Winners of IAA Ticket to Cannes Lions revealed

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Winners of this year’s IAA Ticket to Cannes Lions competition were announced last night at IAA UAE Chapter’s Dubai office. The competition aims to recognise young professionals in the advertising industry and saw Omar Tom from Leo Burnett, Elie Raad from AMS and Levent Donertas from TBWA/RAAD named as this year’s winners. Selected on the basis of originality, creativity and personal investment, Omar, Elie and Levent will move on to represent the region at the Cannes Lions International Festival for Creativity to be held from June 17 – 24, as well as be enrolled in the Young Lions Academies.

“The IAA Ticket to Cannes Lions not only makes young advertisers mine their own creativity and originality to further their careers, but also gives them a chance to learn from the best minds in the industry and apply that learning in the local market,” says Hani Ghorayeb, President, IAA UAE Chapter. “The three winners stood out because of their creative approach and their ability to elicit an emotional connection with their campaign. We wish them an exciting, enjoyable and fruitful week in Cannes.”

Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai wins Young Lions Print Competition

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Motivate and Motivate Val Morgan has announced this year’s winners of the UAE Young Lions Print Competition held on May 1 at In5 Media Innovation Centre. This year’s competition saw 17 participating teams and named Sarah Guessoum and Anika Marya from Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai as gold winners, while Leo Burnett came in second and TBWA/RAAD came in third. Sarah and Anika will move on to represent the region at the International Young Lions Print Competition to be held in Cannes, France from June 17 – 24, 2017 following their win.

“Firstly, I want to thank Motivate and Motivate Val Morgan for the incredible opportunity given to the young talent in the region,” says, Komal Bedi Sohal, Chief Creative Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai. “We at Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai are very excited and proud of our young talent, Anika and Sarah, for winning the UAE Young Lions Print Competition. We are confident they will do the region proud and wish them all our best.”

Festival of Media MENA reveals award winners

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Winners of the Festival of Media MENA Awards 2017, in partnership with Mediaquest, has been announced following the conclusion of the third edition of its conference on April 26, 2017. Held at the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray hotel, the awards focused on the evolution of the media industry to celebrate the best in media thinking and communications across the region. The event saw major wins for Starcoms winning Agency Network of the Year, OMD UAE for Agency of the Year and MEC MENA for Campaign of the Year, while other winners also include Garage 366 for Best Use of Mobile, Magna Egypt for Best Engagement Strategy and MediaVest | Spark for Best Social Media Strategy. The winners were judged by a panel divided into two groups and chaired by Asad Rehman, Director of Media at Unilever MENA and Nick Graham, Director of Global Digital Marketing and Media at Huawei for the event.

“It is a privilege and a great responsibility to be asked to chair an awards ceremony that is as prestigious as the Festival of Media MENA,” says Asad Rehman, Director of Media, Unilever MENA. “Too often we are in the office with our heads down, but judging gives us the opportunity to open the windows and see what else is happening in the region.”

Times of Oman wins at Asian Media Awards

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Times of Oman has been awarded a gold medal at the Asian Media Awards 2017 in Malaysia. Held by the World Association of Newspapers (WanIfra), the event saw Times of Oman win a gold medal in the category of magazine infographics to recognise its high publishing standards for it’s 2016 national day’s detailed supplement, as well as a silver medal in the newspaper graphics category.

“The graphics team can be rightly proud of their work, especially for the ‘land of frankincense’ supplement that not only looked amazing, but smelled good too – as the pages were infused with frankincense,” says Scott Armstrong, Chief Executive Editor, Times of Oman. “It was a beautiful product and worth remembering that the online version of this project also scooped Gold for Data Visualisation at the Middle East Digital Awards in Dubai just last month.”

Stylist Social Media Awards 2017 nominees revealed

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Women’s monthly magazine, Stylist Arabia in collaboration with the Apparel Group has revealed the nominees for this year’s Stylist Social Media Awards. The shortlisted candidates have been pre-selected by a panel of judges based on writing, personality, consistency of style, frequency of posts and high level of engagement across nine different categories this year. The awards will see nominees from various fields such as fashion, beauty, food, wellbeing, fitness, travel, lifestyle and vlogging with an aim to recognise the best digital innovators and influencers for 2017 across the UAE. The deadline for voting will be on April 24 followed by the award ceremony, which will be held on May 3, at the Westin Dubai, Al Habtoor City. In addition to the winners from the candidates shortlisted, the judges will choose an influencer to receive a special recognition award at the ceremony.

To view the shortlisted candidates and vote, head to www.stylistarabia.com.

Grow granted Google Partner Badge

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Dubai based digital agency, Grow has been awarded the Google Partner Badge for its excellence in Google search advertising, display advertising, mobile advertising and Google analytics. The certification recognised Grow’s ability to demonstrate growth and the maximum ROI for its clients after going through the Google AdWords product certification exam. The Google Partner Badge certification will now see Grow work alongside Google and enjoy exclusive access to regular trainings, Google events, new business opportunities and support for campaigns as well as become a part of the beta test for Google’s new software.

“Receiving the Google Partnership Badge is in line with our objective for being industry leaders,”says James Pardoe, CEO, Grow. “This marks a major milestone for Grow and highlights where we stand in the Digital field.”

Weber Shandwick wins at MENA Young Lions

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PRCA announces Weber Shandwick as the winners of the MENA Young Lions Competition for their ‘#spareoneminuteforchange’ campaign. The second year of the competition held by PRCA saw teams create an effective campaign as per a brief given by Dubai Cares. Sponsored by ICCO, the team, Angelina Hedra and Viviana Villasmil will get to represent the region at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity that will take place from June 17 – 24, 2017.

“We are absolutely delighted that Angelina and Viviana were selected by the PRCA to represent Middle East PR industry at the Young Lions Competition this summer,” says Andreas Keller, Managing Director, Weber Shandwick MENA. “We’ve had many Weber Shandwick teams take part in this competition over the last two years as it provides an excellent platform for young PR professionals to experience the realities of developing integrated campaigns for clients in a pressured environment. Producing Cannes Lions award winning work is something that all agencies aspire to do. This will undoubtedly be a very memorable and enriching experience for both consultants.”

MENA Digital Awards 2017 winners announced

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Winners of the fourth edition of the MENA Digital Awards (MDA) 2017 were announced last night following the end of the sixth Digital Media Forum (DMF). Held at the Westin Hotel, the MDA ceremony was themed ‘Digital transformation – own it’ with an aim to recognise the most outstanding digital talents, efforts and innovations across the region. The ceremony saw IMPACT BBDO Dubai win the Agency of the Year and BBDO Worldwide named Network of the Year, while other wins also included Starcom Dubai for Best Integrated Digital Campaign, RBBi for Best Performance Campaign and Socialize for Best Facebook App and Best Digital by Sector.

“MDA was launched to recognise and celebrate those responsible for creating digital marketing campaigns that have a real impact and have driven our sector to new heights,” says Najla Semaan Mazboudi, CEO, SpotOn Media Services and Events and Founder, DMF and MDA. “MDA’s programme evolves every year to reflect its growing scope and influence and it is now rightly considered as the benchmark ceremony for the top digital marketing talent in the region.”

Times of Oman wins at the Middle East Digital Media Awards

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Times of Oman has been awarded the Best Data Visualisation Award at the Middle East Digital Media Awards 2017 in Dubai. The awards were presented by the World Association of Newspapers (Wan-Ifra) and recognised Times of Oman with a gold for its microsite that explored Oman’s century old relation with Frankincense. The event also celebrated Times of Oman’s win for Best Website, Best Use of Video, Best News Mobile Service and Best Use of Social Media.

“I’m thrilled that Times of Oman has again been named as one of the best digital operators in the Middle East,” says Scott Armstrong, Chief Executive Editor, Times of Oman. “It’s a fitting reward for the hard work of the team across digital, as well as winning for data visualisation again for their amazing project it was great to see the Times TV team rewarded and essentially being named as the best English online video service in the region.”

Weber Shandwick named top employer for 2017

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Communications agency, Weber Shandwick has been named by Great Place To Work® Institute UAE, as the fifth ‘Top Companies to Work in the UAE’ for the 2017 . Great Place To Work® Institute is a global research, training and consultancy firm that recognises the best workplaces in over 50 countries worldwide that are committed to creating a work place culture where employees feel motivated, valued and supported by the senior management within the organisation.

“We are thrilled to have been selected as the fifth greatest place to work in the UAE,” says Ziad Hasbani, CEO, Weber Shandwick MENA. “It’s a great achievement for us, especially when creating a positive working environment for our staff is at the very heart of what Weber Shandwick MENA represents as an organisation.  We fully recognise the impact that a happy, stable and passionate team has on our business success and growth.“