OMD, part of the Omnicom Media Group, was named Media Network of the Year at the recent 2012 Mena Cristal Festival, a regional advertising event held annually in Lebanon.

The accolade is the result of its strong showing in the media category, where OMD won two awards and a special mention, and a number of shortlisted entries in this and three other competitions in the festival, said a statement. These entries came from several offices in its Mena network.

The two awarded campaigns were OMD Cairo’s “El Balad Baladna” for Persil (Henkel) and OMD UAE’s “Weather report” for telecoms company du.

Persil’s El Balad Baladna (The Country Is Ours) CSR initiative rallied people through various media platforms to clear and clean the streets of Egypt after the unrest and street cleaners’ strike. It was the innovation on TV that led the jury to award a Cristal for du’s ‘One World One Rate’ price plan campaign, as it integrated its message into the maps of  daily TV weather reports.

“OMD’s 20 shortlisted entries from the UAE, Egypt and Lebanon demonstrate that creativity knows no boundaries and that the innovative spirit and expertise are a constant across our network,” said Elie Khouri, CEO of Omnicom Media Group Mena.
“This award highlights further the consistency of our offering across the region and I would like to applaud all our offices for their determination in making the difference for our clients, not just for awards, but every day with ideas that work.”

The Media Cristal are awarded to media strategies based on their originality, target relevance, creativity and performance.

Winners are selected from entries in 12 categories by a panel of senior executives from international and regional agencies and marketers. OMD was also named Media Agency of the Year at the Mena Cristal in both 2010 and 2011, the statement said. - TradeArabia News Service