Culture & Education | Friday 13 May, 2016 5:05 am |

MENA Effie successfully hosted its 2nd MENA Effie Bootcamp on 9th May, which saw Effie Worldwide President & CEO Neal Davies join social media gurus from YouTube, Google, Twitter and Facebook in providing highly valuable insights to attendant Marketing professionals. 

The intensive, practical, one-day programme on how to produce a numerically robust, intellectually compelling MENA Effie award entry also saw workshops judged by an esteemed panel of experts. The highly-prized MENA Effie awards will be on 23rd November 2016 and have 23 categories, with new accolades this year for Healthcare Services, Branded Content and Seasonal Marketing. The Effie network extends across premium research and media organizations around the globe to deliver relevant and first-class insights into effective marketing strategy to its audience. 

The event opened with a key note speech by CEO of Mediaquest Alexandre Hawari, followed by President & CEO of Effie Worldwide Neal Davies, who provided Effie’s experiences in setting objectives and building a communications model. 

A stimulating and comprehensive agenda included Google’s Head of Creative Agencies MENA Alex Brunori discussing successful online videos and content strategy; Fadi Yaish, Regional Executive Creative Director – Impact BBDO Dubai, and PepsiCo’s Senior Marketing Director Beverages MENA Ahmed Abdel-Karim on how defining a brand’s purpose and bringing it to life can provide inspiration and Facebook agency partner MEAP’s Sheelah Odedra discussing MENA’s insatiable appetite for mobile and the mass consumption of video content.

Tahaab Rais, Regional Head of Planning at FP7 MENA (Part of McCann Worldgroup), led a session about creating an effective Effie case study, what it takes to make them effective in the real world and, thus, Effie worthy. A participatory workshop was also judged by Asad Rehman from Unilever & Shaf Butt from Jumeirah Group. 

Co-CEO of Mediaquest, Alexander Hawari, said: “We at Mediaquest thoroughly enjoyed hosting this event and everyone including ourselves benefited from the wisdom shared. It also provided an excellent opportunity to gain greater awareness of successful strategies and ways of working familiarise and ourselves with the names we have all learned from in the region.”

President & CEO Effie Worldwide, Neal Davies said: “I thoroughly enjoyed participating at the MENA workshop for the first time and I learned a great deal from our distinguished guests. The workshops provided an interesting set of insights and parameters that are invaluable not only for those wishing to provide a winning Effie entry, but also provide top-class expertise from industry leaders that can be applied to ensure successful Marketing strategies for MENA and beyond.”