UAE, 03 June: The MMA have revealed the winners of the esteemed SMARTIES MENA and SMARTIES KSA Awards. The annual programmes honour the most effective modern marketing across MENA and KSA, celebrating creativity and shining a light on innovation in marketing excellence.

The SMARTIES evolve with modern marketing as the industry innovates each year. The awards focus on the latest innovations in e-commerce, social media, and MarTech, enabling excellence in business results that have a positive impact on people’s lives. As a result, the category names and descriptions have been updated to align with the latest industry trends. SMARTIES 2024 finalists were awarded across six channels including: Marketing Impact, Purpose Driven Marketing, Impact Media, Emerging Technology Marketing, E-commerce Marketing and Creative.

The glamourous SMARTIES MENA gala took place at The Rixos, JBR with over 100 trophies across 30 categories presented by Laura Naylor.

Amongst the 28 gold prizes awarded that night, “The Homecoming Initiative”

for Home Centre by Publicis Groupe – Leo Burnett Dubai took home three top gongs across Social Impact Marketing, Brand Purpose / Activism and Diversity and Inclusion categories. “The Homecoming Initiative” was also awarded best in show, alongside “Ride to Freedom” for Dosy by Publicis Groupe – Zenith Middle East as the highest scoring campaigns in SMARTIES MENA 2024.

The standout winners of the night were, Miral Destination as Advertiser of the Year, Publicis Groupe – Leo Burnett, as Creative Agency of the Year, Publicis Groupe – Zenith Middle East as Media Agency of the Year, Blis and Inmobi as Technology Provider of the Year.

One particular highlight of the evening included revealing the winner of the hotly contested Social / Influencer Commerce award. The gold award went to Initiative Media and Momentum MENA for their ‘Let’s meet again on YAS Island’, Miral Destinations campaign. The SMARTIES MENA judges were particularly impressed with the submission, commenting on the innovative approach.

The inaugural SMARTIES KSA ceremony took place at Hyatt Regency Olaya, Riyadh with 90 awards across 29 categories. 

The most highly scored campaigns, awarded best in show by the esteemed judging panel were “The Lay’s Heist” for PepsiCo AMESA by, Science & Sunshine, and “Qiddiya Global Launch” for Qiddiya Investment Company by EssenceMediacom. The Industry Awards were awarded to Almarai and Aramco for Advertiser of the Year. The Creative Agency of the Year went to Publicis Groupe – Leo Burnett. The Media Agency of the Year was won by Publicis Groupe – Spark Foundry. The Technology Enabler of the Year saw Smartifai pickup the win and the Marketing Platform of the Year was awarded to Arabyads.

Melis Ertem, CEO, MEA (Türkiye | Middle East | Africa), MMA Global said “This year has been phenomenal for the SMARTIES MENA and the inaugural KSA Awards. We received a record-breaking number of submissions across all categories, showcasing exceptionally high-quality campaigns. The success of SMARTIES highlights the vitality of our marketing industry and reinforces our belief that collaborative efforts can shape the future. From the success of the newly launched KSA Awards we are delighted to announce that we will be launching SMARTIES Egypt in 2024. Congratulations to all the winners for their outstanding work.”

You can view the SMARTIES MENA winners here

You can view the SMARTIES KSA winners here