Held annually in Mzaar, Lebanon, the MENA Cristal Festival celebrated not only steady snow falls, heralding a good skiing season, but also the performance of the region's advertising professionals on their clients' brands.

In the media category, OMD walked away with five Cristal awards, including a Special Jury Award, leading to top the point ranking and being named the Media Agency of the Year.

Four of its campaigns were awarded on the night. OMD Arabia's "Bandana Crowd Pleaser" for Mobily captured top honors in the services category and received a Special Jury Award as a close runner-up to the Grand Media Cristal. The operation managed to get Mobily in the Saudi football fans' hearts (and on their heads) during the national team's final FIFA World Cup qualification match despite its sponsorship by a competitor.

Visa's innovative campaign for its Electron cards, which relied on consumers' mobile phones at selected points of purchase, proved a winner not only in the marketplace but also with the MENA Cristal jury, as it was awarded the Cristal in the Banking/Credit establishment category.

Demonstrating the depth of its understanding of the youth and female target audiences, OMD also walked away with both target-focused awards. The "Guess the Mystery Flavor" campaign for Doritos won in the Youth category, while the operation for Persil's Abaya Shampoo came out on top of an even more competitive line-up of entries in the Women category.

"This goes to show that not even a downturn will dent our determination to make a difference to our clients' business through innovation and creativity. Be it in the number or quality of our entries, and the awards we received of course, there is no doubt that both agency and clients are determined to break through. This recognition of "Media Agency of the Year" is a testament to the hard work of every man and woman in OMD across all our offices and the credit goes to all of them." commented Elie Khouri, CEO of Omnicom Media Group Mena.

The Media Cristals are awarded to media strategies based on their originality, target relevance, creativity and performance. Winners are selected from entries in 12 categories by a panel of senior executives from international and regional agencies and marketers.

These five awards are the latest additions to an impressive tally in both 2008 and 2009 for OMD in the Middle East, strengthening its claim of the title of the most awarded global media network since 2004, when records began.