Leading practitioners in digital advertising were honoured excellence in the use of digital technology and media during the recently held Mena Digital Awards in Dubai, UAE.

The third edition of the event followed the success of the fifth Digital Media Forum, which was held earlier that day.

“The highly successful staging of the Mena Digital Awards this year continues the standard set in its two previous editions in terms of recognising the very best digital marketing activities and strategies in the region,” said Najla Semaan Mazboudi, CEO of SpotOn Media Services and Events and founder of the Digital Media Forum and Mena Digital Awards.

“Having been established back in 2014 to promote best practices in creativity, effectiveness, innovation and planning and ultimately acknowledge excellence and success across the digital marketing sector, the MDA are now rightly considered as the benchmark ceremony for the top digital marketing talent in the region.”

Joseph Ghossoub, who was the founder of The Holding Group, now known as MenaCOM Group was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Advertising Industry for his contribution in the region’s adverting and media sector for the past four decades.

In addition, the Mena Digital Awards featured 20 categories, under the clusters of six groups: Performance, Mobile, Social Media, Integrated, Special and the new addition this year, Digital Assets. The group of 23 jurors also awarded the Grand Prix, Agency of the Year and Network of the Year.

Ghossoub said: "It is an honor to receive the lifetime achievement award from the Mena Digital Awards 2016.  It has been a tremendous journey over the last four decades and to see how the industry has progressed over the years in this region makes me proud to have been a part of it. The future is brimming with possibility and I can't wait to see what the next generation will do with it."

The Mena Digital Awards 2016 rounded off this year’s Digital Media Forum, which was held under the banner: ‘The Future Re-Starts.’ It was the fifth and latest instalment in the DMF programme since its inception in 2011 and followed on from only the second-ever staging of DMF Cairo in November last year. – TradeArabia News Service