Tonic Communications, the award-winning independent agency known for its ads featuring suicidal office chairs and mischievous ground breaking Ramadan copies, is stepping into new waters after winning the integrated branding and marketing mandate for a leading regional marine and oil and gas services company.

Dubai-based Topaz Energy and Marine Ltd. selected Tonic following a seven-way pitch that involved some of the Middle East's biggest communications networks. The B2B assignment, the largest of its kind for Tonic, includes public relations across the GCC, and branding and advertising across the Middle East and the Caspian region.

'In Tonic, we found an agency that is passionate, both about their work and about our business,' said Fazel A. Fazelbhoy, CEO of Topaz. 'It is crucial to our business strategy that we break through the media clutter to deliver a number of clear messages to our stakeholders, and we're confident that Tonic can deliver to our expectations.'

Although Topaz is a large international player in its industry, it operates through a number of differently named subsidiaries within and across regions. Tonic's first mission is to ensure that all of Topaz's stakeholders understand the large international scale and scope of the group and its diversified businesses.

'The team at Tonic demonstrated a commitment to solution neutrality and a process that ensures all disciplines truly work together - essential to the success of this campaign,' Fazelbhoy said.

Topaz will in 2009 operate through two main divisions, Topaz Marine and Topaz Engineering, which in turn have subsidiaries operating in the GCC, Southeast Asia, and the Caspian Sea. Topaz Marine provides offshore support vessel services to blue-chip clients in the offshore oil and gas industry, while Topaz Engineering has fabrication and construction, marine construction, marine repair, and maintenance service divisions.

Tonic's work will include a branding exercise to bring together, through communication collaterals and other means, all subsidiaries, while preserving their unique qualities.

Arnaud Verchère, Managing Partner at Tonic said, 'Topaz understands the value to its bottom-line that unified branding and integrated communication can unlock. This offers us an exciting challenge as we look forward to helping Topaz invigorate the B2B space with creative work that will immediately shine through the generally drab efforts made in this segment.'

Although this is Tonic's first assignment in the marine and oil & gas sector, the agency has served other B2B clients, including DP World, office furniture company Bafco and Rasmala Investments.

Topaz Energy and Marine Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Renaissance Services SAOG, a publicly traded company on the Muscat Securities Market. Topaz employs more than 6,000 people and is headquartered in Dubai. Topaz Marine comprises the operating companies Nico Middle East, Doha Marine Services, Topaz Saudi Arabia, BUE Caspian, BUE Kazakhstan and BUE Turkmenistan. Topaz Engineering comprises Adyard (Abu Dhabi) and Nico International.

Award-winning, Dubai-based Tonic Communications announced today that it is bringing one of Europe's most successful multimedia experiential marketing tools to the Middle East and North Africa.

The Expericard is a DVD or CD-ROM disk that can be loaded with high-resolution film, sound, images, text and links to websites - all delivered inside a sturdy premium-printed postcard. The disk can even be infused with a scent - fully living up to the Expericard name.

This patented postcard can be distributed in an almost unlimited number of ways, including mail, magazine insert using a lip for integration with advertising, and handout or giveaway.

Tonic's Managing Director Arnaud Verchère said the agency helps clients achieve business results through a creativity that infuses all aspects of the organisation. 'We are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to help our clients reach their customers with impact. Finding this unique, Swedish-produced communication tool and bringing it to the region is just one more example.'

The first client to use the Expericard in the region is the Park Hyatt Dubai, which will use the postcard as part of its marketing activities surrounding the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai in May.

Park Hyatt Dubai's DVD disk includes a high-quality film commercial about the property and also offers a menu through which users can explore the hotel - from the rooms and spa to the banquet facilities and restaurants - with an unrivalled clarity and depth of image, video and sound. The disk also includes fact sheets and links to the hotel's website and different venuesa).

'There is no other way for marketers to provide such a complete experience that lets customers see, hear, feel and even smell a product or service. We are excited by the tremendous diversity of uses that this product offers marketers in the region,' Verchère added.

The cost-effective Expericard can hold almost any format, including PDF, Quicktime, FLASH, VOB-files, JPG-images and AIFF-sound files.

The postcard is available in two formats: A6 size, with a mini-DVD or CD-ROM that weighs 18 grams, or A5 size, with a full-size DVD or CD-ROM that weighs 34 grams. Each postcard can hold data amounts from about 100Mb to 9.1Gb, depending on the size and format of the disc.

Tonic Communications is the sole representative for Expericard in the Middle East and North Africa.