Effies 2007 receives an upbeat response from judges

The Effie Awards have received a total of 101 entries this year, considerably higher than last year’s 79 entries. During the first round of the judging process, the entries were judged across seven categories including consumer products, consumer durables, services, corporate advertising, Internet advertising, mobile advertising and integrated advertising campaign.

Consumer Products received 41 entries; Consumer Durables, 20; Services, 25; Corporate Advertising, 6; Internet Advertising, 5; and Integrated Advertising Campaign, 4. Mobile Advertising is the only category that didn’t receive any entries.

Nitin Bhagwat, CEO and executive director, Interface, who was one of the judges for the awards, remarks, “The entries received this year have considerably good insights about consumer understanding. Consumer understanding forms the key to effective communication. It is evident that the marketers have developed greater desire for accountability towards the end consumer.”

According to Kiran Khalap, founder, Chlorophyll Brand & Communications Consultancy, “It was interesting to see the rise in the number of Internet case studies compared to last year. This time there is also greater commitment towards segmentation of audiences into specific target groups as per the product nature. Earlier, marketers were not that eager to segment the audience in terms of specific groups with male and female classes. But since the last three-four years, this trend has shot up, reflecting growth for the industry as a whole.”

Madhukar Sabnavis, country head, discovery and planning, O&M, says, “The quality of work has gone up compared to the past years. There is a good variety of entries in all the categories. It’s difficult to comment if there were any path-breaking innovations before we get to see the creative presentations in the second phase of judging.”

Sunil Lulla, chief executive officer, Times Global Broadcasting, adds, “Categories such as finance, real estate and durables have deeper insights this time. Otherwise, there are a whole lot of on-ground activations and innovations seen across most of the categories.”

The second round of judging for the awards will take place on September 28, 2007. The winners will be announced during the award ceremony on October 12.