Faisal Emir of Makah region, Prince Misha'l Bin Majed Bin Abdul Aziz, Governor of Jeddah, handed out the annual Okaz Creative Advertising Awards (OCAA) at a glittering function at Jeddah Hilton, Tuesday. This is the third such award instituted by Okaz Organization for Press and Publication to support the advertisement industry and reward those who produce quality artworks which are genuinely creative. The event, hosted by two young Saudi Radio presenters Trad Bsunbul and Dina Rida from Mix FM, was attended by prominent figures in media industry, members of the diplomatic corpse and scores of local and international journalists. Waleed J. Kattan, Director General of Okaz Organization, described the awards, which have a designated website through which it received this some 440 entries for this year's competition, a chance to give Saudi media and advertising organizations and individual talents a platform to showcase their work. “We are very proud to have succeeded for the third year in a row in attract creative and talented hands from reputed advertising agencies in the Kingdom to take part in the competition. We hope to see the awards go international soon,” Kattan said. Speaking on behalf of Saleh Al-Turki, Chairman of the OCAA Jury Committee, Dr. Catharine Carlel said that the award was unique in the region where it involved special and more developed categories. “The submitted works have impressed us,” he said. The Saudi Talent category included three winners: The first winner was Lamya'a Mgaibel with a prize of SR75,000, followed by Dania Basrawi for the SR50,000 award and finally Mohammad Sobhi Al-Sefyani won the third prize worth SR25,000. Tahani Saeed Al-Darraji was given the SR15,000 supportive award. Khalid Abdullah Al-Malki was awarded with a Laptop as the youngest participant. The Investment Bank Print Advertising category winners were as follows: gold award went this year to Full Stop Agency, silver to Impact BBDO and the bronze award was won by Memac Ogilvy. In Food the Beverage category, Leo Burnett won the gold medal, Memac won the silver, and In Communication took the bronze. However, the social responsibility advertising category's gold and bronze awards were taken by Full Stop. In the Telecom Services, Mobile Telephones and Computers the silver award went to Full Stop and bronze was won by JWT advertising. This year no gold award was given in this category. The Radio ads category saw three winners with gold and bronze for Memac, two silvers for JWT and Leo Burnett. Memac clinched the gold and bronze awards in the Outdoor category whereas two silver awards went to JWT and Leo Burnett. In TV Commercials for Consumer Products category, silver and bronze awards were given to In Communication and the gold was won by Leo Burnett. TV For social responsibility category prizes were won by Full Stop with bronze and gold and 3Points won the second gold prize. Finally, the award of the Agency of the Year was handed over by Prince Misha'l to Full Stop. __
