• two-stage judging process;
• voting during judging is anonymous & confidential;
• all judges are required to sign a "statement of confidentiality" prior to judging;
• a judge is not allowed to review and provide a score for any entries from their agency/company or industry;
• senior management level

• Round One - case briefs only (overall effectiveness)
  • The Jury reviews each entry to evaluate campaign success in achieving its specific marketing objectives. Case briefs are evaluated without comparison to other entries in their category and without creative materials.
  • Case Briefs are scored on a 1 - 100 scale (1 = not effective / 100 = extremely effective). To get a high score, a campaign must have clear objectives and must submit compelling proof that the objectives were met.
  • Each entry in Round One must be reviewed by a minimum of five different judges, thus providing five or more separate scores. The average of the five or more scores results in the final score for that entry in Round One.
  • When all entries have been scored, they are grouped into categories. The Judging Committee then creates a short list of candidates to advance to Round Two based only on the scores.
  • A minimum score to pass the 1st round will be agreed.

  
  Judges should assess the following elements of the campaign:
  
  Background / Strategy (Marketing Background; Marketing Challenge; Strategy; Target Insight; Campaign Objective)
  

  • Creative (Idea; Link to Strategy)
  • Media (Media Strategy; Link to Market Strategy; How the Media Strategy and insights influenced the media vehicles selected or created; How the Media Strategy related to the Creative Strategy)
  • Proof of Results

  Most critically, the Evidence of Results must relate to the stated objectives
• Round Two - case briefs & creative
  • Only the short-list of finalists is judged. Creative elements are introduced at this point, and the Jury then reviews and scores each finalist on both its marketing effectiveness and creative execution. All finalists of one category are reviewed at the same time.
  • The Creative and Case Brief receive separate scores (1-100 scale)
  • Each entry in Round Two must be reviewed by a minimum of seven different judges, thus providing seven or more separate scores. The final brief score and the final creative score for each campaign are an average of the seven or more judges’ scores.
  • The final overall score is an average of the brief score and the creative score, weighted to emphasize the brief over the creative by a ratio of two to one.

  
  

  • Case briefs
    The definition of the “Marketing Challenge” is the critical “glue” that shapes the remaining elements of the Brief. Weight should be given to the following:

    • the “degree of difficulty” articulated in the Marketing Challenge
    • how closely the Strategy and Results address the Challenge
    • the selection of the target audience relative to the Market Challenge
    • ample justification within the Brief for the selected Target
    • how inventive the Creative & Media Strategy is in meeting the Market Challenge

    
    
  • Creative
    Creative content should be judged relative to the stated creative strategy.
    
    Please consider these key issues:

    • How well the creative materials reflect the articulated Creative Strategy
    • The contribution the creative was expected to make to the overall marketing effort
    • How the target(s) of its message is defined
    • How all the submitted creative pieces for each campaign work, both individually and together

    
    

• All EFFIE programs use the concept of gold, silver or bronze levels of award. Generally, a gold, silver and bronze winner is awarded in each category.
• However, all programs do have minimum score requirements in order to attain a gold, silver or bronze EFFIE. It is possible, for example, to award a silver and a bronze, but no gold.
• The Grand EFFIE goes to the campaign that achieves the highest overall score of the year. Grand EFFIE winners represent campaigns that best combine all the disciplines that create a successful marketing program - planning, market research, media, creative and account management.

Download the Effie 2011 Entry Kit from here
Download the entry forms for 2011 Effie Awards Entry Form from here
Download the entry forms for 2011 Effie Awards Sustained Success Entry Form from here