Thirty-nine senior marketers, creative directors and brand managers from across Canada met on Tuesday in downtown Toronto for the first round of judging for the North American Effie Awards, a worldwide award for marketing effectiveness. As part of several regional sessions, judges score numerous case studies of work from across Canada and the United States in order to decide which cases will make it to the next round in February.
Submissions face high standards and are accompanied by a seven-page case study. Effectiveness is evaluated using a scoring system where campaign results are weighed most heavily, followed by the communications challenges and objectives, the big idea, and the creative and media strategies that brought the idea to life.
While judges are under fairly strict confidentiality terms (and are assigned cases that do not pose a conflict of interest), Marketing sat down with six jury members to talk about common themes in this year’s submissions and what entrants can do to increase their chances of winning.
Glenn Hollis, VP, brand marketing and advertising, Tim Hortons
What trends are you seeing in submissions?
The ones that are the strongest tend to have a strong social platform. They have a social approach like word-of-mouth. I see this especially in cases with lower budgets; they have to be scrappier, but they have the ability to get the word out. They have strong insight, where problems turn to opportunities. And the better cases have a very sharp focus on target.
Some tired brands have had to become more relevant in this way as well. So I’m seeing a strong leverage of the millennial. They know if they want to renew their brand and be relevant. One of the best ways to do that is to drive sharability and leverage the social aspect. Millennials tends to have a distrust or mistrust of classic ads, but they have a strong trust in alternate advertising. So companies are also using events to leverage the sociability.
So if you’re seeing a lot of strong cases directed at millennials that focus on social platforms, what mistakes are you seeing with submissions?
The ones that are weaker don’t have a strong tie back to their target. There is a weaker set up in terms of target and there are no hard ties back to the key performance indicators (KPI). In cases like this, the partnership is glaring: the client has to identify strong marks and the agency can then make a much stronger case. They need to work together.
Joanne Forrester, VP, marketing, Boston Pizza
What trends are you seeing in submissions?
The most interesting cases are seeing results without tripling their spend. They’re using social networks to amplify their campaigns. This used to be very typical of the not-for-profit sector, but now everyone has a social component. Even the financial sector is connecting with Instagram. You have to have a social media component.
Also, in the work I’ve judged here, I’m seeing a lot less humour than I used to. It’s shifting away from tech and specs and it’s going more toward emotions. They’re finding ways to connect on an emotional level. It used to be humour-based, but what I’m seeing this year is that the cases are built around bigger insights, like nostalgia and empowerment.
What advice do you have for entrants?
When you build your case, it’s important to have a strong partnership between agency and brand. There are some cases where they are lacking their big idea. It seems as if it’s not a collaborative effort. They may have stated the facts, the results are there, but the narrative isn’t. It should be a co-partnership.
What do you take away from judging the Effies?
It’s great to surround yourself with peers in the industry and be inspired by really great creative thinkers.
Robin Heisey, independent consultant, Robin Heisey Consulting
What trends are you seeing with submissions?
Twitter impressions have been the most risible metric employed in measuring results and that has luckily declined. There has actually been less hype around social measurement, and more rigour around context and brand. Multiplatform approaches and story-telling tools are being used to earn views rather than interrupt viewers.
What mistakes are you seeing with submissions?
I’ve noticed that there is still a lingering suspicion that the process is not confidential. There seems to be a resistance amongst marketers to share quantitative evidence. But I want to assure them that it is confidential. You’re going to have to share information that is competitive. I attribute that resistance to anxiety, and that anxiety is misplaced.
Patrick Weir, VP creative, Fuse Marketing Group
What trends are you seeing in submissions?
TV used to be a big player, but it’s less and less so now, which is awesome. TV is a 30-second one-way thing. These days it’s more about the physical and the digital that come together. I really love the use of, and the raise in, mobile and non-traditional work. I’ve seen TV spots in maybe only one third of the work I’ve looked at today. Then there are stunts, events, social media use. You need to create those experiences that people want to share. It’s experiential, it’s mobile, it’s social, digital and physical.
Really, it’s all about narrative. Everybody has a story to tell, and these brands want people to share their story and expand it. Social media expands it. It lets conversations grow much more quickly because of the size and reach of social platforms.
What mistakes are you seeing with submissions?
The tricks people can play with metrics and analytics. The truth is in the details. Yes, you can tell me you gained 500,000 followers on your first day, but you may be a huge brand new to social media. They’re not using all the right data points for whatever reason. I want to see all the data points I can.
Peter Rodriguez, director, marketing, Smucker Foods of Canada
What trends are you seeing in submissions?
In some of the best cases there is a consistent approach to defining the target in a non-demographical way, but with behavioural grouping.
The others that stood out to me had the ability to clearly transfer ideas through simple visuals, without words. Once you see the visual, you don’t need words. Those that communicate visually and succinctly really caught my eye.
What mistakes are you seeing with submissions?
The most striking is the short-term approach. If I could pinpoint a specific weakness, it’s that it works for now but it may not be able to deliver the same results in the future.
Jennifer Grove, VP, group account director, Olson
What trends are you seeing in submissions?
They’re bringing more in the social media and digital areas. It has to be more than just using social platforms. It has to be used in a different way. It’s really about getting engagement, experiential and social media. Engagement is so much easier to track now, especially because in this day and age impressions and engagement are so different.
What mistakes are you seeing with submissions?
When they’re identifying challenges or objectives, some need to focus on something smaller. They’re trying too hard to make it seem as if they are tackling a brand issue, but the results are product sales efforts. They’re trying to express a grand idea without the facts and stats to back it up, when really the results are just higher sales. Which is ok! They just need to stay focused.
