Jonathan Cruz and Saymon Medeiros from And Us won gold at the UAE Young Lions Digital Competition 2023
The 20th edition of the esteemed 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, witnessed 21 teams across 15 agencies compete on Saturday, 4th March 2023.
The Judging and Awards Ceremony followed on Wednesday, 8th March 2023, with Jonathan Cruz and Saymon Medeiros from And Us winning Gold.
Jonathan Cruz and Saymon Medeiros 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 2023.
Adila Fataliyeva and Isha Sharma from Science and Sunshine secured Silver, while Haneen Chaarawi and Sebastian Galindo Rubiano from McCann Dubai and Rim Reda and Kezia Shamil from Leo Burnett tied for Bronze.
This year’s client brief was from RoadSafetyUAE – an award-winning CSR & engagement program established in 2014, which serves as a communication, improvement, and education platform for all traffic participants in the UAE. Participating teams were challenged to develop a creative and innovative, ‘root cause’ based, long-lasting and universally true awareness campaign to help change the behaviour and mindset of young drivers in the UAE.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Thomas Edelmann, Managing Director, RoadSafetyUAE stated: “Young drivers represent about 50% of all road fatalities in the UAE and hence, this segment must be tackled by creating awareness for safe behavior, in a relevant manner. The team members of all twenty-one participating teams precisely represented the target audience, resulting in the creation of a series of genuinely insightful and pertinent campaigns that adhered to the guiding principle of “by them…for them!” As a means of honouring the outstanding creative endeavors, it would be ideal for the agencies behind the twenty-one teams to engage their clients and invite them to adopt the cause of road safety, while also leveraging some of the innovative concepts presented in partnership with RoadSafetyUAE. We want to thank Motivate Val Morgan and Getty Images for organizing and supporting the UAE Young Lions Digital Competition 2023, as well as the team members and the agencies behind them for their commitment and hard work.”
The jury panel for this year’s competition comprised of Girogia Fattoracci (Leo Burnett), Ingersol Jayakumar (Precise Communications), Andrej Arsenijevic (Commonwealth McCann), Steve De Lange (And Us), Anton Marais (Publicis Middle East), Anshuman Bhattacharya (Havas Middle East), Claudia Canas (FP7 McCann), David Willett (Weber Shandwick), Jordache Fernandes (KEKO Dubai), Raja Rizkallah Nadim (Science & Sunshine), Saleh Elghatit (Serviceplan), Rodrigo Scapolan (TBWA\RAAD), Rita Harbie (Saatchi & Saatchi MEA), and Robert Habib (C2 Communications)
Ian Fairservice, Managing Partner, Motivate Media Group, said: “This year has seen a notable increase in the number of entries, signifying the industry’s progress and resilience in the aftermath of the pandemic. I was mightily impressed with the quality of the work produced by the future of the creative industry. As always, it was extremely difficult to narrow down the top submissions but in the end there had to be a winning team – I want to congratulate everyone who put their all into the competition, but especially the winners, Jonathan Cruz and Saymon Medeiros from And Us, who I’m sure will be great ambassadors during this year’s Cannes Lions event.”
The UAE Young Lions Digital Competition – hosted by Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan and supported by Getty Images (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 2023 festival will take place between 19-23 June at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France.
The 2023 Jury Presidents line-up includes ten global experts who will lead the juries to award outstanding creativity in branded communications across MENA
Dubai Lynx, MENA’s premier Festival and Awards for creative excellence in branded communications, has announced the ten industry experts who will lead the 2023 juries.
The Jury Presidents will judge work entered across 21 different categories, including the newly launched Creative Commerce Lynx.
About the Jury Presidents, Philip Thomas, Chairman LIONS and Dubai Lynx, said, “We’re delighted to announce a host of renowned international talent to the Jury President line-up for Dubai Lynx 2023, featuring some truly remarkable creative leaders. Our Jury Presidents will bring their talent and prowess to ensure the Dubai Lynx Awards set the creative standard for the MENA region, as well as setting the future agenda. We look forward to seeing the body of work that will emerge following their discussions next year.”
2023 Dubai Lynx Jury Presidents include:
Brand Experience & Activation, Creative Commerce, Direct and Outdoor
Vicki Maguire – Chief Creative Officer, Havas London, UK
Creative Effectiveness and Creative Strategy
Anna Vogt, Chief Strategy Officer, VMLY&R London, UK
Design and Industry Craft
Sbu Sitole, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer, The Odd Number, South Africa
Digital Craft, Mobile and Social & Influencer
Zoha Zoya, Group Creative Director, Head of Experience Design, R/GA, EMEA
Entertainment
Amani Duncan, CEO, BBH, USA
Film Craft
Rajay Singh, Film Director & Founder, Directors Think Tank, South East Asia
Film, Print & Publishing and Radio & Audio
Gustavo Lauria, Chief Creative Officer, We Believers, USA
Healthcare
Bernardo Romero, Maker, Klick Health, Canada
Media
Kate Ivory, Agency Partner, Head of Strategy, OMD EMEA, EMEA
PR
Tom Beckman, Global Chief Creative Officer, Weber Shandwick, Global
Entries into Dubai Lynx are being accepted until Thursday 2 February 2023. Click here for further information on the awards.
Motivate Val Morgan is the official representative of Dubai Lynx Festival in the UAE
