J. Walter Thompson Riyadh, part of the world’s best-known marketing communications brand network in MENA, won last night’s Grand Prix award for Media, at the Dubai Lynx Festival of Creativity. The prestigious accolade marks the first ever Grand Prix to be won by any agency in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The second “first” went to J. Walter Thompson Amman who collected a coveted Gold award for their “Corolla 1966” print advertisement in the Print Craft category; again, the first time any agency in Jordan has ever won an award.
The J. Walter Thompson MENA network brought home a further 8 Silver and 12 Bronze awards, won across a total of 11 awards categories, with winning work submitted by 5 offices, for 9 separate clients from a total of 7 different brand industries.
The Dubai Lynx honours the region’s best work in advertising and last night’s awards have established that innovative work from the region’s largest yet most conservative market, Saudi Arabia, and one of the region’s smaller markets, Jordan, can make their mark on the creative landscape. Recognized as providing world-class solutions for clients and their brands, each team developed cutting-edge campaigns based on strong local insight, executed with scale and exceptional production value, creating conversations people readily participated in.
The “Biggest Gallery” campaign for Al Arabia, an out-of-home company in Saudi Arabia, presented art to the Saudi Arabian public for the first time ever across more than 5,000 of the company’s outdoor media sites that cover the entire Kingdom. The campaign started with an activation which called upon unknown artists in Saudi to upload their work to the alarabiaarts.com website. In close collaboration with the Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts, a panel of judges selected the final pieces to be displayed throughout the nation and the alarabiaarts.com website is now the first listing of artists in the country – a future resource of the country’s hidden artistic capital.
The black and white “Corolla 1966” press ad for Central Trade & Auto Company in Jordan, was made to drive sales for the launch of the all new Corolla 2014. Based on the insight that every Jordanian has a story to tell or an experience to remember about the nation’s favourite car, the work reignited people’s nostalgic passion for the brand. Making the brand vision “Let’s go places” come alive in a unique and fresh way, which resonated with authentic local significance, the campaign drove not only consumer conversation but dramatic sales results for the client.
Other award winning work from the network included J. Walter Thompson Dubai campaigns for Kinokuniya, Kenwood, Sirocco and Friends of Cancer Patients; J. Walter Thompson Beirut campaigns for touch and BETA (Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals); and J. Walter Thompson Cairo campaigns for Mondelez and OSN. J. Walter Thompson Beirut was the only agency to bag metal in the Mobile category.
Commenting on the night’s wins, Ramsey Naja, Chief Creative Officer, J. Walter Thompson Middle East Africa, said, “This is one of the biggest moments for the agency. J. Walter Thompson Riyadh has, time and again, proved its credentials as a creative force in the kingdom, and it is simply fantastic to have these credentials now recognised on such a scale. It also demonstrates J. Walter Thompson Riyadh’s organic connection with Saudi culture, a connection which our partnership with Al Arabiya has allowed to thrive.”