The 2022 APAC Effie Awards Gala, held this past September, honored the most effective marketing throughout the region—but this celebration wouldn’t be possible without the judges who thoroughly reviewed and deliberated over what work was worthy of an Effie. In collaboration with the APAC Effie team, we chatted with four of this year’s judges—Kavita Chaturvedi, Chief Operating Officer, ITC Limited, Luca Destefanis, Head of Marketing, APAC, Kyndryl, Andreas Krasser, CEO, DDB Group Hong Kong, and Jane Lin-Baden, Chief Executive Officer, APAC, Publicis Groupe—to get an inside look at their judging experience.
What was your experience like in moderating the Round 2 judging sessions?
Jane: I’m really happy to have the chance to work with well represented juries from the region – they are clients and also agency folks. We spent a long quality time debating and probing each case. And everyone comes from a very different background, with a very different point of view. It’s fascinating to see how great minds debate, and also to celebrate the winners. For me, probably the most difficult thing is to withhold my personal point of view in the process, but I’m really really happy to be a facilitator.
As a first-time APAC Effie judge, how would you describe the experience?
Luca: It was equally intense and enriching going through two rounds of judging. You have the opportunity to get exposed to some of the best marketing work in the region, and you do that by working alongside some of the key experts with very different backgrounds and experiences.
What were some of the highlights at this year’s judging?
Jane: There’s some very bold cases which are really refreshing to see. From my perspective, there are two highlights – that’s sustainability and technology. This year, we have quite a few cases around sustainability as a topic. Now, I think one of the questions jurors had was how can we quantify the economy of return of sustainability? Given how important sustainability is for a business, I hope next year, we see more well-written cases around the business impact and also economic impact of sustainability. Now, the second highlight is technology. This year, we have few winning cases which are really smart. They leverage technology for communication and make communication much more effective and personalised. I think the most beautiful thing is, in those cases, the technology stays invisible.
Luca: There is a lot of ingenuity, energy and creativity in the marketing community, which somehow is making it even more difficult for brands to stand out and showcase value and the impact. Looking at the best entries, I saw three ingredients behind successful campaigns. So the first one being the courage and the ability to reframe the conversation. Don’t take things for granted and immutable – narratives and perceptions are there to be challenged and changed. The second one is the universal law of simplicity in messaging, journeys, goals. Simplicity will help to drive consistency, which in turn will reinforce impact and outcomes. And the third one is the power of connecting the dots throughout the journey, in all their relevant touchpoints. To improve experiences, and again, maximise impact.
Do you have any predictions about trends or themes we’ll see in future Effie-winning campaigns?
Andreas: It might sound a bit strange at first, but I believe that future Effie-winning campaigns will be even more creatively driven. Now in the past, our industry liked to distinguish between effective campaigns on one side, and creative ones on the other. But thanks to the research by Les Binet and Peter Field, we now know that creative campaigns are in fact effective campaigns. So in regard to Effie entries, I believe that the ones that will win big will be the ones that tick every single box. Concise objectives, clear insights, killer results obviously, but also, top-notch creative work.
Kavita: The first theme that I see is what I would call planet-positive stories, or sustainability being at the core. Because across the world, communities are facing the real impact of climate change, whether it’s in the form of forest fires, crop failures due to untimely rains, or displacement of communities due to floods – climate change is very real. So, while in the past one saw sustainability stories more in the form of CSR, I think now they’re going to be part of the core business proposition of brands. The second one … because of what we’ve been experiencing across the globe, in the aftermath of the war on Ukraine, it’s more of a back to basics, focusing on the spiralling commodity prices, and therefore what value are you providing to consumers. So, I call it more a back to basics, back to economics sort of trend. So, I think we are going to see a lot of stories in terms of how companies and marketers have tackled hyperinflation and what they have done to make sure that the consumer continues to prefer and choose their brands in light of the pressure on the wallet.
What advice would you give to a rising marketer who aspires to win an Effie?
Andreas: You don’t just win an Effie overnight out of luck. It takes really hard work, and by that I don’t just mean the actual planning and execution of the campaign itself, but there’s also the results tracking, the case writing, and then obviously also the video scripting and editing – all of which requires time. Now, the best Effie cases might make it look extremely effortless, but that’s only the case because a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into the preparation. So, if you really want to win an Effie, I’d say stay committed to the cause and be willing to make some sacrifices along the way.
Kavita: Remember that the Effies reward effective work in marketing. So, your starting point cannot be “I want to win an award”. Your starting point really has to be your business objective. Keep your brand story at the core, and I think everything else follows. The beautiful thing about the Effies is that you can decide on your objective. And as long as your results are delivering on that objective, you are likely to be in the shortlist for an Effie.
Learn more about the APAC Effies and read more Inside the Judges’ Room features.
