TBWARAAD delivered one of its best performances in years at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, leading the MENA awards tally with a total of six Lions among twelve shortlisted entries, for five clients, across eight award categories.
The agency landed its first Gold Lion in the Outdoor category for the ‘Highway Gallery’ campaign for Louvre Abu Dhabi. As the first museum of its kind in the Middle East, Louvre Abu Dhabi gave the world another exciting first: a radio-guided gallery along the Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai, proving that art can, and should be enjoyed and explored by all.
The second Gold Lion was awarded to the ‘#SheDrives’ campaign for Nissan Saudi Arabia in the PR category. Upon the declaration of Saudi Arabia’s historic royal decree, which granted women the right to drive, Nissan aimed to give Saudi women the confidence to exercise their right and encourage men to support their decision. The brand offered a group of young women the chance to get behind the wheel for the first time, with a surprise group of driving instructors: their respective husbands, fathers and brothers, who were their teachers for the day.
TBWARAAD was also honored with a Silver and a Bronze Lion, both in the Media category for the ‘Highway Gallery’ campaign for Louvre Abu Dhabi. The campaign additionally earned a Bronze Lion – the only Lion awarded to an agency from the Middle East and North Africa region in the Radio and Audio category.
‘Camel Power’ for Nissan Middle East landed a Bronze Lion in the Branded Experience and Activation category.
“There’s something deeply satisfying about our wins at Cannes,” said Reda Raad, CEO of TBWARAAD. “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.”
The Cannes Lions are the most established and coveted awards for the creative and marketing communications industry and winning at the festival is recognised globally as the ultimate achievement in creativity.
Earlier this year, TBWA Worldwide was named Network of the Year at the Dubai Lynx International Festival of Creativity and TBWARAAD was crowned Agency of the Year, winning an unprecedented eight Grands Prix and a host of other awards. At the MENA Cristal Festival, TBWARAAD was named Advertising Agency of the Year and won the MENA Grand Cristal for its ‘Camel Power’ campaign for Nissan Middle East. It also won eight Gold Cristal awards, three Silver Cristal awards and one Bronze Cristal in various categories.
Contagious magazine has named it among the top 10 ‘Bravest and Best Agencies on the Planet’.