Marketing agencies shine at Effie MENA Awards

Black suits and ties, long gowns and most importantly winners dominated the red carpet gala event at this year’s Effie MENA awards held Wednesday night in Dubai.

In an effort to acknowledge the hard-work of the region’s marketing and advertising companies, the EFFIE MENA awards, now in its sixth year, awarded the top companies which have had the most efficient campaigns and yielded the best results under the theme “ideas that work”.

Launched in New York in 1968, the Effies were created to honor marketing ideas that achieved the best results, with the program rapidly establishing a reputation as being the most prestigious of all professional marketing awards.

hawari

Commenting on the awards to Al Arabiya News, Co-CEO of Media Quest Julien Hawari said: “Today, the Effie’s is basically the best award any marketer could have because it’s about effectiveness. It’s about proving that the money that the marketer, the agency, has been spending has been put to good use at that it has achieved results and objectives.”

As a result of the ever-growing marketing and advertising industry in the region, the EFFIE MENA awards has expanded its categories to a total of 23 classes and now includes awards for the “Best Youth Marketing Campaign,” “ Best Use of Social Media,” and “Most Effective Agency Network of the Year.”

“The award has been growing [like] crazy, because more and more of the marketers - more and more of the companies in the region - want to measure the effectiveness of the money that they have been spending. So the ad market has been expanding in the region, the categories of the Effie’s have been changing to be able to reflect this change happening in the market,” added Hawari.

More than 300 entries have been shortlisted, all vying for the bronze, silver and gold awards of each category.

One of the most prestigious awards for this year, the “Most Effective Agency Network of the year” award, was given to FP7 MENA. While the best use of social media award went to Media Direction OMD’s campaign for Vodafone Egypt.

Meanwhile, the best youth marketing campaign award went to FP7 in Cairo for their work for Mobinil and the best sports marketing campaign went to Havas Media Middle East, for their work for Emirates Airlines’ “#AllTimeGreats: Pele and Ronaldo” campaign.