Business & Money | Monday 20 April, 2015 9:49 am |

Highly regarded programme celebrates the best in media and marketing thinking

The highly popular and hugely anticipated Festival of MENA Awards 2015 has recently taken place in Dubai at the Music Hall, Jumeirah Zabeel Saray. The prestigious event - celebrates the very best in media thinking from across the MENA region, attracting prominent leaders from international and pan-regional advertisers, media agencies and media owners.
Unlike any other event of its kind, the Festival of Media MENA brings to the global industry a cutting-edge conference, an exhibition for vendors and technologists to promote initiatives to agencies and clients; as well as a variety of networking and thought leadership opportunities.
This year influential speakers included the likes of CEO’s and directors from leading entities across the digital, advertising, and media industries in the MENA region. Through the thought-provoking keynote speeches event attendees gained a stronger understanding of critical and insightful issues affecting the regional marketing landscape. The Festival of Media MENA Awards 2015 is the number one platform to positively assess and further develop the success of creative campaigns, influential marketing initiatives, as well as ways to inspire the next generation of artistic marketing leaders.
Alexandre Hawari, Co CEO of Mediaquest stated: “We are extremely excited to be launching the Festival of Media MENA in Dubai. We have some exceptionally talented and remarkable agency entries this year and our guest speakers have some intriguing and compelling insights to share with marketing industry professionals.”
Charlie Crowe, Chairman and editor-in-chief of C Squared added: “I created the Festival of Media concept back in 2007, to establish a platform that encourages talent to compete in the creative marketing fields and enable the MENA region to be recognised globally for its outstanding contribution to the fields of marketing, advertising and digital. I am extremely excited to see what this year offers in terms of industry research, insights and creative communication campaigns.”
The MENA advertising and marketing industries are growing at a substantial rate. According to leading research firm Strategy& (formerly known as Booz & Company), the MENA advertising market is expected to enjoy a 6 percent consumer advertising growth rate from 2014 to 2019, from $5.6 billion to $7.6 billion compared with 4.4 percent for the global advertising market. Additionally, digital is expected to account for one-fifth of the MENA advertising market by 2019.
The key speakers who contributed to the Festival of Media MENA 2015 included OMD, Millenial Media, SMG Mena, Cheil Worldwide, Unruly, SAP Middle East & Africa, Media Blends and Publimatic.
The Festival of Media MENA Awards 2015 was judged by a senior panel of media agencies and advertisers and was open to everyone involved in advertising. The programme showcases creativity and innovation that is at the very heart of media communications.


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About Mediaquest
Mediaquest is one of the region’s largest, most successful and most influential privately-owned publishing and events companies. Established in 1997, Mediaquest’s mission is to inform, educate and entertain audiences across the MENA region, thereby building bridges between the Arab world and the West. Mediaquest generates a combined online and offline portfolio of more than 20 titles, covering marketing, communications, women's interests, lifestyle, entertainment and automotive. Reputed brands include: Marie Claire Arabia, Haya Magazine and Kippreport, as well as the highly regarded business-to-business titles: Trends Magazine, Gulf Marketing Review, Saneou Al Hadath, Arabies and Communicate. Mediaquest’s dedicated Dotmena network hosts 75 premium websites that attract more than 41 million unique visitors each month. Mediaquest creates, project manages and delivers some of the region’s best-known industry events, including the GMR Marketing to Women Conference, Insurex and the prestigious annual Effie Mena Awards, which is recognised as a benchmark for achievement in the region’s marketing sphere.