This honorary award, selected by the organisers of Dubai Lynx, is presented to an individual who has made significant contributions to advancing the reputation and profile of the communications industry in the MENA region.
Moutran was one of the first Lebanese advertising professionals to work in the Arabian Gulf. Arriving in Bahrain in 1973, he joined Intermarkets, the oldest advertising group in the Middle East.
In 1984 he set up his own agency, Middle East Marketing and Communications (MEMAC) in Bahrain with four people, one client, and US$13,000 capital. The company now boasts 15 offices in 13 markets with over 1,000 people serving 150 international, regional, and local brands. Clients include American Express, Coca-Cola, IKEA, VW, Al Marai, BAT, IBM, Unilever, Al Jazeera (airline), Al Jazeera (TV station) and Arab Bank, to name but a few.
In 1986, an international dimension was added to MEMAC's offering through an affiliation with Ogilvy & Mather. Twelve years later, following a minority equity ownership by Ogilvy, the company changed its name to Memac Ogilvy.
Under Eddie's leadership, in 2000 Memac Ogilvy opened the first OgilvyOne office in Dubai, focusing on Direct Marketing, CRM, and Interactive advertising; he also started Mindshare, claimed to be the first media investment agency in MENA, in a 50/50 partnership with JWT MENA, which together with its sister company MediaCom today has 16 offices around the region. Moutran continued to grow the business following Memac Ogilvy's cooperation with JWT MENA and the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) to establish the Arab Market Research Bureau (AMRB), which today is considered to be one of the Middle East's leading research specialists, with 5 offices across the region. In 2001 Memac Ogilvy took the natural step of developing a public relations offering. Headquartered in Dubai, Memac Ogilvy Public Relations now has 11 offices across MENA. In 2008 Moutran started OgilvyAction, specialising in brand activation, sales promotion, shopper marketing, retail merchandising and experiential marketing. Also in 2008, Moutran started a specialised design agency in partnership with the French organisation CB'a and CB'a Memac has slowly become one of the region's well established design agencies. Moutran was voted Man of the Year in 2002 by readers of Arab Ad Magazine.
Moutran will be honoured and presented with the Dubai Lynx Advertising Person 2014 accolade during the much anticipated Dubai Lynx awards ceremony and dinner to be held on Wednesday 12 March at the Madinat Jumeirah Arena in Dubai.
Delegate Registration: Open
1st Delegate Early Bird Discount: available until 31 December 2013
2nd Delegate Early Bird Discount: available until 30 January 2014
Entries: Open 1 December 2013
Early bird entry deadline: 30 January 2014
Entry deadline: 6 February 2014
Festival Dates: 9-11 March 2014
Dubai Lynx Awards: 12 March 2014
For more information go to www.dubailynx.com.
