• Home
• /
• World
• /
• Gulf

Four teams win the contest for best creatives

DUBAI - The winners of the UAE Cannes Lions Young Creatives Competition 2004 were announced on Tuesday evening at the Dubai Media City Office of the IAA-UAE chapter.

Out of the 15 teams comprising a copywriter and a visualiser that participated from different advertising agencies in the UAE, four teams were chosen as the best.

Ash Chagla and Rachna Dhall from Lowe & Partners, Middle East and North Africa received the coveted gold prize. Natasha Roberts and Nisreen Achkar from the Arabian Gulf Advertising and Nizar Swailem and Lama Riachi from Saatchi and Saatchi were declared joint winners of the silver prize. The bronze prize was bagged by Neil Walker Wells and Shuan dean Thomas.

Young and creative teams from advertising agencies across the UAE spent the entire day on May 10 to devise an effective Press and poster advertisement on the theme of challenges faced by children with special needs. The poster was meant to urge the public to help them with the opportunities that they deserve. The brief was delivered at 9am by the Middle East Representative of the Cannes festival, Ian Fairservice. The competition ended at 8pm on the same day.

The judging of the competition took place on Tuesday with Managing Directors and Marketing Directors from some of UAE's leading companies including Dubai Duty Free, Arabian Outdoor, Spinneys, Cinestar, department of Tourism and Commerce, Dubai Media City , Filmworks, Khaleej Times and Gulf News on the panel.

Speaking after winning the first prize, Ash Chagla and Rachna Dhall said that they had got some of their ideas after talking to the Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs. "We understood that some of the most difficult situations that special needs children face is when other people stare at them." The winning poster said, "Even if you are not going to ask him for an autograph, don't stare at him," featuring a picture of a special needs child.

The winners of the first prize will now travel to Cannes in June to represent the UAE at the Cannes Lions 51st Canneslions International Advertising Festival where 30 teams from 30 different countries will vie to win the prestigious Cannes Lions Young Creative Award. In addition they will receive a HP designjet 30.

The competition was organised by Motivate Val Morgan whose Managing Director, Ian Fairservice, is the official representative for the Canneslions International Advertising Festival. Motivate Val Morgan Cinema Advertising is a part of the Motivate Publishing Group. The sponsors of the event included the International Advertising Association, Hewlett Packard, Arab Business Machines, Adobe and Grapheast and Getty Images.