Tala Hammouri, Marketing Expert in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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Tala Hammouri

Verified Expert  in Marketing

Marketing Strategy Expert

Location
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Toptal Member Since
May 5, 2023

Tala is a creative, performance-oriented digital marketing strategist and project manager with extensive experience and a comprehensive background in assessing client business and marketing situations. With over ten years of experience, three as a consultant, she has a proven track record of working with B2C, B2B, and B2G brands and startups across industries, like edtech, government, NGOs, healthcare, and F&B. Tala has had the opportunity to work in Jordan, Kuwait, India, Egypt, and the UAE.

Project Highlights

Starbucks | Redcup Contest
Identified an opportunity to enhance brand connections and drive engagement through a localized 360⁰ campaign that resulted in 400 Instagram entries using customer behavior analysis.
Starbucks | Matcha Festival
Increased customer awareness and interest in matcha through an effective social media and content strategy, which resulted in a 1.5x increase in ad recall.
H.E. Ohood Al Roumi
Owned H.E. Ohood Al Roumi's communication and social media strategy when she transitioned from Minister of State for Happiness and Well-being to Minister of State for Government Development and Future.

Expertise

Work Experience

Social Media Strategist (Contract)

2023 - 2023
Foodics (SaaS food services company)
  • Collaborated with the global head of content at Foodics to develop a thorough social media plan encompassing content, channel, and creative strategies.
  • Developed a social media playbook to ensure consistency in brand messaging across all channels and optimize social media content. This aligned regional marketing managers with the global team's vision and direction.
  • Worked on new creative tactics to help propose innovative tactics and concepts to enhance organic engagement and boost subscription numbers.

Digital Marketing Strategist and Consultant

2022 - 2022
Sheraa Sharjah
  • Led the marketing communications department at Sheraa's, a startup accelerator, and consulted C-level executives on the reconstruction of the marketing team and department.
  • Created the communication and social media strategy for the UAE Minister of State for Happiness and Well-being when she became the Minister of State for Government Development and Future and delivered a digital and social media playbook for her team.
  • Developed a content strategy to support Emirate Foundation's activities during COVID-19. Led creative ideation and managed a team of four designers and four copywriters to produce relevant content.

Growth Marketing Director

2021 - 2022
Aanaab
  • Led all digital marketing and growth efforts under a one-year contract in a senior leadership role. Achieved growth and profitability goals while improving online brand presence and engagement.
  • Implemented new tools for profitability measures and increased Aanaab's direct marketing efficiency by 45%.
  • Led and executed a comprehensive communication and brand strategy for Aanaab, an edtech platform that provides a full range of professional development opportunities for teachers, schools, and governments in MENA.
  • Orchestrated an effective growth strategy implementation with internal and external stakeholders working across social media, performance marketing, CRM, SEO, and Google search ads.
  • Reduced premium courses CAC by 102% while increasing AOV by 20% and increased the lead conversion rate by 18%.
  • Grew the customer base by more than 20% creating and implementing 50+ campaigns in various social and digital channels.
  • Used Google Analytics to define the exact demographic of Aanaab's users and provided them with personalized content calendars.

Digital Marketing Strategist | Consultant

2020 - 2020
Hanovercomms (Agency)
  • Worked on Malaffi, the first health information exchange platform in Abu Dhabi. That safely connects public/private healthcare providers, delivers real-time patient data exchange, and centralized records database for improved healthcare quality.
  • Supported and worked on the Hanover Communications team's marketing and communications pitch for Malaffi.
  • Developed a comprehensive strategy for content, social media, and digital marketing.

Social Media and Communications Strategist (Contract)

2020 - 2020
Prime Minister's Office - UAE
  • Helped H.E. Ohood Al Roumi transition from Minister of State for Happiness and Well-being to Minister of State for Government Development and Future. The project focused on ensuring a seamless online transition between the two roles.
  • Performed an audit of her online presence and worked with her office to develop a communication and social media strategy plan aligned with her new role.
  • Created a comprehensive digital and social media playbook that outlined all necessary guidelines.

Regional Digital Marketing Manager

2013 - 2020
Starbucks MENA
  • Assumed a leadership role in developing and implementing digital marketing and social media strategies. Delivered growth and profitability while advancing brand presence and engagement online.
  • Started, built, and led Starbucks MENA's multi-language online channels, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Google Display, to reach over two million MENA fans.
  • Increased marketing initiative results and reduced advertising costs by 23%.
  • Created content strategies with ongoing evaluation of digital marketing efforts.
  • Planned 20+ influencer events and artist partnerships to support key product launches.
  • Leveraged an omnichannel approach to drive sales and engagement with proven results.
  • Led creative ideation and managed end-to-end projects while building ongoing relationships with external agencies, including public relations, media, and production.
  • Collaborated with internal stakeholders such as offline marketing, loyalty, public affairs, and category teams.
  • Managed a multicultural team of media specialists through training and mentoring and evaluated crisis management plans responding to brand-specific and broader situations.

Community Manager

2011 - 2012
The Online Project
  • Provided account and community management services for Nescafe Arabia, Lipton Arabia, and Shabab Arab Bank. My role included managing content creation for multilingual written and visual assets and influencer engagement across the MENA region.
  • Delivered 41% organic growth in NESCAFÉ Arabia's Facebook fans and 35% in Twitter followers within 18 months by providing relevant and timely content across all social channels, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
  • Managed multiple agency clients and provided regular updates on social media trends and developments in their respective industries.
  • Launched the NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto product line in the MENA region by implementing a comprehensive influencer marketing campaign to promote the product and support the annual marketing plan, increasing brand awareness and sales.
  • Analyzed the performance of all promotions, ad campaigns, and competitions, using the appropriate tools; used the insights to optimize channel performance effectively.

Non-corporate Communications Manager

2010 - 2011
AIESEC
  • Volunteered with AIESEC, the world's largest student organization, to develop experience in event management and public relations using.
  • Led a team of four within the organization during the Middle East and North Africa Exchange and Leadership Development Seminar in Egypt.
  • Designed and created all seminar marketing and promotional materials.
  • Organized and managed all cultural events and activities, from content to logistics.
  • Reached target attendee numbers successfully within the first round of promotion.

Starbucks | Redcup Contest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjXK72maPPs&t=43s

Identified an opportunity to enhance brand connections and drive engagement through a localized 360⁰ campaign that resulted in 400 Instagram entries using customer behavior analysis.

Task: We aimed to drive sales and participation in the Red Cup Art Contest in 10 markets.

Action: I developed an omnichannel campaign strategy to achieve our goal that leveraged various marketing channels to drive engagement and sales. Our key initiative was the Red Cup Art Contest, and we partnered with three local artists to create their own Red Cup Art projects and encourage customer participation. These artists also served on the jury committee that selected the winners.

Results: Our holiday campaign is one of our most popular campaigns and is eagerly anticipated by our customers every year. In 2016, the campaign delivered the highest sales against our target, with a 14% increase in sales. The Red Cup Art Contest was also a great success, with over 400 entries on Instagram. We announced the ten winners on December 12, and their winning pieces included paintings, photography, sculpture, and collage. The campaign's success highlights the effectiveness of the localized 360⁰ campaign approach and the importance of amplifying existing customer behaviors to enhance brand connections.

Starbucks | Matcha Festival

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J11qFQDsjA

Increased customer awareness and interest in matcha through an effective social media and content strategy, which resulted in a 1.5x increase in ad recall.

Task: The goal was to create new social media content and a campaign that showcased Matcha latte options available at Starbucks.

Action: As the lead strategist, I carefully planned the social media and content strategy based on the campaign's objectives and our target audience. Working closely with our production agency, we developed high-quality native content highlighting the Matcha product line. The content was promoted across various social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, to effectively reach our target audience.

Results: The campaign's effectiveness was evident from the positive response of our audience. We achieved 1.5x ad recall compared to our benchmark, indicating that the content resonated very well with our target audience, leading to increased customer awareness and interest in Matcha at Starbucks.

H.E. Ohood Al Roumi

https://copyfol.io/edit/9c98hbk7/h-e-ohood-al-roumi

Owned H.E. Ohood Al Roumi's communication and social media strategy when she transitioned from Minister of State for Happiness and Well-being to Minister of State for Government Development and Future.

Task: To ensure a seamless transition between H.E.'s roles, I completed an audit of her online presence and created a communication and social media strategy plan based on her new mandate. In addition, I needed to develop a digital and social media playbook covering all necessary guidelines.

Action and results: I started by thoroughly auditing H.E.'s online presence to identify areas that required attention. With the support of her office, I developed a comprehensive communication and social media strategy plan that aligned with her new mandate. This involved crafting new messaging and creating a content calendar for social media platforms. I also built a digital and social media playbook with all the necessary guidelines and best practices.

Pumpkin Spice Latte First Launch

The campaign was remarkable, delivering a 22.7% increase in sales value. We reached over 1 million people in less than two hours through 18 Influencers.

Objective and Results:
The objective of the autumn campaign was to launch the most awaited product of the year (2014) for the first time in MENA with a 360 approach.

To achieve this, I created a comprehensive digital marketing and content strategy aligned with the campaign's goals. The strategy included a teaser campaign on social channels, a pre-launch sneak preview influencers event, and partnering with local artists to create user-generated content. It launched and sustained organic and paid posts (Facebook, Instagram, and Google display ads).

We had 18 Influencers attend The "Orange Carpet Event," which included a band, a professional photographer who captured the event's special moments, and the "The PrintGram" project, a technology that automatically prints out any shared photos on Instagram using the event's hashtag.
2005 - 2009

Bachelor's Degree in Graphic Design

Yarmouk University - Irbid, Jordan

JULY 2019 - PRESENT

Digital Marketing Nanodegree

Udacity

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