The preliminary tallies for next month’s 2011 North American Effie Awards are in, with BBDO Worldwide slated to take home a dozen trophies, topping the proceedings as the most effective agency network for the second year in a row.
Saatchi & Saatchi with nine wins followed by Leo Burnett with eight rank as the top winners among individual agencies, while Old Spice, Snickers and Toyota are some of the most effectively marketed brands from this year’s competition.
The North American Effie Awards recognize ideas that work and have been a global symbol of marketing achievement since 1968. Gold, Silver and Bronze Effie winners for both the North American and Global Effie competition will be announced at the 43rd annual North American Effie Awards Gala on June 7 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York.
“The Effie Awards shine a light on great ideas that work that come from small independent agencies to large publicly traded companies,” said Mary Lee Keane, president of Effie Worldwide. “Our winners share the common bond of demonstrating the power of great creative thinking to achieve marketplace success.”
A Global Effie Award will be presented to Ogilvy & Mather USA and Mindshare/Neo, USA for IBM Corporation’s SmarterCities Program. The Global Effie Awards competition recognizes effective global brand building and requires that a single brand idea run across at least four countries in two or more regions worldwide.
Other winner trends include holding companies with the most North American Effie Awards wins: Omnicom (26) and Publicis (23). Old Spice won the most North American Effies of any brand in the competition with four, while Snickers won three North American Effie trophies, in addition to one Global Effie Award. Toyota, U by Kotex, and Walgreens will take home three Effies each.
(For information on the 50-plus Effie North America categories and winners, visit http://www.effie.org.
Media Effies
Meanwhile, highlights of the Effie Media Awards include:
Digitas won two Media Idea Effies on behalf of American Express and Kraft. Effies for Media Idea were also awarded to Syfy (Fallon) and to TVLand for Hot in Cleveland. Media Innovation Effie Award winners included Goodby, Silverstein and Partners and OMD for Frito-Lay’s Doritos, Saatchi & Saatchi LA for Toyota, and Wieden+Kennedy for the Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” Responds to the Internet. Starcom USA/LiquidThread won an Effie in the Single Media Company Activation category for Bank of America’s History Channel America: The Story of Us Partnership.
The winners and finalists will have more at stake this year, as The Effie Effectiveness Index will be revealed in June. The index will identify and rank the industry’s most effective holding companies, agencies, advertisers, and brands by analyzing finalist and winner data from Effie competitions all over the globe.
Effie Worldwide stands for effectiveness in marketing communications, spotlighting marketing ideas that work and encouraging thoughtful dialogue about the ever-changing marketing industry. The Effie network works with some of the top research and media organizations worldwide to bring its audience relevant insights into effective marketing strategy. This has taken shape in webinars, white papers, global conferences, winner showcases and more.
The Effie Awards recognize any and all forms of marketing communication that contribute to a brand’s success. Effie celebrates effectiveness worldwide with the Global Effie, the Euro Effie, the Middle East/North Africa Effie and more than 40 national Effie programs.
Hwang Dong-hyuk On Season 2 of “Squid Game,” Wrapping Production on Season 3; What’s Next?
Viewers may gasp, cringe or cry out watching characters die on Netflix's "Squid Game," but those simulated deaths have a different effect on its creator, writer and director. Instead, Hwang Dong-hyuk feels happiness seeing them go.
The show has a huge cast and Hwang says it was "really difficult" to manage everyone on set.
As characters would die, Hwang recalls saying to the actors on their last day, "'Oh no! How sad! I won't see you tomorrow,' but I was always smiling inside."
"Squid Game" season two premieres Thursday. It once again stars Lee Jung-jae and centers around a secret competition in South Korea that targets people in debt and the winner gets a big cash prize. What they don't know is that losing the game is deadly.
Hwang originally conceived of the show 15 years ago as a two-hour film but it failed to gain traction with financiers or even interested actors. He put it aside and worked on other films instead. He then had the idea to make it a TV series instead and took the project to Netflix. There, it could reach a wide audience.
"I never in my wildest dream thought it was going to be this huge," said Hwang, who spoke about the show and what comes next. Answers have been edited for clarity and length.
Q: What have you learned from "Squid Game"?
HWANG: I learned that I shouldn't give up. If you love something and if you want to create something, it might not work now, but the time might come later. Or that idea could be the source of inspiration for something else.
Q: You've already finished filming season three of "Squid Game." Have you thought about what your next project will be?
HWANG: I'm afraid to talk... Read More