Starcom MediaVest Group Dubai has been shortlisted for an award in the Festival of Media, Valencia 2010, making it the only regional agency to make the cut.

The agency’s “Meet Dubai [1]” campaign for Emirates airline is on a shortlist of six in the Media Bravery category for the awards, which will be announced in Spain on April 20.

Others on the shortlist include MediaCom India’s “Shave India” campaign for Gillette, and the same agency’s “Obama Inauguration: Own the Day” for Audi.

The Meet Dubai campaign ran across print, online and TV, with TVCs directed by Michael Noval and starring Hollyoaks actor Kevin Sacre having a cracking time meeting people around the emirate in, a “documentary, unrehearsed spontaneous style,” according to Emirates when it launched its campaign. The spots were also online.

The Festival of Media has eschewed the tradition of using product specific categories in favor of more media-specific prizes such as Best Use of the Media Landscape, Best Targeted Campaign, and the Consumer Benefit Award. The Festival’s Web site says of the Award for Media Bravery, “This category rewards brands that have taken bold steps and challenged the ‘norm’ in media communication strategy. This can include changing the weight of spend between channels (a shift from 100 percent TV to 50/50 between TV and digital for example) or trying something completely different for a product sector (a soft drinks company buying a record label for marketing for example).”
All the shortlisted entries can be found at the Festival of Media's Web site [2].