Ihab Karkaba Email & Phone Number

Riyadh, SA

Windsor, Berkshire, GB

• Manage and direct creative direction, public relations, contracted marketing agencies, and external team works for Al Rajhi Portfolio (voco Riyadh, voco Al Khobar, Holiday Inn & Suites Al Khobar, Staybridge Suites Al.
• Responsible for planning, organizing, leading, and controlling communication activities and collateral materials for Hotel rooms, 9 F&B outlets, MICE, in addition to Spa & Health club
• Apply integrated marketing techniques to significantly increase market share and improve customer loyalty
• Monitor and assess ROI to evaluate and refine marketing budget planning and campaign activity effectiveness
• Planned, designed, and oversaw Sales and Marketing Department annual budget with corporate business plan during pre-opening and post opening phases
• Collect and analyze guest demographics data for use in lead generation and customer loyalty activities

Paris, Issy-les-Moulineaux, FR

Makkah, Makkah, SA

• Responsible for developing, delivering, and maintaining hotel marketing, public relation, and digital marketing plans through pre-opening and post-opening phase
• Created and developed collateral materials for food and beverage outlets, convention center, and meeting rooms
• Lead the agency in the positioning of 2 fine dining restaurants, including logo creation, menu engineering, menu theming, target market and white-space discovery
• Developed marketing and public relation plan and activities to increase brand awareness, communicate promotions to target audiences, and address hotel business planning objectives
• Utilized search engine optimization to capture public sentiment and interests relating to local hospitality industry
• Managed external marketing and PR agencies throughout delivery of online, offline, print, and marketing strategies

Dubai, Dubai, AE

• Managed day to day marketing and communication of fourteen different Food & Beverage outlets within three hotel properties
• Contributed to a 3% increase in total revenue for all restaurants, through online offers and impulse buying promotions for in-house guests
• Delivered and ran in parallel a successful print media plan resulting in 2000+ room bookings
• Effectively managed the marketing budget of 20,000,000 S.R for three properties, assigning campaigns to support sales and revenue departments during low season, and working on awareness campaigns during high season
• Improved marketing efficiency ratios, ROI and ROE, for the marketing activities of all outlets and business units, and developed campaigns that allow KPI to be measured
• Designed and delivered marketing and communication plans including eMarketing and paid on-line advertising strategies for stakeholder properties (e.g. PPC keyword submissions, eBlasts, eBrochures/modules, eProposals).

Jeddah, Western, SA

• Effectively implemented strategy to increase and improve social media presence, leading to a 300% increase in engagement. Doubled Facebook followers from 10,000 to 22,000.
• Set up a Facebook profile for the brand Coccinelle which reached more than 5000 followers and increased brand revenue by 10,000S.R during the first month.
• Organized mall advertisements for multiple brands including Armani Jeans, Armani Exchange, and French Connection, and increased the number of store visitors by 70% during a three month period.
• Contributed to a successful grand opening of the Armani Exchange Bahrain store, with sales of more than 40,000 S.R during opening day, and was responsible for all marketing collateral including in-store signage.
• Assisted operations manager with French Connection store opening, using brand guidelines to maintain store and product displays
• Maintained company’s e-newsletter and website

• Facilitated planning, coordination and execution of the public relations activities
• Involved in the team responsible for expanding business and developing existing clientele, analyzing business challenges, and providing recommendations for the upper management to achieve market leadership
• Assisted in managing a portfolio of clients including Lloyds TSB, Nissan Middle East and Daimler Middle East
• Conducted and handled face to face meetings with senior clientele to discuss their views pertaining to the services provided and strategies for business improvements