MENA’s annual celebration of creativity arrives
The regional festival brings with it different expectations from stakeholders, and has a whole lot in store besides the jewel in the crown – its awards show
The Dubai Lynx International Festival of Creativity 2015 kicks off today, 8 March, with close to a record 2,500 entries in the race for awards – up from 2,279 last year. Even as the awards continue to grow in scale and stature, the festival that hosts the awards has grown on other fronts too. There’s much more to Lynx than the awards today as one will see in the ensuing pages, but they remain the main attraction as do awards at ad festivals across the world.
“Regional awards perform the role of guiding the industry to be able to go to the next level of ideas, innovation and engagement. What they do is give us an opportunity to be able to reinvent ourselves, to be at par with the best at the global level. They help us raise the bar regularly at the regional level. Whether you are an ad agency, PR agency, digital agency or media agency, we all talk about being more innovative, and this is a platform to recognise that innovation. Lots of people therefore want to be a part of this,” said Bechara Mouzannar, chief creative officer, Leo Burnett MENA Group.
The industry is unanimous in its recognition of the importance of a regional awards show. Asked about the role of such awards in fos- tering great creative work in a region, Ramzi Moutran, executive creative director, UAE, Memac Ogilvy & Mather, pointed to one more reason why Dubai Lynx is significant.
He said, “It’s essential to have a great local show to help grow the creative quality in the region. Having world class juries coming to our market to see our work is always nice. It sets the creative benchmark for the year.”
There are others who highlight another very important purpose of regional awards like the Dubai Lynx.
Kalpesh Patankar, executive creative director, Y&R Advertising Dubai, noted, “There are often local/ regional insights that build big ideas, and global shows may not always be able to recognise their full worth. And that’s where local shows play a key role; in giving locally relevant advertising its value.
He explained, “Many markets like Thailand, Japan or India have profited from regional shows like Spikes Asia and got the world to take notice of their work. Now Dubai, or the UAE, is an expat-dominant market, and the work often needs to be very international. But of course, when we talk about the region, a locally significant work deserves its due credit. And shows like Dubai Lynx become crucial.”