The organiser of the Dubai Lynx Awards for advertising agencies in the Middle East today issued new rules to try to prevent a repeat of the problems that plagued this year's event.
Agencies will now have to provide more detail about the client for whom an advertisement was produced and the media outlet in which it ran. Other changes will give the jury president more power to address accusations of plagiarism and to increase the amount of support on cultural sensitivity that the international jury receives from Arabic-speaking media experts.
"Dubai Lynx is not an art show, it is an advertising festival," said Philip Thomas, the chief executive of Cannes Lions, which organises the Dubai Lynx Awards. "For agencies to enter pieces of work that were not created for bona fide clients insults the hard-working international jury and the other, honest, entrants."
The organiser had reserved the right to "penalise those who continue to blatantly disregard the rules and spirit of the event", he said.
The changes follow a series of in-depth interviews conducted over three weeks with about a dozen industry leaders by the International Advertising Agency (IAA), according to Dr Lance de Masi, the president of the IAA's UAE chapter.
"The consensus that emerged was that the industry believes, in terms of creative awards, that the Lynx is the best thing to have hit the Gulf," he said. "Now having said that, obviously the concerns that emerged from the 2009 awards were uppermost on most people's minds."
Two weeks after this year's awards ceremony on March 17, the organiser stripped the trophy for Agency of the Year from Fortune Promoseven (FP7) Doha following controversy over the legitimacy and appropriateness of the agency's submissions.
The removal followed a joint statement by the organiser and Samsung disowning work by FP7 Doha that appeared in a Lebanese newspaper, which included an image of Jesus taking a picture of a group of nuns with a Samsung camera. Samsung said the company never approved or commissioned the work.
As part of the organiser's action, 18 of FP7 Doha's submissions and the seven awards associated with them were withdrawn. The organiser also decided to forgo the Agency of the Year trophy this year.
To help avoid similar problems, the entry criteria will also include the address and country details of clients. All entries will also trigger an automated e-mail to the client, asking them to confirm that they are the brand owner and that they consented to the entry or campaign being entered.
To deal with the cultural sensitivities of the region, which the jury of international advertising experts might not fully understand, the organiser has also decided to increase the seniority of the Arabic-speaking media experts who consult with them and, where it can, to pre-screen work from a cultural perspective.
Both addressed situations that were specific to the region, Dr de Masi said. "You've got the sensitivities of the Middle East, and you've got a region where there are complexities regarding who the client is," he said. "You've got distributors, you've got agencies, you've got a lot of these things that are not at all frequent in the other awards ceremonies. Working through some of that was necessary because of the peculiarities of the region."
But in the end, Dr de Masi believes the burden for ethical and culturally appropriate participation in the awards should be shared by entrants and the organiser.
"[The organiser] has reacted to what is a perceived need to close some of the loopholes," he said. "But the second part of the story is the industry, the IAA and Lynx recognise that there is just so much that could and should be done, that integrity and ethics are not something that you can legislate.
"In the final analysis, a great deal of self-regulation is required."
khagey@thenational.ae
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
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Company profile
Name: Tharb
Started: December 2016
Founder: Eisa Alsubousi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Luxury leather goods
Initial investment: Dh150,000 from personal savings
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Recent winners
2002 Giselle Khoury (Colombia)
2004 Nathalie Nasralla (France)
2005 Catherine Abboud (Oceania)
2007 Grace Bijjani (Mexico)
2008 Carina El-Keddissi (Brazil)
2009 Sara Mansour (Brazil)
2010 Daniella Rahme (Australia)
2011 Maria Farah (Canada)
2012 Cynthia Moukarzel (Kuwait)
2013 Layla Yarak (Australia)
2014 Lia Saad (UAE)
2015 Cynthia Farah (Australia)
2016 Yosmely Massaad (Venezuela)
2017 Dima Safi (Ivory Coast)
2018 Rachel Younan (Australia)
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Play-off fixtures
Two-legged ties to be played November 9-11 and November 12-14
- Northern Ireland v Switzerland
- Croatia v Greece
- Denmark v Ireland
- Sweden v Italy
Voices: How A Great Singer Can Change Your Life
Nick Coleman
Jonathan Cape
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Match info
Uefa Nations League Group B:
England v Spain, Saturday, 11.45pm (UAE)
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
PROFILE BOX:
Company/date started: 2015
Founder/CEO: Rami Salman, Rishav Jalan, Ayush Chordia
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Technology, Sales, Voice, Artificial Intelligence
Size: (employees/revenue) 10/ 100,000 downloads
Stage: 1 ($800,000)
Investors: Eight first-round investors including, Beco Capital, 500 Startups, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Hala Fadel, Odin Financial Services, Dubai Angel Investors, Womena, Arzan VC
SERIES INFO
Afghanistan v Zimbabwe, Abu Dhabi Sunshine Series
All matches at the Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Test series
1st Test: Zimbabwe beat Afghanistan by 10 wickets
2nd Test: Wednesday, 10 March – Sunday, 14 March
Play starts at 9.30am
T20 series
1st T20I: Wednesday, 17 March
2nd T20I: Friday, 19 March
3rd T20I: Saturday, 20 March
TV
Supporters in the UAE can watch the matches on the Rabbithole channel on YouTube
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
RESULTS
Manchester United 2
Anthony Martial 30'
Scott McTominay 90 6'
Manchester City 0
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Despacito's dominance in numbers
Released: 2017
Peak chart position: No.1 in more than 47 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Lebanon
Views: 5.3 billion on YouTube
Sales: With 10 million downloads in the US, Despacito became the first Latin single to receive Diamond sales certification
Streams: 1.3 billion combined audio and video by the end of 2017, making it the biggest digital hit of the year.
Awards: 17, including Record of the Year at last year’s prestigious Latin Grammy Awards, as well as five Billboard Music Awards
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Under-21 European Championship Final
Germany 1 Spain 0
Weiser (40')
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