Cristal Festival: Rethinking Creativity in Africa

When the African version of the Cristal Festival was initiated to complement its ones in the Europe and Middle East & North Africa (MENA) regions, little did the creative and media experts in the continent knew that the platform would become a game-changer. Since its launch in 2013, Cristal has been challenging agencies from across the continent to raise their creative bar, to trigger greater success in other bigger, more expensive global festivals.

 The Cristal Festival celebrates and inspires creativity in advertising, marketing, brand entertainment, digital, design and film craft. Since its creation in 2001, it has been the leading event for creative advertising industry, bringing together a mixed jury of international agencies and major international advertisers. The Cristal Festival is a place where communication leaders unite to exchange, network, learn and be inspired.

The winning poster for the 3rd African Crsital Festival

Ahead of the third edition of African Cristal Festival coming up in Marrakech, Morocco from September 30 to October 2, 2015, industry experts across the continent and beyond are beginning to gear up for another gathering of cerebral streaming of creativity.

An Ivorian artwork – "Pencils: all colors of Africa" by Arnaud Bedel from Drive Dentsu Abidjan, Ivory Coast was recently selected as winner of for the third edition Poster Contest by fifteen jury of creative that converged in Lagos, Nigeria on Thursday, 28th May.

Out of the 103 creative works submitted, Arnaud Bedel’s design – done in collaboration with Eding Labatut, a Copywriter was primarily nominated among the four finalists. Eventually, it became the first to oust Mauritius creative works since the annual poster contest began two years ago.


The maiden and second edition of the Poster Contest which took place in South Africa (2013) and Kenya (2014) respectively were won by Mauritius agencies: “Africa’s Sharpest Ideas” by Fabrice Thevenet & Vincent Montocchio from Circus Advertising Agency and “Faces” by Jason Goder (Art Director) & Suraj Saulick (Graphic Designer) from the agency P&P Link.

The Ivorian design, according to the Jury, won the contest based on its simplicity, insight and strong communication power that reflected the colour and diversity of Africa.

The winning artwork will be used in an international communication campaign as a poster, a catalogue cover, a website banner, on invitations, newsletters, and press insertions.

The winners will have free pass for each person from the winning team (maximum 2 people) for the 3rd edition of the African Cristal Festival in Morocco from September 30 to October 2, 2015.The package includes transportation (airplane ticket for one person), transfer (from the airports of Casablanca or Marrakech), accommodation and registration (access to the festival venues, official lunches, cocktails & dinners, after parties). Also, the participants will benefit from a 10% discount on the global participation fee for the winning agency. For the four finalists, a delegate pass for the Festival will be offered to them.

The fifteen jury of creative that deliberated on the selection include: Chima Okenimkpe, Creative Director – Insight Communication; Lanre Adisa, Managing Director – Noah’s Ark; Abolaji Alausa, Creative Director – Noah’s Ark; Uzoma Okoye, Managing Creative Director – Etu Odi; Babatunde Sule, Creative Director – DDB Lagos; Atunwa Ranti, Creative Director – TBWA Concept; Kunle Shittu, Director, New Business & Special Projects – STB-McCANN; Chuma Obumselu, Executive Creative Director – BBDO.

Chamberlin Ukenedo, Creative Director – 141 Worldwide; Steve Babaeko, Chief Creativity Officer – X3M Ideas; Anthony Ekun, Creative Director – SO&U; Fome Ozuwo, Creative Director – LCT/JWT; Clara Okoro, Managing Director – BrandworldTV; Clement Vigne, Executive Creative Director – DDB Lagos; Nduka Kade, Creative Director – Lowe Lintas.

Image credit: African Cristal Festival (Facebook page)