The WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2023, in association with LIONS, has launched and is open for entries.
Now in its third year, the competition shines a light on the best marketing ideas from around the world that deliver commercial impact.
A global marketing effectiveness benchmark like no other, the awards are judged using the Creative Effectiveness Ladder and the B2B Effectiveness Ladder – universal frameworks for planning effective marketing communications to drive specific business-to-consumer and business-to-business outcomes.
Paul Coxhill, WARC’s CEO, said: “Brand marketers, media owners and agencies are under pressure to create campaigns that deliver commercial success. The global WARC Awards for Effectiveness provide the ideal platform to showcase the best of this work, and help drive the industry to imbed a culture of effective marketing.
“To lead the judging process for our biggest awards to date, I’m delighted to welcome all our esteemed jury chairs, who represent some of the world’s biggest brands. With almost double the amount of categories this year, they will be guided by the ladders, which will provide a consistent approach and global standard for effectiveness.”
This year, the WARC Awards for Effectiveness are bigger than ever following the incorporation of the former WARC Awards for Media. The number of categories for entry submissions has grown from six to 11, creating a comprehensive view of effectiveness across different techniques and campaign types.
Each category will be judged by a high-calibre panel, including senior marketers from some of the world’s biggest brands and top agency professionals from around the globe. For each category, the panel will award grand prix, gold, silver and bronze accolades.
The high-profile jury chairs, some of which will preside over two categories, are named as follows:
• Wendy Walker, VP marketing Asia, Salesforce will chair the business-to-business category, awarding effective campaigns from one business targeting another. She said: “Creativity in B2B has never been more important – it’s an economic multiplier that is needed more than ever as a competitive differentiator and so I’m thrilled to be chairing this important category.
“We’ve seen a real creative renaissance in many B2B brands recently, and so my hope is that we see work submitted that really demonstrates this; a blend of technology, data, creativity, and commitment to craft,” Walker added.
• Jennifer Healan, VP, US marketing, brand content & engagement, McDonald’s, is appointed chair of both the customer experience category, honouring new ways of engaging with consumers and innovative experiences created to connect and immerse on the path to commercial success, and the cultural impact category, rewarding strategies and instances of brands entering or impacting on culture that can demonstrate a business outcome.
“I’m thrilled to lead these two categories. With customer expectations evolving faster than ever before – especially in today’s digital world – brands need to provide convenient, culturally relevant experiences at every touchpoint, going far beyond the walls of the traditional storefront,” she said.
“In the customer experience category I’ll be looking for ideas that use innovation that drives brand relevance in new and unexpected ways while driving meaningful business results.
“Showing up authentically in culture is an imperative for any company looking to create real brand affinity and a lasting legacy. For the cultural impact category I’ll be looking for campaigns that use the power of culture to reach consumers in meaningful ways, and ultimately drive business results,” Healan added.
• Chiradeep Gupta, VP, personal care head of media and global integrated media strategy lead, Unilever, is chair of the brand purpose category, awarding marketing initiatives that have successfully embraced a brand purpose and achieved commercial success as well as benefit for the wider community.
• Vasileios Kourakis, global director, marketing effectiveness (ROI) and media, consumer products division, L’Oréal, will lead both the long-term growth category, awarding campaigns that have invested in building a brand over time (12 months or more), and the Instant Impact category, awarding short-term campaigns (with a duration of six months or less) that led directly to a sales increase.
“I am honoured to chair these two categories for the WARC Awards for Effectiveness. For the long-term growth category, I’ll be looking for best practices on how brands navigate a fragmented media landscape, alongside multiple unfavourable business challenges such as inflation and the cost of living crisis, to deliver marketing effectiveness that guarantees ROI in the longer term by building brands that stand the test of time,” Kourakis said.
• Beatrice Boue, global head of media, De Beers, will chair two categories: use of data (new), recognising the role of data in an effective communications strategy, and channel pioneer (new), rewarding pioneering media practices, including the leveraging of emerging platforms, innovative uses of existing media, and efforts to invest in a conscious approach to media.
“Success lies in collecting the right data to understand customers better and extract meaningful and actionable insights. I’m hoping to see powerful examples where Data is used creatively to make brand experiences even better.
“The channel pioneer category also champions innovative and pioneering use of long-standing media creating culturally relevant campaigns and content including examples where media is used in ways to promote societal good,” Boue added.
• Simon Peel, VP global media, Haleon, will preside over the partnerships & sponsorships (new) category recognising how collaborations with third parties, including native advertising, sponsorships and influencer marketing, have helped brands meet business goals.
“Partnerships and Sponsorships are a great communications tool for distinctiveness. They help brands retain top of mind awareness in a context outside of standard advertising. I’m looking forward to seeing how the entries have used this fantastic medium to help drive equity and business results,” Peel said.
• Ross Sergeant, global head of media and touchpoints, Asahi Europe and International, will lead the best path-to-purchase (new) category, honouring how brands have used omnichannel strategies to optimise the customer journey across the funnel, and the channel integration (new) category, rewarding entries that can show how sophisticated communications architecture and cross- channel planning have helped to boost campaign effectiveness.
The awards are global, open to all, the entry fee is waived, and the process to enter is straightforward.
WARC is a proud ally of the Unstereotype Alliance, championing inclusive, empowering and forward-thinking ideas. The juries will follow their guidelines to help identify any damaging content. And new to this year, whilst not required for judging purposes, entrants can opt to include campaign sustainability actions in their submission as the industry comes together to tackle the climate crisis.
For each category the juries will award grand prix, gold, silver and bronze accolades. Entries will be accepted until 29 March 2023. The winners will be announced at Cannes Lions in June.