Noah’s Ark’s ‘Prayer Warrior’ Ad Wins Festival Grand Cristal, Emerges Agency of the Year in Marrakech
By Jeremiah Agada
The quest for continuously and consistently placing Nigeria at the global ad map by country’s most globally acclaimed creative powerhouse, Noah’s Ark Communication has been taken a notch higher as the agency did the unprecedented by clinching the coveted Festival Grand Cristal award for the ‘Prayer Warrior’ ad campaign it created for the Airtel brand.
The agency achieved this feat last night at the Awards Ceremony of the African Cristal Festival held at Pullman Marrakech Palmeraie Resort & Spa in Morocco, yesterday.
While speaking on behalf of the Advertiser’s Grand Jury on its reason behind selecting the work, one of its members, Souleymane KHOL- the VP Sales Marketing Distribution & Revenue Management for Accor Africa & Indian Ocean explained that selecting the ad was a no-brainer as the creative work had a link to the African roots.
He said, “It was quite challenging for us to choose this one. But I must say that there is a connection between this work and our African roots. All of us at the jury had this universal connection to it. We recognised ourselves behind this production.
“The main reason we chose it is because it has the main link between the universal cultures that cuts across Africa. We have more than fifty countries in Africa with different cultures, different foods and different footprints.
At the end of the day, we have it was very consistent in terms of what we do as a people, in terms of memory.”
The Festival Grand Cristal, is the Grand Prix, the festival’s highest honour.
In a related development, Noah’s Ark also clinched the prestigious Agency of the Year award at the festival. In an exclusive chat with Brand Communicator, one of the agency’s Creative Directors, Maurice Ogwonoh could barely contain his excitement as he enthused that the agency’s emergence as Agency of the Year out of Nigeria at an international scene and winning its highest honours at the festival certainly speaks volumes of the kind of work the it does and its penchant for going where the idea leads.
“The mission of this agency has always being to be an extension of our clients marketing department and the mission is to be in the top agencies out of Africa. Being adjudged the best in Africa is certainly in accord with all that,” he said.
Having being at the forefront of creativity at home in Nigeria, now in Africa, surely, the Cannes is closer to Nigeria more than Ever. Maurice agrees with this and adds: “Winning the Cannes Lions is definitely in our line of sight. A supplier with have worked that has some form of international reputation once told us if there is any agency in Nigeria will pick up a Cannes Lion award anytime soon, it will definitely be Noah’s Ark. I am not agreeing with this because I work at the agency but because I know the calibre of people working at Noah’s Ark and the kind of partnership we have with our clients,” he concluded.