A new advertising competition for the brightest young creative minds in the Middle East has been launched to highlight one of the world’s most under-diagnosed diseases.

 

The Young Lynx Print Competition, a feature of the upcoming Dubai Lynx Festival, which will run from March 6 to 8 at Madinat Jumeirah, will call upon advertising executives under the age of 30 to come up with a creative solution to raising awareness of a health condition which will be revealed to the competitors when they receive their brief on March 7.

 

The new competition is part of a wider healthcare cause to inspire the advertising industry to contribute time, energy and ideas to helping people and communities in need and is supported by healthcare communications agency Benchmark Middle East and in collaboration with a pharmaceutical company AbbVie.

 

Mohamed Hammad, founder and managing director at Benchmark Middle East, is on a mission to encourage advertising associates and colleagues in the Middle East to use a small fraction of their agency resources for good causes.  

 

“Our participation in this competition, in collaboration with a biopharmaceutical company Abbvie, is an innovative way to inspire the industry to help our local communities, to launch unique healthcare campaigns and ultimately work in a responsible, ethical and collaborative way," he said.

 

“This competition is a fantastic opportunity for young talent to get noticed by some of the region’s top players and, most importantly, help a worthy cause.”

 

The teams of young executives from an array of international and regional advertising agencies will have only 24 hours to develop a unique, thought provoking and meaningful campaign to raise awareness of the disease, educate the masses about the symptoms and treatments, position a dedicated Middle East website as a trustworthy source of information, and encourage sufferers to seek treatment.

 

The winning campaign will be selected by a panel of judges and then be considered for implementation by the healthcare advertising professionals at Benchmark Middle East later this year.

 

Sami Abi Nakhoul, general manager of AbbVie South Gulf Countries, said: “Innovation and creativity are becoming crucial to differentiate and establish sustainable branding for a product, and who is better than a passionate and free youth to innovate and come up with eye catching ideas.

 

“Our participation as a biopharmaceutical company is to encourage such competitions and initiatives to also address noble causes such as disease awareness and support for patients who really need help and guidance to manage their diseases with the right healthcare professional, and improve the standards of care in the communities we operate.”

 

Benchmark Middle East has received international recognition in recent years when two campaigns won Guinness World Records.  

 

The ‘One Heart Health’ initiative saw more than 8,600 people receive blood sugar level checks during an eight-hour diabetes screening, while its ‘Dubai Against Diabetes’ campaign lit a record 11,022 lightbulbs to represent the number of Stay Strong app downloads by UAE residents.

 

The agency is also the creative mind behind the not-for-profit support network, Adel Sukkar, a fictional Arabic character diagnosed with diabetes who offers advice to those living with the condition.  

 

“During my presentation at Dubai Lynx, I will talk about our experiences in creating and launching the Adel Sukkar character and why we felt it was an important cause for our agency, despite it not making us any monetary profit.  I want to encourage my peers in this region to launch just one campaign a year that can help a group or community in need,” Hammad added. - TradeArabia News Service