The MENA Cristal Awards had been created in 2005 with the objective to introduce a new and ambitious competition in all the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries. This comes as the Middle East & North Africa version of the Méribel Ad Festival, which target is European countries and held yearly in the French Alps.

The "Cristal" rewards the best creations of the year in each type of Media: film, radio, outdoor, magazine, press, marketing, cyber, integrated and media strategy. They are awarded by mixed juries, made up of both agency creatives and clients.
The competitions draw to a close the advertising creative year and prefigures the main international awards.