By: Janja Božič Marolt, Chairwoman of Mediana
I simply can’t understand how it would be possible for any company to communicate and that their communication doesn’t have a foundation in an analysis of the current situation and defined market opportunities, strategic challenges and target groups.
The stereotypical thinking about the value of creative prizes is highlighted. The same significance is assigned to the Effie Awards. Some 30 years ago, my then boss from the U.S. told me that an advertiser there chooses their agency because of creativity, but changes it because of media planning. In the meantime, the gurus shrewdly came up with the division into advertising and media agencies, and then the ones for the events and the digital agencies, so that they could now slowly re-merge them together. Because that’s the only way they can catch up or even overcome the advertisers themselves who increasingly work on awards for effectiveness than on awards for creativity.
I dare to say that Effie is already a highly prized award for market efficiency in Slovenia. Award for success in market communication. Award for reaching and surpassing communication, marketing and business goals. In the ideal relationships, these are identified jointly by agencies and advertisers based on research, while creativity is more and more solely in the domain of agencies.
It is true that proving success in reaching communication, marketing and business goals requires research, a combination of internal analytics and drawing data from the many available sources of continuous, internationally comparable research, and research tailored to the client. It sounds complex, but is essentially very simple. The only important difference is that you cannot prove effects and successes with “I think”, but with “I know”. Pleasant feeling and warm emotions can only follow research but cannot replace it.
Efficiency is more often measured short-time – achieve the biggest possible effect with as little financial resources as possible. But success is usually measured over a longer period, with larger market shares and business results. The Effie Award must be a reward both for efficiency and success.
