UAE creative agencies bag two gold, six silver and thirteen bronze lions at the recently concluded virtual Cannes Lions Festival 2021!
The Cannes Lions Festival 2021 drew to a close on Friday 25th June, which for the first time in history – due to the ongoing pandemic, took place online via the LIONS Live platform.
The UAE bagged 21 Lions in total for 2020 and 2021 – 2 Gold, 6 Silver and 13 Bronze Lions, across multiple categories, including newly introduced categories such as Sustainable Development Goals, Creative eCommerce and Creative Strategy.
This year’s winning agencies from the UAE included Impact BBDO, Memac Ogilvy, FP7 McCann, TBWA\RAAD, Mullenlowe MENA and VMLY&R.
Addressing the Cannes Lions Live audience during the Awards Show, Simon Cook, Managing Director, LIONS, said, “Over the past five days we’ve seen the return of the global creative benchmark, and the winning work that sets the bar for the entire industry. We’ve seen inspirational talks, taken part in learning programmes, celebrated creative excellence through our Award Shows and Debriefs – and come together as a community, united in the belief that creativity has the power to build business, shape society, and change the world for the better.”
2021 also witnessed 10 leading advertising and media professionals from the UAE represent the country as jury members at this year’s Festival.
Paul Shearer (Chief Creative Officer, Impact BBDO Dubai), Jennifer Fischer (Chief Innovation Officer, TBWA\RAAD) and Dida Atassi (Design Director, Accenture Interactive Middle East) were part of the Awards jury across Industry Craft, Innovations and Design categories respectively, and joining them as Shortlist jury members were Asad Rehman (Director Media and Digital Transformation, Unilever MENA) for Media, Amy Brill (Head of PR, M&C Saatchi) for PR, Vidya Manmohan (Founder and Creative Chairwoman, V4 Advertising LLC) for Brand Experience & Activation, Serena Abi Aad (Head of Content, Havas Dubai) for Film, Akanksha Goel (Founder & CEO, Socialize) for Social & Influencer, Alex Pineda (Creative Director, TBWA\RAAD) for Direct and Fabio Silveira (General Manager, Havas Dubai) for Outdoor.
Running parallel to the Cannes Lions Festival are the Young Lions Competitions (for young creative below the age of 30 years) and Roger Hatchuel Academy (a mentorship programme for university students in the field of creative communications).
Having won Gold at the UAE Young Lions Digital Competition 2021, Moemen Metwally and Fernando Montero from Memac Ogilvy Dubai represented the UAE at the International Young Lions Digital Competition.
Kamilla Bakytova – a student at American University in Dubai (AUD), pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication (majoring in advertising), was selected to represent the UAE at the prestigious Roger Hachuel Academy.
As the official UAE representatives of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan warmly congratulates all winning agencies, jury members and both Young Lions and Roger Hatchuel Academy participants from the UAE, and look forward to yet another successful Festival in 2022.
Sources: Cannes Lions and Campaign Middle East
Moemen Metwally and Fernando Montero from Memac Ogilvy Dubai win gold at the UAE Young Lions Digital Competition 2021.
The 18th edition of the esteemed UAE Young Lions Digital Competition, hosted by Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan – the official UAE representative of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, took place on Saturday 27th March 2021.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, this year’s competition took place online, with a total of 14 teams across 9 agencies participating. The Judging and Awards Ceremony followed online on Monday 29th March 2021, with Moemen Metwally and Fernando Montero from Memac Ogilvy Dubai winning Gold.
The winning duo will move on to represent the UAE at the International Young Lions Competition – in the digital category, which will also take place online in June 2021.
Warsha Jamnadas and Nour Itani from Publicis Middle East bagged Silver, while Tarryn Tucker and Luma Kudsiova from BPG Group Dubai, and Lina Maria Monroy and Alison Cordeiro Rodriguez from Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai tied for Bronze.
Other participating agencies at this year’s competition included: Leo Burnett Dubai, Socialize, And Us, Serviceplan Middle East and FP7 McCann.
The jury panel for this year’s competition comprised of: Munah Zahr (Leo Burnett), Fadi Yaish (And Us), Cristiano Tonnarelli (Memac Ogilvy), Komal Bedi Sohal (Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai), Fouad Malak and Oliver Robinson (F7P McCann), Rafael Augusto (Publicis Middle East), Akhilesh Bagri (Serviceplan Middle East), Anyce Nedir (Socialize), and Lousie Kotze and Justin Du Plessis (BPG Group Dubai)
This year’s client was du Telecommunications, who presented a brief pertaining to cybercrime in the UAE. Participating teams were asked to create a digital campaign with a powerful message and fitting hashtag, to emphasize the importance of the internet being utilized wisely and safely, with the necessary precautions in place.
Speaking at the Award ceremony on behalf of du Telecommunications, Dr. Mansoor Habib, Head of Sustainability & Wellbeing, said: “At du, our mission is to create a culture that addresses safe internet usage and related issues such as cyber bullying, digital addiction, and the wellbeing of everyone that uses our telecommunication services. We are very honored that we could introduce the theme of cyber safety at this year’s UAE Young Lions Digital Competition to brief all the participating agencies. The creative insight of the participants – all of which were very unique and powerful – helped us understand how much more innovative we can be with our communication on using the internet safely and responsibly.”
Ian Fairservice – Managing Partner, Motivate Media Group, said “Even though the format for the UAE Young Lions Competition had to be adjusted to an online version this year, we were still very impressed with the content produced. I want to congratulate everyone who entered, but especially Moemen Metwally and Fernando Montero from Memac Ogilvy who I’m sure will be great ambassadors for the UAE during this year’s Cannes Lions Festival.”
The UAE Young Lions Digital Competition 2021 was held in strategic partnership with Dubai Media City and was sponsored by Getty Images.
Congratulations to the winners and a job well done to all 14 teams who participated in this year’s competition.
