2013 Effie Awards: DDB named Effective Agency of the Year; DraftFCB takes out Grand Effie

The Journal was anything but depressing news for DraftFCB New Zealand and the Health Promotion Agency whose campaign for depression.org.nz has taken out the Grand Effie at this year’s CAANZ New Zealand Effie Awards in association with TVNZ & ANZA. 

The campaign which has the iconic John Kirwan at its helm has helped thousands of Kiwis, particularly men, overcome depression.

Says international judge Peter Field: “This is truly a world-class case study: a tour de force of persuasive evidence-based argument that leaves you in no doubt about the financial success of the campaign, despite the considerable challenges of doing so. If only all campaign evaluation was as smart and as earthed in reality as this…”

The Journal was also awarded a Gold Effie in the Sustained Success category honouring the success of this campaign over the past 3 years.

DraftFCB New Zealand picked up another gold in the Retail/etail category and a silver in the Most Effective Integrated campaign for client Mitre 10 New Zealand Limited helping make DIY ‘Easy As’ for all New Zealanders.

The Most Effective Agency of the Year went to DDB Group (pictured above) for a second year running.  Their impressive haul included gold in the Consumer Services category for New Zealand Lotteries ‘Too big to handle’ campaign, and a number of silver, bronze and finalist entries which pushed their total tally above Colenso BBDO/Proximity New Zealand in second and DraftFCB New Zealand finishing third.

The Most Effective Client of the Year went to Boundary Road Brewery, who picked up a Gold Effie for Barnes Catmur & Friends in the Most Progressive Campaign and two Silver Effies in the Best Strategic Thinking and Limited Budget categories.

The Hardest Challenge category was won by M&C Saatchi for Increasing the diversity of New Zealand Police.  This campaign which brought together insight, a thought provoking creative idea and an innovative, integrated media approach convinced young Maori, Pasifika, Asian and female New Zealanders to sign-up for a career in the police force.

Says Charlie Robertson, the other international judge: “The CAANZ Effie Awards had tough judging criteria, robust debates behind closed doors and the winners displayed some world class strategic thinking with some very high quality creative work that could stand out on the world stage. I was seriously impressed by the standards of the winning submissions.”