NEW YORK, February 12, 2024 – Effie Worldwide, the global marketing industry’s pre-eminent effectiveness organization and organizer of the Effie Awards®, has expanded its partnership with NordStella to launch Effie Saudi Arabia.  The partnership will create the organization’s first national Effie Awards program in the Middle East. 
 
NordStella, part of Akama Holding, is also the organizer of the MENA Effie Awards, the regional Effie Awards program that has been successfully recognizing and celebrating the most effective marketing efforts across the Middle East & North Africa, since 2009.  While work that ran in Saudi Arabia has been eligible to participate in the regional competition since its inception, the launch of a national program signals greater attention on the local marketing community and will provide new opportunities for Saudi brands, agencies, and marketers to be recognized on a global stage.  
 
Saudi Arabia joins the global Effie network as its 55th program.
 
“We are pleased to welcome Saudi Arabia to the global Effie network. We look forward to partnering with the Saudi marketing community to showcase the most effective marketing efforts that are inspiring consumers and growing their businesses,” said Traci Alford, Global CEO at Effie Worldwide. “Any time we expand the Effie network, it is a great opportunity to further the global dialogue around effectiveness. The launch of Effie Saudi Arabia is an exciting milestone and I am confident that our long-time partners at NordStella will do a brilliant job bringing the program to life.”
 
Effie’s mission is to lead, inspire and champion the practice and practitioners of marketing effectiveness globally, which it achieves through a variety of educational and thought leadership initiatives.
 
Effie Saudi Arabia’s finalists and winners will receive points towards their rankings in the Global Effie Index.  The Effie Index ranks the most effective marketers, brands, holding companies, agency networks, agency offices and independent agencies globally, and will also determine regional and local rankings.
 
The inaugural Effie Awards Saudi Arabia competition will launch in early March 2024.  For more information, follow @effiesaudiarabia on Instagram and LinkedIn, or email Sahar Rafique at sahar@nordstella.me.  More information about the MENA Effies is available at menaeffie.com.