The final night of the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival culminated in the Film, Titanium and Integrated Awards Ceremony. Of the 3453 entries in the Film category, the jury, chaired by David Lubars, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, BBDO North America, shortlisted 261 entries of which 16 were awarded Gold, 36 Silver and 35 Bronze Lions.

The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is now in its 56th year, and mediaME is attending this event, alongside several Middle Eastern advertising agencies who have entered their work into the competition to win a Cannes Lions.

So far, several Middle Eastern agencies have picked up awards at Cannes, and here is a list:

PR:
Gold: LEO BURNETT BEIRUT, “Khede Kasra” Campaign

Media:
Silver: IMPACT PLUS (BBDO), Dubai, Breast Cancer Self Examination
Bronze: STARCOM MEDIAVEST GROUP DUBAI, Falling in Love Again (Mars)

Press:
Silver: Y&R DUBAI, Land Rover Campaign
Bronze Campaign: TBWA\RAAD, Dubai, Hansaplast Campaign
Bronze Campaign: Y&R DUBAI, Harvey Nichols Campaign

Design:
Bronze: LANDOR ASSOCIATES, Dubai: Aswaaq Supermarkets brand identity

One more ceremony remains, on Saturday June, 27 with "Film, Titanium and Integrated" Lions Awards to be revealed. Perhaps, there can be more winners from the region.

Zeid Nasser, Founder of mediaME, at Cannes Lions 2009

Entrance into Cannes Lions 2009 Exhibition & Shortlists Gallery area

Cannes Lions T-shirts for sale

Scenes from an Award ceremony

More scenes from Award show

Awards Show Ends

People streaming out of Awards hall after the show

Some winners with their “Lions” posing on the red carpet

Bob Geldof speaks at launch of Kofi Anan’s “Tck Tck Tck” campaign 

Maurice Levy of Publicis speaks to Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google 

Scenes from one of the Workshop/Seminars held in a casual setting

The Press Room at Cannes Lions. Free Internet & Coffee for press!

The Microsoft Advertising lounge. Free Internet for all, no coffee :) 

The Young Lions Competition area

Stunning interactive ‘touch & drag’ screen featuring the Cannes programme

Leo Burnett Beirut has won the Middle East’s first Cannes Lion this year by winning a gold award for its ‘Khede Kasra’ campaign in the PR category. The winning campaign was for the the Hariri Foundation who wanted to address the imbalance of gender roles in Lebanese society through their “Women Empowerment Program”.

Read More.

The International Advertising Festival 2009 (Cannes Lions) has kicked-off. It is the largest gathering of worldwide advertising professionals and advertisers as well as the most prestigious annual advertising awards. It runs from Sunday 21 to Saturday 27 June, 2009.

More than 10,000 registered delegates from 94 countries and around 12,000 total visitors from the advertising and allied industries attend this event to celebrate the best of creativity across all media mix, discuss industry issues and network with one another.

Over 22,000 ads from all over the world are showcased and judged at the Festival. Winning companies receive the highly coveted Lion trophy, honouring the most creative TV/cinema, print, outdoor, interactive, radio, design, sales promotion, integrated advertising, as well as the best media and direct marketing solutions.

A unique programme of high-profile seminars, workshops and keynote speakers are also presented by some of the biggest names in the industry.

Visit the Cannes Lions website here.

The sixth Arab Advisors Conference on "Media & Telecom Convergence" kicked-off in Amman, with top notch speakers and over 500 attendees, running for two days (1st & 2nd June, 2009). HRH Princess Sumaya Bint Al Hassan inaugurated the event calling for "developing a trans-border framework which aims at moving from consumerism to productivity, and building trust and cooperation through the region."

The official opening ceremony was also addressed  by HE Eng. Bassem Rousan (Jordan’s Minister of ICT), and on this occasion the minister said “Convergence presents us with a great opportunity that the Media and Telecom business can greatly benefit from, as new sources of revenue are emerging.”

"The annual media and telecoms convergence conference has become the premiere regional event for the media and telecoms industries evidenced by the strong support from the sponsors and the level and numbers of speakers and delegates," said Mr. Jawad Abbassi, General Manager of Arab Advisors Group.
 
Jawwal is the Main Sponsor of the Arab Advisors' sixth Annual Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference 2009. The annual conference also received the support and sponsorships from Asiacell ESKADENIA Software, QUALCOMM, Ericsson, Optimiza, Orange, Nokia Siemens Networks, Orga Systems and Umniah (Batelco Group).
 
Conference exhibitors and partners include Globitel, TE Data, DVV Media, Game Power7, UrFilez, ITP CommsMEA, Zawya, Trade Arabia, Madison PR, mediaME, Media Watch, Telenity and STS
 
For more details please visit the conference web site.

Following the events of Dubai Lynx 2009, the organisers have been in consultation with industry leaders in the MENA region and beyond. To establish the way forward industry opinion has been gathered from both the organisers of Dubai Lynx and the IAA UAE board.

Philip Thomas, CEO of Cannes Lions, organisers of the Festival, said: "Dubai Lynx is not an art show, it is an advertising festival. For agencies to enter pieces of work that were not created for bona fide clients insults the hard-working international jury, and the other, honest, entrants. As organisers of many shows, such as Cannes Lions, Eurobest and Spikes Asia, we are determined that the MENA will have an awards show that is above reproach, hence this clarification and tightening of the rules for the Lynx Awards 2010."

He added, "Over and above the rule changes, however, we of course reserve the right to penalise those that continue to blatantly disregard the rules and spirit of the event."

Dr. Lance de Masi, President of the IAA UAE Chapter, provided the IAA's reaction to the Lynx Statement: "The Lynx organisers have reacted in a balanced and thoughtful way, preserving the essence of the Awards as an incentive and celebration of creativity, while providing deterrents to breaches in integrity. The onus is now on the industry to exercise discipline and to work within a universally recognised and required ethical framework."

Based on the learnings and the insight gained from the Dubai Lynx experience, the following is a summary of the rule changes addressing the major concerns.

Entry Criteria/Rules

Currently, the rules require the name, title, phone number and email address of the client. In 2010, this will be expanded to include physical address and country details of the client. In addition, all completed entries will trigger an automated email to the client, asking them to confirm by return email that they are the brand owner, and that they give consent for the entry/campaign to be entered. If, after repeated attempts to contact the client, this cannot be ascertained, the entry will not be presented to the Jury.

Currently, the rules require information on the date of the first publication or airing of the work. In future, there will be a requirement for the names of the publication/Channel or Media that was used, the country it was run in, and the number of insertions or airings.

Currently, at the request of the jury, tear sheets and media schedules are demanded during and after judging where it is deemed necessary. In future, where extra proof is required, tear sheets and other proof of legitimacy may be requested before the judging. Should these not be forthcoming, the work will not be presented to the Jury.

Outdoor:

One of the issues has been the complexities of the Outdoor category. As of 2010, this category is to be split into: A - Outdoor, B - Ambient, C - Poster

The poster section will come without size limitations, but work in Poster must not also have been used on more traditional outdoor sites.

Entrants will have to provide:

1) - Dimensions of submissions
2) - Locations of sites (if outdoor) or shops/malls (if poster)
3) - In the case of Outdoor categories, we will also require details of which provider was used (JC Decaux, Shoof, ENG etc)
4) - In the Poster categories, pictorial evidence showing the work in situ will be required.

In order to deter the practice of merely running a Print entry as a Poster and entering the same work twice in order to gain points towards Agency Of The Year, entries into Print that are also submitted into Poster (without revision of the creative) will only be eligible for the higher awarded marks in relation to Agency Of The Year. For instance, if a piece wins gold in Press and silver in Poster, the agency will carry only the 7 points for the Gold when Agency Of The Year is calculated, rather than 12 (7 for the Gold and 5 for Silver) as previously.

Copycat work

Proving plagiarism represents a significant challenge. In future, where there is an accusation of plagiarism, either during or after the judging, the Jury President will be presented with the evidence and will be able to, at his or her discretion, remove an award from a winning agency if he or she feels the accusation of plagiarism has merit.

Cultural issues:

"The great strength of the Lynx is the outstanding International Juries appointed. The downside of this is local knowledge of the region. Since The Lynx was launched, local, Arabic-speaking media experts have been present in the Jury rooms advising on cultural issues. Despite numerous examples of work that could not or would not be run in the region having been picked up by these individuals during judging, we will increase the seniority of these people, and also where we can, have a pre-screening of the work from a cultural perspective."

The success of the Lynx depends of course on rules that are not easily broken by those intent to do so, as well as an industry which is prepared to play on a level playing field. We feel sure that the events of 2009 and the subsequent changes we have made and actions we have taken will ensure that the integrity of the Lynx will be preserved going forward.