WARC has announced its judging panel for the 2024 WARC Middle East and Africa Awards.
In partnership with LIONS, the awards will be strategic and impactful in 12 categories as selected by the jury.
“We have assembled an outstanding group of highly qualified and highly respected professionals from across the region to bring expertise and cultural knowledge to the judging process,” said John Bizzell, Head of Awards at WARC.
All the jury are from the Middle East and Africa region.
Familiar names from the Middle East advertising industry include Khaled Al Shehhi, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications at the UAE Government Media Office and Omnicom Media Group CEO Elda Choucair.
Al Shehhi will lead the judging panel for the Channel Integration, Channel Pioneer, Partnerships & Sponsorships, Path to Purchase, Use of Data categories as Jury President.
He will be joined by Elda Choucair and Qatar Airways Vice President Marketing, Babar Rahman.
Industry professionals from the African region include Mindshare Tunisia General Manager Yssem Saadi, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Head of Brand Yvonne Gyefour, Starcom East Africa/ALB Media Director Christine Amisi-Bwire, Old Mutual Chief Marketing Officer, Mosala Phillips and Dawn Rowlands, Dentsu’s Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa
The Brand Purpose, Business-to-Business, Cultural Impact, Customer Experience, Instant Impact, Long-term Growth categories will be judged by Gugu Mthembu, Telkom’s Chief Marketing Officer.
The judging panel from the Middle East region includes TBWA RAAD Lebanon Chief Creative Walid Kanaan, Wunderman Thompson Saudi Head of Strategy and Planning Rawad El Dahouk, Juman Sleiman, Senior Strategist at Imagination Middle East and Dina El-Dessouky, the head of Strategy & Insight. Leo Burnett ME.
Joining from Africa are Riaya Industries CMO Souheil Badaa, OmniRetail Technology CEO Deepankar Rustagi and Neema Masinde, Regional Lead Marketing Communications & Integrated Media at Beiersdorf Kenya.
A new category, Strategic Thinking, is also being added this year.
The judging panel for the new category will be chaired by Carolyne Kendi, the Chief Marketing Officer of Absa Kenya PLC.
The judging panel includes Impact BBDO Head of Strategy Anton Reyniers, Gray Group Qatar Head of Strategy Maria Parsons and Anastasia Kim, Head of Creative Strategy at Google UAE.
They will be joined by Microsoft Africa’s Head of National Digital Transformation, Angela Vic Kyerematen-Jimoh and Thinkerneur’s Chief Strategy Officer & Founder, Bogosi Motshegwa.
Finally, the jury is completed with Fred Akinmuyisitan, Head of Portfolio Strategy, CMI and Marketing Capabilities, Nigerian Breweries Plc (Heineken Nigeria) and Tahaab Rais, Group Chief Strategy Officer, Publicis Groupe in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.
The jury will award Gold, Silver and Bronze awards in the 12 categories.
The jury chairs of all regional awards β Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America and North America β will then form a super jury to award the Grand Prix, selected from all the regional Golds.