Brand Lounge Celebrates 24 Wins at the Transform Awards MEA 2026

At the Transform Awards MEA 2026, Brand Lounge took home 24 awards across Vallé, Makarem and Taiba, including 12 Gold, 10 Silver and 2 Bronze. Together, the wins recognize three very different transformation journeys, each shaped by a different business reality, cultural context and strategic challenge. We’re proud of the recognition, even prouder of our team, and deeply appreciative of the client ambition, bravery and trust that shaped each journey from beginning to end.

Leading the night was Vallé Advenature™ Park, receiving 12 awards in total - six Gold, four Silver and two Bronze. The project represented a complete repositioning, renaming and rebrand, built around a more fundamental question: what role could this destination play in people’s lives? Rather than simply refreshing a leisure brand in Mauritius, the work reframed Vallé as an experience with a distinct emotional proposition and a clearer reason to exist. From strategy to name to identity, every expression was designed to reinforce that point of view.

Makarem received six awards - three Gold and three Silver. A Taiba company, Makarem represents a different kind of transformation: one developed through a three-year partnership with Brand Lounge that extended from repositioning through to launch and beyond. At its heart was the opportunity to redefine hospitality around the distinct context of Makkah and Madinah, shaping a brand around a deeper understanding of the spiritual traveler and the experience surrounding their journey. The result was not simply a new hospitality proposition, but a more relevant role for the brand within one of the world’s most meaningful travel contexts.

Taiba was also recognized with six awards - three Gold and three Silver. The work followed a defining moment in the company’s evolution. Emerging from a major acquisition between Taiba Investments and Dur Hospitality, the challenge was to create clarity from scale: defining a new positioning capable of bringing together a growing organization, articulating what the new Taiba stood for and translating that ambition into an identity built for its future. The transformation created a stronger strategic center for the business, giving a more complex organization a clearer way to move forward as one.

Three brands with three very different business realities. Yet each reinforces the same principle: meaningful transformation begins long before an identity reaches the world. It starts with understanding what a brand needs to mean, what role it needs to play and why that should matter to the people it serves.

For us, the recognition comes at a particularly meaningful moment. As we enter our 20th year, the awards reflect the kind of work we have continued to pursue across two decades: work grounded in finding what makes an organization genuinely distinct, then translating that difference into something capable of creating relevance, value and long-term consequence.

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“What makes these wins meaningful is not simply the number of awards, but what sits behind them. Vallé, Makarem and Taiba each came to us at very different moments of change, with very different challenges and ambitions. To see all three recognized at this level reflects the trust our clients place in us, and the strategic and creative rigor our teams bring to the work. As we enter our 20th year, it is a powerful reminder that the work that matters most is the work that creates real impact for the brands we help shape.”

— Hasan Fadlallah, Founder & CEO, Brand Lounge

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The Transform Awards MEA celebrates excellence in rebranding and brand development across the Middle East and Africa, recognizing the strategic and creative work behind some of the region’s most significant brand transformations.

We are proud of the teams behind Vallé, Makarem and Taiba, whose strategic mindset, design thinking and commitment to the work shaped each of these transformations. And we are equally grateful to the clients who trusted us with moments of real change.

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Vallé Advenature™ Park

Gold

• Best Use of a Visual Property (Consumer)
• Best Use of Copy Style or Tone of Voice
• Best Wayfinding or Signage
• Best Use of Typography
• Best Brand Evolution (Consumer)
• Best Naming Strategy (Rename)

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Silver

• Best Brand Experience
• Best Place Brand
• Best Creative Strategy (Consumer)
• Best Brand Development Project to Reflect a Change of Mission, Values or Positioning (Consumer)

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Bronze

• Best Implementation of a Brand Development Project
• Best Visual Identity from the Travel and Tourism Sector

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Total: 12 awards — 6 Gold, 4 Silver, 2 Bronze

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Makarem

Gold

• Best Implementation of a Brand Development Project
• Best Brand Development Project to Reflect a Change of Mission, Values or Positioning (Consumer)
• Best Employer Brand

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Silver

• Best Wayfinding or Signage
• Best Brand Evolution (Consumer)
• Best Visual Identity from the Hospitality Sector

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Total: 6 Brand Lounge awards — 3 Gold, 3 Silver

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Taiba

Gold

• Best Creative Strategy (Corporate)
• Best Corporate Rebrand Following a Merger or Acquisition
• Best Visual Identity from the Hospitality Sector

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Silver

• Best Brand Architecture Solution
• Best Use of Typography
• Best Employer Brand

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Total: 6 awards — 3 Gold, 3 Silver