Malaysia Effie Awards welcomes senior practitioners to join its judging panels

Planning for the 15th Malaysia Effie Awards has begun, with Ryusuke Oda, Managing Director of Hakuhodo Malaysia, and L V Chong, Regional Managing Director at Monster Interactive, named as the Organizing Co-Chairmen by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As), and an invitation to senior Malaysia-based marketing and advertising practitioners to form its judging panels.

Organised by the 4As, the Effies are an industry award that rewards achievement in meeting and exceeding marketing communications objectives with a focus on effectiveness, in honoring teamwork between agency and client, and in creating brands that become part of our cultural landscape.

Since its inception in 1968 in New York, the Effie Awards has been recognised by agencies and advertisers worldwide as the pre-eminent award in the communications industry. The prestigious award also runs parallel to one of the key pillars of the 4As in the promotion of commercial creativity and its effectiveness.

Chong (pictured right) said: “To win an Effie Award, campaigns must successfully combine all the disciplines that enter into a marketing programme: planning, market research, media, creative and account management. They must demonstrate a partnership between agency and client in the creation, management and building of a brand, and these must all be reflected through measurable campaign objectives with verifiable real-world results.”

“Effie Award winning campaigns also reveal strong local insights and creative ideas that are executed in the right channels. Ideally a marketing campaign should be able to measure an impact on sales, but the Effie Awards also give weight to campaigns that can prove a change in how people feel and think about the brand. To evaluate all of these aspects, we require the judging panels to be comprised of members from both the client and agency sides, and to be as diverse as possible, to reflect a wide range of opinions and ideas,” added Oda (pictured left).

Potential judges are invited to submit their applications via the Effie Malaysia website. All Malaysian and foreign advertising, marketing and related industry practitioners residing in Malaysia are eligible to apply, if they have not previously served as a Malaysia Effie Awards judge.

The Effie Awards call for entries is expected to be announced in June, with the judging process during September, followed by the Awards Gala in October 2023.