Leo Burnett has retained the creative advertising account for the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) following a competitive pitch.
The win means the agency has held the account since 2010 when it took over from Impact Plus, which had handled the business for the previous four years.
“Leo Burnett has been instrumental in the positioning of DIFF as the region’s leading film festival, and we are very happy with our decision to continue our successful affiliation,” said Mahsa Motamedi, executive director of marketing and events at DIFF. “Given our productive past partnership and the exciting proposals put forth during the pitch, choosing to continue with Leo Burnett was a natural choice. We are eagerly looking forward to further strengthening DIFF’s position on a regional and global scale.”
The pitch did not affect the film festival’s other partnerships, with Edelman continuing as DIFF’s public relations agency and MEC handling media buying and planning.
“We are very excited that we will continue our journey with DIFF, and happy that we both share the same future creative vision that will take their communication forward and build upon their success,” said Jean Traboulsi, managing director of Leo Burnett UAE. “Leo Burnett’s unique HumanKind philosophy has been instrumental in shaping and refining DIFF’s purpose in the past, and will continue to do so in the years to come. The principles guiding HumanKind – emphasising people, purpose and changing behaviour through creativity – featured heavily in Leo Burnett’s pitch, which was a demonstration of the agency’s creative capabilities and innovative solutions.”
DIFF is one of the leading film festivals in Asia and Africa and was launched in 2004 with the theme of ‘Bridging Cultures, Meeting Minds’. Last year it screened films such as Rust & Bone and Amour and marks its 10th anniversary this year. The festival will run from 6-14 December.
