Team MENA wins Gold at Cannes Young PR Lions

MENA’s Judy Bakieh and Sarah Alsalem, account managers at Gambit Communications in Dubai, are the winners of this year’s Cannes Young PR Lions competition making them the first in their region to win this category. The team from Australia, Millie Clout and Bella Hayes won Silver, and from Germany, Rowan El-Goweiny and Odile Brefa claimed Bronze.

This year’s Young Lions PR competition brief was supplied by EcoTree, an NGO that sustainably manages forests and ecosystems, in which it asked competitors to create a PR strategy that effectively communicates their offering of carbon credits. At the global final, Judy and Sarah competed against 28 national winners, with their campaign #BestBadInvestment, to be crowned the world’s best young PR creatives.

PRCA Managing Director Renna Markson said: “Team MENA’s remarkable achievement of winning Gold at the Cannes Young PR Lions competition is a testament to their exceptional talent and creativity. Judy and Sarah have not only made history by becoming the first winners from their region in this category, but they have also demonstrated their ability to craft a compelling PR strategy that effectively communicates EcoTree’s brief. Their campaign stood out solidifying their position as the world’s best young PR creatives. We congratulate Judy and Sarah and look forward to witnessing their continued success in the field of PR.”

Judy Bakieh, Integrated Communications Manager at Gambit Communications, said: “We are proud and privileged to bring home the first ever Young PR Lions Gold to the MENA region, and even prouder to do it as part of an independent agency from Dubai. We knew that the Cannes PR Young Lions would be an opportunity for us to break some of the global stereotypes around Middle Eastern women, and showcase the talent, passion and potential that exists across the diverse countries that make up our region. I hope this win encourages the young talents in our region to get here and show what they can do.”

Sarah Alsalem, Account Manager at Gambit Communications, said: “We came to Cannes with one objective – bring home a Gold, and we did just that! We knew that with just 24 hours to put together a global campaign, competing against the best young minds from around the world, we needed to be brave enough to take risks and decisive in our creative decisions. That decisiveness saved us crucial time which allowed us to give the campaign an important touch of finesse in the final hours. Thank you to PRCA and the Cannes Festival of Creativity for the experience of a lifetime!”