Leo Burnett gathers 200 to predict Cannes Lion winners

Guests competed to see whose eye for excellence would most closely reflect results from this year's International Advertising Festival.

Nearly 200 clients, journalists and Leo Burnett Dubai creatives attended the annual event, which was held at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel's Meyana Auditorium and buzzed with the excitement that comes from viewing top creative work. Guests had a chance to view 50 of the world's most creative and innovative advertisements and then pick their favourites. The person who identified the most Lions will win a trip to next year's festival.

"Competitions are one of the best ways to drive excellence of craft. That's what Cannes does for the global industry; it's what the Lynx Awards do for the MENA region and, in our own way, that's what we are doing with the Cannes Prediction Night," said Raja Trad, CEO of the Leo Burnett Group of Companies, Middle East and North Africa. "Comparing and judging great work generates interesting conversation about what makes for stand-out advertising - something that's all the more beneficial when done with clients."

Launched in 1987 by Leo Burnett Worldwide, the Cannes Prediction Night is held in dozens of markets around the world in the weeks leading up to the festival. The reel has predicted 16 of the past 18 Grand Prix winners.

Kamal Dimachkie, Managing Director of Leo Burnett Dubai and Kuwait, said that delivering to a superior creative standard is a core element of the brand agency's ethos, since four times a year Leo Burnett Worldwide holds an internal review that evaluates work from the agency's different offices against a single global standard.

"This means that every time we are developing a big idea for a campaign, or our creatives are conceiving a commercial, we know that the work will be compared - not only with ads developed down the road - but with work generated out of offices in places like Chicago, London, Madrid, Sao Paolo and Hong Kong," Dimachkie said.

Leo Burnett Worldwide compiles the reel from the best TV work developed during the year, irrespective of which agency produced it. The commercials cover a full range of industries, products, services and geographies.

Malek Ghorayeb, Executive Regional Creative Director for Leo Burnett MENA, added that awards and competitions are not ends in themselves. Numerous studies, including ones by Leo Burnett, consistently show that award-winning advertisements deliver strong business results. "We never forget why we are looking for big ideas, fresh angles and stand-out work. These have been shown to build brands and deliver bottom-line benefits to clients."

The rules of the evening were simple. The attendees watched the 50 commercials and then selected the 20 they thought were most likely to be awarded Lions by the Cannes juries. After the Festival concludes on June 23, ballots will be counted, and the guest who had predicted the most awards will be declared the winner.