OMD Middle East adds regional awards to global treasure chest

OMD, the world’s most awarded communications planning network, has shone at two advertising festivals in the first two months of the year.

It was awarded three wins at the MENA Cristals, while its clients came out of the Gulf Marketing Review’s 2008 GEMAS with three wins, including the Gold Grand Prix.

The international jury awarded a Media Cristal to OMD in three of the seven categories that received an award. OMD won in the Banking & Finance category for its take-over of 7Days for Barclays Bank, in the Women category with the product integration/sponsorship of Perfect Bride by Kellogg’s and with Cheetos’ ‘Chester the Presenter’ operation in the Young People category. There were 36 entries in the long list and no award was presented in three categories. No other agency received more awards.

The MENA Cristal Awards, produced by 2C Associés, awarded media prizes for the first time this year. Running since 2005, the competition recompenses the best advertising work from the Middle East and North Africa, following similar rules to the Meribel Ad Festival and the Central Europe Cristal Awards, which are organized by the same company.

‘These awards are a testament of the tremendous talent in and around our agency. None of this would be possible without teams and clients who embrace creativity and innovation in thinking and execution,’ commented Eric Bequin, regional managing director of OMD MENA. ‘We are immensely proud of the recognition of our peers, be they local, regional or international. We see these awards as an incentive to do even more to demonstrate that OMD is about delivering tangible business results through ‘more, bigger, better ideas, more places, more often’.’

‘At Barclays, we place a premium on innovation and collaboration, and both were on display during this campaign. OMD, Impact BBDO and our own internal teams put an enormous amount of effort into this. We’re exceedingly proud of the hard work and creativity of the individuals and teams who made our retail launch a success,’ added Barclays Bank’s manager of community affairs, internal communications and corporate affairs, Umayma Abubakar.

‘OMD constantly strive to deliver creative, innovative and cutting edge solutions for Kellogg’s. It is fantastic that this pioneering move into branded content has been given the recognition and reward it deserves,’ commented Will Brockbank, head of marketing at Kellogg’s Middle East.

Earlier, the GEMAS judges also named Barclays Bank as winner in the ‘Best Product Launch’ and ‘Best Integrated Campaign’ categories and awarded it the Gold Grand Prix, the most prestigious award of the night. SAMA, from Saudi Arabia, was also highly commended in the ‘Best New Brand Launch’. More than 80 entries made it to the short list.

‘It is tremendously heartening to see our work pay off for our clients,’ commented Shadi Kandil, general manager of OMD Dubai. ‘These awards are particularly important in that they recompense the total sum of the work on a brand and looking at the effectiveness of the campaigns. We’re very proud of these stunning results, both in the market and at the Awards.’

The GEMAS 2008 comprised of 12 categories that embraced the different marketing functions deployed by companies in the Gulf, from print, broadcast and online advertising to PR and sales promotions. The GEMAS were launched in 2004 and have established a strong reputation for their objectivity, integrity and impartiality.

OMD Middle East has always seen innovations and creativity in media as a significant differentiator. Last year, it introduced OMD Ignition, its thought-starter unit, to work with planning teams on client assignments and generate a creative response to their brief. The network also created the OMD Creative Masterclass to inspire both clients and staff on media innovations, running two events a year.

Tags: GEMAS, GMR Effectiveness in Marketing Awards, MENA Cristal Awards, OMD, OMD Creative Masterclass, OMD Ignition, Shadi Kandil, Umayma Abubakar

Universal Media wins at GEMAS for Acer’s innovation

Universal Media (UM) added yet another prestigious accolade to its portfolio on Thursday, February 7, as it received the ‘Highly Commended’ award for ‘Best Use of Print Media’ at the GMR Effectiveness in Marketing Awards (GEMAS) ceremony.

UM was recognized for its innovative media campaign designed for the launch of Acer’s Aspire Gemstone concept.

In promoting Acer’s exclusive gemstone finish laptop, UM developed an endorsement concept which delivered to the public thousands of light-weighted and almost equally-sized natural stones via a daily newspaper. The challenge was in completing the overall mission of transporting, packaging and fixing over 60,000 gems to the front page of a leading newspaper. All in less than one day.

The GEMAS award came to highlight the overwhelming outcome which caused an impressive number of hits to Acer’s local websites to check on the new product and an increased footfall in shops and stands where Acer is present.

Aman Khan, Acer’s Regional Marketing and Communications Manager, commended the creativity and dedication of the team which contributed to the most successful one-day campaign to ever hit the print media in the region.

‘We are very proud of the GEMAS win for our creative campaign. The award is also a tribute to the creative insights and innovative efforts of the UM team which will definitely motivate them to plan even more progressive media solutions’.

Speaking on behalf of the team, Tala Amhaz, who leads the account at UM, said ‘It is a great honor for us to compete with the industry’s leading talents for such a prestigious award. We continually strive to raise the bar in terms of creative ideas and to maintain that rise to service our clients and sustain the trust in the work that we do’.

Hundreds of marketing, media and advertising executives attended the exclusive GEMAS awards ceremony which was held at the Al Joharah Ballroom in Madinat Jumeirah to honor the creatively hot, fresh and trendy talents in the regional media and communications industry.

Tags: Aman Khan, GEMAS, GMR Effectiveness in Marketing Awards, Tala Amhaz, UM, Universal Media