Saturday, 11 July 2015 – THE 8th Malaysia Effie Awards 2015 returns with a bang – marking a year of momentous changes to the entire marketing landscape. The Malaysian Advertiser’s Association (MAA) has made some significant changes in 2015, ensuring that the gold standards of effective marketing are upheld and reinvigorated.
Seven new categories have been introduced, not only expanding the horizons of effective marketing work, but also encouraging new entrants from the e-commerce and SME sectors to profile effective marketing with homegrown brands. The new categories are – Influencers, David vs Goliath, Renaissance, Brand Experience, Good Works – Brands, Good Works – Non Profit, and Engaged Community.
Also, for the first time ever, there will be two newly introduced awards, namely “Brand of the Year” and “Agency of the Year”, which are expected to set the local benchmark for the best work put forth by marketers and agencies alike.
MAA president Margaret Auyong, who sees the Malaysia Effies franchise setting international standards, in a statement said: “With the introduction of online submissions and online judging, Effies Malaysia stands on par with regional accolades and will definitely evolve to ensure that it is consistently relevant to brands and marketers”.
MAA vice-president Chan May Ling, who is also the organising chairman for the Malaysia Effie Awards 2015, sees these changes as the start of a longer-term evolution for the award. “The new category introduction was needed with an evolving market place, with brands placing more emphasis in other non-product centric campaigns and shifting towards social causes and brand engagement to build brand love with customers” she notes.
Also, each local win contributes to scores into the Global Effie Index, which is now into its fifth year. The Effie Index recognises the architects of the most effective marketing communications ideas from around the world, determined by their success in more than forty national and regional Effie Award competitions.
For more details on the new categories and online submissions, visit www.malaysiaeffie.com. Call for entries starts July 6 and ends July 31, or Aug 7 (late entry).
