After more than 170 preliminary judges and 60 category judges pored over the entries for the 2014 Effie Awards, 113 of them have made the finalist list, with FCB New Zealand topping the charts on 23, Colenso BBDO/Proximity New Zealand on 18, DDB and Saatchi & Saatchi on 11 and Ogilvy & Mather on ten.
As for the other agencies, Y&R had eight, Barnes Catmur & Friends had six, WhybinTBWA on five, .99, Clemenger BBDO and Special had four, Contagion, Touchcast and Sugar had two, and Republik, JWT and The Radio Network had one.
- Check out the full list here.
.99 was behind the call for entries campaign, focusing on how an Effie win would go some way to silencing the anonymous commentators laying into work on industry blogs. And an increase in entries resulted in an increase in the number of finalists from 2013, a year in which DDB was named as the most effective agency and FCB took the top prize.
This year’s executive judges who will determine the metal are Aisha Daji Punga (Frucor Beverages Ltd), Delina Shields (Coca-Cola Oceania), Evangelia Henderson (Breast Cancer Foundation), John O’Toole (Southern Cross), Lyndsey Francis (TVNZ), Michael Pryor (Marketing Association) and Sonya Berrigan (BMW). They will be joined by this year’s international guest judge Paul Feldwick from the UK. The executive judging panel also determines the hardest challenge award and the coveted Grand Effie.
Feldwick spent 30 years in advertising at Boase Massimi Pollitt/DDB as an account planner. 15 of these were in a global strategic training and development role for DDB Worldwide. He left the agency in 2006 and now works independently as a strategic and business consultant.
He is a past convenor of judges for the IPA Advertising Effectiveness Awards, has been chairman of the APG and of the AQR, and is a fellow of the IPA and of the MRS. He is also an author who has published extensively on brands, advertising, and communications.
He will be headlining the Effectiveness Function, in association with TVNZ, to be held on Wednesday 1 October at AUT.
The dinner to be held at The Langham on Thursday 9 October. No doubt everyone hoping they can add one of the world’s most coveted advertising awards to their trophy cabinet.
