Inside the Jury Room: The MEA Region’s Ambition, Consistency and Creativity

Some of the Middle East and Africa’s most prominent creative and production leaders convened in Dubai last week for the MEA region’s Immortal Awards judging round. 

Taking place on Wednesday, October 25th thanks to support from BIG KAHUNA FILMS, the jurors cast judgement on a shortlist of 25 projects, which had scored highest in the online round of judging prior to the in-person session.

The six projects now have a chance of winning an Immortal Award or picking up a Commendation at the global jury day on Thursday, December 7th. They will be joined by the seven European Finalists, as well as the forthcoming Finalists from the North America, LATAM, Asia and ANZ jury sessions. Check them out here. 

This year’s MEA jury was composed of: Yasmina Boustani, creative director at Leo Burnett Dubai; Pierre Carnet, managing director at MassiveMusic Dubai; Rola Ghotmeh, founder and chief creative officer of The Creative 9; Marie Claire Maalouf, chief creative officer of Edelman UAE; Raphael Nassoura, executive creative director and GM of Momentum UAE; Ali Rez, chief creative officer MENAP at Impact BBDO Group; Eddy Rizk, founder and chief executive officer of BIG KAHUNA FILMS; Aliza Siddiqi, senior copywriter at FP7McCann Dubai; and Thomas Young, creative director at MullenLowe MENA.

Pierre Carnet, managing director at MassiveMusic Dubai shared, “It was a great pleasure and honour to be a part of the jury panel for the Immortal Awards MEA 2023. Seeing the fantastic work coming out of our region was very inspiring, demonstrating the ambition of local brands and marketers, but also a clear trend towards value-driven marketing and using brand platforms to help implement change.”

He continued, “The six projects we have shortlisted as a jury are to me a representation of the burgeoning creativity we find in the Middle East and Africa, where the sky is the limit in terms of what can be achieved. Whether this means pushing new technologies in never seen before ways, creating new product-driven concepts, using marketing to influence policy and culture, or just having good old fun with a brand - year after year the region continues to impress and improve. I cannot wait to see what next year has in store.”

Thomas Young, creative director at MullenLowe MENA went on to share what surprised him about the work this year. He said, “I was really surprised at the consistent level of quality work coming out of UAE and KSA. You start to now think if the so-called ‘gap’ even exists between West and East in terms of standard of work. Such is the rise in the level of thinking. It gets better every year. Which speaks wonders for the region and how advertising will look here in the future.”

Reflecting on the jury’s debates, Thomas said, “All the discussions were interesting, as the room was divided on so much of the work but the fun part was hashing out those opinions, even if we didn’t come to agreements on everything, the work we were left with we were all happy to have there. Which just goes to show that the best ideas will always shine. No matter who is observing it.”

Ali Rez, chief creative officer at Impact BBDO Group MENAP shared his thoughts: “The Middle East continues to produce some of the most incredibly creative work – the six projects we picked are not only the best from the region, but some of the best we saw this year coming from anywhere in the world. The jury had very interesting discussions around regional relevancy, bravery in creativity, and the impact the work had on the brand, given the objectives of the campaign.”

Finally, Eddy Rizk, founder and chief executive officer of BIG KAHUNA FILMS commented, “This year's jury displayed a commendable balance, having been presented with some truly outstanding pieces to evaluate. I'm hopeful to see an increase in contributions from the region, and that's what we should aim for in the upcoming years.”