Hubert Boulos CEO of DDB Middle East

“What I liked: I felt this year’s seminars were of a much higher quality than last year’s. I had a great time listening to John O’Keeffe’s ‘Big Idea’ presentation and Google’s Mike Glaser on bringing code and creativity together. However, I particularly enjoyed the Palestinian Freedom Theatre (see page 32) presentation because it made me discover the importance of culture in resistance and how culture was resisted by the oppressors because they measured the threat. Such an approach in itself is so out of the box in a region plagued with violence that it is worth a creative grand prix. We need more ‘out of the box’ presentations like these at the Lynx in the future. That was a great initiative, please do it again. The after party! Last but not least, I loved DDB Dubai’s performance. It was totally unexpected, especially with such a relatively small number of entries (33). Unfortunately we are now no longer flying under the radar.

Neutral: Overall, the work awarded was okay, not great. This is by no means a criticism of the Lynx but rather an opinion on our output as an industry this year. A year I would not describe as a great vintage.

Disliked: I am not going to get into the controversy of real work versus ghost ads. However, I still feel the ratio of proactive entries versus commissioned work with proper media spend behind it is still too high and that is unfortunate, especially when it comes to Dubai agencies.

I do not understand how two pieces of work that were awarded two key grands prix at the MENA Cristals did not even make it to the shortlist at the Lynx. Indeed Vodafone’s ‘Adham’s Mum’ was voted best piece of communication by a jury of agency CEOs (TBWA, DDB, BBDO, Leo Burnett, Havas, FP7, Drive Dentsu, JWT). [The] Al Nahar TVC was voted the best piece of communication by the advertisers’ jury. The absence of these two pieces, even in the shortlist, puzzles me and raises again the issue of the absence of regional MENA jurors at the Lynx.”