JEDDAH: Okaz Organization for Press and Publication will hire the three winners of the Okaz Creative Advertisement Award (OCAA) as part of its commitment to develop Saudi talent, said Dr. Waleed J. Kattan, Director General of the organization. At a press conference prior to the jury committee starting its work, he said he hoped to see more winners and more creativity than last year. This year's award has received much better response from advertisement companies and that was shown in the number of the entries submitted to OCAA, said Saleh Al-Turki, Chairman of the OCAA jury committee. “It is a difficult job to choose the winners because most of the entries submitted are about one client in one category. We hope to get more diversity in the next few years,” said Al-Turki. Rami Damanhori, a jury member, said there has been a major improvement in the quality of submissions, which is going to make it more difficult for jury members to decide the winners. Dr. Abdullah Bankhar, Secretary General of the award, said that OCAA is going to be an international prize after a gradual regional expansion of the participation. “Next year OCAA will get participation from Gulf countries and after that from Arab countries until it goes completely international,” said Bankhar. According to Al-Turki, this will give Saudi companies a better chance to learn from international experience and to enter a more competitive environment.
