Dubai creatives join forces for good of industry

A group of Dubai creatives have come together to establish a club designed to break down agency barriers and represent the community with a single voice.

The new ‘Creative Club’ had its inaugural meeting last night and included creative directors and executive creative directors from Y&R, FP7, Tonic, JWT, Lowe, TBWA\Raad and Brandcom.

The group, which has found a home courtesy of Sam Ahmed at Studio Central, will be meeting monthly. It will also be forming an executive committee and has elected Marc Lineveldt (pictured), executive creative director of FP7 Dubai, as the inaugural chairman.

The aim is for the forum to become a focal point for senior creatives, all of whom are being encouraged to join the club and help combine the opinions of Dubai’s creative community into a single voice.

The Creative Club follows on from the defunct Creative Directors Forum, which was formed in 2005 by many of the creative directors present last night, including Lineveldt, Vincent Raffray from Tonic, and Manoj Ammanath from Brandcom.

“This is very much what Marc and I wanted to do in the first place,” said Raffray. “What’s different is that in Studio Central we have a great place to meet and a real commitment. It’s a better environment and with all the issues that have been happening recently it’s a good time to get together for the benefit of the community. The goal is to give a voice to the region’s creatives and to raise creative standards.”

Disappointment at D&AD, optimism at Clios

Middle East ad agencies have failed to gain any nominations at this year’s D&AD Awards despite D&AD nominating a record 165 entries.

DDB London and BBDO Proximity Malaysia are the two most shortlisted agencies, with 10 and five respectively.

Of the 20,000 pieces of work judged, 717 entries have gone In-Book and will be included in the D&AD Annual as a record of the best work in advertising and design this year. The annual will be published in September and the only Middle East entry will be The Classic Partnership Advertising in the graphic design/stationery category for Tearproof for Prasad Karmarkar.

There was more positive news from the Clios earlier this week, however, where six pieces of regional work are shortlisted. Y&R is shortlisted three times for its ‘Cause & Effect’ work for Harvey Nichols and its ‘Graves’ ads for Eye Bank Association of India; while TBWA\Raad Dubai has two shortlisted pieces of work and Grey Dubai one. TBWA\Raad Saudi Arabia also picked up the country’s first shorlisted entry for its ‘Miniature magazines’ work for Masa Pest Control.