Ride-hailing app Careem has appointed TBWA/Raad as its global advertising agency of record.

After rapid growth and expansion into new verticals, building the Careem brand is now at the forefront of business objectives within the company, it said in a release. Under the leadership of Careem’s vice-president of strategy, Adeeb Warsi, Careem engaged award winning brand agency BellWether Brands to refresh the brand in late 2017, appointed a new vice-president of brand, Ian Pate from PepsiCo Europe/Sub-Saharan Africa and more recently brought on board Anas Sarraj (ex JWT, Dubai) as creative director.

Ian Patesaid: “We’ll be partnering with TBWA/Raad for this as we believe they truly understand both the depth of our ambition, and the challenges of building a world-class brand from the region, we also loved their tangible sense of excitement and enthusiasm for the Careem brand.”

Reda Raad, group CEO of TBWA/Raad, said: “Careem epitomises the type of 21st century company that we as an agency have always wanted to work with. It has technology and innovation at its core, is run with dedication and passion by people who believe in the power of the brand, and it embraces the virtues of disruption, which is at the heart of everything that we do at TBWA/Raad.

“What’s more, we are partnering with Careem at a time when we at TBWA/Raad have turned on our own disruption mirror. We are no longer just disrupting on behalf of our clients but are disrupting our very own operations – our own DNA. When we find a strategy that works extremely well, we are sure to apply it to our own business. We believe that we have now proven that data-driven creativity can work wonders when implemented by those who believe passionately in what they do. We greatly look forward to a disruptive and innovative relationship with Careem”.