2nd Dubai Lynx Awards entries cross the 2000 mark in 2008 March 29, 2008
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , trackbackThe 2nd Dubai Lynx Awards, part of the 1st Dubai International Advertising Festival to be held in Dubai, UAE, have received more than 2000 entries this year.
The awards for creative excellence in the Middle East have grown by around 20% by number of entries. 17 countries in the region are competing for the coveted Dubai Lynx trophies.
Entries for Dubai Lynx Awards 2008 – Break-up by category
As you can see, TV, Print and Radio categories have received almost as many entries as last year. The Outdoor category seems to have exploded this year jumping to almost twice the number of entries. Could this have to do with lots and lots of real estate ads? One hopes these are creative ones because size isn’t everything.
It’s heartening to see the new category ‘Media’ starting off strong with more than a hundred entries this year. Watching interesting media innovations would be interesting.
While Radio continues to reflect the little attention that is paid to it, and the general lack of creativity in the medium in the region, what is a little disappointing in the digital age is to see Interactive entries also trailing far behind press and TV.
The toughest competition is going to be in print as is obvious. Judging from last year’s entries and of course being a practising creative for half a decade here in the UAE, I had a feeling that Interactive and Radio would be easier to compete in, and that feeling was right after all.
The surprisingly low number of Integrated entries as opposed to single press, TV, outdoor entries may be the result of two factors. Some people feel that this region is less priented towards campaign thinking and more towards tactical one-off ads – resulting in some brilliant ads which cannot be strung together in a single campaign.
Also, at the time agencies were applying and submitting entries for Dubai Lynx, many people were finding it hard to understand the process of submitting ads as campaigns. What they were trying to figure out was whether 3-4 ads in a campaign have to be paid in full individually and submitted as ‘Integrated’ or is there another ‘Submit Campaign’ option. I think it was the former. Perhaps the ‘Submit Ads As Campaign’ process needs to be simplified next time.
What do you think is the reason for having more than 800 entries in Print alone and only 27 entries in Integrated? Are creative people in the region making brilliant ads but not brilliant campaigns? Are we too focused on short term creative flashes? Are our clients more concerned here about instant gratification?
Or did we just find it cheaper to submit many single ads than put lots of money on one campaign?
Your comments and insights and disagreements too are welcome in the ‘Comments’ section of this post…
Down memory lane: In the first Dubai Lynx Awards last year, this blog quite possibly had the world’s most extensive coverage with reports, views and pictures of winners. Have a look at these posts to get the feeling of what it’s like:
1. Dubai Lynx Winners (with pictures) Part 4 – Gold Winners in Print and TV/Cinema
2. Dubai Lynx Awards Winners Part 3 (with pictures) – Gold winners in Integrated and Interactive and Direct
3. Dubai Lynx Awards winners Part 2 (with pictures) – Gold Dubai Lynx for Outdoor advertising
4. Dubai Lynx Awards Winners Part 1 (with pictures and download links of Dubai Lynx winners): Global jury selects 111 top ads in the Middle East
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Comments»
interesting analysis…
too much print, just too much, and I guess outdoor is the cousin of print and that’s why there is that much of outdoor.
TV and Print catered more than 90% of the last year’s total spends, but I guess the reason that number of TV entries is lower than print is the production costs, and the advertising rates, in TV it’s much higher.
And I agree with you on the interactive part, hopefully it will catch.
Welcome Samer…
Very true – print’s where all the money is going and the entries reflect that.
In TV, I’m looking forward to what the guys from Egypt have for us this time
Hi Farrukh,
This is Richa from Wunderman. How are you doing?
Must say, you have some very interesting pieces here!
Just wanted to know if you’re going to be putting up this year’s Lynx Direct, Interactive and Media wins any time soon!
Everyone’s eagerly awaiting those.
Thanks!
Hi Richa,
I’m well. Good to see you here. Wunderman shone well at the Lynx!
Have had my hands full with lots of work and deadlines – will be putting up some select pics. Need to touch up and resize pics before uploading.
Will email you with some good stuff though.