and target setting. Paid social, search and shopping, marketplace advertising on noon and Amazon.ae, click-to-WhatsApp lead generation. Display, video, connected TV, programmatic audio and digital outdoor. Billboards, mall screens, transit, airport, cinema, radio, TV and press.
Know what actually worked.
Website tagging and server-side tracking, conversion tracking on the ad platforms, marketplace sales read net of fees beside your own site and your stores, cost per deal joined back to your CRM, attribution, geo-lift and incrementality tests, dashboards, and the one page you get every Monday.
Make the work and run the owned channels.
Video and photo production, Arabic and English copy, adaptations for every format, influencer and creator campaigns, activations, events and launches, sponsorships, landing pages, SEO, and WhatsApp, email and CRM journeys.
Take the slow work off your team.
Proposals and tenders drafted from your own past proposals, first replies and routing for incoming enquiries, the weekly report built without anyone retyping it, the same ten questions answered with a person approving the hard ones. I build these for your business.
- The work changes. The prices do not.
- A Sprint is AED 25,000 whichever of these it fixes. A Fractional Director is AED 15,000 or 28,000 a month whichever of these I run. Anything I buy for you is cost plus 15%, with the supplier's invoice shown.
- I plan, buy and manage. I don't own media or production crews.
- Media is booked with UAE media owners and through the ad platforms, and shoots and activations go to suppliers I've worked with. You see what each one cost.
- I keep to the revenue side of a business.
- Marketing, sales, tenders, reporting and customer service. That is where my experience is. I do not offer finance, HR or logistics work.
Free first look
- A free marketing review in 48 hours
- From screenshots, no account access
I'll tell you what I'd fix first, before you pay me anything.
The Slingshot Media free first look is a review of your ads and your website from screenshots, back within 48 hours, with no account access and no fee.
Send me screenshots of your ads and your website. Within 48 hours I'll send back the three things I'd fix first, in the order I'd fix them.
- What to send
- Screenshots of your ads and your website, and a few words on what you sell. I don't need access to any account, and I don't need a brief.
- What comes back
- Your top three leaks, ranked, with what I'd do about each. They are yours either way, whether you work with me or not.
- What it is not
- It is what I can see from the outside in a couple of hours. The Bottleneck Audit is the paid version that goes inside the numbers and takes two weeks.
- When
- Within 48 hours, and it costs nothing.
Ask for a free first look
A few lines is plenty. The screenshots can go in the WhatsApp chat or the email that opens.
Prices
- What a marketing audit costs in the UAE
- Published prices in AED, the one rule, terms
You can read the whole price list in a minute.
Slingshot Media publishes all four of its prices in AED, excluding 5% VAT, and the Bottleneck Audit fee is credited in full against a Sprint or a Director arrangement started within 30 days.
All prices are in AED, excluding 5% VAT.
Published. Not on request.
| Product | What it is | Price |
|---|---|---|
| FreeFree first look | Your top three leaks, from screenshots, within 48 hours. | 00 |
| Step 1 · FindBottleneck Audit | Two weeks to find where money or time is being lost. | AED 15,00015,000fixed |
| Step 2 · Fix30-Day Sprint | One bottleneck, fixed in 30 days. | AED 25,00025,000per sprint |
| Step 3 · RunFractional Director | A part-time marketing or AI director, one or two days a week. | AED 15,000 or 28,00015,000 / 28,000a month |
what happens if I am not there
I take on three Fractional Director clients at a time. That is four days a week, and it is the real limit, not a sales line. When those three are full I say so and give you the next start date.
Everything I build is built in your accounts. Your ad accounts, your tag manager, your dashboards, your automations, in your name, on your logins. I do not hold your data in my own tools and I do not build anything that only works while I am paid. Every Sprint ends with a short written handover. A Director engagement keeps a one-page operating note, updated every month, that says what is running, where it lives and how to change it.
If I am away by plan, you get the dates in advance and nothing is scheduled to go live while I am gone. If I am ill, what is live keeps running, because it is running in your accounts, and the weekly report pauses.
The exit right
If I am unavailable for more than ten working days, you can end the engagement there and then, with no notice period and no further fee.
I have run the large version of this
- Held a Middle East profit and loss account across 10 automotive brands.
- Led teams of up to 13 people across the UAE, Egypt and Lebanon, and 12 across 5 markets.
Both at previous agencies, for those agencies' clients. They are not Slingshot Media results.
The one rule: cost plus 15%.
Anything I buy for you is charged at what it cost plus 15%, with the supplier's invoice shown. A billboard that cost AED 20,000 is invoiced at AED 23,000, with the supplier's invoice attached. That covers billboards, radio, cinema, video shoots, events, specialists and software. Online ad spend is different: you pay Meta and Google directly with your own card, and I add nothing to it.
What is it?
In whole dirhams, ex VAT.
What you pay · AED, ex VAT
- Supplier's cost
- AED 20,000
- My 15%
- AED 3,000
- Total you pay
- AED 23,000
The supplier's invoice is shown, so you can check the cost.
What a year can look like
An example, not a quote. Which steps you take, and for how long, is your decision. All figures in AED, excluding 5% VAT.
| Item | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Bottleneck Audit | 15,000 once, credited in full if you go on to a Sprint or a Director arrangement within 30 days |
| One 30-Day Sprint | 25,000 |
| Fractional Director, one day a week | 180,000 a year |
| Fractional Director, two days a week | 336,000 a year |
| What you commit to at signature | Three months of the Director fee: 45,000 at one day a week, or 84,000 at two. After that it is 30 days' notice. |
VAT is added separately at 5%. Anything I buy for you is cost plus 15% on top, with the supplier's invoice shown.
Terms
| Item | Term |
|---|---|
| Payment | Audit: in advance. Sprint: half at the start, half at handover. Director: monthly in advance, three months minimum, then 30 days' notice. |
| Bought items | Wherever possible the supplier invoices you directly and I invoice only my 15%. If something must be booked in my company's name, you pay in full before I book it. |
| Who owns what I build | You do. Outright. The tracking, the automations, the dashboards and the documentation are yours, in your accounts, from the day they are made. Nothing is licensed back to you and nothing stops working if we stop. |
| All prices | In AED, excluding 5% VAT. |
Plain answers
- Marketing audit cost, fractional director, cost plus 15%
- Who regulates advertising in the UAE
Eight questions, answered in full.
What does a marketing audit cost in the UAE?
Slingshot Media charges a fixed AED 15,000 for a Bottleneck Audit: two weeks on the ads, the website and the tracking, with the leaks ranked and the three fixes that pay back fastest. The fee is credited in full against a Sprint or a Director arrangement started within 30 days. Prices exclude 5% VAT.
What is a fractional marketing director?
A fractional marketing director is a senior marketer who runs a company's marketing one or two days a week instead of full time. Slingshot Media charges AED 15,000 a month for one day a week and AED 28,000 for two, which adds day to day management of your team and suppliers. Three months minimum, then 30 days' notice.
Can I get a marketing review without giving account access?
Yes. The Slingshot Media free first look works from screenshots of your ads and your website and comes back within 48 hours with your top three leaks, ranked. No account access, no brief, and the three leaks are yours either way, whether you go on to paid work or not.
Who audits marketing for clinics in Dubai?
Slingshot Media, run by me, Fouad Annous, from Abu Dhabi and Dubai. For a clinic that means treatment-level ad tracking, after-hours booking follow-up, and the ad wording read against the Dubai Health Authority standards for medical advertising on social media issued in August 2026. Fixed fee AED 15,000, two weeks.
How do I know whether my marketing budget is being wasted?
Look at five things: whether each ad lands on what it advertises, how long an enquiry waits for a reply, how long a quote takes to go out, who builds the weekly report by hand, and how many of the same ten questions your team answers every day. Slingshot Media ranks those five for a UAE business and starts with whichever costs most.
Who regulates advertising in the UAE?
Several bodies, by sector and by emirate. Consumer advertising has to carry Arabic under Federal Law 15 of 2020, Article 26, with other languages permitted alongside it. Dubai property listings run on a Trakheesi permit, Abu Dhabi mainland on Madhmoun since 7 July 2025, and Al Maryah and Al Reem under ADGM's own permit. The Dubai Health Authority sets the standards for medical advertising on social media.
Does a Dubai clinic need approval to advertise on social media?
The Dubai Health Authority issued standards for medical advertisement content on social media in August 2026, and the risk sits with the facility rather than with the agency. Slingshot Media reads your wording against the published rules and advises. You approve it and you stay responsible. These are Dubai's rules, and I make no claim about Abu Dhabi's.
What does "cost plus 15%" mean?
Anything Slingshot Media buys for a client, whether that is a billboard, a radio spot, a video shoot, an event, a specialist or a piece of software, is charged at what the supplier charged plus 15%, with the supplier's invoice shown. Online ad spend is different: you pay Meta or Google directly with your own card and I add nothing.
Who it's for
- Owner-led UAE businesses, 20 to 200 staff
- Why now: the Dubai advertising rules
It is a bad year to advertise without reading the rules.
Slingshot Media works with owner-led UAE businesses of roughly 20 to 200 staff, in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, that already spend on marketing and cannot tell what it produces.
The buyer
- An owner-led UAE business with roughly 20 to 200 staff.
- Already spending on marketing, and not sure it is working.
- Too big for a freelancer and too small for a big agency to care about.
The three steps work the same way whatever you sell. What changes is which of the five leaks costs most.
Why now, by sector
Two or three sectors here have their rules written down. Most are moving the same way.
- Clinics and dental
The rules on what a clinic may post moved this year, and the risk sits with the facility.
The Dubai Health Authority issued new standards for medical advertising on social media in August 2026. In the first half of 2026 Dubai had 5,931 licensed health facilities, and inspection visits were up 36.3% on the year before. Dubai only.
- Property and developers
Every listing needs a permit number, and which permit depends on where the property is.
Dubai had 32,294 registered brokers at the end of 2025, and the Land Department fined 256 of them over advertising in the first half of 2024. Dubai listings run on a Trakheesi permit, Abu Dhabi mainland on Madhmoun since 7 July 2025, and Al Maryah and Al Reem under ADGM's own permit.
SourceDubai Media Office on the 32,294 registered brokersADGM on its own advertising permit
- Retail and e-commerce
Online grew, and most of the money is still spent in the shop. The two are rarely joined up.
EZDubai and Euromonitor put UAE e-commerce at AED 42.2bn in 2025, 15.7% of total retail.
- Hospitality and travel
2026 has been a recovery year, which is a reason to check what your spend is producing.
Dubai received 19.59 million international overnight visitors in 2025, up 5% on the year before.
- Every sector
Consumer advertising here has to carry Arabic, and a translated Arabic ad reads as one.
Federal Law 15 of 2020, Article 26 requires Arabic and permits other languages alongside it.
- Food and beverage
Demand arrives through someone else's platform, so a busy kitchen can own no customers.
- Education and training
Supply is growing and the fee is capped, so a seat is won on marketing rather than price.
Dubai private school enrolment was 406,563 at the start of 2026-27, fees were frozen for that year, and more than 25 new private education institutions are opening.
SourceDubai Media Office on the new private education institutions
- Fitness and wellness
January and the November fitness month decide the year, and both have to be ready months before.
The Dubai Fitness Challenge runs every November.
- Automotive
The year has been uneven, and a flat annual plan did not survive it.
- Logistics
What you may advertise follows your licence, and delivery is licensed separately from the business it serves.
- Professional and B2B services
There is no single government tender portal here, so public work means three registrations and three sets of dates.
The Ministry of Finance runs the federal platform, Abu Dhabi runs ADGPG, and Dubai eSupply covers more than 40 Dubai government entities.
SourceMinistry of FinanceAbu Dhabi Government Procurement Gate
What I do about it.
I check the wording against the published rules and advise. You approve and stay responsible.
The health advertising standards above are Dubai's.
About
- Fouad Annous, founder, Abu Dhabi and Dubai
- Fifteen years in GCC and MENA media
You work with me, not a junior.
I am Fouad Annous. For fifteen years I planned and ran media across the GCC and wider MENA, working from Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, at Starcom, Carat, Initiative and Saatchi and Saatchi.
I held a Middle East profit and loss account across ten automotive brands, and led teams of up to thirteen people across five markets. I have worked on General Motors, Jeep, Samsung, Almarai, American Express, Nestle, Microsoft, Mobily, Bupa Arabia and Valvoline. That was at previous agencies, for those agencies' clients. They are not Slingshot Media clients.
Four of those campaigns won industry awards, with the teams I worked in: a MENA Effie Gold for Jeep, “Call of Adventure”; a MENA Effie Silver for “Selling the Best Car from the Worst Seat”; a Dubai Lynx Bronze in Media for Samsung, “S5 Brings You the Weather”; and MMA Smarties Silver and Bronze for Samsung Galaxy S5.
I started Slingshot Media because the businesses that most need someone senior watching their marketing are the ones least likely to get one. A freelancer will run the ads and set no target. An agency will send a director to the pitch and a junior to the account. I do the work myself, I publish the prices, and your accounts stay in your name.
Four numbers, all from previous agencies
- Jeep revenue grew 35% year on year.
- USD 1 million saved on search advertising while beating the targets.
- A reporting dashboard that saved a team six hours a week.
- Client satisfaction scores reaching 9, and up 12% on another account.
All four at previous agencies, for those agencies' clients. They are not Slingshot Media results.
- The spine
- Fifteen years planning and running media across the GCC and wider MENA, at four agency networks, worked from Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Media run across the GCC, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt. Joint business planning across Algeria, Turkey, Morocco and South Africa. New business pitches in more than fifteen markets.
- Today
- Slingshot Media is new, so there are no client logos or case studies on this page yet. Start with the free first look and judge the thinking first.
I do the work myself, and I only take on what I can carry.
Fouad Annous
Founder, Slingshot Media · Abu Dhabi & Dubai
The career above, in his own record of it.
FAQ
- Eleven questions about the audit and the prices
What people ask before they send anything.
These are the questions people ask Slingshot Media before they send anything, answered the way I would answer them on the phone.
Yes. Screenshots are fine, no account access is needed, and the three leaks are yours either way.
Screenshots of your ads and your website, and a few words on what you sell and what isn't working. I don't need access to any account.
No. The three steps work the same way whatever you sell, and the five leaks turn up in most sectors here. I know the advertising rules in healthcare and property better than most, because those are the sectors where they are written down.
You get the leaks ranked and the three fixes that pay back fastest. They are yours to use with or without me.
If you go on to a 30-Day Sprint or a Fractional Director arrangement within 30 days, the AED 15,000 audit fee is credited in full.
Only for the Fractional Director: three months minimum, then 30 days' notice. The Bottleneck Audit is a fixed two weeks, and a 30-Day Sprint is bought one sprint at a time.
You do. The ad accounts stay in your name, and you pay Meta and Google directly with your own card. I add nothing to online ad spend.
No. I do not offer a guarantee. Each product has a defined result: three ranked fixes from the audit, one working fix from a sprint.
I check the wording against the published rules and advise. You approve each ad and stay responsible for it.
Me. I do the work myself, which is also why I only take on what I can handle.
I take on three Fractional Director clients at a time, which is four days a week. When those three are full I say so and give you the next start date.
Everything I build is built in your accounts, in your name, on your logins. So what is live keeps running whether I am there or not. If I am away by plan you get the dates in advance and nothing is scheduled to go live while I am gone. If I am ill, the weekly report pauses.
If I am unavailable for more than ten working days, you can end the engagement there and then, with no notice period and no further fee.
Work back from the date. A campaign built around Ramadan, Eid or a new term needs about six weeks of planning, and the audit takes two.
The aim
- Free first look
Aim small.Hit big.
Bigger competitors have bigger budgets. You can have better aim.
A quick message is fine.
You don't need a brief.
You can reach Slingshot Media on WhatsApp or by email, and I answer both myself.
Pick a day and a time. I confirm by reply.
A short call with me. Times are UAE time (GST), Monday to Friday. This is a request, and I confirm by reply.
