The Global Effies Index has just been published and Australia is nowhere to be seen. That is not good.
The most effective agencies come from Bogotá, Mumbai and Dubai and New Zealand as Colenso BBDO made the top five for the first time in five years.
The top 20 most effective agencies came from Argentina, Colombia, Hungary, India, New Zealand, Peru, Romania, Taiwan, Turkey, UAE, and the United States.
Where is Australia?
When you compare that to the Gunn Report where Australia is rocketing up the list in terms of creativity awards and is in third place overall, or D&AD where Clemenger won more awards than any other global agency, there’s a mismatch between creativity and effectiveness.
The work needs to work. It’s all very well celebrating the level of creativity Australia is delivering, but why isn't it translating into results for clients?
Romania produces more effective work than we do. Romania! I’m not sure why Romania particularly surprises me, but it does.
It's also interesting to note the absence of the UK from that list. We so often look to the UK as a hotbed of great creative work, but it appears it doesn’t work there either.
In terms of indies, four Istanbul-based agencies made the top five. What are they doing right?
In terms of brands, the most effective brand list is not surprising. It’s a roll call of big brands and prolific advertisers: Unilever, McDonald’s, Vodafone, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Although also notable, Coke slid down the list four places which suggests its ‘one brand’ marketing strategy that was introduced with gusto in January 2016 isn’t delivering.
In terms of holding groups, WPP is the most effective for the sixth year, and BBDO Worldwide booted Ogilvy & Mather out of the top spot in terms of agency networks
The Effies Index is compiled by converting every Effie Award winner and finalist into points. It counts 40 national, regional and global Effie Awards competitions. In 2017 it included 3,601 winning and combined campaigns from 2016.
The Effies is a robust and coveted award programme. It's the one that shows the work is delivering results - short and long-term. They are hard to win. And The Effies organisation states: “Every brand and company ranked in the Effie Index has undergone rigorous evaluations of their case studies and work by expert industry judges to prove that their marketing achieved compelling results.”
Last year after the Australian Effies where The Monkeys were named effective agency of the year, I wrote a column bemoaning the lack of any winners in the long-term effectiveness category. I would like to think that by the time the Effies Index is published this time next year, the effectiveness ranking will be coming in line with the creative rankings.