MMA Announced SMARTIES MENA 2021 Winners offering the Region’s first tokenized awards ‘SMARTIES NFT EDITION’!

MMA SMARTIES honoured the most innovative and effective modern marketing campaigns that ran across the Middle East and North Africa region during 2021 at the Awards Ceremony held after the inspiring MMA MENA SMARTIES Creativity & Innovation Days Event. This year SMARTIES MENA Awards were given in a unique NFT format known as ‘SMARTIES MENA INTO THE METAVERSE’, the first tokenized awards in the region. Istanbul based artist, Efe Balun created 4 exclusive animated artworks representing the Smarties trophy categories (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Industry Awards). All winners were prized with a unique art work.

MMA MENA SMARTIES Creativity & Innovation Days 2021 brought together Marketing Thought Leaders, Tech Experts and Researchers. The all-day event hosted MENA thought leaders from leading brands of the marketing ecosystem. Asma Shabab, from Accenture, made a striking introduction about ‘The Metaverse Imperative: Exploring marketing’s future in the internet of tomorrow’ for the event opening. ‘Embrace the Art of Marketing Science’ session held by Tony Evans, Meta, enlightened the attendees about learning the keys to developing modern marketing mix models that accurately capture the value of one’s digital efforts and what the future holds for marketers after the IOS 14 changes have made attributing value more difficult.

As the CEO of Female Fusion, Jen Blandos shared the insights on entrepreneurship, women in business, women in the workplace, health, wellness and resilience.

At the Innovation & Creativity panel, Devrim Melek, Senior VP, Strategy, OSN, Dr. Tamer Eltoni From Etisalat and Nurcan Bıçakçı Arcan from SAS expressed their opinion on the role of the CMO and discussed how marketers need to adapt their skillset and mindset to excel at their duties and advance the company. The session was followed by ‘New Era Of Marketers - What is the Future of Social Media Platforms’ panel where FAHAD OSMAN, Regional Head of Marketing, Tiktok, SOUHEIL SOUEID, Head of Advertising Product & Solutions, MENA, Google, JULIE CAIRONI BECK, Marketing - MENA Regional Head, Snap Inc., TERRY KANE, Director – MENAT, Meta shared the new trends on social media of the leading platforms.

One of the remarkable sessions of the event was ‘The Creative Effectiveness Formula’ panel led by subject matter experts: JESSICA USENBOR, Director of Product, Diversified Services and Partnerships OMG MENA, MAYANK GARG, Digital, CaST & Creative Partnerships Lead, GSK, SYED MANSOOR HUSSEIN, Category Marketing Leader, International Flavors & Fragrances as they shared their views on how brands can take the relationship between effectiveness and creativity and use it to lead different areas of thought, innovation, and earn their way into the cultural conversation.

Record Number of Case Submissions in 2021 Compared to Previous Years!

The aspect that set this year’s SMARTIES Awards apart from the previous years is the Business Transformation Themes considering the events affecting the world such as Covid-19. There were twice as more campaigns submitted to take the coveted SMARTIES trophy home compared to last year. The esteemed jury consisted of marketing thought leaders from MENA, who voted to choose MMA MENA SMARTIES 2021’s winning campaigns after a long and dedicated process of evaluation among more than two hundred submissions.

Gold, Silver and Bronze SMARTIES MENA 2021 Industry Awards were presented to the winners at the Awards Ceremony at Rixos Premiıum JBR in Dubai and honored as the most successful Media Agency, Technology Enabler, Ad Network, Advertiser and Best in-show.