Tell us about TishTash. What is the mission of TishTash? How do you help entrepreneurs and business leaders?
The mission of TishTash is to bring world-class marketing to brands in the GCC. We are dedicated to crafting stories that connect with audiences and bring our clients’ success. We are also on a mission to provide a platform and a voice to women in the workplace, using our voice to campaign for change in the workplace to close the gender gap.
Your brand is synonymous with a workplace designed for women; can you tell us more about that?
TishTash is a fully female-owned and operated communications agency. When we launched 12 years ago, we were a predominately beauty-focused PR agency. As such, our first hires were female. As we grew as an agency, we realized that we were in a unique position to be able to lead the way when It comes to female-specific policy and workplace initiatives that really empower women and support their growth. Over the years we have been at the forefront of creating change in the UAE workplace, leading the way on female-focused leave policies such as menopause and menstrual leave as well as flexible work policies to name a few.
45% of your team have been with the agency for more than 5 years, how do you achieve such high employee retention?
TishTash is at its core, a people-first business. We invest in our people both personally and professionally to create an environment where our team feel motivated, safe, and most importantly empowered. As well as many health and wellbeing benefits, we also have a varied and diverse training program for all staff members which includes tailored job-focused training as well as ‘lifestyle’ sessions such as how to manage your finances, nutrition, mindfulness, and more. We believe that creating a space where woman want to be, will lead to stronger productivity, collaboration, and loyalty.
What has been your biggest success as a company?
We are so very proud of everything we have achieved as a business, so it’s very difficult to just pick one….but I would say being named one of the region’s ‘Great Places to Work’ has been a real highlight for us. As a people-first business knowing that our team value how we operate and what we provide as an organization is extremely humbling and motivating.
You have retained 45% of clients at your agency for over 4 years, what do you attribute this success to?
The longevity of our client roster is down to one thing, relationships. Of course, successful campaigns that deliver results are an essential, but our level of client retention is so high because for us, our clients are our partners. We are also a full 360 agency, so we are able to connect the dots for our clients across different marketing disciplines, creating result driven campaigns that work across channels.
Congratulations on achieving a 61% increase in turnover in the last 12 months (2022-2023), what revenue channels did you add to achieve this/how did you achieve this increase in turnover?
Being a fully self-funded business means we can remain completely agile. Tash and I are always dedicated to innovating in the market and having the flexibility to do this is something we never take for granted. Without this agility, I do not think we would have been able to achieve such results. Most recently we launched TEN by TishTash. This marked a consolidation of our corporate clients looking for new ways of integrating storytelling and authenticity and since launch, we have added more than 20 clients to our corporate roster. We have also grown our social and digital offering to include performance marketing and full content production with a full content team and our own in-house studio.
How do you measure the success of a PR campaign?
Success really can only be measured by meeting campaign objectives. Given the role of PR is fast evolving, it is difficult to answer this question with one single metric. Conversion is of course important for many, but the business of PR is still very much awareness as the ultimate goal. A lot of our campaigns are becoming more and more socially led and as such, engagement is becoming one of the most important metrics to measure success.
What are the biggest PR trends in 2024?
The most exciting trend for me is the move away from the ‘press release’ and a shift to ‘content creation’. I’m very glad to see many of our clients embracing the importance of other content types such as thought leadership, opinion editorials and smaller trend features/tips and tricks as opposed to lengthy releases that just don’t get the cut through that they used to!
What are your top THREE PR tips?
– Invest in localized content
– Attribute budget to influencers that engage – don’t look at their follower numbers!
– Stand for something
How do you stay up to date with the latest PR trends and technologies?
I think LinkedIn is the most wonderful resource for staying up to date both globally and regionally. There are so many amazing people innovating in the market, and I love how everyone wants to share and discuss. It’s one of the most positive platforms out there right now.
What are your goals as a company for the next 5 years?
Our goal is to continue to innovate, stay ahead of the curve, do more for women in the workplace (not just those at TishTash), and to keep delivering for our clients in a way that gets people talking!
