Top digital advertising awards in the Cannes for Emirates

The creative wing of the carrier, along with London-based advertising agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine, picked up a Gold award for its Nonstop Fernando campaign, a Silver accolade for a brand campaign and a Bronze for Nonstop Fernando in the advertising category.

The Non-stop Fernando campaign revolved around a Brazilian man talking non-stop about his home city of Sao Paulo to promote Emirates' first push into South America. The lively character talks for 14 hours 40 minutes - the same length as the flight from Dubai to Sao Paulo.

The brand campaign involved cleverly constructed online video banners which allowed viewers to 'step' into moving footage and experience first hand the destination they were seeing. The banners ran on numerous websites in the UK, UAE and Australia and were seen by millions.

Mike Simon, Emirates' Divisional Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, said:

'These awards represent the best of the best in advertising so we are particularly pleased with this international endorsement. It is also further evidence that we are very much on course, online. We work extremely hard at Emirates to do things differently and these video banners provide a real journey of discovery for users. As for Fernando, well - he speaks volumes about what we're about.'

The International Advertising Festival, held recently in Cannes, is the largest gathering of worldwide advertising professionals and advertisers. This year, more than 9,500 registered delegates from 85 countries, along with thousands of visitors, attended. The event - also known as Cannes Lions - was inspired by the International Film Festival, which has been staged in Cannes since the 1940s.

Cannes will become even more accessible via the Emirates' network as of December 1st when flights between nearby Nice and Dubai become non-stop, five times a week.