judged the work, missed the night, and signed up for round two.
This year Activation Ideas started doing more than collecting great work. The site got rebuilt. I helped shape AskMaud, AdForum’s AI that actually knows the work. And Activation Ideas became Knowledge Partner of Dragons of MENA, which meant helping build an award show instead of just writing about one.
Compared to other regions, work from MENA is harder to come across unless it wins big at Cannes. Judging Dragons of MENA, I got to see campaigns from countries we rarely hear from, from Oman to Tunisia, made by experiential shops, PR firms, consultancies and brands entering their own work. Much of it I’d never have found otherwise, and it’s good.
In my previous post I said activation is usually treated as an afterthought. Here it was the main event.
No Paws Left Behind for MARS UAE took Gold in Event or Experiential and made Momentum ME the first Dragons of MENA Agency of the Year. In a year when families left the UAE and too many pets were left behind, it gave people something small to do about it, which beats being told to care.
Porsche x The Black Mambas won the Blue Dragon for Best Campaign in the UAE. Porsche built and donated a rapid-response Cayenne for the world’s first all-female anti-poaching unit.
The full list of winners has plenty more. And the jury left Social Media without a winner, because nothing was good enough. Good call by the show.
I’d seen this work long before the trophies came out, and I was sorry to miss the night in Dubai. Activation Ideas stays on as Knowledge Partner for 2027. Next time, I hope to be in the room. Julián Hernández, take note.
