The Inaugural World Effie Festival

by Angel Guerrero

The inaugural World Effie Festival 2008 carried the prestige and significance of the Cannes Lion advertising festival and Fortune Magazine’s CEO Forum. The event was a convergence of creative gurus and the best minds in the creative, advertising and marketing industry gathering. A celebration and showcase of the world’s most creative and effective communication campaigns, the festival covered Thought Catalyst speakers’ sessions, a series of Premier Master Classes, and the Effie Winners Showcase, all hosted at the Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre last 28 and 29th of February.
The 1,300 delegates, mostly from Asia, were treated to an unprecedented line-up of Thought Catalyst speakers over two days. Sir John Hegarty, chairman of BBH Worldwide (Bartle Bogle and Hegarty) talked about “The Power of Irreverence”; David Droga of Droga5 spoke on “Ideas with a Conscience”; Lord Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012 Olympics and former

Olympian inspired attendees on “Playing to Win”; Singapore’s Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, addressed the creation of “Brand Singapore” in a dialogue with Jean-Marie Dru, president and CEO of TBWA who also gave a optimistic talk on “The Best is yet to come”; Shelly Lazurus , chairman and CEO of O&M Worldwide spoke about “How Will Communications Be Effective In The Future”; global chief marketing officer of Unilever Simon Cliff, provided an honest sharing of how just good and great campaigns happen; Dr. Vijay Mallya, CEO of Kingfisher Beer shared the secret to his family’s successful business; Jorge Consuegra of Yahoo spoke on “Effective Marketing In Time of Change: Staying Creative. Staying True”; Lawrence Flanagan, chief marketing officer, MasterCard Worldwide and master of the “Priceless” campaign talked about “Creativity + Innovation = Effectiveness”, and Richard Seymour and Dick Powell of Seymourpowell and inventors of the cordless kettle among others, had an impassion speech about “How Do Designers Ensure That Their Designs Work”.  
In one of the World Effie Festival’s Premier Master Classes, organizers gathered for the first time ever, the best minds, ad agency planners who each described their agency’s effectiveness culture and presented case histories of widely acclaimed creative campaigns that impacted greatly on the market.
The distinguished panel of planners committed to effectiveness with the delivery of the big creative idea, were Nick Kendall, group strategy director of BBH London; Lucy Jameson head of Strategy DDB London; Lawrence Green, chairman and partner of Fallon London; and Pal Mukherjee, partner of Naked Communications. These are the minds behind the “Love it. Hate It” Marmite UK campaign that challenged conventional wisdom; the Sony Bravia’s “Colour. Like No Other/Balls” campaign, Johnnie Walker’s striding man “Keep Walking” campaign that revitalized the brand; and the new Cadbury Chocolate “Glass and a Half Full” radical TV spot that features a music-loving gorilla.
To meet and hear these global masters close-up, in a city so close to home, was a rare privilege that made the trip worthwhile.
Stephen Mangham, chairman of the World Effie Festival Supervisory Board and group chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Singapore said, “The overall theme of the World Effie Festival is ‘ideas with consequences’—ideas which have built brands and transformed businesses. We want this festival to educate, inspire and provoke the delegates.”
A global audience of “virtual” delegates were invited to follow highlights through the Internet, webcasts and blogs.
The prestigious Global Effie Awards was for the first time held outside New York, where the Effie Organization was founded in 1968.

LAZARUS RISING
O&M’s Shelly Lazarus on Advertising Effectiveness
by Harry Mosquera

< width="288" height="194" align="left" alt="" src=" Shelley-Lazurus-on-stage-world-effie. " />Shelly Lazarus, worldwide chief executive officer of Ogilvy & Mather, is a woman of substance.  With over three decades in general advertising and direct marketing disciplines, she is Advertising Woman of the Year (1994) by the Advertising Women of New York, Business Woman of the Year (1996) by the New York City Partnership, and listed since 2002 in the annual ranking of the “50 Most Powerful Women in the World” by Fortune Magazine.  So when Shelly talks, people listen.

Such was the case in the inaugural World Effie Festival, where Shelly Lazarus was the keynote speaker. 
“I consider the Effies on any continent…to be a vital measure of success in our business,” she said. “Above all the many award shows,” she stressed, “the Effies is the one contest where results matter.” 
She contrasted the Effies with other awards shows which she described as “beauty contests.” 
Pointedly, she asked her audience:  “At the end of the day, when the dust has settled, what is the point?  What have our clients paid for?” 
Shelly grew up in an agency atmosphere where “we sell…or else.”   In fact, she started at Ogilvy & Mather when the legendary David Ogilvy still walked the halls and preached that the purpose of advertising was to build great brands. David, she shared, was a businessman first and foremost and a brilliant copywriter as well. 
“He valued ideas and creativity.  But not creativity for creativity’s sake,” she said.
According to Shelly, the great Ogilvy shunned awards shows for one simple reason: he felt that they measured the wrong thing.  He felt that awards shows measured creativity for creativity’s sake. 
“And that,” she revealed, “was pointless for David.  Not to mention disrespectful to his clients.” 
Disrespectful, because for David, clients’ money had to be spent to drive their businesses, not win the advertising agency awards.
David obviously had a lasting influence on Shelly, making her a lifelong disciple of advertising effectiveness.  She wholeheartedly believes that creating good advertising and great sales results have to go together.  She does not agree in the approach that some agencies do to break through the clutter—screaming louder than the others, using humor or other off-beat approaches—to gain attention. For Shelly, the simple truth is that agencies are paid by clients to make a lasting impression. 
To illustrate her point, Shelly said that in the past 30 years, only two campaigns have won the Cannes Grand Prix and the Grand Effie awards.  These campaigns not only won the highest respect of the creative world, but also had the consumers buy the product beyond expectation. 

< width="200" height="322" align="left" alt="" src=" Gold_winners. " />The first came from Apple: the “1984” television commercial for Macintosh.  To Shelly, this one commercial inspired a whole generation of “impossibly loyal consumers,” as she put it.  It also catapulted Apple into an icon, and eventually became the platform for the brand’s innovative character.  It provided, she noted, a “creative proposition and idea so potent that it drives wonderful new work and inspires wonderful new products.”  Indeed, Apple continues to break the mold through new revolutionary ways of developing and presenting new products, as exemplified by the iPod and iPhone. 
Though Apple has refreshed the basic concept many ways through the years, “1984” for Shelly demonstrates that “great big ideas have sticking power and value beyond measure.” 
The second campaigns was more recent, taking off from the “Evolution” material of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. “Evolution” was the object of discussion in many awards shows—judges were unsure to even consider it as advertising at all!  The material also highlighted the changing nature of media as experienced by today’s advertising practitioners.  “Evolution” was initially uploaded to YouTube, before being adapted and applied to various media.  By Shelly’s reckoning, “Evolution” has been viewed by 500 million people worldwide, at a media budget of zero. 
In fact, “Evolution” took US$50,000.00 to produce, but its impact was considerably much greater than its budget.  Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty challenged the idea of beauty as foisted on women for generations.  Shelly revealed that by tapping into a cultural nerve, the campaign has led to increased sales across the board worldwide for Dove. 
On the same occasion, Shelly raised the perennial question about an advertising agency’s creative product: Do we do brilliant creatives, or do we sell?  From her point of view, the debate is really a false dilemma. 
“The only answer,” she said, “is to marry great creativity with brilliantly effective ideas.” 
And clients, she reminded her audience, should not pay for anything less.
Though her speech in Singapore was brief, it was long on the insight and knowledge that only years of experience can bring—and Shelly’s audience certainly listened. With the world becoming increasingly smaller through the advances of technology, the core of her message lay in the power of the brand and the all-encompassing brand experience.  This, to Shelly Lazarus, integrates everything where the brand touches the consumer—and allows the message to rise above the clutter.

The brand Singapore:
No marketing genius, just commitment to principles, rigorous implementation and a little luck
by Angela Koch

< align="left" src=" Lee-Kuan-Yew. " alt="" />This was the message of Singapore Brand Architect, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew as he was being interviewed by advertising legend Jean-Marie Dru of TBWA at the inaugural World Effie Festival in Singapore last week. 
The founding father of the Singapore city-state’s pragmatic approach to the successful Singapore brand stood in contrast to the glitz and gloss of the global advertising industry in attendance at the World Effie Festival. His philosophy: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it; just modify as you need to adjust to the global environment. And while others may brag about their brand achievements and bask in accolades, MM Lee claims that the Singapore success was no act of genius but something of a happy accident. Some early government decisions such as promoting English as the language of choice, opened the door to Singapore becoming “a First World oasis in a Third World region.”
“We stumbled on the fact that if we had stability, safety, good health standards, efficient working environment and industrial peace, we can get American multinationals like Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments to use the island as their manufacturing base,” he said. 
It was a stoke of good fortune that that Singapore’s neighbours were not able to offer such operating environments and that places such as China and Taiwan had the ongoing Cultural revolution to deal with.
While the world is a different place since Singapore’s first taste of success 40 years ago, the city-state has remained relevant, by scanning the world economy for opportunity and making the necessary adjustments.
“Singapore has to be alive to the changes around us and move accordingly,” said MM Lee. 
In the future Singapore’s advantage as “a First World oasis in a Third World region” will no longer apply as its neighbours gain ground.  Singapore will then need to flex its strength as the nation who can help Asians do business with Asians.  Singapore’s fundamental beliefs in the “rule of law, integrity of its systems, efficient working environment, rational policy decisions” will keep making it relevant to the world and the region.
It’s no accident that some global companies have chosen Singaporean nationals to be their CFO’s, a testament to the Singapore brand values.
Great brands are often born out of exceptionally difficult circumstances; this is certainly true of Brand Singapore. When the stakes are high and the prospects of failure are very real, decision makers are forced to make choices, it is these choices ithat become a successful or failed strategy. For Singapore, the vulnerability of the city-state means some early tough decision needed to be made to ensure a chance at survival. MM Lee humbly puts those choices down to good fortune and some rational decision-making.
For those of us driving business, not only do we appreciate the difficulty in crystallizing a clear strategy, but the task of implementation over the long-term takes the energy and willpower of running a marathon. Perhaps the Singapore brilliance is not so much in the strategy but the passion and commitment to execution, which is so evident in the 84-year old Minister Mentor.

O&M and Saatchi & Saatchi win big at Asia Pacific Effies

The first-ever Asia Pacific Effie Awards, which recognize the most effective advertising and marketing campaigns across the region, were presented in Singapore at a gala dinner that marked the close of the inaugural World Effie Festival.

Gold, Silver and Bronze awards were presented to agencies responsible for the successful campaigns. The most successful agency networks were Ogilvy & Mather and Saatchi & Saatchi, which each won one Gold, one Silver and one Bronze Effie.

The only Philippine agency to get a citation was Harrison Communications for the Neozep Neovela campaign that got into the finalist round.
Some 150 campaigns from 18 countries were submitted for the Asia Pacific Effie Awards, some 50 percent more than expected. Judd Labarthe, chairman of the Asia Pacific Effie Awards and executive planning director, Atletico International and Argonauten G2, said: “The breadth of participation in this year’s competition says that the Effie Awards are understood and respected, not only as proof of the skill and talent of the agencies and clients who win them, but also as evidence of the growing professionalism of marketing communications in Asia. When winning an Effie matters, it means accountability and the spirit of agency-client collaboration needed to demonstrate it are here to stay. ”

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An Irreverent Knight
Sir John Hegarty, chairman and worldwide creative director of Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty
by Arlene Therese Aquino

< width="200" height="259" align="left" src=" SIR-JOHN-HEGARTY. " alt="" />Sessions were happening simultaneously at the first World Effies Festival last February 28 and 29 in Singapore.  There was never a lull in the Suntec hallways, as delegates moved from one room to the next, trying to absorb as much as they could on ideas and effective creativity.
But the Master Class session on “Building an Ideas-Led Culture” was packed 15 minutes before it started.  People were getting ready to listen to The Mill Chairman Michael Baulk, McCann-Erickson India Executive Chairman Prasoon Joshi, and the man who seemed to be drawing the crowd in, Sir John Hegarty, chairman and worldwide creative director of Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty.
You felt the anticipation in the room, as one didn’t get exposed often to people with unparalleled achievements in advertising like John Hegarty.  His was the agency behind idea-driven campaigns like “Keep Walking” for Johnnie Walker and “The Axe Effect”.  Last year, the queen knighted him for his service and achievements in advertising.
Hegarty spoke about “The Power of Irreverence” in an earlier session, where he referred to “irreverence” as being able to challenge conventions by thinking and doing things differently. 
Too many brands are trying to out-voice each other out there.  A brand is given more power to engage if it dares to take a fresher perspective on things and use bolder, more novel approaches.
First of all, Hegarty was interchangeably using “ideas-led culture” and “creative culture” in his talk, which to me said that we have no business claiming we’re creative if ideas don’t drive the work we do for our clients.
He emphasized the importance of a well-defined creative belief. 
However different it may be for each agency, what’s important is that everyone who works there understands what it is so he can relentlessly pursue it.  It’s interesting that he mentioned how, it’s often the people who have big egos that are more passionate about protecting the integrity of an idea…as if their ideas were their egos.  In his opinion, people like them are the ones worth keeping and reassuring that they can do their best work in this shop.
That’s why it’s dangerous for an agency to try to be all things to all people.  It begins to be less and less relentless in pursuing creative ideas and loses its soul in the long run.  Unless the agency is prepared to stick to its beliefs, it could very easily fall into the trap of mediocrity.
He made a point about the notion of “clients not getting it” as bullcr*p.  In trying to protect its creative beliefs, it is the agency’s responsibility to get clients to understand the process and wear the agency’s hat once in a while.  For all you know, “they’re not getting it” simply because they aren’t aware how it works.  But if you still don’t get them onboard despite your efforts, then your creative beliefs no longer jibe.  It’s time to part ways.

O&M has another winner
“WE SELL— OR ELSE!” BOOK 2

There is a well-known truism in marketing circles that goes: products are made in factories, but consumers buy brands. And brand strength can only be created through effective marketing< align="right" src=" we_sell_or_else_bk2. " alt="" /> activities. 

We Sell—Or Else is the well-known call to action for the multinational agency Ogilvy & Mather.  It is also the title of a continuing series published by the agency showcasing the effectiveness of marketing communications on behalf of its clients. In Asia.  Its Book 2 includes 22 case histories of winners at Effie Awards in local markets or are finalists in the inaugural Asia Pacific Effie, which is part of the World Effie Festival.   The book was launched at the recent World Effie Festival in Singapore by Shelly Lazarus, chairman & CEO, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Miles Young, chairman in Asia Pacific David Mayo, vice president in Asia Pacific  and Tim Broadbent, regional effectiveness director.

Among the highlights of the case histories:

1.    Brands are social signifiers.  A brand embodies product quality.  It carries a social message too.  In the rapidly changing society of China, marketing success comes from understanding how consumers need to identify themselves to others.  Knowing this, Motorola proceeds to rebuild confidence from the retail level to the consumer level while retooling its image into a cool and trendy brand.  The result: from a no. 4 position in 2006, it reaches the no. 2 position in the mobile category in 12 months. 

2.    Communications can harness pre-existing trends for the brand without changes to the product or the price.  In Hong Kong, Coke Light overcomes the negative perception of sweet, fizzy drinks.  Instead, Coke Light is presented as a healthy, low-calorie drink.  A decline of 8 percent is turned around to a 4 percent sales growth. 

3.    Entrenched brand leaders can be seen as a barrier to entry, but success can come from creating new trends.  GE Money in Singapore is a latecomer in the personal loan category already defined by existing players.  Its game plan: introduce its new loan in a way that is fresh, engaging and truly personal.  And naming it James.  GE Money reaches its $60-M target in eight months. 

The cases in We Sell—Or Else use multiple touch points based on a single communications message—a 360-degree brand stewardship that delivers more bang for every buck spent. Most cases also evoke an emotional response to the brand, reinforcing current marketing thinking that marketers must respect and listen to their consumers.