Independent Agency of the Year looks set to be the most highly contested category in Campaign’s inaugural Middle East edition of its Agency of the Year Awards.
There are six agencies shortlisted in the category in this first year of the competition: Serviceplan Middle East, TishTash Communications, Katch International, Houbara Communications, Face to Face and Brodmann Iraq.
Agency of the Year Middle East is run in partnership with Haymarket, the UK-based publishing house that has been publishing Campaign in markets around the world for more than 60 years. The awards are independently audited by PWC.
The judges – all client-side marketing heads – have whittled down the entries through remote judging to a series of shortlists that will be debated in a virtual jury room next month to find the final winners.
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The Head of Agency title will be a four-way race between ASDA’A BCW’s Sunil John, Publicis Groupe MENAT’s Bassel Kakish, UM’s Joe Nicolas and LIGHTBLUE’s Craig Borthwick.
Campaign Middle East editor Austyn Allison said: “Launching awards is like throwing a house party. You throw open the doors and just hope people turn up. I’m pleased to boast that our metaphorical living room is packed. We had many more entries than we had hoped for. I see a lot of really good names on the shortlists, and while I’m immensely grateful to our judges, I don’t envy them the task of having to pick the overall winners from such a strong field. I’m also pleased to see smaller, newer and independent agencies entering, showing what a strong organic ecosystem the region has. And we have seen entries from across the region too. The Campaign Agency of the Year Awards are unique in that they are based on business performance, so this is a great place to see what agencies are really working to drive the advertising economy.”
Categories not mentioned in the shortlist below will not be awarded this year as they either did not receive entries or the jury didn’t shortlist any of the entries to move forward.
The winners are due to be announced at an awards dinner at Fairmont The Palm in Dubai on 8 December, 2022. Details of tickets for the event will be announced soon on Campaign Middle East’s website and social platforms.
Campaign also runs Agency of the Year in the UK, Asia-Pacific and the US, and a global scheme, the Global Agency of the Year Awards, which is now open for entries.
Here is the full shortlist:
Account Person
Judy Bakieh, Gambit Communications
Steven Sidawi, Publicis Groupe MENAT
Agency Producer or Team – to be announced at the ceremony
Arabic copywriter of the Year
Mohammed Sawalha, Cicero & Bernay Communication Consultancy
Rani Amayri, IMPACT BBDO
Best Agency – Regional winners to be announced at the ceremomy
Adpro Communications
ASDA’A BCW
Brodmann
Dentsu M21
Digitas
Gambit Communications
LIGHTBLUE
OMD Egypt
Publicis Groupe – Groupe Practices
Red Bananas
Studio M – Publicis Groupe & McDonald’s
UM Qatar
UM UAE
Creative Agency
FP7McCann
IMPACT BBDO
Creative Leader
Ali Rez, IMPACT BBDO
Kalpesh Patankar, Publicis Groupe MENAT
Natasha Romariz Maasri, Publicis Groupe MENAT
Creative Team
LIGHTBLUE
Rebecca Ann Menezes & Eduardo Cesar, Publicis Groupe MENAT
Digital Agency
Boopin
Create Group
Like Digital & partners
YAZ MARKETING
Events, Experiential and Engagement Agency
MCH Global
Imagination
LIGHTBLUE
Head of Agency
Sunil John, ASDA’A BCW
Craig Borthwick, LIGHTBLUE
Bassel Kakish, Publicis Groupe MENAT
Joe Nicolas, UM
Independent Agency
Brodmann Iraq
Face to Face
Houbara Communications
Katch International
Serviceplan Middle East
TishTash Communications
Integrated Marketing Agency
Create Group
Publicis Groupe
Media Agency
OMD MENA
UM MENA
Outstanding Woman in Advertising or Media
Zeena Al Kurd, Boopin
Marie Claire Maalouf, IMPACT BBDO
Joyce Hallak, Publicis Groupe MENAT
Performance Marketing Agency
Assembly
Boopin
UM MENA
PR/Communications Agency
ASDA’A BCW
Gambit Communications
TishTash Communications
Cicero & Bernay Communication Consultancy
Social Media Agency of the Year – to be announced at the ceremony
Start Up Agency – to be announced at the ceremony
Strategic Leader
Sunil John ASDA’A BCW
Tahaab Rais, Publicis Groupe MENAT
