Nayan Ganegoda and Braeden Bihag from Almost Impossible Agency won gold at the UAE Young Lions Digital Competition 2024
The 21st edition of the prestigious UAE Young Lions Digital Competition, hosted by Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan – the official UAE representatives of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, took place on Saturday, 24th February 2024.
The online competition for the digital category witnessed 23 teams representing agencies, client-side creative teams, as well as freelancers. The Judging and Awards Ceremony followed on Wednesday, 28th February 2024, with Nayan Ganegoda and Braeden Bihag, representing Almost Impossible, winning Gold.
Nayan and Bihag will receive a full week’s delegate pass and an all-expense-paid trip to represent the UAE at the International Young Lions Digital Competition – part of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, in June 2024.
Jolanda Van Rooyen and Jean Pierre Deaibes from Publicis Middle East claimed the Silver, while Francesco Negri and Michelle Co from FP7 McCann took home the Bronze.
Additionally, this year introduced a new section for honorable mentions, recognizing the exceptional efforts of Faten AlMukhtar and Sevval Asena Celik from TikTok, and Anzan Nahas Mohammed and Kezia Shamil from Leo Burnett.
This year’s client brief was from Every Can Counts, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness about recycling aluminum drink cans. Participating teams were tasked with crafting an integrated digital campaign that communicates the significance of aluminum drink can recycling and inspires change in behaviour to boost recycling rates by utilizing creative storytelling and compelling messaging to resonate with the audience and drive action toward sustainability in the UAE.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Nidhi Sehgal, General Manager- Strategy & Growth, FLC Group – Marketing Agency for Every Can Counts UAE stated, “Amidst the challenges of limited awareness and cultural barriers, the Young Lions teams boldly tackled the mission to transform aluminum drink can recycling in the UAE. With innovation as their compass, they’ve crafted campaigns that not only educate on the importance of recycling but inspire behavioral change, aiming to elevate our recycling rates beyond the current 33%. Each team’s unique perspective contributes to a collective push for a sustainable future, aligning with Every Can Counts’ vision to make every can count in the journey towards environmental conservation and ACT Now.Thank you to Motivate Val Morgan for selecting the initiative to be part of this year’s UAE Young Lions Digital Competition 2024, and the respective teams for their dedication, hard work and unique perspective to make a change.”
The jury panel for this year’s competition comprised of: Ahmed Alotaibi (BPG), Ali Zein (Saatchi & Saatchi), Andre Nassar (IMPACT BBDO), Andrej Arsenijevic (Commonwealth McCann), Aunindo Sen (Publicis Middle East), Fernando Miranda (VML), Frederico Roberto (TBWA\RAAD), Joseph Bihag (Almost Impossible), Kim Jerbo (Create Media Group), Leila Katrib (Incubeta), Muhammad Ali (Leo Burnett), Moemen El Siwi (Memac Ogilvy), Nicolas Garcia (Science & Sunshine), Oliver Robinson (Mullenlowe MENA), Paulo Engler (FP7 McCann),Sandy McIntosh (M&C Saatchi), Saravana Ramakrishnan (FLC Group), Saymon Medeiros (And Us) and Youssef Gadallah (TikTok).
Ian Fairservice, Managing Partner, Motivate Media Group, commented, “In an ever-evolving industry, the UAE Young Lions Festival stands as a beacon of creativity and innovation, showcasing the brightest talents in our region. This year, we witnessed an excellent level of participation, highlighting the festival’s growing importance and the thriving creative landscape in the UAE. The quality of work from all participants was truly exceptional, especially from the winners, Nayan Ganegoda and Braeden Bihag, who I’m sure will be great ambassadors during this year’s Cannes Lions event”
The UAE Young Lions Digital Competition, supported by Getty Images (the exclusive image provider of the competition), aims to unveil the brightest creative minds from across the UAE and is part of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the world’s biggest celebration of creativity in communications. The 2024 festival will take place between 17-21 June at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France.
The 17th edition of the prestigious UAE Young Lions Digital Competition, hosted by Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan – the official UAE representative of Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, in association with Dubai Media City took place on Saturday 20th April 2019 at the offices of Motivate Media in Dubai Media City. The Judging and Awards Ceremony followed on Monday 22nd April 2019 at the In5 Media Innovation Centre in Dubai Production City, with Arwa Al Jundi (Art Director) and Warsha J. Dhemani (Copywriter) from Livingroom Communication named the Gold winners of the competition.
The wining duo was selected from a pool of 16 participating teams, and will be flown on an all-expense paid trip to Cannes to represent the UAE at the International Young Lions Digital Competition, which will be held in June 2019.
Not too far behind them were Sumer Kotwal (Art Director) and Gaurav Maitreya (Copywriter) from Publicis Sapient (Gold winners of last year’s UAE Young Lions Digital Competition) who bagged Silver.
With so many creative ideas and inspiring submissions, determining the Bronze winner was a challenge, and this year, the UAE Young Lions Digital Competition saw a tie between three teams – Felipe Menezes (Art Director) and Sabine Haddad (Copywriter) from TBWA\RAAD, Alan Hong (Art Director) and Poroma Pant (Copywriter) from Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai, and Nour Mohammad (Art Director) and Peter Mazloumian (Copywriter) from Socialize.
Other participating agencies at this year’s competition included:
Leo Burnett Dubai, APCO Worldwide, Mullenlowe MENA, Publicis Middle East, RAPP Middle East, Wavemaker, Amber Communications, Rain Creative, and McCann Health Dubai.
The ‘Creative Club’ who judged this year’s competition comprised:
Manuel Bordé – TBWA\RAAD
Prajakta More – McCann Health Dubai
Ali Shabaz – RAPP Middle East
Georgine Hajjar – Wavemaker
Mohamed Bareche – Publicis Middle East
Seyoan Vela – Livingroom Communication
Samer Zouehid – Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai
Anton Marais – Leo Burnett
Prasad Pradhan – Amber Communications
Pascale Youssef – APCO Worldwide
Alfonso Arbos – Mullenlowe MENA
Shwan Nazar – Publicis Sapient
Shamrock Nevis – Rain Creative
Rafael Bergamini – Socialize Agency
Shyam Vipin – Praxis Advertising
This year’s client was World Food Programme (WFP) – the food- assistance branch of the United Nations and the world’s largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger, and the competition was sponsored by Getty Images and Xerox Middle East.
Ian Fairservice – Managing Partner, Motivate Media Group, said “After 17 years of hosting the Young Lions competition, we have seen some inspiring work from these exceptional young professionals. This year is certainly not different and I’d like to wish Arwa and Warsha from Livingroom Communication the best of luck representing the region in Cannes. I’m sure they will be great ambassadors for the UAE.”
Majed Al Suwaidi – Managing Director of Dubai Media City, said: “Dubai Media City is proud to collaborate once again with the UAE Young Lions and Motivate to encourage the rise of digital platforms and the region’s creativity. As our mandate to support the growing upcoming talent, the UAE Young Lions and Motivate competition provides the opportunity for our people to gain recognition and grow their careers. Our partnership, with the collaboration of our incubator in5 media, looks forward to a successful outcome and we wish all the participants great learnings every success.”
Congratulations to the winners and a job well done to all 16 teams that participated in this year’s competition.
The UAE Young Lions Digital Competition – hosted by Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan, in association with Dubai Media City and supported by Getty Images and Xerox Middle East, aims to unveil the brightest creative minds from across the UAE, and is part of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity – the world’s biggest celebration of creativity in communications. The International Festival will take place from the 17th to the 21st of June 2019 in the city of Cannes, located on France’s mesmerizing south coast and will offer five days of award ceremonies, seminars, workshops, master classes, exhibitions, screenings and networking.