Meet the UAE 2018 Cannes Lion in France

UAE won a total of 12 Lions in the most prestigious festival for the creative and marketing communications industry in the world: The 65th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Just to get an idea; the Cannes Lions is the Oscar for the advertising industry. 

From the 12 Lions; 3 is Gold; 2 is Silvers and 7 is Bronze.

UAE top agency winners are: (see all winners in the table below)

- TBWA\Raad is the highest awarded agency at Cannes Lions. With a total of six Lions ;  two Golds, one Silver and three Bronze Lions.

- Y&R Dubai won 1 Gold and two Bronze Lions.

- Grey MENA, 1 Silver 

- FP7/Dubai and The Classic Partnership Advertising,1 bronze for each.

In the Mena region apart of Dubai, Morocco had its first Lions: J. Walter Thompson Casablanca won 3 Lions; 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze for Kit Kat campaign. 

The chances for Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon to shine as winners were there. They were in the shortlist finals (28 finalist) including some other UAE talented agency such as Memac Ogilvy Dubai and Impact BBDO Dubai.

It is worth to mention BBDO Pakistan won two Lions for 'The Bridal Uniform' campaign. The campaign for UN Women raised awareness of child marriages by hijacking the Bridal Couture Week in Lahore. 

“There’s something deeply satisfying about our wins at Cannes. “The wins confirm that what we have been doing for the past few years has been right. We have transformed ourselves into an agency of the future whilst simultaneously gathering new business, winning the highest industry accolades, and cultivating a creative culture that’s capable of consistently producing exceptional work.

It’s a huge achievement. An achievement that could not have been possible without the bravery and belief of our clients and team, and without the contribution of our partners at OMD, phd, Google and Facebook. These wins are an affirmation that data-driven creativity works. And that a team that believes passionately in what it’s doing can achieve almost anything” says Raad.

A total of 32,372 entries received into this year’s awards. UAE submitted 456 entries this years, almost half from the last year (865). 

Entries have come from 90 countries and have been made into 26 Lions category.

The fee to submit the work is in Euro and it start from 2,232 AED (€525) per entries. The most expensive is the “Creative Effectiveness” Lion category 6,145.1 AED (€1445).

THE JUDGES
The number of judges are also impressive. It’s 413 jury members chosen from around the world. This year’s juries are composed of individuals from 50 countries, including for the first time representatives from Georgia, Nigeria, Kenya and Sri Lanka. The competition also want let it clear the diversity issue, this year includes 46% female jury members.

UAE JUDGES
This year 5 professionals from UAE had the privilege to experience the judging of worldwide works in creativity;

Alex Malouf - Corporate Communications Manager, Arabian Peninsula, Procter & Gamble

Ali Rez - Awarding Jury, Regional Creative Director - Middle East and Pakistan, BBDO

Alok Gadkar - Awarding Jury- General Manager & Executive Creative Director, The Classic Partnership

Juliana Paracencio - Regional Creative Director, Memac Ogilvy & Mather Dubai

Kapil Bhimekar- Associate Creative Director, Y&R Dubai

UAE JUDGES SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE IN CANNES

Alok Gadkar - Awarding Jury - General Manager & Executive Creative Director, The Classic Partnership

It was my first time for Cannes. It was an honor as much as it was a privilege.

No matter how prepared you are for it, you are never quite prepared. The excitement, the anticipation, the experience, they were unlike anything I had ever experienced before and I would classify this as an experience of a lifetime. 

I was selected to judge  in the Health & Wellness category and it had about 1462 entries waiting to be tried. That was about going through an average of 200 entries daily. What is really interesting in this category is, the work encompasses multiple disciplines ranging from social films, long format films, product innovation, radio, print, direct, media to all there is in the industry. 

Our day typically begins at sharp 9 every morning and continues for at least 12 hours. On the final day of judging where the colour of the award had to be determined, the envelope was pushed and we finished at 2.30am the following day.

What’s really interesting though is despite the extended hours, we were never short on enthusiasm. The process of distilling the longlist to shortlist was challengingly fun. The atmosphere in the jury room was different every day. At times it was very silent and there were days where it was the complete opposite . By the end of the judging process, I had ticked two very important things: 1. Judged and selected the best work from around the world.  2. Judged and selected the best work from around the world with a new bunch of good friends.

Kapil Bhimekar - Associate Creative Director, Y&R Dubai

It was my first time at Cannes as a Jury.It was a great experience, I was judging Direct category, but I was doing the online judging.

And then I did live judging for the Young Lions print there. Overall it was quite a learning and an immersive experience. The work entered in Cannes is the best in the world, and the piece that wins is the crème de la crème It’s the benchmark for the industry as it sets new standards every year.

The work this year was very strong, I liked quite a few pieces. But the “Last Da Vinci” from Droga 5 New York was my favorite, it won a Gold Lion in Film craft, it deserved more.

Talking about Direct, a lot of work entered here also shows up in other categories, as every piece of communication you create today technically qualifies as a direct entry as it seeks direct consumer response or interaction, Which makes the work in this category very diverse, you might be judging a Print ad against a Tv Commercial, it’s a tough category to both judge and win.

Campaign: Highway Gallery
Brand: Abu Dhabi’s Louvre Museum
Agency: TBWA\Raad
Award: Gold - Outdoor Lions

Campaign: #SheDrives 
Brand: Nissan Middle East
Agency: TBWA\Raad      
Award: Gold - PR Lions

Campaign: Mosaics, Door, Relief, Beads, Carpet, Stained Glass   
Brand: Interreligious Council in Bosnia & Herzegovina 
Agency: Y&R Dubai
Award: Gold - Industry Craft Lions

Campaign: Car, Plane, Train
Brand: The Lego Company
Agency: Grey MENA
Award: Silver - Print & Publishing Lions

Campaign: Camelpower                
Brand: Nissan Middle East            
Agency: TBWA\Raad      
Award: Bronze - Brand Experience & Activation

Campaign: Al Umobuwah: Putting Mum Into Parenthood             
Brand: Baby Shop 
Agency: FP7/Dubai                          
Award:  Bronze - PR Lions

Campaign: Prescription Stickers                 
Brand: Dubai Health Authority   
Agency: The Classic Partnership Advertising        
Award: Bronze - Pharma Lions