Inside Effie’s winning strategies: The hallmarks of an effective campaign

A recent Effie SA Dialogue Series that took place at Nedbank in Sandton saw a panel take on this discussion under the banner, Inside Effie’s winning strategies, from strategy to results, elevating marketing effectiveness. The panelists (L to r): Carl Willoughby, Effie SA Grand Judge and CCO TBWA, Nicole Shub, CMO Pineapple and 2024 Grand Effie SA winner, Refilkwe Maluleke, Effie SA Jury co-chair and head of marketing Discovery Health, Shaun Dix, global service line leader, creative excellence, Ipsos and moderator Silas Matlala Gibs.

A recent Effie SA Dialogue Series at Nedbank in Sandton saw a panel take on this discussion under the banner, Inside Effie’s winning strategies, from strategy to results, elevating marketing effectiveness.

The panellists included Nicole Shub, CMO Pineapple and 2024 Grand Effie SA winner, Carl Willoughby, Effie SA Grand Judge and CCO TBWA, Shaun Dix, global service line leader, creative excellence, Ipsos and Refilkwe Maluleke, Effie SA Jury co-chair and head of marketing Discovery Health.

The panel was moderated by Silas Matlala from Gibs.

Creativity alone is not enough

Creativity and effectiveness coexist, says Willoughby. “If you are just doing creativity for creativity's sake, then you are doing art. You have to be driving business results or some sort of impact through creativity.”

He adds that if your campaign does not achieve business results, it will be very difficult to sell that second campaign to the client.

For him, impact is effectiveness. “Impact is not just about sales; creativity and effectiveness need to coexist for success.”

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Breaking out of the category

Dix explains that our brains are prediction machines, so everything we have learnt in the past will influence the decisions we make today and tomorrow.

Humans also suffer from the cognitive wall, which he explains is like a culture of conformity, and it carries through our lives as well as into advertising.

“It means that category advertising is often defined so it looks a certain way and has conformed to category codes that consumers have learned, such as the frosted bottle in a beer commercial or the long winding road in a vehicle advert.

“When we create communications like this, that conforms, then we do not get into people's minds because they already know this image and as a result they don't see it anymore.”

This, he says, is the case for creative originality and non-conforming, and he points out that of the Best of the Best Global Effies, 83% of those cases are non-conforming.

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Empathy enhances creativity

Dix adds that while we need creativity, we also need empathy.

“Empathy is how a person feels about something.” He says empathy is like a human truth, a deep insight.

“A low level of empathy and a high level of creativity translates to a low level of effectiveness, and we see this across our data.

“But if you have a high level of empathy and a high level of creativity on linear video, you can have as much as a 20% uplift across our data.

"And this is across the world. It does not matter where you are, although where you are will change cultural nuances.”

Empathy matters more on social media

On platforms like Facebook and Instagram, empathy matters more than storytelling for ad memorability.

Dix says that Ipsos looked at creativity through their framework and empathy on Facebook and Instagram.

“In the social feed for social ad memorability, having a high level of empathy is more important than the actual creative story.

"It's 50% because when you go to Facebook and Instagram, your mindset is a little bit different to potentially YouTube or TikTok."

A high level of empathy can significantly increase ad impact, especially on social media.

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Pineapple’s winning strategy

Pineapple’s Shub took the audience through the brand’s journey that led to the brand winning the Grand Effie.

“We were doing social media and digital advertising to Millennials, but despite this group always being online, they do not want to see insurance advertising and like most people do not enjoy insurance advertising or insurance.”

Pineapple knew they had to change this and make it easier to have a conversation with their audience.

“But we did not have a big budget, so we decided to focus on one medium, and we felt that billboards were the right medium at that time.”

They changed to static billboards, and it resonated with this audience.

“We made 108 unique billboards with eight unique lines. We took the mickey out of billboards, advertising and insurance. We took the mickey out of ourselves.”

The campaign made people laugh, and they started sharing it and talking about it on social media.

She says, “We challenged ourselves, and that is when the real magic started to happen.”

A balance

Pineapple’s success showcases how brands can challenge traditional advertising norms to engage audiences effectively.

It demonstrates that effectiveness is not just about immediate sales but also about creating a meaningful impact.

It shows that campaigns should challenge norms and engage audiences in a way that drives long-term brand success.

The result is a winning campaign that balances creativity with impact, empathy, and non-conformity.