The African Cristal Festival took place on December 7 and 8. Now it's time to take stock…
Contrary to what had been announced, the African Cristal Festival took place in Casablanca. We brought together more than 150 people to celebrate this year's African talent and major campaigns, but also to address key issues for the future of our professions.
Twenty-seven categories were honored at the awards ceremony by our jury chaired by Justin Thomas Copeland, CEO of DDB North America. The full list of winners will be announced in the coming days, but Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal are among the countries represented and recognized for their creativity. Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, and Egypt are also on the list of winners.
Do you consider this first edition a success?
This first edition has been a success! What mattered to me was having a great list of winners. We simplified the awards by having only one prize per category, but the winning campaigns are remarkable. Many of them stood out for their social impact. I'm thinking in particular of the campaign created by the Circus agency to address the problems of plastic in the oceans and harmful reverberation for fishermen in Mauritius.
There was also a very impressive cross-channel campaign based on the use of artificial intelligence to mobilize voters by projecting them, through negative and pessimistic visuals, into the year 2070. In 2023, we saw the advent of Chat GPT and artificial intelligence in the broader sense. That is why we chose this central theme to identify the various opportunities for African advertisers and agencies.
Are Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal represented in the rankings?
For Ivory Coast and Senegal, here is the complete list of winners:
| Character | PEPSIL SA LIFE | PEPSI |
| Les Barbus | Let's hear their suffering | Amnesty International |
| Havas Senegal | WE ARE NEEMBA | NEEMBA |
| Havas Senegal | Intranet LIVE | NEEMBA |
| The Bearded Ones | Let's hear their suffering | Amnesty International |
| McCann Abidjan | Doppel Buffalos | Doppel Munich |
| BETC | 30 Years Anniversary | CANAL+ |
| MW DDB | So Good | Gousta |
| Wallace | Fake ads | Canal |
| Character | PEPSIL SA LIFE | PEPSI |
| BETC | Discover the Batanga | CANAL |
| Wallace | Chili on TV | Canal |
| Character | PEPSIL SA LIFE | PEPSI |
What's next?
I wanted to create an event that reflected the reality of the continent. We needed to represent all these countries with different levels of development, through feedback that reflected this African diversity. And we did it! So we are now planning a second edition.