pride of the UAE’s young Lions
The young winners of two UAE competitions will be heading to the world’s biggest advertising festival
Saatchi & Saatchi’s Sarah Guessoum and Anika Marya are among five young professionals winning a trip to Cannes.
T wo groups of young advertising industry professionals have won trips to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June, in competitions run by Motivate and Motivate Val Morgan, and the Dubai chapter of the International Advertising Association.
Art director Sarah Guessoum and copywriter Anika Marya won the 15th Young Lions Print Competition, hosted by Campaign’s parent company Motivate and sister company Motivate Val Morgan. They will represent the UAE in the International Young Lions Print Competition at Cannes.
Leo Burnett art director Victor Farias and copywriter Felipe Menezes won silver, and TBWA/Raad’s art director-copywriter team of Pedro Velasquez and Leonardo Konjedik took bronze.
The brief for the competition was to promote Manzil, a non-profit organisation that provides a learning environment for people with disabilities. The event was held in association with Dubai Media City and supported by Getty Images and Xerox. It was judged by a panel of top creatives.
Ian Fairservice, managing partner of Motivate Group, said: “We continue to be extremely impressed with the work produced by the UAE’s young creative professionals. This is the 15th year we have run the region’s Young Lions Competition and once again we are pleased to be able to give them the opportunity to compete for a place to represent the UAE in Cannes. This year we had 17 teams participate in the print category, working in a similar environment to that in which the International Young Lions Print Competition is held. With the talent shown on the day, I’m sure the region will be well represented in France.”
In a separate event the Dubai chapter of the IAA, supported by Choueiri Group, has announced three winners of its 2017 IAA Ticket to Cannes competition. Omar OT Tom, strategic planner at Leo Burnett; Elie Raad, branded content manager at AMS; and Levent Donertas, digital account executive at TBWA/Raad, will alsobe going to the festival, where they will be enrolled in the Young Lions Academies.
Entrants were asked to “Campaign their way to Cannes” by sharing a video on the IAA’s Facebook page explaining why they should win.
Hani Ghorayeb, president of the IAA UAE chapter, said: “With the industry becoming so dynamic and so many new fields coming to light, it’s never been more important to ensure that young talent has the facility and support to learn and grow. The IAA Ticket to Cannes Lions not only makes young advertisers mine their own creativity and originality to further their careers; it gives them a chance to learn from the best minds in the industry and apply that learning in the local market. The three winners stood apart because of their creative approach and their ability to elicit an emotional connection with their campaign. We wish them an exciting, enjoyable and fruitful week in Cannes.”