Ali Rez, CCO of Impact BBDO and a member of the BBDO Asia Creative Council, is the most awarded creative leader in the Middle East, and currently leads creative output for the IMPACT BBDO Group across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan region.
During more than eight years at Impact BBDO, Ali’s work has been instrumental in Impact BBDO being named the No.2 Agency In The World on the WARC report. Last year, Impact BBDO was named Agency of the Year at MAD STARS, and won Honorary International Award with AnNahar Newspaper as well as 40 other awards, including 2 Grands Prix. This year, the agency’s impressive haul of MAD STARS awards included Grand Prix of the Year in Public Service Advertising for Child Wedding Cards for UN Women. Child Wedding Cards also won the Health Grand Prix for Good and a Gold Lion in the Health and Wellness category and the 2024 Cannes Lions.
Where did the idea for Child Wedding Cards come from? What client brief did it answer?
Ali Rez: As part of its commitment to purposeful work, IMPACT BBDO has had a very long brand partnership with UN Women – almost about eight years now. Every year we launch at least one campaign for them in the region. Sometimes this answers a specific brief, other times we address a running issue with a proactive solution. The Child Wedding Cards were an answer to the ongoing unfortunate practice of child marriage in Pakistan. It directly addressed a continuous client brief around this issue.
At MAD STARS 2024 it was said that part of Child Wedding Cards’ greatness was that it was extendable to other countries? Any plans? Does local knowledge/relevance trump universality. What are the pros and cons of each?
Ali Rez: The idea for Child Wedding Cards as a medium can be applied to any country that has a similar custom of endangering children’s futures. And there are quite a few – including, believe it or not, the United States where child marriage in a number of states is still legal. We would of course love to extend the campaign to wherever it can bring about a positive change. In Pakistan, the campaign was specifically targeted to members of parliament. The same mechanism can easily be deployed in other countries. And that’s the power of a big idea. Where the local knowledge comes into play is at the execution stage, where cultural icons and language were brought into play.
Impact BBDO has built an impressive collection of top award-winning work in recent years? What do you consider are the criteria for winning work? What do you think it is within Impact’s structure that is leading to ideas that stand out in a crowd and great work that makes it through the system?
Ali Rez: Simply put, it’s culture. Every single person working for BBDO is aligned on creating work that generates fame for our brand partners and ourselves. Fame for setting trends, for creating the kind of work that generates envy, for resisting mediocrity. The environment here is one of free-thinking. A good idea can come from anywhere, and we encourage curiosity, boldness, and the courage to take risks. No idea is ridiculous enough, nothing is too stupid. It is an atmosphere of tinkering, experimenting, all fueled by collaboration and a spirit of achieving the excellent. We feel this brings a lot of purpose for everybody working here. The fulfillment of purpose in turn brings happiness, and happy people create the best work.
How important do you feel it is to win awards? What do you think are the importance to the industry of awards?
Ali Rez: Awards are vital. There is enough data around how award-winning campaigns perform better for brands than the S&P index, and how fame drives purchase. I don’t think you can win a creative award anymore without the work being effective, gone are the days when these were different things. Where they do separate is that creative awards set more trends and are a more accurate indicator of where the future lies in creative advertising. Awards also bring recognition to people in the industry. They are the ideal indicator of which agency is creating the best work.
What do you think are the important features of awards festivals?
Ali Rez: I believe it’s the knowledge factor. One gets to see the best work produced from the around the world in one place. Award festivals set trends for the future, and are also a great learning center for the industry.
As one of the world’s foremost creatives – if you could choose the top five campaigns of 2024, what would they be and why?
Ali Rez: I’ve been fortunate enough to judge a number of amazing shows this year, including the Titanium category at Cannes Lions, and got to see a dazzling display of brilliance.
The five I would pick are:
- Lights Out by Coors Light
Brilliant demonstration of how an accident can turn into marketing success. This one is all about speed-to-produce, and is a masterclass on how to hijack an endorsement without paying a cent for it.
- Meet Marina Prieto
Where does the modern and the traditional meet? Here, with Marina Prieto. This felt more like an art project in the subway than an ad campaign, and that’s what is amazing about it. Want to prove that outdoor works? Use Instagram to show it. Brilliant.
- Sightwalks
I love purpose work that works. This is such a wonderful insight and is the gold standard of how simple design changes can help humanity. Beautiful, uncomplicated, and most of all, transformative. I hope they take this around the world.
- Play It Safe
Film keeps getting tougher and tougher to see new things in. Play it safe had me in goosebumps, not only for its message which goes beyond the film itself, but also for its flawless execution. In a world of short form content, you can’t help but be gripped through all 3 minutes of this epic work.
- The New AI President
This one is one of our own, and we feel is indicative of where AI will eventually head: running countries. That it came from a newspaper in Lebanon is a matter of pride for us. This campaign is an ode to unbiased journalism and the power it holds in directing a nation.
