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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.”

Cannes Lions 2017 Jury revealed

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Motivate Val Morgan, the official representatives of Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has named this year’s jurors from the UAE set to judge entries from across the region. The members of jury will include Josephine Younes, Creative Director of McCann FP7/DXB, Elda Choucair, CEO of PHD MENA, Sascha Kuntza, Creative Director of Memac Ogilvy and Firas Medrows, Executive Creative Director of DDB Dubai. The upcoming festival will see a panel of jurors categorised under radio, promo and activation, direct and media in the UAE to shortlist and announce the winners at the event ceremony from June 17 – 24, 2017.

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.”

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.“

Dubai Lynx award winners announced

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Dubai Lynx, the International Festival of Creativity has announced winners for this year’s awards ceremony that took place on March 8, 2017. With over 2,500 entries across 17 categories, the awards celebrate excellence in creative communications in the MENA region.

Pierre Choueiri, Chairman and CEO, Choueiri Group was honoured with the ‘Dubai Lynx Advertising Person of the Year Award’ and Coca-Cola Middle East was awarded the ‘Dubai Lynx Advertiser of the Year’. Winners of the Grand Prix awards included:

  • Memac Ogilvy & Mather Dubai for ‘Branded Content & Entertainment’ as well as the ‘Innovation’ award
  • Walter Thompson Beirut for ‘Creative Effectiveness’
  • Grey MENA Dubai for ‘Design’
  • The Classic Partnership Advertising Dubai for ‘Direct’
  • Blue Barracuda Dubai for ‘Film’
  • Walter Thompson Dubai for ‘Film Craft’ and ‘Radio’
  • Leo Burnett Beirut for ‘Grand Prix for Good’
  • Leo Burnett Dubai for ‘Interactive’
  • Walter Thompson Riyadh for ‘Media’
  • FP7/TUN Tunis for ‘Mobile’
  • TWA\RAAD for ‘Promo & Activation’
  • Y&R Dubai for ‘Outdoor’, ‘Print & Publishing’ as well as ‘Print & Outdoor Craft’
  • BBDO Worldwide for ‘Network of the Year’
  • Impact BBDO, Dubai for ‘Agency of the Year’
  • OMD, Dubai for ‘Media Agency of the Year’
  • Good People, Lebanon for ‘Lynx Palm Award’
  • Carine Howayek and Anirudh Shiva from J.Walter Thompson and Garen Yabremian from HSBC for ‘Young Lynx Integrated Campaign’
  • Marc Baakliny and Toni Tannous from J. Walter Thompson Riyadh for ‘Young Lynx Print Competition’
  • Yar Berjawi and Sasha El Jurdi from FP7/DXB for ‘Young Lynx PR Competition’
  • Amir Daou, Roshni D’Souza, Waqas Maqsood and Heena Makhijani from SOCIALEYEZ Dubai for ‘Twitter Live Young Lynx Competition’
  • Hanin Hassan from American University in Dubai for ‘Masar Student Creative Award for Print’
  • Asma Al-Aloosi from American University in Dubai for ‘STC Integrated Student Award’
  • American University in Dubai for ‘University of the Year’

“The Dubai Lynx awards exists to celebrate and champion creativity, while reflecting the ever-shifting branded communications landscape,” says Terry Savage, Chairman, Dubai Lynx. “This year saw submissions from 22 countries, including a first from Sudan and an increase in some more of the traditional categories such as ‘Print and Outdoor’. The evening brought to a close the three-day festival, which was attended by over 2,300 creative communications professionals this year and the work that was awarded really demonstrates the essence of creativity in the region.”

 

Time Out Dubai Announces 2017 awards date

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Time Out Dubai is set to host its eighth annual Music & Nightlife Awards on March 29, 2017 at the Le Meridien Dubai Hotel and Conference Centre. With the nominees to be revealed on March 8 exclusively on timeoutdubai.com, the award event will see high profile figures in the music and nightlife circuit in attendance to celebrate the past 12 months of independent reviews of the restaurant and nightlife industries across Dubai. The winners will be announced at the end of the event followed by an exclusive after-party that will take place at the Cavalli Club.

“The past 12 months have seen the music scene in this city hit more high notes than ever before, while its nightlife offering for both residents and tourists is, simply, best in class,” says Holly Sands, Editor, Time Out Dubai. “And we on Time Out have been there every step, every song and every sparkler of the way. We can’t wait to announce these results, results that will mean our 1.2 million readers will continue to spend their precious time out in the very best ways they can. We take that duty to them very seriously and can’t wait to announce these results.”