Early next month, in the mountains of Mzaar Kfardebiane in Lebanon, the fifth edition of the MENA Cristal Festival will be held.
The idea of an advertising awards festival that covers the entire Middle East and North Africa region began its incubation in 2004, when the organizers of the Cristal Festival in Europe (previously known as the Meribel Ad Festival) felt the need to introduce a new and ambitious advertising competition for the region.
February 2006 saw Casablanca host the first MENA Cristal Awards, with agencies from the four corners of the MENA region participating; that was at a time when no other comprehensive regional advertising competition existed. In its second year, the Festival moved to a Lebanese ski resort, and since then the MENA Cristal has been growing.
“The Cristal has become a real brand, recognized by agencies and clients on the international scene,” says Christian Cappe, CEO of the MENA Cristal Festival. The three cornerstones of the Cristal event, which is spread usually over three to four days, are “convivial networking, intense learning and creative inspiration,” according to Cappe. He says that the choice of a ski resort to host the event is based on the fact that such setup creates a lively environment and allows for networking between advertising professionals.
Cappe also believes that the Festival’s success is attributed to two fundamental principles that have guided it since inception.
The first principle is to reinforce the relationship between clients and agencies. “We believe that the jury should not only be composed of creatives, but must include the clients who are directly in contact with the market and have a complementary point of view,” he says. And the second is to respect the cultural specificities of the different markets that the Cristal Festival covers. That is why the organizers insist on including in the jury local judges, who understand the local market, along with key international figures from the advertising world.

SHOW OF FORCE. With the rise of the Dubai Lynx Advertising Festival – staged annually in Dubai to reward regional advertising, and backed by the Cannes Ad Festival – and as more regional agencies reach out to compete on the global stage, questions arise about whether a festival like the MENA Cristal is still significant. It’s a moot point, according to local players.
“Although competing on an international level has higher value, regional competition should reflect a better understanding of the local markets,” says Walid Kanaan, executive creative director at Impact BBDO.
Nada Abi Saleh, deputy general manager at H&C Leo Burnett Beirut, couldn’t agree more. She thinks that the Cristal Festival has a double benefit: “It amplifies the role Lebanon plays as a beacon of creativity in the industry, whereas regionally it compliments the Dubai Lynx and helps uplift the standards of creativity in the MENA.”
Communicate asked Rami Traboulsi, creative director of Memac Ogilvy’s Beirut office, about those standards of creativity. Who are the agencies that will do well at 2010’s Cristals, for instance?
“Any agency that invests considerable amount of dollars and time to work on ghost ads,” is his reply. Traboulsi is hinting at some of the controversial entries that were disqualified from the Dubai Lynx last year, a scandal which nearly tore the regional advertising scene apart, and which seems to have undermined every local advertising competition.
The scale of the debacle was such that the “credibility of the ‘awards industry’ is becoming a major issue,” according to Kanaan. He believes, however, that all is not lost, and the trust and respect of the ad world “can be regained through a proper filtering of the submitted work prior to final judgment.”
Cappe says he was saddened by what happened at the Lynx, but stresses that the Cristal Festival has managed to avoid “these kind of issues.” Whether it’s the mix of the juries, the presence of clients or, in case of doubt, the elimination of some works, Cappe believes that the Cristal Awards does enough to maintain a reputation for credibility and transparency.

JUDGE THE JURY. The organizers must deliver credibility and transparency, but they are not the only ones. The juries are also a key cog in the machine, and in this part of the world there has been a debate about whether or not international jurors should be imported to judge local creativity.
“You cannot expect an international jury to know that certain charming parts of a woman’s body are not allowed to be exposed on GCC posters, or that showing Jesus taking photos of semi-naked nuns is considered a blasphemy in a sectarian country like Lebanon,” Kanaan says (in yet another reference to the Lynx contoversy).
Cappe explains that, to sidestep these kinds of issues, 50 percent of the Cristal jury is composed of regional clients who understand the local consumers, 25 percent of regional agencies, and 25 percent of international agency representatives. “Such a composition allows for the right understanding of local work, while at the same time it keeps the international judging standards in terms of creativity,” he says.
Advertising award shows have, over the past few years, come to accept that the ever-changing media landscape is turning the advertising game on its head. New categories have been added to competitions, such as Ambient, Digital/Cyber, Integrated and more. These accommodate and embrace the communications evolution.
The big wins of JWT at the MENA Cristal last year, the majority of which were from non-classical media, have led Ramsey Naja, the regional executive creative director at JWT MENA, to say that his agency is “pretty much future-ready.”
It’s a bold statement, but the thinking is clear: Advertising agencies have to open up their eyes and embrace change if they want to excel today, and, of course, tomorrow.
Cappe believes that the emergence of new media and the way it has reshaped the communications landscape is an undeniable fact. But he doesn’t think traditional media is finished yet; he says that both traditional and new media improve one another, and the incorporation of an Integrated category can balance that out.
Within such a context, many are eager to see how the 2010 Cristal Awards will unfold. Abi Saleh says it is difficult to predict, especially with entries pouring in from all over the MENA region, not only from Lebanon. But as far as Leo Burnett Beirut is concerned, “the expectations are high, especially after our performance last year, regionally and internationally.”
Cappe promises that the fifth edition of the festival has a few surprises in store, including “a very prestigious keynote international speaker who will be unveiled in January.” He or she be an addition to the already announced line up that includes Edward Boergerding, CEO of Abu Dhabi Media Company, who will also receive the Media Business Man of the Year title, and Osman Sultan, CEO of Du.
As agencies across the region prepare to flex their muscles at the show, Communicate is looking forward to seeing who will live up to the occasion and hit it big. Until then we’ll just have to contain ourselves, as Abi Saleh suggests: “Let us wait till February and not take the excitement out of the event.”