Effies see Happy Soldiers and Clemenger front runners

Happy Soldiers has been awarded the Grand Effie at the third annual Effie awards. Their The first pillow with a best-before date campaign for Tontine took out two Gold Effies. 

Announced at yesterday’s gala dinner in Sydney, attended by 450 guests, the event awarded eight gold awards overall and named Clemenger BBDO Melbourne as The Effective Agency of the Year which took home 10 awards in total.

The judges said Happy Soldiers won the Grand convincingly due to its bold and original approach, delivering a long term solution and outstanding business results.

The campaign was seen to cut through an increasingly cluttered market and increased awareness in a creatively stagnant category. In the activation week, sales increased with an immediate uplift of +345 per cent and far exceeded the agreed goal of a 30 per cent sales increment.

Awards chairman Matthew Melhuish said that this year’s record entries and turnout for the gala evening were a big vote of confidence.
"It is terrific to see that our marketing and advertising industry is so committed to proving the worth of their marketing programs under the harsh spotlight of peer review," he said.
"There is no doubt that we are continuing to build a very strong culture of accountability and effectiveness in Australia." 

Other noteable wins were a gold and silver for Clemenger BBDO Sydney for Wrigley's 5 Gum: Stimulating your senses and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne for Bega Cheese's How human values can still win against price discounting which won a gold and bronze.

Chairman of Judges, Colin Wilson-Brown said the awards showed impressive growth.
"We had 214 entries and 95 finalists, ensuring that all categories were strongly contested" he said. "The finalists consistently displayed a level of excellence in sales success. Well done to all."

The full list of gold Effie winners can be found here.