The NZ Commercial Communications Council, with TVNZ on board as sponsor, has issued its call for entries for the 2017 Effies, to be held at the Langham Auckland on Thursday 19 October.
The Comms Council also announced a significant upgrade in the judging and marking process to now clearly favour campaigns that deliver lasting results, over those that produce a brief spike in audience response.
Specifically, five percentage points will be allocated in the results section for demonstrating effects that lasted, and ideally continue to last, beyond six months.
KEY DATES
- How to Create a Winning Effie Entry Workshop: Thursday 6 July (9am-11am)
- Entries close: Tuesday 15 August at 4pm
- 48 hour late penalty deadline: Thursday 17 August at 4pm
- Preliminary judging: Tuesday 5 September (Auckland); Thursday 7 September (Wellington)
- Campaign material due (finalists only): Tuesday 19 September
- Category judging: Thursday 28 September (Auckland)
- Finalists announced: Friday 29 September
- Executive judging: Wednesday 11 October (Auckland)
- Effectiveness Function: Thursday 12 October or Tuesday 17 October (TVNZ) (4:30pm-7:30pm)
- Gala Dinner: Thursday 19 October at The Langham
Five-point start
The Effie categories remain essentially the same, with a couple of tweaks here and there around eligibility etc. The significant change is in the five percentage points that will be allocated in the results section for demonstrating effects that lasted, and ideally continue to last, beyond six months.
When there are two entries in one category that would otherwise have been scored similarly, the campaign with shorter results will be disadvantaged, and vice versa. It also means that entrants should consider adding other measures – such as brand health – that might help prove sustained impact.
“This certainly doesn’t mean that short-term campaigns can’t win,” said Comms Council ceo Paul Head. “But it is a significant change and it will shift the balance. Let’s reward large, sustained effectiveness and celebrate the clients that work with us to deliver it.”
A message from the steering committee
Rewarding long-term thinking. Advertising, marketing communications, commercial ideas – whatever you choose to call what we do – has become messy. Our industry’s been accused of not changing fast enough and, at the same time, chasing shiny new unproven trends.
We’ve worried about traditional versus digital media. And generalists versus specialists. We’ve argued about the best way to interact with clients and partners, and how agencies should be structured to efficiently produce the most effective work.
They’re fascinating debates. And they’ll keep raging. Competition keeps us evolving and improving. But there are also important areas where we must align.
Firstly, we need to reinforce the immense value we, with our marketing clients, can add to New Zealand business, and other organisations. (The recent Deloitte Advertising Pays study also reveals the vast contribution our industry makes to the economy in general.)
We also need to acknowledge that perception of the strategic value of marketing and advertising is weakened by an over-emphasis on short-termism.
In recent years we’ve focused increasingly on small, short-lived ideas, campaigns and effects, and not enough on the most valuable aspect of what we do. We have the power to create strategies, ideas, innovations, campaigns, platforms and touch-points that deliver large and sustained effects. In a fragmented tech-driven world this only becomes more important.
To maximise our value, real and perceived, we need to shift both the conversation and the balance of our work. Yes, short-term activation remains an essential part of the mix, but it’s become too dominant.
The Comms Council is helping to drive this agenda on behalf of the industry. And the Effie Awards provides an ideal opportunity to reinforce the point.
Meet the committee:
- Rupert Price, DDB (convenor)
- Jacqueline Smart, J. Walter Thompson
- David McIndoe, Saatchi & Saatchi
- Mylene Ong, Colenso BBDO
- David Thomason, FCB
Click here for more information about the 2017 Effie Awards in association with TVNZ
Share this Post
