The Oscars of the region, as far as ad campaigns go, are happening in Dubai this week.

As part of creative festival Dubai Lynx, a glam awards ‘do will take place on Wednesday, where the very brilliant campaigns from the last year get special recognition.

And with the awards just days away, here are just a snippet of the shortlisted campaigns, (see the full list here) that made you think, made you laugh and even possibly made you cry in the last year.

Shout out to the ad people

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1. #StubSugar – the campaign that made you reconsider adding sugar to your coffee

With a focus on health, this is the brilliant campaign by Aster Clinics that transformed sugar packets to look like cigarette stubs. The packets were strategically located across coffee shops in Dubai to make people seriously consider the damaging effects sugar can have on health. Aster also offered people free diabetes checks and resulted in a 39% increase in check-ups. Amazing.

Millions of people have identified the health community’s call to #quitsmoking, while, the deadly consequences of #sugaroverdose have been largely unnoticed.

Sugar is the new #Tobacco. It’s time to cut down on both

SMS STUB SUGAR to 7004 for a free diabetes check up. #StubSugar pic.twitter.com/Sls3bWykhT

— Aster Clinic (@AsterClinics) April 24, 2018

2. The Atlantis Fan Suite

Bypassing the million follower mark is a superb achievement for any brand, but Atlantis used the milestone to further promote the brand with a brilliant stunt.

Transforming a suite at Atlantis The Palm, into a millennial dream, (think Candy Crush in interactive mirrors, Palm Jumeirah views and the chance to ‘poke’ for room service) they offered mega-fans the chance to win a night stay in the room resulting in a worldwide news and PR and $3.2 million in earned media (from a campaign that cost Atlantis $200,000).

3. “We’re here for the losers”

Being there for the little guy.

McDonald’s targeted the fans of the losing teams of the FIFA world cup. Using their Facebook page, they posted over 100 pieces of content and in one month they hit at the emotional journey of football fans with quick, reactive content bringing eyeballs back to McDonald’s (a hard feat to achieve when McDonald’s isn’t a traditional world cup outlet as it doesn’t show matches).

Engaging fans with offers and promo codes, they saw +213% more engagement vs. category benchmark, an average increase of 77% in guest counts from June 2018 versus June 2014 leading to an 89% increase in sales versus the same period last year.

4. A social media black out from Mo Salah

When Egypt’s golden boy Mo Salah turns off his social media, people pay attention.

The footballer left 40 million people reeling when he posted a mysterious tweet ‘2019 resolution: Time to get in touch, for real’ on his feed before disappearing entirely from social media. But follow up posts have revealed it was the brainchild of DHL Express the global logistics firm and J. Walter Thomson who were sending the message of the importance of the ‘human network’.

The campaign was spotted worldwide, with an organic PR value listed at over $3.7million dollars, 90 million impressions, a reach of 31 million and $0.01 average cost per view (five times below the industry average).

5. One for the dogs

Dubai is a transient city and too often people leave and up sticks, leaving behind their cars, furniture and (this is the worst) their pets.

A brilliant campaign for K9 Friends by Saatchi & Saatchi wanted to raise awareness about people abandoning dogs in Dubai before leaving the country. They flooded the classified listings on Dubizzle with ‘second-hand-dog’ listings, highlighting the issue.

The campaign tackled the issues of pet abandonment and led to 24 dogs being adopted after being labeled as second-hand objects. Through further engagement, 219 dogs were adopted in the past year and earned $500k in earned media.

The agenda:

The next Dubai Lynx Festival is 10–12 March 2019 with the Dubai Lynx Awards on 13 March.

For more info, click here.