Gongs celebrate branding, rebranding in Middle East, Africa region DUBAI: The Transform Awards Middle East and Africa (MEA) were launched eight years ago to celebrate the power of branding and rebranding in the region. And the latest edition took place on May 24 at an awards ceremony in Dubai’s V Hotel. WPP’s Landor and Fitch was the leading agency, amassing 36 awards throughout the night. The star client was Saudi Arabia’s luxury tourism project Amaala, which won the Grand Prix and several other awards including golds for best visual identity from the sports, travel, leisure and tourism sector, best creative strategy, and best place or nation brand. As a luxury destination, Amaala worked with Landor and Fitch to develop a brand positioning around the concept of sustainability. The agency created an eye-shaped pattern that includes visual cues to the region’s coral reefs and sand dunes for the brand’s visual identity. Transform MEA judges defined the visuals as a “stunning creative solution.” Landor and Fitch also won several other awards including a gold for its work with the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) in the best brand architecture solution category; a gold for Shahid in the best brand experience category; and a bronze for Yelo in the best use of a visual property category, among others. Another notable winner was Dubai Culture and Arts Authority and its agency Bellwether, which won three golds in the categories best use of a visual property, best implementation of a brand development project, and best visual identity from the public sector, in addition to the best overall visual identity award. Bellwether created a logo that acted as a unifying device across all assets to help the brand stand out among other prominent Dubai-based entities. Andrew Thomas, publishing editor of Transform magazine and founder of the Transform Awards, said: “Over the past eight years, the work we have seen entered in the awards program has been consistently good, both here and globally. “The biggest change, however, has been in the appreciation of that work, in increasingly tangible ways.” The full list of winners can be found here.