What can the Lynx tell us about the work?

Phew. That’s the Lynx over for another year. The festival itself was only two days this year, down from the previous three, but it was a busy two days. On-stage, off-stage, back-stage, meeting old friends, making new ones, deep debate, polite small talk… and some advertising.

The two- day format made sure everyone was kept busy, and Dubai’s Madinat Jumeirah looked more crowded than last year, too, with all the great and the good of the media, marketing and communications world bustling to and fro between sessions and shortlists and meetings.

Then, on the third day, came the awards. Which were also busier than last year. There were 2,406 entries, apparently. And 507 shortlists. There were plenty of prizes, which you can find on the Dubai Lynx website, and on pages 12-25 we have profiled the work that won Grands Prix.

There are 14 campaigns there, which won 19 Grands Prix between them, and they represent eight agencies.

Impact BBDO is back on top, under new chief creative officer Paul Shearer, who took over last year. Walid Kanaan’s TBWA/Raad, which was Agency of the Year last year, came in second this time around, and BBDO Pakistan was in third. It worked closely with Impact BBDO on campaigns such as Truck Art Childfinder. J. Walter Thompson ranked third in Network of the Year, behind BBDO Worldwide in first and TBWA Worldwide second.

Those who had expected Leo Burnett to come out fighting after Publicis Groupe’s self-imposed year in the awardless wilderness might have been surprised that the agency only won one Grand Prix, albeit the high- profile Film prize. It was for work it had done with Du, and will bookend that client- agency partnership’s enviable run of prizes, as the telco shifted its creative advertising to TBWA/Raad last year.

I’d encourage you to take a look at what the jury presidents had to say, on page 24. They spent an awful lot of time in darkened rooms with an awful lot of work, and they came to it with fresh eyes from outside the region. This means that they can give both in- depth and objective analyses of the sort of creative the Middle East is currently producing and entering for awards.

They point out that there is a lot of digital work. That’s good; it means we are keeping on top of technology, as we should be with our young audiences and world leadership in mobile- phone penetration. They were struck by local insights too, which is also good; we are making strong regional work. And the work is earning recognition past its paid media reach, demonstrating that people are genuinely engaged with what we do.