Effies lead the way in marketing standards
It sometimes looks as if the marketing and advertising industries run an awards night every other evening. In a typical seven-day period it’s not unusual to encounter the digital marketing awards making way for the automotive marketing excellence dinner with Programmatic Marketer of the Year on the Wednesday night and the release of “100 Marketers under 100” the following evening.
We love a gong in this industry. But the Effies and their annual awards night, which took place last Thursday in Sydney, are special. Among all the tinsel, tension and short-lived triumph of a hundred other award events, the rigour and heft of the Effies shines through.
That’s apparent from the first Effie submission you ever see. Each is almost always more than 10 pages long and full of data and the kind of advanced analysis that your average marketing professor struggles to decode.
And then there is the heritage thing. The Effies have been running since 1968. It’s the 50th anniversary this year. And while Australia has had the awards for just over a decade, that half century of history means an Effie win carries genuine weight on your CV for the rest of your career. Unlike typical awards nights that throw out the gold medals with abandon, its relatively rare for any category to receive a Gold Effie.
To win the Grand Effie, the best of the best, is a career-making moment, for both the agency and client involved.
Not surprisingly, given its prominence and heft, there was much to learn about the state of marketing and media in 2019 from this year’s awards. Sitting on table 5 last week gave your humble columnist not only a bird’s eye view of the stage but also a rare vantage point on where things sit in our industry.
Read the full article in The Australian.
