Middle East Tops Shortlist for First Time

For the first time ever, agencies from the Middle East have topped the shortlist totals at the Cresta Awards. 

European and US agencies are more usually seen heading up the finalist table, but this year marks a breakthrough. The top spot goes to BigTime Creative Shop from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a grand total of 19 shortlisted entries. Just one behind them, with 18 entries, is Publicis Groupe Middle East.  

More familiar service is returned with Serviceplan/Plan.Net of Germany putting in a typically strong performance with 17 finalists. And lurking ominously as potential major winners are multiple agencies with strong work from across the BBDO and Dentsu networks. 

“It’s terrific to see both fresh and familiar stand-out performances with our shortlist,” commented Cresta Awards CEO Lewis Blackwell. “We have been to the fore in the past few years in recognising the growth in quality and quantity of creative work and creative strategy coming out of the Middle East. Our jury has clearly been further persuaded of those credentials this year, and the finalist roll consolidates it.  Of course, the ultimate test now is how much of that can convert into big winners next week.”

He predicted that next week’s winners reveal would “look set to cast the limelight on significant emerging trends and tendencies”. 

For more than 30 years, the Cresta Awards has focused on a highly independent approach dedicated to identifying and promoting creativity in communication. Its jury is deliberately kept apart, with expert practitioners sharing their individual opinions without any ‘groupthink’, which can often apply in other approaches to judging and jury management. Cresta votes are compiled and averaged with no intrusion of a dominant individual or group into the decisions. The overall Jury Chair, which this year is Helen Pak, SVP of Creative - Marketing, Design and Content at Disney, reviews the decisions but has “no authority to change what the vote maths say”, explained the organisers, who are committed to representing as fairly as possible the full range and balance of views across a diverse jury. Instead, the chair gets to make a personal statement in identifying key works that may merit special consideration.