How to choose an advertising agency in Manama

Choosing an advertising agency in Manama is different from choosing one in a large city. The market is compact, people know each other, and a recommendation from a friend often decides a shortlist before any website is opened. That helps, because you can ask around. It also means you need your own way of checking, so that a good reputation is tested against what your project needs.

This guide covers how to prepare, what to check, the red flags, ten questions to ask and how to compare proposals. It adds what matters in Bahrain: bilingual work, the Saudi link and a small portfolio pool.

Prepare before you call anyone

Write one page that an agency can answer:

• The problem. “Customers keep asking if we are still open” is clearer than “we need a new look”.
• The audience. Bahraini residents, visitors, businesses, or customers across the causeway.
• The channels. Instagram, WhatsApp, outdoor, print, events, a website.
• The languages. Arabic, English, or both, and which leads.
• What exists. Logo files, photos, past campaigns, what worked.
• The timeline, and the real reason for it, such as a launch or a season.
• The approver. One person who can say yes.

How to brief a creative agency has a template if you need one.

What to check

Work that matches your problem. Not the same sector, but the same kind of task: a launch, a repositioning, a campaign over several weeks. Ask what the brief was, what the agency did and what changed afterwards.

The Arabic. Bahrain is bilingual by default, and many agencies are stronger in one language. Ask who writes the Arabic, and ask to see Arabic copy and layouts. Have a native reader judge it, not a person who reads a little Arabic. Check whether the Arabic is designed with the page, or sits beside the English as an afterthought. Our guide to bilingual websites in Bahrain shows what to look for.

The Saudi side. If you serve Eastern Province customers or partners, ask whether the agency has worked for audiences there. Wording, tone and sometimes the channels differ from Bahrain, and one bilingual file does not suit both.

Range and depth. Which parts are done in-house and which are passed to freelancers or printers? Who is responsible for the whole job when something is subcontracted?

Terms. Deliverables listed, revisions stated, payment stages clear, and ownership of final files written down.

Reading a portfolio in a small market

A small market has a small pool of public work, so the same few names appear everywhere. Do not stop at the shortlist of logos on a website.

• Ask which part of each project the agency itself did. A campaign may involve the client’s team, a production house and a media buyer.
• Ask for the brief and the result in the client’s terms, not only the finished visuals.
• Ask to speak to a past client, and ask that client what went wrong and how it was handled.
• Look for variety. Ten pieces that look the same may be one template used ten times.
• Check how the work looks today, not only when it launched.

Pitch team or delivery team

The people in the meeting are not always the people who will work on your account. Ask directly:

• Who will lead the work day to day, and can we meet them?
• How many accounts does that person handle?
• What happens if they leave or are away?
• Who writes the Arabic, who designs, who answers messages?

An agency that names the people and is happy for you to meet them is giving you something to hold them to.

Red flags

• A fee quoted before any conversation about scope.
• Big claims with no case behind them: rankings, promised results.
• Deliverables described as “branding”, “social” or “digital” with no list.
• Silence on file ownership, or ownership only after conditions you have not read.
• Arabic that reads like a translation, or no one named to check it.
• Pressure to sign after free creative is shown.
• Reluctance to let you speak to a previous client.
• No questions about your business.

Ten questions to ask

1. Who will work on our account, and who is accountable?
2. What do you need from us in the first two weeks?
3. What would you change about our brief?
4. Who writes and checks the Arabic and the English?
5. Which work is done in-house?
6. How many concepts and revision rounds are included?
7. Who owns the final files, and from when?
8. How do you report, and how often?
9. Have you worked with customers in Saudi Arabia, if that matters to us?
10. What is not included in this proposal?

How to compare proposals

Send each agency the same brief and give the same deadline for questions. Lay the proposals out in rows: deliverables, rounds, timeline, team, languages, ownership, payment stages. Ignore totals until the rows match. A blank cell is a question to ask, not something to assume is included. Notice, too, how each agency handled your questions before the pitch, since that is how they will handle the project. For help reading the numbers, see our guide to what social media management costs in Bahrain.

Talk to CREATVZ

We work with Bahraini businesses from our Manama page, across brand identity and social media management, with a studio in Riyadh for the Saudi side. Send your brief through the start a project form, and we reply with questions and a scope that lists exactly what is included.