Gareth Mankoo
#CreativeDirector #DXB
Welcome to a trip down the alleyways of my brain.
It can get stormy with a chance of fog.
Featured Work
Content also means "happiness"
and it's no coincidence.
We make content, consume it, judge it, buy it, sell it, and define our world by it.
It can be an asset in your holster or a self-combusting fuse on a grenade. It is this volatility of content that makes it my lifeblood. As a writer, storyteller, and advertiser, I'm naturally drawn to content in all forms - from the brittle pages of a bestseller from the 1800s to a 15-second short of a gyrating teenager on TikTok.
17 years in advertising and publishing has taught me that content is the fruit of orderly anarchy, a democratic vice, a liberal device, making and breaking brands by the wayside.
Campaigns
Who
It was 11:21 on a Summer morning; my shirt clung to my back as I waited expectantly for my Nokia 3230 to ring. It did, and they told me that the five years I spent educating myself as a Post-Graduate in Information Technology was fruitless because I didn't do so well in Chemistry. I was confused, annoyed, and, more importantly, elated.
Because now the choice seemed clear. I'd become a writer. Coding was my first love, but the written word was my mistress. It's been 17 years to the day, and I've hopped from one mistress to another - publishing, blogging, copywriting, creative directing, SEOing, writing lyrics, and this clumsy paragraph.
What
Having tasted the nectar of every flower that commercial writing has to offer, I chose to advertise and was quite good at it. I've worked as a digital-native Creative Director for the last 7 years. I'm driven by content in all forms, from the writings on elevator walls to the gossip in the back alleys of Karama.
It all comes back to one thing - the ingenuity of the human brain to come up with something new, unimaginable, and frighteningly unpredictable.
Why
TBH, I'd write without agenda - until I began getting paid for it. I'd find release in words, and they'd seem to find purpose at my fingertips. And so it goes. I began with publishing, feeling the whirring press grumble under my feet as it spat my thoughts out with indelible ink. In 2010, I joined DDB as a Copywriter because all writing is writing, right? Right???
I learned the way of the ad man and swiftly began questioning how things work. After launching an internal agency in a research firm and trudging through a "boutique" agency, I got my big break. Ogilvy happened in the Summer of 2018. They had me as a Creative Director. It's funny to have found your "why" several years after beginning your journey searching for it. When I stepped into the institution of advertising, I knew that this was it!
When
I've worked with UAE brands for over half a decade but only moved here in 2022. And there's a good reason for it. I find the UAE ad scene misrepresented as "years behind" and "too cautious" for advertisers. One wouldn't know the truth till they're told that something's too outrageous to be an idea. I wanted to be told that, to believe fully.
Today, 19 pitches and 12 wins later, grinning at what I managed to make possible. Having led a cross-cultural team of Creatives and building life-long bonds with client partners, I've found my home.