Effies Arrive in the UK

As part of an ongoing strategic alliance with Effie Worldwide, the International Advertising Association (IAA) is pleased to announce the arrival of the prestigious Effie Awards to the UK.

Faris Abouhamad, IAA Chairman and World President stated, "We are delighted to announce this new initiative with the Effies, increasingly recognised by the global ad industry as a must-win award recognition, in a world where creativity is admired but effectiveness delivers the bottom line. The IAA is already a proud Effie partner with multiple IAA Chapters around the world and we are delighted to add the United Kingdom market, where the IAA has a vibrant and strong Chapter, to this distinguished group."

Effie Worldwide is known globally as the leading champion of marketing effectiveness with its signature initiative, the Effie Awards, being recognised throughout the industry as the global standard of marketing effectiveness excellence. With the addition of the Effie UK programme, Effie Worldwide's international network now expands to 40 national programmes, 5 regional programmes, and 1 global programme.

The inaugural Effie UK programme will be open to all marketing efforts that ran in the United Kingdom between April 1st 2014 and September 30th 2015. The first ceremony, where the 2016 Effie UK Award winners will be announced, will take place in London in May 2016.

Neal Davies, President and CEO of Effie Worldwide, commented, "We are extremely proud to partner with the IAA to have an Effie programme underway in the UK and have assembled a fantastic Steering Committee of industry luminaries - representing both client and agency, under the stewardship of Paul O'Donnell from Ogilvy - to see us through this first year."

Davies added, "More importantly, such a strategically smart market as the UK now has the chance to shine globally by being included in the prestigious Effie Effectiveness Index. This isn't just an important competition around effectiveness: it is a new benchmark for the UK".

The Effie Effectiveness Index identifies and ranks the most effective agencies, marketers, brands, networks, and holding companies by analysing finalist and winner data from all worldwide Effie competitions. Announced annually, the Effie Index is the most comprehensive global ranking of marketing effectiveness. Recent winners include Coke, BBDO, WPP and Unilever, among others.

Introduced in 1968, the Effie Awards honour the most effective marketing communications efforts globally.

Effie UK's 2016 Call for Entries opens in October 2015 and judging will be held in February and March. The final jury will gather in London in March to select the 2016 winners.