The deadline for entries to the Okaz Creative Advertising Awards ended Friday and judges will now deliberate contributions ahead of the awards ceremony on Oct. 20. Awards secretary Abdullah Banakhar told Saudi Gazette that the ceremony would be attended by Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah. The Emir, Banakhar said, “has given his full support to the awards from day one.” “Advertising in Saudi Arabia is a big business, but unfortunately the number of Saudis working in this creative field is extremely limited,” Banakhar said. To rectify that, the Okaz Creative Advertising Awards seek to encourage Saudis with ten prizes in categories including print media, television, radio, public services, marketing and creative media. Recent moves have hinted at promise, however, with the talent-spotting work of the Mawheba organization and advertising programs now running at King Abdulaziz University and the all-female Dar Al-Hekma College. “Women compromise over half of the contestants in the ‘Saudi Talent' award category,” Banakhar said. “However, we still need to see more effort at both home and school to encourage creativity in young children. A lot of talent is going unnoticed.” Banakhar lamented the lack of an association of advertisers to protect the sector, despite repeated calls to follow the lead of engineers and lawyers who have reaped the benefits of similar organizations. “An Okaz symposium for advertisers and advertising agencies last year and in the presence of the former Minister of Culture and Information saw 300 attendees call for an association to help protect and improve advertising work, but it hasn't happened and we continue to lose large amounts of money because of it,” he said. Banakhar added that the laws required updating more frequently, noting that advertising agency licenses were currently the same as those for signboard writing firms. “Over 10,000 advertising agency licenses have been granted but less than 100 are actually used in advertising work,” he said. “Despite their small number advertising agencies are doing some good work, as we have seen in recent advertising campaigns between telecommunications companies which have shown a high degree of cultural intelligence, and that can only be good for the consumer,” Banakhar said. Advertisers, however, should beware of exceeding certain boundaries of acceptability in a “conservative community”. “It is acceptable to tell the truth in a nice way without making cultural attacks on competitors,” he said. – SG Nevertheless, Banakhar has high hopes for advertising in the region and for the awards themselves. “We are continuing to forge ahead with the Okaz Organization Awards after the Saudi Research and Marketing Group awards were stopped in 2004, and in three years we hope to include GCC and Arab countries,” Banakhar said.
