What you need to know:

• 2021 Effies introduce new categories and criteria to address the impact of Covid-19 on brands.
• Awards will serve as a collection of best practice for marketing in a recession.
• Marketers welcome the rigour of the judging process in uncertain times.

With the focus on the bottom line never been more critical, and justifying advertising spend and effectiveness crucial, the 2021 Effies hope to create a collection of best practice case studies for marketing in a recession.

In what the ACA is calling the "most important year" in the Australian Effie Awards' 13-year history, it has added two new categories addressing Covid-19's impact on brands; 'Outsmarting Covid', to recognise work that contributes to the industry’s collective marketing knowledge, and ‘Jumpstart’ for brands that haven’t entered before but have an effectiveness case study to share.

"In Australia, we haven't had a recession since 1990, and the marketing and general business community don't have the case histories and general understanding of [how to navigate] this," said ACA CEO Tony Hale. 

“We want to challenge the marketing community to have a crack at The Effies because we think it's the most important year that we've ever had. I would hope we get a whole bunch of cases that show who has benefited so that if another recession hits, there's a greater understanding of how to capitalise on it and what the best marketing behaviours may be."

“There are smart marketers that got in there and made the most of the opportunities,” says Hale. “This is an opportunity to see who the big winners in this recession really were.”

Trent Chapman, marketing director ANZ at Beam Suntory, which scooped two gold Effies last year for Canadian Club, says current market uncertainty makes the rigour of the judging process increasingly critical to credibility. 

"More than ever, we need powerful creative to deliver effective results, and the Effies provide a great balance of art and science," Chapman told Mi3. 

“There’s so much unknown now in the marketplace.Although it looks on the surface that results may appear to be strong, they may not be, and that's why the rigour placed around the return on investment is critical.”

Details here.