March 26, 2008


Investments in creativity bring results to both agency and clients

OMD, the world’s most awarded communications network, shone at two recent advertising festivals, winning three awards at the MENA Cristals, while our clients won three awards including the Gold Grand Prix at the Gulf Marketing Review’s GEMAS 2008.

OMD won Media Cristals in the Banking and Finance category for the launch of Barclays retail banking services; in the Women category for Kellogg’s Perfect Bride product integration/sponsorship campaign; and the Young People category for Cheetos’ ‘Chester the Presenter’ campaign. No other agency received more awards.

“These awards are a testament of the tremendous talent in and around our agency. None of this would be possible without teams and clients who embrace creativity and innovation in thinking and execution,” commented Eric Bequin, regional managing director of OMD MENA. “We are immensely proud of the recognition of our peers, be they local, regional or international. We see these awards as an incentive to do even more to demonstrate that OMD is about delivering tangible business results through ‘more, bigger, better ideas, more places, more often’.”

“At Barclays, we place a premium on innovation and collaboration, and both were on display during this campaign. OMD, Impact BBDO and our own internal teams put an enormous amount of effort into this. We’re exceedingly proud of the hard work and creativity of the individuals and teams who made our retail launch a success,” added Barclays Bank’s manager of community affairs, internal communications and corporate affairs, Umayma Abubakar.

“OMD constantly strive to deliver creative, innovative and cutting edge solutions for Kellogg’s. It is fantastic that this pioneering move into branded content has been given the recognition and reward it deserves,” commented Will Brockbank, head of marketing at Kellogg's Middle East.

Launched in 2004, the GEMAS cover 12 categories that embrace the different marketing functions deployed by companies in the Gulf, from print, broadcast and online advertising to PR and sales promotions. Barclays Bank won in the ‘Best Product Launch’ and ‘Best Integrated Campaign’ categories and was awarded the most prestigious award of the night, the Gold Grand Prix.

“It is tremendously heartening to see our work pay off for our clients,” commented Shadi Kandil, general manager of OMD Dubai. “These awards are particularly important in that they recompense the total sum of the work on a brand and looking at the effectiveness of the campaigns. We’re very proud of these stunning results, both in the market and at the Awards.”

OMD Middle East has always seen innovations and creativity in media as a significant differentiator. Last year, it introduced OMD Ignition, its thought-starter unit, to work with planning teams on client assignments and generate a creative response to their brief. The network also created the OMD Creative Masterclass to inspire both clients and staff on media innovations, running two events a year.