The Okaz Creative Advertising Awards (OCAA) competition has focused on discovering new, young Saudi talent in the advertising market to help the evolution of media advertising in the Middle East where the Kingdom is the major market. And women are believed to help the evolution. The advertising industry has long been male dominated. Rami Damanhouri, an OCAA jury member, said. “There is no difference between the male and the female role in any business, but I was impressed with the quality of work submitted by the female participants.” “I believe that hosting and sponsoring these talents is very important so that these young people can get the experience they need to build a successful career,” he added. Dr. Kathryn Blee Carlyle, an OCAA jury member, said that advertising in the Kingdom has always been very passive. “In the past, they brought people from the outside and told them what they needed,” she said. The Kingdom was now more concerned about what is being sold to its citizens which was, in her opinion, the fundamental change that has happened here. Fahad Hameed Al-Deen, an OCAA jury member, said “Our universities do not have departments in this major and this is very disturbing. The market is spending billions of riyals on advertising but we are not benefiting from it yet.”
