Winners of the Inaugural Transform Awards MENA Revealed

Dubai, UAE June 3, 2014: Eighteen outstanding regional ad, branding and creative agencies became the first ever winners of the inaugural MENA edition of Europe’s prestigious Transform Awards last night.

Close to 250 executives from the branding, advertising, digital and the communications sector attended the ceremony held at the JW Marriott Marquis hotel in Dubai, where the Middle East’s most respected imaging experts vied for the highly-contested ‘best in class’ titles.

Commenting on the success of the opening awards ceremony, Andrew Thomas, Founder of Transform and Managing Director of Cravenhill Publishing, publisher of the European Communicate magazine, said, “We’re absolutely delighted with the response to the first Transform Awards in the region. There is a tremendous amount of work in the rebranding, repositioning and brand transformation space and we see huge potential for growth in the coming years. As we’ve seen from the awards, the level of talent in the region is quite outstanding and we seriously hope that the Transform Awards will set a brand industry benchmark to take it to the next level.”

The judges who reviewed and evaluated the categories included Editor-in-Chief of Branding Magazine, Flavia Barbat, Patrick Lloyd-Bradley, Brand and Marketing Communications Director for averda International, Ammar Elkurdi, Brand Manager for Volvo Cars, and Stephen McCallion, Global Head of Marketing and Communications, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company.

Fellow judge, Syed Abdul Karim Tanveer, Director of Brand Experience, Mobily said: “The Transform Awards are a great platform to celebrate the best from the world of branding. It is a wonderful opportunity for talent in the MENA region to be recognised for their work. This is key to inspiring others and helping the industry to evolve and mature.” 

Alongside the awards, Transform MENA held a full day conference attended by close to 100 branding and communications professionals from the MENA region. The conference included an impressive line-up of sessions discussing the most successful rebranding, repositioning and brand transformation projects globally and in the MENA region. The event also saw the launch of Transform Magazine, a global publication on brand development.

For more information on the awards visit: www.transformawards.com/mena

For Transform magazine visit: www.transformmagazine.net

The Transform Awards MENA 2014 Winners:

Content
Best use of a visual property
Gold – Seef Mall and Unisono
Silver – Al Alan TV and Turquoise Branding
Bronze – dnata and Brash Brands
Bronze – King Abdullah Economic City and Turquoise Branding
Highly commended – Commercial Bank of Qatar and Industry

Process
Best external stakeholder relations during a rebrand
Gold – Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and StartJG

Best internal communication during a rebrand
Gold – Dubai Airports and StartJG
Gold – EQUATE Petrochemical Company and Fresh Insight Associates
Silver – dnata and Brash Brands
Bronze – Milaha and Bellwether
Highly commended – Cluttons and Industry

Best implementation of a rebrand
Gold – Gama Aviation and Brash Brands
Silver – Abu Dhabi Airports and Face to Face
Bronze – Emirates Islamic and Endpoint

Strategy
Best creative strategy
Gold – Milaha and Bellwether
Silver – Al Nahdi Medical Company and Landor Associates
Bronze – Gürallar Artcraft (Turkey) and Landor Associates
Bronze – Qatar Museums Authority and Landor Associates
Highly commended – Cluttons and Industry
Highly commended – dnata and Brash Brands

Best brand evolution
Gold – du
Silver – Mey İçki (Turkey) and Landor Associates
Silver – Toyota (Al-Futtaim Motors) and Bellwether
Bronze – Commercial Bank of Qatar and Industry

Best strategic/creative development of a new brand
Gold – Mubadala Petroleum and Omnia
Silver – ARN and Brash Brands
Bronze – Abu Dhabi Technology Development Committee and Brand Union
Bronze – The Supreme Council of Health and Agency222
Highly commended – Al Mutawakelah and Omnia
Highly commended – Fundo Soberano de Angola and Grayling

Type
Best rebrand to reflect changed mission/values/positioning
Gold – Intel and Red Peak
Silver – Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and StartJG
Bronze – Commercial Bank of Qatar and Industry
Highly commended – Doha Film Institute
Highly commended – Pace and Garden

Best brand consolidation
Gold – Toyota (Al-Futtaim Motors) and Bellwether
Silver – Albatha and Bellwether
Bronze – dnata and Brash Brands

Best rebrand of a digital property
Gold – .Xplored for GardaWorld and Bladonmore (Middle East)

Sector
Best visual identity from a charity/NGO/NFP
Gold – Doha Film Institute

Best visual identity from the technology, media & telecommunications sector
Gold – MixFM and Turquoise Branding

Best visual identity from the financial services sector
Gold – Emirates RE and Omnia
Gold – alizz islamic bank, Oman and OHI Leo Burnett, Oman
Silver – Arab Link and Unisono
Bronze – Commercial Bank of Qatar and Industry

Best visual identity from the industrial and basic materials sector
Gold – Milaha and Bellwether

Best visual identity from the property sector
Gold – Mubadala and Brash Brands
Silver – Amlak and Unisono
Bronze – Cluttons and Industry
Bronze – Dilmunia and Unisono
Highly commended – Al Wa’ab City and Unisono
Highly commended – Blackstone and Brash Brands

Best visual identity from the retail sector
Gold – 1915 by Seddiqi and Brash Brands
Silver – The Galleria and Brash Brands

Best overall visual identity
Mihala


Best overall visual identity
Bellwether for its work with Milaha

Grand Prix
du