5 Minutes With… Nayaab Rais
With over a decade of experience working with iconic brands across Europe, MENA, and APAC, Nayaab Rais steps into her new role as executive creative director at FP7 McCann.
With a mission to inspire creativity, champion diversity, and push boundaries across the Dubai agency as well as in the broader region, Nayaab speaks with LBB’s Olivia Atkins and discusses her collaborative approach with CCO Federico Fanti, her vision for fostering an inclusive creative culture, and her ambitions for driving FP7 McCann’s regional and global success.
LBB> Congratulations on your recent promotion to executive creative director! What excites you most about stepping into this new leadership role at FP7 McCann?
Nayaab> Thank you! I’m really excited by the opportunity to bring a different perspective to this role, shaped by my unique experiences and identity. It feels like a natural evolution of what I’ve already been doing, but with greater responsibility – and a lot more caffeine.
LBB> You’ve had the opportunity to work across Europe, MENA, and APAC with iconic brands like Mastercard, Coca-Cola, and HSBC. How have these diverse experiences shaped your creative approach and leadership style?
Nayaab> Drawing from Bruce Lee's wisdom, working across diverse regions and clients has taught me to be like water – adaptable, always moving forward, and finding a place in any landscape. And even though water takes any shape, it remains true to itself. For me, authenticity is the constant, which sounds the same in every language.
LBB> In your new role, you’ll be working closely with CCO Federico Fanti to drive FP7 McCann’s creative vision. What are you most looking forward to in your collaboration and how do you hope to shape the agency’s future?
Nayaab> I absolutely love working with Fede – his infectious passion and wonderfully-quirky mind are always a source of inspiration for me. With his new regional role, I know that a big part of my job is holding down the fort here in Dubai. We’re different in many ways – he’s like an Italian espresso, and I’m more of an Indian karak chai. But that’s exactly what makes our partnership special. Together, we’re a bold and strategic blend, full of flavour. What unites us is our shared vision to shape FP7 McCann’s future, one where creativity knows no bounds. We continue to surprise not only our clients but also ourselves with what we can achieve.
LBB> You’ve mentioned a passion for fostering environments where creatives can do their best work. How do you plan to build a culture of creative excellence and embed DE&I within the agency’s operations?
Nayaab> To me, DE&I is not just a checkbox – it is the backbone of everything we do, but making the entire department feel like an inclusive space is an A-to-Z process. It starts with hiring. We consciously recruit from diverse backgrounds to ensure gender, race, and cultural diversity are represented at all levels. We aim to always democratise the creative process by making sure every voice is heard to create a department that feels like an exclusive club but where everyone belongs.
I like to sit with each of our creatives to understand what they individually need to grow, prosper, and feel heard, and then create as many opportunities as possible to support that. I also believe in mixing up teams occasionally and opening big briefs to the entire department to foster a sense of teamwork and make sure everyone feels that they have an equal opportunity to make some magic. I try to also celebrate our creatives’ bravery, but also acknowledge that failure is an important part of the process. Finally, I encourage our team to regularly take breaks, even short ones. I’m constantly working closely with our awesome operations team to distribute workloads fairly – because burnout kills creativity faster than a bad brief.
LBB> As you join the MCN Creative Leadership Council, what are your main goals for elevating FP7 McCann’s creative output and ensuring seamless collaboration across creativity, data, tech, and media?
Nayaab> The goals for the council are threefold. First, the key objective is to consistently promote superior creativity. For me, this means focusing on making all of our work just a little more interesting – it’s a small but measurable goal that, when done consistently, elevates the entire body of work across the entire network. Second, we aim to enhance our awards submissions, and I’m looking forward to applying my jury room insights from various festivals to further refine our entries and storytelling. Lastly, and this is a team effort – just like the Spice Girls – I’m banding together with all our rockstar creative leaders, technologists, data, and media experts to unite our different disciplines to ensure our work is not just innovative but also strategic and effective.
LBB> With your experience judging prestigious international awards like Cannes Lions and The One Show, how do you plan to inspire the team in Saudi Arabia and the wider region to produce work that competes on the global stage?
Nayaab> We're an incredibly synergistic network – honestly, I hadn’t seen anything like it until I joined McCann. This network is basically the Avengers of advertising, and our offices in Saudi, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, and Africa are filled with creative heroes who are already creating great work. So, getting more global wins isn’t going to take much.
Fede and I have inspiration decks packed with learnings and insights from our award-winning work, that includes data and jury feedback. We share this with our clients and offices across the region. And the rest of the plan is much like what we’re already doing with the MCN Creative Leadership Council: we'll keep pushing for creative excellence, refine our awards entries, and stay true to our team-driven spirit.
LBB> With the recent launch of the MCN Academy’s Diversity Program in alignment with Saudi Vision 2030, how are initiatives like this contributing to both the diversification of talent and the growth of the marketing and communications sector in Saudi Arabia?
Nayaab> MCN Academy’s Diversity Program is all about attracting, training, and nurturing young Saudi talent across advertising, media, PR, strategy, data, social, and digital fields. It provides them with a very hands-on six-month experience at top global agencies. As someone who's always championed diversity and inclusion, I know how powerful it is to see people like yourself thrive in this field. When you’re given the right opportunity, it’s not just transformative for your career – it can change the entire industry. Programs like this provide young Saudis with the platform and confidence to succeed and lead, which in turn will contribute to building a diverse pipeline of homegrown talent that will shape the future of Saudi creativity and fuel the growth of the marketing sector in the Kingdom.
