When members of the Global Grand Jury gather around the same table in London on 30 September, Davor Bruketa of Bruketa& will be among the experts deciding on the best marketing effectiveness projects. Alongside him, four other Croatian experts will take part in the first round of judging, giving Croatia a total of five representatives on the juries of the Global Best of the Best Effie Awards 2026 this year.
In the Round One Independent Jury, the work will be evaluated by Lea Ileković Žigić from Kaufland Hrvatska, Krunoslav Stančić and Vanja Vaniček from Addiko Bank AG, and Luka Duboković from BBDO Zagreb. Together with international jury members, they will decide which projects will advance toward the final stages of the global Effie programme.
The Global Best of the Best is open to projects that won Gold or a Grand Effie at national and regional competitions around the world in the previous year. This brings already awarded campaigns together in the global finals, with the best among them continuing toward the programme’s highest honours.
The best among them win a Global Grand Effie in their respective categories, after which the winners compete for the Iridium Effie, the award given to the most effective project of the year. Bruketa will take part in this final stage as a member of the Global Grand Jury, helping select the recipients of the Global Grand Effie awards.
“I am pleased that, with this invitation, the organisers of this global competition have recognised our efforts to always seek the most effective solutions to marketing problems, and to solve those problems in unconventional ways, using creativity as a business tool. This jury includes some of today’s best strategists and creatives, people whose campaigns we study at conferences and in classrooms. Sitting at the same table with them and choosing the best of the best together is a huge recognition, not only for me but also for the entire team with whom we have spent years building the belief that creativity is not decoration, but the most powerful lever of business results,” Bruketa said.
The presence of five Croatian experts at different stages of the global judging process gives the local market an opportunity to be part of the process that sets the standards by which some of the world’s most successful marketing projects are evaluated.
The Effie Awards are presented to campaigns that have demonstrated marketing effectiveness and achieved measurable results. In Croatia, the competition is organised by HURA, and this year’s Croatian members of the global juries will bring their local experience to the stage where the best among already awarded projects are selected.
