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Cannes Lions advertising festival to be held in Dubai
A growing GDP and rising advertising and marketing spend in the Middle Eastern region has led to Dubai hosting its first international advertising festival presented by Cannes Lions from March 31 to April 2, it was announced on Tuesday.
- By Gaurav Ghose, Financial Features Editor
- Published: 23:39 March 4, 2008
- From left: Philip Thomas addressing a press conference to announce the details of the Dubai Lynx 2008 awards. Also present are Steve Lane, festival director and Duleep George, marketing and sales director, Al Nisr Group.
- Image Credit: Vazhisojan/Gulf News
Dubai: A growing GDP and rising advertising and marketing spend in the Middle Eastern region has led to Dubai hosting its first international advertising festival presented by Cannes Lions from March 31 to April 2, it was announced on Tuesday.
The festival will incorporate the second Dubai Lynx Awards, which started last year to recognise creative talents in the Middle East and North Africa region.
"There is really an interesting progression and that progression starts with GDP growth," said Philip Thomas, chief executive of Cannes Lions.
"So the first thing an emerging nation needs is fast GDP growth, because after that comes fast advertising and marketing spend. The two things are incredibly linked and the numbers here are almost identical.
"What we have seen in other regions that have done this is that shortly after that they have shown world-class creativity. Thailand is a very good example. A few years ago it did not figure in Cannes and now it wins regularly.
"Dubai and the Middle East region are exactly in that position. We got the GDP growth, we got growth in advertising spend. And now more and more the work is becoming great," he said.
Dynamic market
The Cannes Lions chose Dubai as the first of its regional festivals outside Europe because of its dynamic market, Thomas added.
"The advertising market has more or less doubled in the last five years. But not only the size, also the creative work," he said.
Last year when the Dubai Lynx Awards came to the emirate for the first time, there were 1,700 entries, 1,200 visitors attended and the event was well supported by the creative industry of the region.
The big categories are print, film, outdoor and direct marketing, Thomas said.
"The percentage of entries in the interactive category which is effectively internet is relatively lower but growing year on year quite dramatically. The question is as time goes on it will grow more and more."
Besides celebrating the best works of the region and inspiring the attendees by showing the works of the winners of Cannes Lion and its European festival, an important element in this year's festival is the opportunity of learning from some of the masters, including David Droga, Steve Harrison and Piyush Pandey.
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