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The Association for Communication and Advertising unveils 2023 Effie Awards jury
The Jury for the 2023 Effie Awards has been announced by The Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) and Effie South Africa.
The Effie Jury has the crucial responsibility of upholding the integrity of the industry’s ability to deliver against business objectives while ensuring that the judging process adheres to the highest industry standards. The winners of the 2023 program will be announced at a gala awards ceremony to be held in Johannesburg on September 15th, 2023.
The jury members, entrusted with Awarding Ideas that Work®, have been carefully selected based on their knowledge and experience within the marketing, communications, and advertising sectors. The 2023 panel consists of esteemed industry leaders and trendsetters drawn from various disciplines on both the client and agency sides, including the C-Suite, senior management, strategy, digital, creative, research, and media.
To provide an even better experience for agencies and marketers submitting entries, the Effie SA committee, following a request for approval to Effie Worldwide, has implemented key changes in the judging process for the 2023 Effie Awards South Africa.
There has been a reduction in the number of overall judges selected this year, but an increase in average seniority of the judging pool.
Second-round judges will be drawn from the first round panel, ensuring increased consistency in the adjudication process.
Second-round judges will be exclusively selected from participating judges representing ACA member agencies, along with leading marketers.
Another critical change is the extension of time allowed for reading cases prior to formal judging, now extended to seven days, ensuring a more thorough review and well-informed judging process.
Mathe Okaba, CEO, ACA: “We are absolutely thrilled with the calibre of judges for this year’s Effie Awards. As a collective, they represent a truly diverse and representative selection of the entire sector, consisting of top-level, experienced professionals from both the client and agency sides. The individuals entrusted with awarding cases represent a variety of advertising and marketing disciplines, which are key to an effective and equitable process.”
The first-round judges will review, discuss, and score submissions on July 19th, after which the panel will finalise the “shortlist” that will proceed to the second round.
During the second round on August 8th, all shortlisted campaigns that have proven to be effective and have achieved marketing objectives will be evaluated by the second selected panel of judges. This round will involve scoring and identifying campaigns that will be awarded finalist status and deemed deserving of a highly respected Effie Award.
The top honour, the Grand Effie, will be judged by a third jury, once again drawn from the existing jurors, together with extra participants. The Grand Effie judging panel consists of C-Suite representatives, who are tasked with awarding the most effective campaign of the year. Grand Effie winners are not guaranteed; however, campaigns worthy of such an award will only be considered among the Gold Effie winners selected in round two. The Grand Effie judging will take place on August 30th, 2023.
Okaba: “We look forward to the panel once again confirming and highlighting the value our industry delivers to the marketing and communications sector. We are thrilled to announce that we have made tweaks to the programme, particularly with respect to improving the judging process and look forward with great pleasure to announcing the most effective work of the year on September 15th at the Gala event.”
Mpume Ngobese, Jury Co-Chair, Effie Awards: “We are privileged to have a jury comprised of such esteemed professionals entrusted with selecting the work that truly delivers results. The varied panels employed by the Effie program ensure that winning cases will have been subjected to extensive rigor throughout the adjudication process. I look forward to highly engaging and valuable discussion and debate during the various rounds of judging.”
