DUBAI, 12 October 2006 — The International Advertising Festival (IAF), organizers of Cannes Lions and the Eurobest Awards, said yesterday that it would accept entries for the first Dubai Lynx Awards from Dec. 12. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 1, 2007. The awards will be organized and presented by the IAF in association with the UAE Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) and supported by Dubai Media City (DMC). The annual awards will honor excellence in advertising and marketing communications in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) across TV/cinema, print, outdoor, interactive, radio, direct and integrated campaigns.
Judging will take place over four days, culminating in an awards ceremony, which will be held at Dubai Media City on March 19.
Terry Savage, executive chairman of the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival said: “The decision to run the Dubai Lynx Awards was based on the significant potential growth in the region and the emergence,
in the global village in which we operate, of work outstanding enough to win Lions at Cannes.
We’ll bring to the region the brand values of neutrality and premium execution, which we’ve developed over many years running the world’s leading global festival, Cannes Lions and Europe’s leading award event, Eurobest.
We’ll be directly in control of all aspects of Dubai Lynx from origination of the event to our state of the art judging systems.”
He added: “Our own personnel who are used to running independent jury rooms will supervise Judges. Our ability to reach out to the creative community in this regard is unparalleled.”
Mohamed Al-Mulla, director of Dubai Media City said: “We’re proud to support the event’s efforts to recognize and foster global advertising excellence. Promoting aspiration and achievement in the advertising industry is one of DMC’s key objectives. This is evident in the successes of DMC’s advertising segment, one of its most flourishing sectors. As Dubai gears up to host the region’s first international advertising festival, we look forward to receiving the global advertising fraternity here.”