Marketing is often described as a function that connects brands with people, but its true value is most clearly visible when it contributes to business results. It is precisely this idea that has been at the core of Effie for years, an international programme that does not evaluate creativity for its own sake, but rather its ability to solve specific business challenges and deliver measurable impact.
In the new Effie Slovenia term, the role of Co-Chair of the Jury for the 2027 edition will be assumed by Mojca Pesendorfer, a marketing strategist with twenty years of experience in brand development, strategic planning, and marketing effectiveness. Today, at Atlantic Grupa, she is responsible for the global development of the savoury spreads category and the marketing strategy of the Argeta and Bakina Tajna brands. Throughout her career, she has won more than ten Effie awards in Slovenia and four at the European level. As a former Programme Director of Effie Slovenia and a long-standing jury member, she closely follows the development of the standards that shape the market and define how the success of marketing activities is evaluated.
In the interview that follows, she discusses how she defines effective marketing, why she sees Effie as much more than a competition, what she has learned through international judging experiences, and where she sees the greatest untapped potential of the regional marketing industry. She also reflects on the importance of long-term partnerships, the role of strategy in business growth, and the challenges facing the profession in a time of rapid technological change.
Effie is built on effectiveness. In your opinion, what is the best and shortest definition of effective marketing?
For me, effective marketing is marketing that identifies the greatest business opportunity and efficiently turns it into results. That sounds incredibly simple, but the difference always lies in execution, in translating theory into practice.
Effie judging often provides a behind-the-scenes look at the best projects. Have these experiences, including those on the international Effie stage, influenced the way you view the role of marketing in business or society today?
I genuinely enjoy reading Effie submissions because the best Effie cases continually confirm how important a strategic lever marketing is. They clearly demonstrate that marketing is not merely a support function or, even worse, “the department that produces appealing ads,” but a function that actively helps shape business strategy and growth. In that sense, I see Effie as a methodology that delivers exceptional results. Effie is by no means just a competition; it is a way of working and thinking.
How do you believe you will personally contribute to the judging process as Jury President of Effie 2027?
First and foremost, fully in the spirit of Effie, I want to contribute to excellence, which in the context of judging means encouraging discussions that are fair, rigorous, and ambitious at the same time. Discussions that do not settle for “good enough” but clearly reward courage, focus, and genuine business impact.
It is important to me that, as a jury, we create space for constructive and well-argued debate, the kind from which we leave feeling that we made the right decisions and rewarded the very best work.
For entrants, I would like us to provide not just good but excellent feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of their submissions, where they succeeded in convincing the jury and where they did not, and where opportunities exist for them to achieve even more next time.
Your most recent experience within the international Effie environment is still fresh, dating back to 2025. Did you notice anything there that the Slovenian marketing industry should adopt more boldly, whether in its thinking, ambition, or approach to proving effectiveness?
I can say that our submissions are exceptionally strong compared to international ones. Nevertheless, my experience at the European level of the Effie competition also gave me a very clear understanding that there is still a great deal of untapped potential in our market when it comes to innovation, particularly in terms of truly bold and unconventional approaches to solving business challenges.
The best international cases stand out precisely because they are exceptionally strong in their strategic thinking, not only in execution but already in the way they define a problem and then solve it in an unexpected way.
Outstanding Effie work is usually not the result of a single good idea and its execution, but of strong collaboration between clients, agencies, media, data, and strategy. In your opinion, what distinguishes truly effective partnerships from relationships that remain merely executional?
When it comes to what separates truly effective partnerships from purely operational relationships, I would highlight three things: a shared definition of the problem, because everything starts with understanding the problem, challenge, or opportunity in detail; relentlessly honest communication; and the fact that no one is treated as a mere executor, but rather as a strategic partner.
When goals are shared, dialogue is open, and responsibility is distributed, the result is work that is not only excellent from a craft perspective but exceptional in a broader business context. To achieve this, I believe that time is an essential ingredient. Instant collaborations between stakeholders only exceptionally produce exceptional results, whereas long-term relationships form the foundation of truly effective partnerships.
Effie rewards the effectiveness of submitted work, but it also helps shape future marketing standards. Where will the industry need to sharpen its understanding and approaches the most in the coming years?
It is clear that the changes taking place in our industry and environment are enormous. Therefore, I would offer one very simple reminder: despite all technological advances, people are still driven by the same fundamental motivations – the desire for belonging, status, progress, control, and recognition.
For that reason, I believe the biggest challenge for our industry in the years ahead will be ensuring that, amid tremendous technological change, we do not forget that human psychology remains relatively stable. The best marketing has never been the marketing that made the best use of technology; it has always been the marketing that placed an understanding of people at its core and effectively engaged them within a new technological framework.
