J. Walter Thompson MENA was named Network of the Year at the Dubai Lynx Festival of Creativity. The award ceremony recognises the most creative marketing and communications campaigns across the region and celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. The network earned the highest creative accolade by taking home five Grand Prix, 12 Gold, 16 Silver and 10 Bronze awards across 13 different categories and beating 11 other multinational agencies to the top slot. An international jury comprised of industry experts was organised for each individual award category and presided over by a Jury President.
J. Walter Thompson Beirut bagged a total of three Grand Prix – in the PR, Direct and Integrated categories – for The Good Note, an ambitious humanitarian campaign created for its retail client, Bou Khalil Supermarkets. J. Walter Thompson Cairo was awarded the Grand Prix in Creative Effectiveness, for its pioneering Vodafone Fakka campaign for telecommunications client, Vodafone Egypt. J. Walter Thompson Dubai landed the Grand Prix for Good with the innovative social campaign, I Can teach You Too, for its NGO client, Dubai Cares.
In the PR category, the jury was looking for work that made use of reputation management to build and preserve trust between individuals, businesses or organisations and their audiences. For the Direct category, work was judged on its ability to generate a response or specific action whilst building and prolonging relationships. Winning criteria for the Creative Effectiveness category was work that affects consumer behaviour, producing measurable and proven impact on a client’s business. The Integrated jury were looking for campaigns that achieved success across at least three or more different media. The Grand Prix for Good is a special award and rewards work ineligible for a Grand Prix in other categories specifically because it is made for charities or not-for-profit organisations.
J. Walter Thompson teams in Amman, Beirut, Cairo, Doha, Dubai and Riyadh brought home the additional 12 Gold, 16 Silver and 10 Bronze awards. A total of 16 individual campaigns was recognised across 13 award categories including though not limited to Branded Content & Entertainment, Direct, Integrated, PR, Promo & Activation and Interactive. The work was created for 12 different clients operating in nine separate industry sectors ranging from Tourism to Automotive; Real Estate to Personal Care; Banking to Food & Beverage; and Retail to name a few. The scope, courageousness, scale and breadth of the award winning campaigns demonstrates the network’s expertise in delivering creative and effective business solutions across markets, economies and specialised industry challenges, that resonate with consumers in the most impactful way.
The undisputed star of the entire awards night was J. Walter Thompson Beirut’s The Good Note campaign, which scored three Grand Prix wins and continued to garner a further three Gold and one Bronze in Design, Direct and Outdoor – both ambient and poster. The same team also landed a Silver in Outdoor for its Coca-Cola client.
J. Walter Thompson Dubai attained 3rd place in the Agency of Year ranking having won not only The Grand Prix for Good, but also a combined total of three Gold, nine Silver and seven Bronze awards for its clients Dubai Cares, HSBC, Listerine and Kinokuniya.
In addition to the Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix, J. Walter Thompson Cairo secured a combined total of five Gold, four Silver and one Bronze for its clients the Egyptian Tourist Authority, Al Ismaelia Real Estate and Vodafone Egypt.
From Saudi Arabia, the J. Walter Thompson KSA team secured a Gold, three Silver and one Bronze for its client Saudi Telecommunication Company. Both J. Walter Thompson Amman and Doha teams supported the network’s overall tally by providing a Bronze and Silver win respectively.
Commenting on the night’s success, Ramsey Naja, Chief Creative Officer, J. Walter Thompson Middle East and Africa, said, “Great talent, hard work, dedication and passion will always be rewarded. But the magic ingredient, the one thing that can produce a performance of this magnitude, is the spirit that runs through this network, binds it and makes hundreds of people work together happily as one.”
Vatche Keverian, CEO of J. Walter Thompson MENA added “Winning more awards, in more categories, across six offices says that there is a superior quality among more J. Walter Thompson offices and we are truly recognised as the leading network in MENA”
Celebrating the win, Amal El Masri, Chief Strategy Officer of J. Walter Thompson MENA said “Our performance at Dubai Lynx is evidence that we are dedicated to delivering the absolute best for our clients across a variety of industries and markets. The winning campaigns were strategic, effective, results-driven solutions; continuously measured and optimised to deliver peak performance for clients and their brands.”