This year's Effie commercial communication effectiveness competition was dominated by the "We turned the tide of Czech beer" campaign for Plzeňský Prazdroj for the launch of Proud lager, which won the Grand Prix, the Effie Gold in the Beverages category and the SIMAR award for Best Use of Data. The winning entry was submitted by the VCCP agency. Publicis Group and Btl Partner & Media were also involved.
In terms of brands, the evening belonged to the big domestic advertisers. Česká spořitelna and the Czech Association of Insurance Companies (ČAP) picked up the most awards, taking six awards each. Following close behind was Plzeňský Prazdroj, which, in addition to the Grand Prix, won several other awards across categories (five in total).
Among the award-winning entrants, VML Czechia dominated (8 in total, including three golds), followed by McCann (7 in total, including one gold) and Ogilvy (6 in total, including two golds). The Grand Prix was celebrated by the aforementioned VCCP. Other successful agencies included Publicis (5), Zaraguza CZ (4), OMD (3) and Wavemaker (3).
Grand Prix and golden campaigns
Plzeňský Prazdroj decided to attract the young generation back to the beer world with the launch of the Proud brand. Thanks to the campaign, it managed to establish Proud as "a new, popular, light and refreshing lager for young people" and in less than a year to reach the market share of all foreign beers combined in sales.
Video: Proud
The gold award and the ADC award for best creative was awarded to Česká spořitelna's campaign "The oldest bank got the youngest board", which was co-created by VML Czechia and WPP Media. As part of the campaign, Sporitelna appointed six young members of the new shadow board of directors, the Future Mindset Board.
Future Mindset Board; Source: Česká spořitelnaIn the Sports marketing category, the highest award went to a campaign that aimed to increase viewership of the Paralympics by 25 percentage points. The campaign was developed by the VML agency.
The gold award also went to the Budějovický Budvar campaign showing how a traditional Czech brand became a trendsetter (Ogilvy agency), and to the Komerční banka campaign "KB and Mastercard: Jak Cinkačka vycinkala rekordní prodeje," which saw the bank enter the gaming sector thanks to its collaboration with the Good Game agency.
Source: Komerční bankaIn the categories of Activation Marketing and Brand Experience, Slavia Praha and Zaraguza CZ won gold. It sought to create a brand platform that can unify all Slavic activities.
ČAP - Czech Association of Insurance Companies also scored points in this year's Effie competition. The gold belongs to it for the campaign "Drugs are shortcuts" by the agencies McCann and Hero & Outlaw, which draws attention to the risks associated with specific behaviour after taking drugs, especially behind the wheel. She also came top in this year's all-new Positive Change category.
Source: CAPSilver and bronze
In addition to gold,Česká spořitelna also won four silver and two bronze awards. The judges praised its "glowing payment cards" campaign, where it built its own game world in the Unreal Engine 5 gaming environment, and released a limited edition of glowing Visa payment cards with the Kingdom Come Deliverence II theme by VML and Wavemaker. In the Long Term Branding category, the #Silnější concept was again successful.
The Czech Association of Insurance Companies also won three silver and two bronze awards, for the continuation of the "National Day Without Rush" by McCann and Hero & Outlaw. This time it was highlighted by a 47-second spot that shows a road accident through the eyes of those who actually intervene.
Two silvers and one bronze go to Philips CR for Philips OneBlade: Attention Sells!. It consisted in a change in media planning, whereby in cooperation with the OMD agency, individual media outlets were weighted by local attention indices, which allowed buying and optimization according to the actual level of engagement, not only by the intervention.
Special awards
In addition to the SIMAR award, three other special awards were also presented at the ceremony. Google 's trophy for Best Use of YouTube went to the "Patchmania" campaign, created by a team from L'Oréal ČR and agencies Wavemaker Czech, Lavo Productions, Publicis Groupe and WS Czech.
The Active Award for Best Use of Radio went to Mondelez for its Milky Way campaign by Ogilvy, Hogarth Worldwide and Publicis Groupe.
The third award is the Prima Video Awards and is presented by the Prima Group. This year, it was the "When you think of a house or garden, you hear Bauhaus" campaign for Bauhaus by Knowlimits Group that resonated the most.
"Every year, Effie shows that behind the most successful campaigns there is consistent data work, discipline, but also courage and strong creativity. This year's edition has once again confirmed how trust plays a crucial role in our industry and that continuous cooperation between agencies and sponsors brings results that stand up not only in front of the jury, but especially in business," saidRadana Čechová, Executive Director of AKA.
Shortlist is also a success
The category with the highest number of award-winning entries this year was Sports Marketing, with six prizes awarded.
According to the organisers, it was a great success for brands and agencies just to have made it to the finals. This year's number of entries was a record high of 117. The organisers also pointed to a stronger correlation between the length of time a client has worked with an agency and being on the shortlist.
"We are pleased that the positive impact of long-term partnerships between agencies and clients is confirmed. While last year, campaigns with an average length of cooperation of 6.5 years made the Effie shortlist, this year it has already been seven years. Stable relationships with clients often lead to deeper brand understanding, bolder strategies and measurably more effective campaigns," adds Petra Jankovičová, President of AKA and Director of Triad Prague.
"Congratulations to all the award winners, and yes, even the shortlist is an award. I emphasize this because the quality of the entries is better every year, the data recording is better, and therefore the juries must be more rigorous. We are convinced that Effie is a faithful mirror of the market and therefore we are happy that the quality of performance in the industry is growing," adds Ondřej Novák, Project Manager of Effie Czech Republic and Executive Director ofthe Association of Media Agencies (ASMEA).
This year's ceremony of the Effie Czech Republic competition, which is announced by the Association of Communication Agencies (AKA) and in which the effectiveness, but also the creativity of the submitted works is the main decisive factor, took place on 10 December in Prague's Lucerna. A total of 45 prizes were awarded during the evening, including eight gold ones.
Source: mediaguru.cz