The ninth edition of the MENA Effie Awards (Effies) is set to take place on November 15, 2017. The awards programme was launched 13 years ago to honour the most effective marketing efforts in the region and the ceremony is expected to attract more than 2,000 attendees, including the best marketing and advertising minds in the Middle East. The call for entries is now open across 29 categories, including a new addition for this year – ‘Renaissance’. 

The Mena Effie Awards began life as the GMR Effectiveness in the Marketing Awards “the GEMAS” back in 2004. Their aims were simple: to recognise and applaud excellence in marketing effectiveness, and to promote best marketing practice across all disciplines and categories among companies operating in the Middle East.

Key to winning was the presentation of clear and measurable results.

The GEMAS quickly earned a richly deserved reputation for objectivity and integrity, making them among the region’s most coveted business accolades. In 2009, the GEMAS joined forces with the world famous International Effies to become the GEMAS Effie MENA Awards.

Launched in 1968, the New York-based Effies symbolise great ideas that achieve real results. Ideas that work.

Today, the Effies have evolved into the most prestigious of all professional marketing awards. They continually raise the bar for marketing excellence through the Global Effie, Euro Effie, Effie Asia Pacific and more than 40 national Effie programmes, including what are now called the MENA Effie Awards and the recently launched Effie Effectiveness Index.

The MENA Effies stand for effectiveness in marketing communications, spotlighting marketing ideas that work and encouraging thoughtful dialogue about the drivers of marketing effectiveness. In celebration of the most effective marketing communications in the region, acknowledged by professionals and industry experts through the years, GMR asked some of the prominent marketing and corporate leaders to share their insight into what makes for a winning Effie entry.

And here’s what they had to say:

Key to winning was the presentation of clear and measurable results.

The GEMAS quickly earned a richly deserved reputation for objectivity and integrity, making them among the region’s most coveted business accolades. In 2009, the GEMAS joined forces with the world famous International Effies to become the GEMAS Effie MENA Awards.

Launched in 1968, the New York-based Effies symbolise great ideas that achieve real results. Ideas that work.

Today, the Effies have evolved into the most prestigious of all professional marketing awards. They continually raise the bar for marketing excellence through the Global Effie, Euro Effie, Effie Asia Pacific and more than 40 national Effie programmes, including what are now called the MENA Effie Awards and the recently launched Effie Effectiveness Index.

The MENA Effies stand for effectiveness in marketing communications, spotlighting marketing ideas that work and encouraging thoughtful dialogue about the drivers of marketing effectiveness. In celebration of the most effective marketing communications in the region, acknowledged by professionals and industry experts through the years, GMR asked some of the prominent marketing and corporate leaders to share their insight into what makes for a winning Effie entry.

And here’s what they had to say:

ASAD REHMAN, DIRECTOR, MEDIA, NORTH AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST, UNILEVER
Any Effies entry has to be about business results and communication effectiveness, obviously. From my experience of judging, however, I do know that the winning work showcases a lot more than just effectiveness. First, a winning case has to be a story well told in itself. It has to bring to life the whole journey of what the brand faced as a challenge, to the strategic route taken, going into execution and then of course bringing to life the results – in line with the objectives of the campaign. I always say every Effie entry has to appeal to the minds as much as it has to appeal to the heart of the jury. So, bring out the magic (or creativity) in your communication but do not compromise on the logic (or strategy and effectiveness) of the campaign.

LAURA CHAIBI, HEAD OF DIGITAL RESEARCH, MBC
A great idea underpinned by insight or an observation, exceptional execution and proof of impact that smashes (out of the park) predefined business goals. It’s so much more than being memorable; it is about being unforgettable as an entry that demonstrated undeniable and observable behaviour change by the intended audience – in essence, brand marketing.

Strategically, moving the needle on behaviour change towards a brand and/or category is at the heart of the Effies. It is about the success of all of the craft that goes into making change happen in a way that was mapped out well before it was executed and then proving business promises are delivered on an ambitious objective or well above a safe objective.

Sometimes, the best campaigns are documented accidental successes coupled with honest documented failures during the campaign process. The case study wins on mindset – a brand that was prepared to take risks. The Effies reminds us that our industry needs to celebrate these risks as inspiration to keep pushing the creative and marketing boundaries and that ‘failures’ are the stepping stones to get us closer to success.

Anyone can come up with a great idea; proving you can deliver it, how it was done in the best way possible given the budget and had bottom-line business impact, is the art celebrated by wining Effies and the raison d’être why we work in media, marketing and advertising. Effies are about creative execution and delivering on strategy. The best entries understand where a brand is today, and where it needs to get to while at the same time proving ingenuity, a grasp of contemporary marketing and advertising techniques and undeniable results that are worth celebrating.

SHYAM SUNDAR, HEAD OF MARKETING, LANDMARK GROUP
A combination of great work and results. The latter will be a challenge considering the depressed state of the market for the past two years.

LENNART MUELLER-TEUT, HEAD OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS, MERCEDES-BENZ CARS MIDDLE EAST FZE
I am excited to be again part of MENA Effies Awards – in my third consecutive year as a judge, I am looking forward to many industry-leading best practices. Since the quality of submissions is continuously increasing, how can you stand out from the crowd?

The most fundamental question for every submission is whether or not the authors have made their case. Did they manage to portray their objectives and achievements thoroughly? In these regards, my fellow judges and I are always taking into consideration what we call the ‘degree of difficulty’ – here, we are reflecting on the scope of the project, the competitiveness within the category and the impact on the brand within its industry.

Overall, a case study must be well-articulated, results be evidently presented and a clear strategy be formulated. While I like to see well-presented cases and enjoy watching highly produced case films, this has only a minor impact on the scoring. The credibility of the Effies derives from the fact that winners are made because of the effectiveness of their campaigns.

AHMED HATEM, SENIOR REGIONAL MARKETING MANAGER, KFC MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA
In a world where me-too marketing strategies are on the rise, only innovative and creative new ideas with measurable KPIs will be able to combat inertia, help a company amicably execute fitting marketing plans, achieve results, succeed and lead its industry by example.

Sustainable success translates into continuous innovation and not losing sight of creating shared value every time. These are the key factors that I will be looking for in an award-winning entry.

MARIOS TIRKIDES, MARKETING DIRECTOR, NORTH AFRICA MIDDLE EAST AND FRENCH OVERSEAS TERRITORIES HUB, COLGATE PALMOLIVE
What makes for a winning Effie entry is a clear idea that is founded on a relevant consumer insight and has a strong emotional aspect to it. Once you have that identified and clearly articulated, there will be no difficulty in building a holistic and powerful IMC (integrated marketing communications) campaign.

HUSSEIN M. DAJANI, GENERAL MANAGER – DIGITAL MARKETING – AMI REGION, NISSAN MOTOR CORPORATION
Criteria 1

The simplicity of the idea. People are busy and will care less about a brand that is complicating their lives. Don’t overcomplicate things; tell me in a straightforward way what is it you want to tell or want me to do. A simple idea is always easy to remember and to tell others about.

Criteria 2

The human/consumer/market insight, which was the base of the big idea, is, I think, straightforward and doesn’t require explanation. What is the human truth behind the idea generated?

Criteria 3

Creativity of the campaign vs real ROI of the campaign. Did the work achieve the intended results for the brand? Unfortunately, a lot of brands decide to go down the creative route even if it doesn’t provide any return on the investment done – or what I like to call return on the idea. The idea wins when it successfully delivers on business results versus anything else, i.e., an award. We are living in tough economic times and every brand out there wants to sell. Does the idea help me sell? Help me position my product ahead of competition? Does it make my brand top-of-mind for consumers?

Criteria 4

How long did the work run for? (A one-off random ad versus the duration a natural real campaign runs for) Well, in short, how many times have we seen ads win awards when, in reality, they have only run in one print edition just for the sake of entering into awards…?

Criteria 5

The longevity of the idea: Is it memorable? Will people talk about it with others (family, friends, coworkers, etc.)? Did it stop people from whatever they are doing, without interrupting them, because they enjoyed* what they saw or interacted with?

*Enjoyed doesn’t need to be entertainment only. It can be that the idea made them think, made them do an action, made them buy a product, etc.

SUHA MARDELLI HAROUN, REGIONAL DIRECTOR AT BAYT.COM
Results are important. Begin with the results in mind and I mean the real impact on the brand, such as sales growth, not fluffy results such as the number of likes or comments or number of youth who sampled the product. This is especially important for social media-dominated campaigns.

Everything always comes back to the campaign effectiveness – and while the originality, creativity and sound bites may stand out as subjectively impactful, the most important thing will always be the bottom-line tangible outcomes. Once these results are clear, then the story of how it was done should be easy.

Context is important. Painting the picture of the competitive landscape, consumer culture and audience habits helps the judges understand how high or low the barriers to getting results. Was the campaign run in a red ocean or blue ocean? Sometimes, generating a one per cent sales uplift in a cluttered market can be more difficult than a ten per cent uplift in a growth market.

So, describing the competitive landscape and creating context for the judges about the challenge gradient is very important. It should go without saying that, as a judge, the higher the barriers, the more impressed we can be about the results.

Come full circle. When you tell the story, connect all the events together and come full circle. Make clear connections between the problem, the solution, the campaign and the outcome. Here is where the creativity aspects will have more impact – and make sure it’s highlighted in the case study. It’s about proving that everything you did yielded the results.

It is not about proving how ‘cool’ the idea was or creating an entertaining creative reel. I’ve seen amazing show reels that are funny and well-executed, but make no mention of the effectiveness of the campaign or the results achieved. Sadly, these entries didn’t make it to the second round.

TAHAAB RAIS, REGIONAL HEAD OF STRATEGIC PLANNING, FP7
Persistence and truth. Show the rigour that went into the insights and strategic thinking. Show how you were persistent in ensuring the creativity is scaled out across channels. Show how the campaign persistently helped a problem over a period of time. And don’t lie about angles or numbers or retrofit objectives or make a campaign seem bigger than it was. Most judges can figure it out. Most.

BAHAA HAMADI, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, INDEPENDENT
One of the key components is the clarity of the campaign. Having clear and measurable objectives translated into positive results is paramount to gaining high scores. Results however do not merely refer to how well a campaign was executed or how humorous or creative it was, but also the impact it achieved and the favorable change it brought about.