Dubai-based digital marketing agency Nexa won two awards at the 2018 MENA Search Awards, retaining the 'Best Integrated Campaign' award for the second year in succession, while adding the prize of 'Best Use of Search - Health'. The awards recognise the expertise, talent and achievements of professionals within the search industry (SEO, PPC, content and performance marketing) in the Middle East & North Africa.

The 'Best Integrated Campaign' category recognises a campaign that has achieved outstanding results using a variety of both online and offline activity. Nexa won this award for its work with an established tour operator in the UAE. Whilst their business had grown, there was an increasing reliance on business generated from traditional tour operators who had driven down sales/profit margins as their influence on bookings had increased. The challenge was to build a relationship, create trust and drive credibility of this operator over their competitors as well as to drive relevant and qualified traffic onto the website, that convert into qualified sales opportunities.

The campaign focus was centred around content and inbound marketing using the HubSpot marketing and sales platform with social media, search (organic and paid) and marketing automation (email, workflows and lead scoring - all powered by HubSpot) being integral in targeted content distribution. The tourism and hospitality sector is highly competitive in the UAE so Nexa needed to find a way to engage with potential customers before other operators and drive prospects to the call centre. Over the last 12 months, Nexa reported that overall website traffic increased by 42% year on year with website and call centre conversions increasing by 23% and 17% respectively.

On winning the award, Amit Vyas, CEO of Nexa, said, "We are delighted to have won 'Best Integrated Campaign' for the second year running. Our unique approach allows us to solve our clients' real-life problems by creating actionable strategies that integrate offline and online activities, while enabling them to create stronger customer relationships that directly translate to sales. Nexa prides itself in standing out from the crowd and being at the forefront of the latest marketing techniques and trends. This award not only recognises that approach, but the skill and dedication of the team to deliver the best results for our clients."  

At last year's inaugural MENA Search Awards, Nexa won the 'Best Integrated Campaign' award for its work with The College of Fashion and Design (CFD) based in Dubai.  

In addition to the 'Best Integrated Campaign' Nexa won the award for 'Best Use of Search - Health' for a 12-month campaign aimed at driving individuals to their client's website looking for information about medical conditions, treatments and services - ultimately aimed at increasing footfall and revenue at their clinics. Through the use of display ads, strategically constructed blogs and search campaigns, Nexa delivered a 21% increase in organic traffic and an ROI of over 500%.

Nizar Edaili, Group Head of Projects, Marketing & Business Development at GMCClinics, explains how this campaign has helped develop their business, "In an ever-competitive environment, GMCClinics needed to find a way to reach our niche target market with the accurate and reliable information that relates to both our business strategic goals and the customer's medical and health needs. Shifting from the traditional old school marketing we opted to trial digital marketing campaigns. Since starting work with Nexa, and seeing the improved results, we are approaching the market and our strategic goals with digital first mentality.  Thank you Team Nexa for showing us what's possible with digital marketing."

Nexa were also shortlisted in the 'Best Arabic PPC Campaign' and 'Best Large Integrated Agency' categories.

This year the awards were announced on Thursday 20th September at the Madinat Jumeirah Resort.