The Middle East’s creative industry is at an inflection point.

Over the past decade, brands have multiplied, budgets have grown, and the media landscape has become noisier than ever. Yet in conversations with clients, peers and even competitors, one theme keeps surfacing: agencies aren’t keeping pace. Servicing can feel inconsistent. Output becomes repetitive. And too often, the work looks like it could have been made anywhere.

The region doesn’t need more agencies. It needs different ones. Passionate ones.

Here’s the tension we kept seeing: global networks dominate through scale, but scale comes at a cost – slower turnaround times, rigid processes, and work that can feel disconnected from the region’s cultural reality. On the other hand, boutiques bring energy and originality, but can struggle with consistency or the resources to scale. Clients end up choosing between size and agility, depth and daring.

Too often, they don’t get both. And they’re tired of paying for the privilege. That gap is where Good Juju was born. We built it out of Umami Comms, a team known for culturally resonant work at the intersection of hospitality, lifestyle and community. At our core at Umami, we’ve supported and launched multi award winning and culturally relevant F&B brands across the GCC. Partners across our creative and PR functions for Umami include LPM, COYA, Diageo, Guinness, Honeycomb Hi-Fi, bkry, Pitfire Pizza, Rosewood Hotels and Bvlgari Hotel. Working with clients like that teaches you something important: culture isn’t a trend. It’s a daily practice.

But inside that success, something else was happening. A younger group of creatives wanted to widen the lens. They weren’t content watching the brands they admired in other sectors go elsewhere. They wanted to create desire across categories, from tech and apparel to automotive and e-sports, without losing the standards and craft we’d built.

Because this is what’s happening in the GCC: lifestyle has become the new luxury. These brands don’t just want to be seen; they want to be felt. They need campaigns and communications that move people, create culture, and spark desire, plus partners who understand nuance, design and momentum.

"Taste is still a human job"

Artificial intelligence has changed the creative landscape, not by replacing ideas, but by removing friction. Big budgets aren’t always required to execute big thinking anymore. That doesn’t make creativity less valuable; it makes it more obvious when it’s missing. Taste is still a human job. AI can accelerate execution and multiply variations, but it can’t reliably originate cultural acceptance or a point of view. AI slop will devalue itself, and the brands that use it quickly. Audiences can feel when a brand has made an effort and when it hasn’t. In a strange way, it feels like we’re entering a new chutzpah-type of era from the Saatchi & Saatchi glory days. This is not a return to the past, but it feels like a moment where distinctive creative work becomes the advantage again, where value is in the thought.

Good Juju is built as a big-little agency. Big in ambition, output and creative range, and small in ego, red tape and unnecessary filler. We’re independent in spirit, which means we can take smart risks. And we’ve built a team with a cosmopolitan blend of third culture perspectives and international talent, a reflection of today’s GCC.

Good Juju isn’t a name we picked because it sounds nice. It’s a philosophy: positive energy creates stronger partnerships, better work, and more resonant campaigns.

Our difference isn’t just what we do. It’s how we do it. For us, design is not cosmetic, it’s cultural. It shapes how people interact with brands and how brands embed themselves in daily life. That belief pushes you toward clarity, craft, and work that people actually want to share, wear, visit, taste and talk about.

Since our soft launch in the second half of 2025, the response has been strong. Exciting brands have been leaning in, without us having to push. Good Juju has begun building traction with lifestyle and cultural briefs including work with PAUS Wellness in Dubai, and PR and event management for the BAAB film launch and premiere, now showing across the Middle East. We’re also developing new UI and UX and branding projects for incoming clients that we can’t name yet, and a cocktail book is in the works, because storytelling should live across formats, not just in decks.

And in 2026 we’re quietly tooling up. We’ve been testing and building a standalone AI content capability inside the Umami and Good Juju business, designed to increase creative output without losing taste and craft. The ambition is to launch this as a dedicated division very soon. We’ve got an eye on performance marketing too. We’re ready to grow again. To go again!

Good Juju exists to fill a space this region has outgrown: the space between the big networks and the small boutiques. Between scale and soul. Between process and pace.

In short: the Middle East didn’t need another agency. It needed a different one.

That’s why we’re here. That’s Good Juju. And we’re just getting started.

Colin Hutton is the Founder and CEO at Umami Comms.

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