Dubai Lynx, the leading platform for creative excellence and effectiveness in the MENA region, has announced its 2024 Jury lineup.
Following the initial introduction of the 11 industry experts as Jury Presidents, the latest announcement unveils 55 juries, collectively forming a global talent pool of 66 professionals from diverse disciplines. These experts, originating from 33 markets worldwide, are tasked with evaluating and judging the best work in the region.
Making their debut representation among agencies and networks are Brilliant & Million, Craft Worldwide, Doe-Anderson, Havas Health Plus, iProspect, and Track + Tribal. Additionally, notable brands and companies participating in the Juries for the first time include AB InBev, Believe, Novartis, Pitch Audio+Magic, and Prime Video India.
This year also marks the inaugural participation of markets such as Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Ivory Coast, and Slovakia on the Juries.
Philip Thomas, Chairman, Dubai Lynx, commented: “We are delighted to announce such an exceptional line-up of talent and experts who bring much commitment and expertise to the important task at hand. Our Jurors play a crucial role in setting the creative benchmark for the MENA region and upholding the integrity of the Awards. We wish them luck and look forward to seeing the body of work that will emerge following their discussions.”
The Dubai Lynx 2024 Juries have been named as:
Brand Experience & Activation and Creative Commerce Jury:
Rafael Rizuto, Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Creative, US and Hispanic LATAM (Jury President)
Christopher Lee, Executive Creative Director, Publicis Groupe, Hong Kong
Joseph Dubruque, Creative Director, McCann Worldgroup, France
Marco Bezerra, Executive Creative Director, VML, UK
Noelia Merejo , Core Brands Manager, AB InBev, Dominican Republic
Tessa Conrad, Head of Innovation, TBWA\Asia, Singapore
Creative Effectiveness and Creative Strategy Jury:
Bertille Toledano, President, BETC Paris, France (Jury President)
Babs Faseesin, Senior Vice President, Strategy, Starcom Worldwide, USA
Golda Roldan, CEO, VML, the Philippines
IIma Afzal, Strategy Director, Jack Morton Worldwide, Singapore
Juan Carlos Chaves, Creative Vice President, DDB, Colombia
Martin Woska, Chief Creative and Strategy Officer, TRIAD, Slovakia
Oriane A. Canfrin, Head of Marketing and Communications, Ecobank, Ivory Coast
Design and Industry Craft Jury:
Rajdeepak Das, Chairman, Leo Burnett, South Asia, and Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Groupe, South Asia (Jury President)
Alexandre Vilela, Vice President Creative Director, BETC HAVAS, Brazil
Becci Salmon, Design Director, FCB London, UK
Luis Aboyte, Creative Director, Landor, Mexico
Michael Wilk, Global Head of Art, Serviceplan Group, Germany
Simone Rossum, Executive Creative Director, SHIFT, South Africa
Tiffanni Spann, Executive Creative Director, Freelance, USA
Digital and Social & Influencer Jury:
Anna Qvennerstedt, Global Chief Creative Officer, Forsman & Bodenfors, Global (Jury President)
Haydn Kerr, Executive Creative Director, Track + Tribal, New Zealand
Lucas Feltes, CEO, WT.AG, Brazil
Phindile Phiri, Senior Director, The Coca-Cola Company, South Africa
Sophie van der Schaft, Founder, &MediaGroup, The Netherlands
Thiago Cruz, Chief Creative Officer, NY, Grey, USA
Titipun Tubthong, Head of Creative, Brilliant & Million, Thailand
Direct and Outdoor Jury:
Nkgabiseng Motau, Co-Founder / Chief Creative Officer, Think Creative Africa, Africa (Jury President)
Juan Carlos Chaves, Creative Vice President, DDB, Colombia
Leyla Touma Dailey, President, Chief Creative Officer, Doe-Anderson, USA
Maria Todorova, CEO / Chief Creative Officer, NEXT-DC, Bulgaria
Michelle Walsh, Creative Director, Leo Burnett, Australia
Muhammad Jawad Saleem, Studio Lead, Deloitte Digital, Germany
Entertainment Jury:
Ana Balarin, Chief Creative Officer, Wieden+Kennedy, UK (Jury President)
Ayesha Huda, Head, Content Marketing, Prime Video, India
Matheus Gugelmim, Head of Projects, Vox Haus, Brazil
Perry Fair, Chief Creative Officer of Entertainment, McCann Worldgroup, USA
Sibu Mabena, CEO, Duma Collective (Pty) Ltd, South Africa
Tomas Almuna, Head of Creative for Netflix, Media.Monks, Mexico
Film Craft Jury:
Pierre Nelwan, Managing Director, Media.Monks, the Netherlands (Jury President)
Brenda Morrison Fell, Head of Production, DAVID, USA
Cristóbal Pérez-Gazitúa S., CEO / Founder, Believe, Chile
Paloma Adrien Iranzo, Chief Production Officer Craft Spain & Print Paris, Craft Worldwide – McCann, Spain
Rebekah ‘Bex’ Kelly, Executive Producer, FINCH, New Zealand
Yoshiki Ishii, CEO / Executive Producer, kirameki inc., Japan
Film, Print & Publishing, Radio & Audio Juries:
Gabriel Schmitt, Global Chief Creative Officer, Grey, Global (Jury President)
Doni Aldine, CEO, Culturs Global Multicultural Lifestyle Media, USA
Kimberly Chin, Founder / Creative / Composer, Pitch Audio+Magic, Malaysia
Lisandro Ramos, CEO & Executive Producer, Mama Hungara, Argentina
Paul Shearer, Chief Creative Officer, Great Guns, UK
Riccardo Fregoso, Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Creative, Italy
Healthcare Jury:
Rohini Miglani, Vice President, Procter & Gamble International Operational SA SG, Asia/India/MEA(Jury President)
Allison Ceraso, President, Chief Creative Officer, Havas Health Plus, USA
Daniela Varela, Creative Director, TBWA\Health Collective, USA
Joao Camacho, Global Creative Director, Novartis, Global
Rodrigo Raices, Creative Director, VML Argentina, Argentina
Sven Hartmann, Creative Director, Mensch Kreativagentur, Germany
Media Jury:
Enyi Nwosu, Chief Strategy Officer, UM London, UK (Jury President)
Facundo Paglia, Chief Creative Officer, Lopito Ileana & Howie, Puerto Rico
Laurien Lee, CEO, iProspect, China
Sandrine Nzedieu, Digital Director, Havas Media, France
Tusnuva Ahmed Tina, Managing Partner, Mindshare, Bangladesh
PR Jury:
Anthony Chelvanathan, Chief Creative Officer, Edelman, Canada (Jury President)
Rachel Rix, Deputy Managing Director, Ketchum, UK
Radwan Atwi, Creative Director, Hill & Knowlton, Germany
Sebastian Stępak, CEO, MSL, Central and Eastern Europe
Ian Fairservice, Vice-Chairman, Dubai Lynx, said: “We have an incredible line-up of global creative experts, including four new markets: Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Ivory Coast and Slovakia. We are delighted to see representation from a broad range of agencies, brands and companies – including many for the first time – allowing a diverse range of voices in the Jury rooms. We’re grateful to all of our 2024 Juries for devoting their time and knowledge, and we can’t wait to see our Jurors in action in Dubai later this year.”
Festival Registration, including Press Accreditation and the Awards Ceremony & Dinner, is now open.
Click here for further information on the Festival and Jury line-up.
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
UAE Jury for Cannes Lions 2021 include Paul Shearer, Jennifer Fischer, Dida Atassi and seven other highly respected and award winning advertising and media personalities.
As the official representatives of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan are pleased to announce that ten leading advertising and media professionals from the UAE have been selected as jury members for the 2021 Festival.
UAE jury members who will be on the Awarding and Shortlisting jury panel include:
Industry Craft Lions
Paul Shearer | Chief Creative Officer | Impact BBDO Dubai
Paul has always believed in bringing something different to the table.
His work for Guess Jeans, Nike, Audi and Levi’s has won him respect and numerous advertising awards.
During his time at BBH, Paul had the opportunity to work collaboratively with clients, which contributed to his work being impactful and successful in the marketplace. Paul then decided to broaden his horizons globally and took a job at Wieden and Kenedy Amsterdam as the Creative Director. It was here that he had the chance to work on the Nike account.
Paul prides himself on understanding the digital world and has won 54 Cannes Lions (the most recent being a Grand Prix). When it comes to awards, Paul believes that winning a client some new customers is far more satisfying. Other awards won include 8 D&AD pencils, 15 One Show and 9 British Television awards.
Innovation Lions
Jennifer Fischer | Chief Innovation Officer | TBWA\RAAD
Always dissatisfied with the status quo, Jennifer spent years shaping the future of some of the most valuable brands in the world such as Coca-Cola, Apple, Ikea, KFC, Expo 2020, Facebook or Nissan.
Her role as Chief Innovation Officer MENA for TBWA\RAAD is to lead an always in beta transformation – harnessing the power of technology, strategy, collaboration, and creativity to re-imagine the way companies work, innovate and grow.
Her career milestones include many firsts from launching the first opera house in the region to communicating the first space mission from an Arabic nation or working on the first Apple campaign in MENA.
Her ideas have been published and shared by Forbes, Campaign Magazine, Communicate, Marketing Society, Arab Ad, Arabian Business among others.
Design Lions
Dida Atassi | Design Director | Accenture Interactive Middle East
An accomplished digital professional, Dida has spent 18 years developing compelling world-class experiences for global and local brands across telecommunication, banking, retail, lifestyle and government sectors. From ideation workshops to polished design deliverables, Dida places a particular focus on crafting unique, loveable products and services that resonate with local cultures. As an advocate of the user, Dida tries to help people see how digital can make life a little easier by designing simple and rewarding experiences.
Dida’s skills include user experience design, interface design, service design, and digital strategy using tools such as prototyping, user research and design thinking workshops and methodology. She has a particular interest in studying local cultures and norms and how they impact design.
Media Lions
Asad Rehman | Director Media and Digital Transformation | Unilever MENA
Asad manages Unilever’s Media & Digital Marketing Transformation for Middle & East North Africa. He also sits at the Unilever MENA/Turkey/Russia Board. He has been in Dubai since 2013, prior to which he spent 6 years at the Unilever HQ in London. Earlier on in his career, Asad worked for WPP/Group M in various parts of the world. He managed local offices in Pakistan and Vietnam, did a global role in London, and managed regional projects in Asia and LATAM.
Asad is an award-winning marketer with accolades from D&AD, Cannes Lions, WARC, Global Effie’s, and Spikes, Lynx, Festival of Media, and MENA Effie’s, and is passionate about bringing together technology, data, and creativity to help craft purposeful brands.
Asad was the Founding Chair of The Marketing Society Middle East Chapter from 2016 to 2018 and sits on the board of the IAA UAE. He was awarded The Marketing Society Fellowship in 2019 and was also the Effie’s Marketer of The Year in 2018.
PR Lions
Amy Brill | Head of PR | M&C Saatchi
As M&C Saatchi Public Relations’ market lead for the UAE, Amy is responsible for the overall direction of the team, creative work and business growth. An experienced PR professional, she has worked for some of the world’s most recognisable brands across corporate and consumer sectors.
Amy has a BA Hons degree in Public Relations from Bournemouth University in the UK and started her career at BBC Worldwide before embarking on agency life, working for clients such as Rolls-Royce, Discovery, Hilton, Disney, PayPal and the British Embassy in both the UK and Middle East.
She established the M&C Saatchi Public Relations business in the UAE in 2017, aged just 27 and has been recognised by industry leaders as a Rising Star and Face to Watch. In the two years the agency has been running, Amy and her team have picked up gold and silver accolades at both the PRCA and MEPRA Awards.
Brand Experience and Activation Lions
Vidya Manmohan | Founder and Creative Chairwoman | V4 Advertising LLC
Vidya Manmohan is the Founder & Creative Chairwoman of V4 Good and Ex-Executive Creative Director of GREY Dubai.
She also happens to be one among the rare breed of female Executive Creative Directors in the region today, celebrated for having travelled off the beaten track, across the span of her career – from walking out of the gates of medical school to pursue a career in Advertising and switching from Art direction to copywriting mid-way through her successful career.
What’s more, this mom of a University student has gone back to University herself to pursue her Master’s in Digital Management, whilst having successfully launched a new-age communication hub.
Her work reflects the pop culture around her and has bagged International awards, not only in the print and outdoor categories, but also in radio, design, digital, integrated and advertising for good.
Vidya has also been on the jury panel of International Advertising Festivals such as Cannes Lions, New York Festivals, Clio, Adfest, Lisbon Advertising Awards, The White Square and the Young Guns to name a few.
Film Lions
Serena Abi Aad | Head of Content | Havas Dubai
Serena is an award winning film director whose short films have travelled international festivals across the Middle East, Europe and Canada.
As a passionate storyteller, her professional journey has been diverse and always centered around storytelling.
She spent most of her twenties on film sets, learning every job in a film crew. She then decided to understand the ad world better and became a TV producer at Leo Burnett, where she worked on films for DSF, Chevrolet and Hummer, among others.
Following her time at Leo Burnett, she worked with MBC as writer, producer and director of a first of its kind reality TV show. In 2012, she joined Yahoo as branded content manager and supervised multiple video content productions for brands such as P&G and DSF.
She had her own content production house for a couple of years, before joining Havas DXB as Head of Content.
She is currently Creative Director at Havas DXB, telling stories for clients such as FAB, Barakat, Veet and Durex.
Social & Influencer Lions
Akanksha Goel | Founder & CEO | Socialize
A digital marketing pioneer, Akanksha Goel is the founder of Socialize; Middle East’s first dedicated social media agency.
Akanksha started her career at the age of 20, as the youngest ever Editor-in-chief for STUFF Magazine. She gained experience working across India & Singapore, where she was at the forefront of the Web2.0 revolution and helped organise Asia’s first-ever pod-camp. She then moved to Dubai amidst the region’s economic crisis, and in 2010 created Socialize to harness the untapped business potential of then-emerging social networks.
In her current role as Managing Director, she is actively involved in driving business growth, leading team development and overseeing the strategic mandate across the agency’s coveted client roster that includes iconic brands like Dubai EXPO 2020, Volkswagen, Sony, General Mills & Bioderma.
An executive graduate from Harvard Business School; she holds a business degree in Marketing Communications from Singapore Management University. Nominated as Emirates Woman of the Year and named to Holmes Report’s Innovator 25 list in 2018, Akanksha is widely recognized as a business influencer, speaker, and a reference for social media in the Middle East.
Direct Lions
Alex Pineda | Creative Director | TBWA\RAAD
Alex Pineda was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and English and Spanish speaker and Crazy about football. He is also a museum hunter, napkin illustrator and comic book artist who has travelled to 5 continents, 77 countries, hundreds of cities, and explored many cultures.
He holds a Master’s degree in ‘Creativity and Strategic Management of Advertising’ from the European Institute of Design in Barcelona, Spain; Specialist in ‘Advertising Management’ from the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University of Bogotá, Colombia; and graduated as a ‘Professional in Graphic Design’ from the same university.
Alex has been awarded at Cannes Lions, Cannes Young Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clio, Dubai Lynx, LIA London International Awards, New York Festivals, Loeries, Webby Awards, Effies, Epica, Cresta, Ojo De Iberoamérica, Festival El Dorado and ‘Lápiz de Acero’ (National Design Award of Colombia).
He was also elected as ‘Associate Creative Director of the Year’ for the Middle East and North Africa, by the ‘Black & White Report’ in 2018; the Number 1 Creative Copywriter in the UAE by ‘Lürzer’s Archive’ Magazine in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and one of the “Best Colombian expats around the world” by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia and the Embassy of Colombia in Abu Dhabi in 2020.
Outdoor Lions
Fabio Silveira | General Manager | Havas Dubai
Fabio has been in leadership positions on strategy and client services in creative agencies for the past 10 years.
His experience spans 15 years and 5 continents – with regional and global responsibilities in Brazil, Portugal and Dubai.
He’s currently responsible for the operations of Havas Creative in Dubai, encompassing Client Services, Strategy, Creative, Social Media, Content and Production.
Cannes Lions 2021 will mark the highest ever representation from global brands, platforms, entertainment and technology companies, bringing a breadth of expertise to the Lions awards.
Furthermore, for the first time ever, the number of female jurors too reaches 51%, up from 48% in 2019.
Cannes Lions 2021 will be fully digital, running as Cannes Lions Live, from 21-25 June. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the event in Cannes, France, will not take place this year. Further information on the Lions can be found at Cannes Lions Awards.
We at Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan warmly congratulate these ten highly respected and award winning advertising and media personalities from the UAE who will be part of the jury panel at this year’s Cannes Lions Festival, and wish them all the very best with the judging ahead.
The 66th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity drew to a close on 21 June 2019, with Impact BBDO Dubai winning UAE 7 Lions – the region’s first Grand Prix and 6 Bronze Lions.
Of the 1,252 entries from 62 countries competing in the Print & Publishing Lions category (Communication Track) where 32 Lions were awarded – 1 Grand Prix, 6 Gold, 7 Silver and 18 Bronze Lions, Impact BBDO Dubai snatched the Grand Prix for ‘The Blank Edition’, which saw the agency work with leading Arabic-language daily newspaper An-Nahar to print an entirely blank edition – calling on Lebanese citizens to use the space to send a message to the stalled government.
On UAE winning the ‘Top Award’ and taking home the Grand Prix in this category at the Festival’s opening Awards Show, Jury president, Olivier Altmann, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, Altmann + Pacreau, France, said: “We are very happy to award the Grand Prix to a piece of work that celebrates creativity and journalism.”
After the release of the completely blank edition, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief encouraged citizens to use it to write their own headlines and send messages to politicians, over social media.
Altmann said the bold campaign – and political message – led to an easy jury decision.
“It was really unanimous – a good surprise. It took us about five seconds to award the Grand Prix,” he said.
“For us, it was the perfect demonstration that print creativity can do a lot for print media itself, for print journalism. We thought it was really bold to award a Grand Prix to a white piece of paper that people could fill. It’s almost an interactive tool for real life.”
Image Credits: Getty Images, Cannes Lions 2019
Impact BBDO Dubai also won 6 Bronze Lions across Health & Wellness, Industry Craft, Brand Experiences & Activation and Media categories for: ‘The Toxic Flag’ (Waste Management Coalition), ‘The Zero Tolerance Ribbon’ (28 Too Many) and ‘The Black Edition’ (An-Nahar).
Commenting on the Grand Prix win, Paul Shearer, Chief Creative Officer at Impact BBDO MENA, added: “Bringing home the first Grand Prix Lion for not only the UAE but also the region is of course an incredible honor.”
Shearer said he personally hopes that this win will spur on everyone in the business around MENA.
“There is so much talent and esteemed agencies around that this should be just another step on the regions maturity. I also think some of the other work from the region was unlucky not to win at Cannes, as there was some great work there.”
“I would like to thank Cannes Lions for their continued support with Lynx. Without this I fear we would have never achieved Grand Prix level. Lastly, I would like to thank our Chief Executive Officer, Dani Richa, who’s creative eye makes our work so much better,” said Shearer.
Ali Rez, Regional ECD Middle East & Pakistan at Impact BBDO – who was also a Glass Jury member at Cannes Lions 2019, said: “ In what seemed a year featuring very tough juries, it is even sweeter that Impact BBDO managed to bring home such a large haul of Lions: 13 spread across three offices – UAE, Pakistan and Lebanon, and more than 50 shortlists across almost a dozen categories.”
“The Glass jury was an incredible learning experience featuring some of the sharpest minds in the business – it was an absolute honor to be part of such an important jury. We saw solutions from around the globe tackling a number of issues related to gender inequality: financial inequality, stereotyping, health, violence, even technology-related.”
“A trend that emerged this year was that awareness as a goal is simply not enough anymore, and that action is the need of the day,” he added.
Tres Colacion, Creative Director, Impact BBDO Dubai – who played an instrumental role in campaign creation for An-Nahar, said: “The Blank Edition was a very special project for us. We set to change a national conversation through the power of creatively, the ultimate test. We talk a lot about game “changing ideas” and “culture busting”, but there are very few instances that these opportunities truly present themselves. When they do, you absolutely need to take them and meet them with the kind of ideas that will truly resonate with people.”
The Blank Edition team did just that and I’m incredibly proud to have our work recognized at the highest level. To win a Grand Prix, let alone the first in the region, is the highest honor,” he added.
Check out case study for ‘The Black Edition’:
As the official representative of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in UAE, Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan would like to congratulate Impact BBDO Dubai on doing UAE proud by winning 7 Lions – including the most prestigious of them all!
Sources: Cannes Lions 2019, Campaign Middle East, Adweek and PRWEEK
