There’s no such thing as a boring brand or product, believes Sigal Abudy, CCO of McCann Tel Aviv. However, there might be a brand that hasn’t been fully understood yet or whose manager lacks the courage to think outside the box. It’s important to step out of the bubble you live in and understand people who do different things, constantly nurturing curiosity.
"Progress makes us more surgical and demands that we step out of the echo chambers we live in and fully understand completely different audiences", says Sigal.
Sigal will speak on the Impact Bucharest stage, an event taking place on September 17-18, bringing together over 200 international leaders. We talked with her about how she nurtures her creativity, the secrets behind McCann's success, and the changes AI is bringing amidst an ongoing tech revolution.
Your advertising upbringing
Since I can remember myself, creativity has always been an inseparable part of who I am. As I grew up and had to choose what to study – I debated between art and psychology. I found a place for both of these sides of me in the advertising world.
What changed drastically in the advertising industry
The advertising field is constantly changing. From a narrow world, with few tools and few media channels – where it was very easy to reach every home and every individual – it has become broader, more personal, more diverse. Today you need to reach each and every audience in a slightly different & hyper-personalized way, on a variety of media platforms, and you have all the technology and data to do so. Thus, progress makes us more surgical and demands that we step out of the echo chambers we live in and fully understand completely different audiences.
The AI revolution that entered our lives requires us to develop additional skills: beyond being creatives – we must become navigators. Specializing in navigating technology to places not everyone can reach while maintaining personalization.
The experience at McCann Tel Aviv
At McCann Tel Aviv there is a specific culture. With values of excellence, deep-dive learning, ultimate team-work with a focus on becoming meisters of our fields - we believe that everything should be measured in order to be managed. This creates a unique atmosphere that pushes everyone to be their best, every day. Beyond that, we have amazing relationships with the global network. We learn from each other and collaborate on quite a few projects. And thus, when you put brilliant minds from different places in the world in the same room – it’s hard to get anything less than excellence.
What makes a good advertising campaign in 2025
A truly great campaign solves real problems for people. It can be a small, niche problem or a big communal one. Either way, solving the problem results in a successful campaign that is able to generate conversation and attention in a world where attention is a scarce and very difficult-to-obtain resource.
How do you perceive the AI revolution
It definitely will, and already is, changing things.
There will be roles that disappear and others it will create.
For example, execution studios will become redundant, and campaigns will go through automation processes. Also, information specialists. In general, the more executional disciplines will disappear.
Not creativity. On the contrary. Most people in all disciplines will have to become more creative. And as I said before, creatives will have to be the best navigators.
Your most successful campaigns
The campaigns I am most proud of are the ones where I invented something new. In IKEA Disables – we invented add-ons that made IKEA furniture more accessible to everyone. With YES satellite TV – we created a song that became the biggest hit in the country with millions of views, that reached audiences even outside the country. With Maccabi Healthcare Services – we created a new web series that both succeeded in delivering messages and was entertaining. And with Fighting to Remember – we brought together gamers and Holocaust survivors to create new content that combined gaming with survivor stories, thus reaching young audiences that were shying away from the subject.
McCann is the largest agency in the country. As such, it manages dozens of clients – in almost every category. From my years of experience, I’ve learned there’s no such thing as a boring or uncreative brand or product – there’s a brand that hasn’t been cracked yet, whose manager hasn’t had the courage to do things differently and open their minds to think outside the box.
The creative market in Israel
In 2025, the advertising industry still pushes the economy forward. Television is still the strongest medium here because of people’s reliance on news and current affairs. But this is a special and diverse country with different audiences and different cultures, and you need to know how to speak to all of them, and solve problems that they can all relate to.
What keeps you inspired
I always say that the best creatives must exercise their brains and think creatively every day. When they do it less frequently – that muscle in the brain weakens. That’s why you need to think of ideas all the time, you need to keep listening and opening up, to keep stepping out of the echo chamber you live in, and understand people who are different from you, who live elsewhere, who do completely different things. For example, the insight behind Disables would never have reached my desk if Eldar, a copywriter with cerebral palsy, hadn’t raised it. Inspiration can strike anywhere – you just have to be open to it.
Your expectations on Romania & Impact Bucharest
To inspire creatives to bring world-expanding ideas to brands, and to inspire brands to be the ones to expand the world.
