Publicis Middle East’s ‘There We Are’ campaign for Home Centre hijacks other brands’ ads to spotlight their own products
Home Centre, the region’s largest furniture and home accessories brand, has launched their latest campaign, created by Publicis Middle East, which sneakily turns other brands’ ads into their own by putting a spotlight on the Home Centre items featured in those ads and simply saying ‘There We Are’.
With over 14,000 products, Home Centre is in homes across the region. Showcasing every single item in individual ads would be an enormous (and expensive) challenge. But ever since noticing that countless ads from across the Middle East already feature their products, Home Centre found a workaround: Instead of making new ads, let’s use the ones that already exist–quite literally taking what’s theirs and making it Home Centre’s.
The campaign identifies commercials from other brands where Home Centre furniture and accessories make an appearance. Then, with strategically targeted YouTube pre-rolls, Home Centre steals the attention, letting viewers know its products are featured in the next ad they’re about to watch, acting as a cheeky hijack of other brands’ time, effort, and money spent. Their production, their budgets, their media, their audience, is now Home Centre’s spotlight.
Call it an unintentional collab or production value robbery––ads from all over the region have transformed into Home Centre’s product catalogue. But the brands behind these ads did not go unappreciated. Every time Home Centre hijacked an ad, it also tipped its hat with messages such as “This ad may not sell this table. But the next one will.” –– acting as playful thank-yous to credit where it was due.
“We realized our furniture was already in the limelight,” said Siddarth Sivaprakash, Head of Marketing and Brand. “So, instead of starting from scratch, we just said, ‘There We Are’ and let our product catalogue shine in other brands’ commercials. It’s smart, simple, and shows people just how vast, versatile and ubiquitous our product range really is.”
But the message goes deeper. For a brand often perceived as the quieter alternative to certain big-name competitors, ‘There We Are’ is also a declaration of presence against Swedish giants. A statement that says Home Centre’s products don’t just fit in—they belong. Whether it’s a comedy skit, a luxury fragrance ad, or a family dinner spot, Home Centre shows up and blends in effortlessly. It’s proof that Home Centre is in every kind of story because its products fit every kind of home. And they’re proud to be the underdog that made a breakthrough without the heavyweight budget.
“Home Centre’s furniture keeps showing up everywhere. Chocolate ad? There we are. Pizza ad? There we are. Cleaning ad? Yep, there we are too. So, we thought, why not let everyone be aware of it?” Says Augusto Correia, Creative Director at Publicis Middle East.
With zero production spend, minimal media spend, and maximum cheek, ‘There We Are’ is redefining how brands can earn attention—not by interrupting stories, but by being part of them. This campaign is redefining the rules of content creation by proving that paid media doesn’t necessarily have to be paid for. And sometimes, all it takes is spotting what’s yours and saying, There We Are.
Credits
Publicis Groupe
Bassel Kakish – Chief Executive Officer
Tahaab Rais – Chief Strategy Officer
Nathalie Gevresse – Chief Executive Officer
Publicis Middle East
Aunindo Sen – Executive Creative Director
Augusto Correira – Creative Director
Aliza Siddiqi – Associate Creative Director
Nicolas Richard – Copywriter
Andre Sakai – Art Director
Jorge Yoshida – Art Director
Deydson Rocha – Editor
Guilherme Xopper – Motion Designer
Chawki Berro – Motion Designer
Shereen Mostafa – Head of Production
Mayssa Al-Azem – Agency Producer
Ahmed El Ruby – Agency Producer
Nicolas Balaa – Agency Producer
Upasana Kumar – Agency Producer
Issam Saadane – Director
Nadia Karout – Producer
Vicky Kripalani – Business Lead
Aya Baltaji – Account Manager
Landmark Group
Siddarth Sivaprakash – Head of Marketing
Vivek Narayanan – Senior Marketing Manager
Ojasvita Chandra – Assistant Manager
Digitas
Bachir Sahyoun – Associate Business Director
Omar Savage – Media Manager
Fahad Irfan – Senior Executive
Sonido Antro
Lucas Duque – Music Director
Vanessa Mayrink – Project Manager