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Socialize welcomes Greta Van Der Merwe

Digital specialists Socialize Agency appoints Greta Van Der Merwe to the role of Copywriter. As her first role in the Middle East, Greta joins from 140BBDO in South Africa, where she gained more than four years of experience in advertising. As Copywriter, she will focus on bringing the client’s voice to their consumers’ ears, and contribute to the agency’s ever-growing creative output.

“I believe that there is always more and more and more to learn,” says Greta. “Stepping into this whole new world – excuse the Aladdin reference – is a challenge I can’t wait to tackle head on. Joining Socialize Agency gives me the opportunity to make a difference on a much larger scale than I ever imagined. I’m really excited.”

Region’s talent honoured at MENA digital awards

The region’s top digital advertising talent has been honoured at the second ever MENA Digital Awards ceremony, the only awards programme in the region dedicated to celebrating marketing in the digital industry. The event concluded the two-day Digital Media Forum (DMF) 2015, which attracted 500 industry stakeholders from across the MENA region and beyond to discuss the latest developments taking place across the digital landscape.

Big winners were Leo Burnett MENA, who won the Grand Prix Award as well as a number of awards across several categories including two golds in Digital Cause Marketing, a gold in Best Digital PR, a gold in Best Use of Social Media, a silver in Best Performance Campaign, a bronze in Best Use of Video and a bronze in Best Use of Mobile. Omnicom picked up the Network of the Year award, and OMD picked up the Agency of the Year.

Other notable winners included Initiative MENA, who garnered two silver awards for their work for KFC, under Best Application Mobile/Tablet and Best Use of Mobile, as well as two bronze awards under Best Integrated Media Campaign and Best Use of Video. Socialize Agency received two gold awards, BBDO collected one gold, three silvers and a bronze and Proximity picked up a gold, two silvers and a bronze. Other awards under different categories went to UM MENA, Ogilvy, Buzzman, OMD MENA, PHD and Sama Dubai.

“The MENA Digital Awards is the only marketing industry awards programme in the region that focuses solely on the digital sector,” says Najla Semaan Mazboudie, Managing Director of Spot On Media Services and Events, owner and founder of DMF and the MENA Digital awards. “It was established last year to honour success and excellence in the sector, thereby helping to promote the best in digital marketing planning, creativity, innovation, and effectiveness.”