FCB NZ takes out Most Effective Agency of the Year title at the 2019 New Zealand Effie Awards
New Zealand’s advertising and marketing industry professionals gathered last week to recognise and celebrate the country’s most effective marketing campaigns at the 2019 Effie Awards, organised by the Commercial Communications Council and in association with TVNZ.
FCB took out out the Most Effective Agency of the Year title and Grand Effie Award for its Pak’nSave campaign work.
The Effie programme is held in over 50 countries and has been run in New Zealand by the Comms Council with TVNZ as the major sponsor for 17 years.
Paul Head, Comms Council CEO explained that this year the theme was about individual marketers “stepping-up.” How Effie would be elevating the marketers as the people behind Effie-winning work.
Says Head: “It isn’t just about agencies executing outstanding campaigns. It’s about having great marketing clients. Marketers who are bold, strategic, determined, creative and brave – and empower their agencies to be the same. The best, most effective work is always a partnership and the marketers that lead that partnership deserve greater recognition.”
The individual marketers who were the inspiration for the great work from their agencies and fought for it in their organisations were acknowledged by the launch of a leader board showing based on Effie results; each marketer scored 2 points for a finalist, 4 for a bronze, 6 for silver, 8 for gold and 12 for the Grand Effie. The Most Effective Marketer for 2019 was Sean O’Donnell for the points received for his bronze, silver and gold awards on several campaigns including two golds with Colenso BBDO for DB Breweries “We’re drinking it for you”.
Of the 13 Golds awarded on the night, FCB New Zealand won 3 of them for their work with three clients. ‘A Conversation Starter” with Testicular Cancer New Zealand won in Most Effective PR or Experiential Campaign, while Mercury was awarded a gold in Sustained Success as was the Foodstuffs NZ campaign for PaknSave called “New Zealand’s Most Consistent Brand.” The Effies Executive Judging Panel went on to award the work the overall Grand Effie.
Andrew Geoghegan, global head of consumer planning for Diageo, UK, this year’s international Effie judge said about the work: “Has a decision ever been reached so quickly? The judges unanimously awarded PaknSave’s Stickman the Grand Effie. This is deceptively sophisticated work – the creative means and message are so well integrated they deliver the campaign’s intent in every touchpoint efficiently and effectively. Tapping into culture drives everyday relevance and that competitive brand truth about being a real NZ brand. Most of all they have stuck with and evolved the work over years and have impressive results in a tough category. Bravo!”
With this win, FCB nosed ahead of DDB to win the coveted Most Effective Agency of the Year. DB Breweries won the most Effective Client of year, keeping the audience guessing.
It was also a great night for DDB Group with Kiwi Rail winning an impressive gold in Short Term Success and Pet Refuge winning a gold in Charity/Not for Profit.
DB Breweries and Colenso BBDO picked up two golds, one in New Product or Service and another in the hard to win Most Effective Integrated Campaign for their work on DB Export Gold for the Low Carb Beer and the campaign called “I’m Drinking it for You.” And Stanley Street also made a popular appearance in this category winning a gold in Most Effective Integrated with the NZ Police for the campaign called “The Deciding Question.”
There was a good selection of other winning campaigns that kept the night interesting. These included a great win for VMLY&R and Work Safe in Social Marketing/Public Service for “Be a Safe Guy.” And OMD, Fuse and TBWA got to step up and bag a great gold in Most Effective Use of Data with Asahi Beverages NZ for the work with Carlsberg “Probably the Best Time.”
And Clemenger BBDO’s ongoing work with NZTA “Belted Survivors” was awarded a Gold by the Executive Judges in the Hardest Challenge category.
The Commercial Communications Council congratulates all the finalists and winners at the NZ Effie Awards 2019. For a full list of winners and finalists and the TVNZ international judge videos, please head to the Comms Council website.
The Leader board will be online at www.commscouncil.nz from this evening and gold papers will be available from November.
The 2019 Effie Awards were proudly presented by the Commercial Communications Council (Comms Council) in association with TVNZ, its Commercial Partner. Comms Council also thanks Commercial Partner NZME and sponsors: Nielsen, oOh! Media, Bauer Media, The Radio Bureau, Google, Facebook and ICG.