The MENA Cristal Awards Day2/3
Waking up surrounded by white snow was the way to start day 2 of the Cristal de la MENA, and ever much more for a better start I had a short walk outdoor early morning for some fresh air.
Meeting point was the breakfast room at the Mzaar, it was funny how everybody looked like after the wild party at Montagnou, few hours of sleep, lot of alcohol in their bodies, and eyes barely opening. With the sun rising, I simply missed the first conference Cristal Club Session, had a cup of tea at the refuge with some cool people met up here.
12:15PM No death sentence in Media by Ziad Skaff, Group Research Director - Integral (Omnicom Media Group). Opened it with Connectivity and Convergence. A great point which he highlighted on that all medias are trying to revolutionize "TV is not dying, but trying to be an iTV", and Desktop is trying to be "Internet and Games". Media are moving from Mass to niche media, the opportunity to have deep communication is available today through social media (Twitter, YouTube and Facebook). A nice video showing how all media is changing and so consumers are. Consumers are not stoping of using any media but prioritizing the media depending on their lifetime needs and category. TV didn't lose but online gained market share, proved by showing how UAE and KSA are the most teach savy countries in the region and TV is still growing there. So no media is dying, but the mix has more stuff from media, creative, PR, digital and more. Ended up how content will be come more and more important, content is king and will remain king.
Well it was a fully loaded one, cannot describe it as it is, but the title make it clear, no media medium is dying but they are all revolutionizing.
1:30PM Lunch time, again meeting new people, having some talk and enjoying the food.
3:00PM Hervé Cuviliez, CEO Diwanee with a great presentation about branded content, how to use it, and move from creative media buying to content production and seeding. How to differentiate branded content, and not having it as spam (Spam costs $3 billion per year of electricity waste), but simply to be relevant, trustable and valuable content.
4:00PM Controversial creativity: award winning work vs great work. Moderated by Yasser Akawi, Executive magazine Editor in Chief who introduced the 4 speakers, Fouad Abdel Malak (FAM), Executive Creative Director Impact BBDO UAE, Ramsey Naja (RN) Chief Creative Director JWT MENA, Daniel Georr (DG) Chief Creative Director FP7 and Assaad Douaihy, Group Regional Creative Director Intermarkets.
First question was, Are you creative for the sake of the client or the sake of creativity?
FAM was clear that creative awards raises the standards, but lately for him he sees same ads everywhere in telecomm, airlines and banking, while brands like diesel are setting the trends. For him this debate is even over and closed. For me personally he opened the debate in a very aggressive way (this is how I noticed it). Thanks to Ramsey with his twisted character and nice humor which could let things go smooth 
RN advertising might be facing issues of credibility while its progressing. Real creative means people loves it. There is effective creative like we see it on BBC and there are populist like OTV.
DG lot of people are being creative for the sake of it. Every agency has to be proactive, create things that never been asked for, and his answer to Fouad about scam used by agencies in awards "This subject was closed 2 years ago".
AD he started with a joke, and his answer for the main question was, Did extreme creative ads pass the test of time? While other non award wining ads did pass it. He didn't look that serious, though I don't know why he would be there? Was Intermarket that active for the past 3 years? No offense and for sure nothing personal, but wouldn't be nice to have him there with sarcastic smile.
RN being creative means that we have the privilege of which to talk with lot of people and though we hold a big responsibility towards people.
FAM with a lovely answer here to Assaad, test of time! We barely see campaigns living more than 3 years especially with the digital revolution. Though, not every communication makes everybody happy, at the end advertising do not try to convert everybody but a small group.
This debate was harsh, specially that some people from the audience just focused on the scam thing and made it non-sense. Thanks to Bechara Mouzannar, who took the microphone, sat down on the floor, and cooled down things, ending with a nice message to all young creative people, just go out and live your city because in life lies inspiration.
Personal opinion: That was the only overloaded conference, people were sitting on floor and queue reached outside the room, guys you could give us much better than this, we all came down to hear much more than an EGO CENTRIC debate. Want to know what a client said about it? I don't think I had to attend that conference because I am really disappointed by those who claim they are the top creative people in the region.
5:00PM Clients expectations for 2011 moderated by Nathalie Bontems, Beirut Operations Manager - Communicate Levant, hosted Antoine About Khalil Director Zain Group Corporate Communications, Mazen Fakhoury, MD Mindshare KSA and Antonio Vincenti CEO Pikasso outdoor.
Antoine told us about Zain corporate values, Heart, Belonging and Radius. He was pissed off that people they work with do not know their corporate values. As a client he wants his agency and people who they work with to give them love. He emphasized that they have targets and expectations but they do not have the expertise or know every single medium, so that's why they are hiring an MBU.
For Ramzi, mindshare work based on trust, corporation and mistakes. They gain trust of clients by understanding their company/brand culture, they work hand by hand to deliver the best they can, and sometimes they do mistakes, with their love to clients the relationship keeps on getting stronger. What can break a relationship between
clients and agencies in today's world? Procurement that's what clients are doing today, they want the best price just to save money and forget about the real long term planning, while this break the trust and gets the agency down.
Antonio introduced Pikasso, how they are leading the market, and how they did introduce the best digital outdoor systems in town, with high end security. He also emphasized about the problems we are facing in our local market, where unprofessionals are using LED screens to air TVCs or animated promos which is a threat for roads safety.
6:30PM Cocktail hosted by Mindshare at the Mzaar Intercontinental lobby.
8:30PM The award opening, introducing sponsors. Andrea verb GM Intercontinental Mzaar 2000 welcomed everybody and invited them to try the hotel in different times of the season.
Young Directors Cristal went to Karim Ghorayeb from Lebanon.
Promo / Direct Grand Cristal Exotica Valentine - Agency Leo Burnett Beirut
Cyber Grand Cristal Batelco - FP7 Bahrain
Media Grand Cristal Hp Touch of Ads - OMD/BBDO
Client of the year Batelco
Media Agency of the year OMD
I will have no comments on this, except it took too much time, and felt like everybody there won if not a grand cristal a category crystal.
10:30PM Dinner at La Fondue and some great time with the guys from MediaQuest (Alex and Peggy), Starcom (Talaat and the gangs), Yahoo! (Hussein who was on fire as usual and the gans), Mindshare, Leo Burnett, and cannot remember who else
Day 3
Couldn't wake up on time early, just went up late for breakfast than went down to attend the most awaited
session, Wildfire by Leo Burnett, it was presented for the first time by 2 persons, Honorary Chairman and Advisor to the board, and the newly promoted Chief Creative Director Bechara Mouzanar Leo Burtnett MENA. It was crowded like the creative debate of Day2, lot of people were invited from different companies in town, to mention few May Chidiac and Tony Amine. The presentation was about how we deliver a message in the advertising world "Story Telling", and that we are all story tellers.
Lunch hosted by Leo.
Couldn't attend the afternoon conferences as I was stuck in few meetings up there, than the cocktail hosted by Yahoo! just before the 3 days regional event comes to an end in its 6th edition with the award ceremony gala diner (Film, Daily Press, Outdoor, Magazine, Radio, Corporate & Integrated Cristal Awards). The results can be found on BeirutNightLife.com Cristal de le Mena full post.