Starcom Mediavest Group (SMG), one of the largest brand communications groups in the region, has won 4 Cristal Awards at this year’s ceremony, becoming the most awarded media agency of the year.

In a phenomenal start to 2012, SMG has also been named media agency of the year on the back of one of the most challenging years for the industry.

The Awards were won for Adidas, P&G Gillette in the hygiene/beauty sector, P&G Olay for targeting women, the Brand Protection Group for best use of media in addition to a special mention for work on General Motors in the automotive sector.

“The number of our shortlisted campaigns, the awards we have achieved and the variety of categories that we have been recognised in is a demonstration of the sheer diversity that we are capable of delivering. This has been our most successful year yet at the Mena Cristal Awards,” said CEO Filip Jabbour.

“Our success comes from having an established structure and a team that is capable of achieving outstanding results through truly impactful creative solutions,” he remarked.

Commenting on Adidas’s win in the youth segment, Ellen Meerendonk, the head of Brand Marketing, MEA at Adidas said: “We are proud to have our ‘Adidas all in’ campaign win a Cristal, especially because this campaign re-defined the Adidas brand and was aimed at youth all over the world.'

Michelle Tam, the digital manager, Olay brand said: 'We are very happy to have won this year with the ‘Eyes of Arabia’ campaign that highlighted Olay's product benefits, giving Saudi women a forum to express their creativity via their eyes.

'It was inspired by the core insight that Saudi women express themselves through their eyes,' Tam added.

Amjad Ali, brand manager, P&G Arabian Peninsula also shared his thoughts on Gillette’s win in the Men category saying: 'Starcom's winning idea for the Gillette Fusion Cool White ‘Man Up’ campaign perfectly illustrates how innovation can truly drive tangible business results when inspired by a strong local consumer insight.

Fadi Ghosn, the CMO at General Motors ME said: “With the shift in customer perception of pickups from being strictly utility vehicles to having more lifestyle application, we identified the segment as a potential growth opportunity in a very lifestyle-conscious region.'

'With limited resource to support the campaign, we relied on the team’s creativity to come up with a simple yet effective mechanism to create exposure and engagement for our line-up of pick-ups,' he stated.

'We are glad to have ‘Battle of the Garages’ win in the automotivesegment and this win reinforces our firm belief that winning campaigns almost always demonstrate proven business results, as was clearly the case this time.”

In addition to SMG’s awards ceremony triumph, the Agency worked with Mena Cristal Awards to create a content debate, moderated by Jabbour, with a panel consisting of industry heavyweights.

These included the likes of Ari Kesisoglu, the regional director Mena – Google, Hussein Freijeh, commercial director at Yahoo! Middle East and Tarek Daouk, Chief Integration and Innovation Officer at SMG.

Top digital talent Rayan Karaky, Managing Director, Vivaki digital, participated in a digital debate to discuss how digital, in an uncertain economic climate, can be a great source of growth for brands, agencies and media. -TradeArabia News Service