35 Tricky Questions for
2009 Effie case studies
May 2009

“The perfect Effie brief does not exist,
although some cases won the Grand Effie.
We believe that each Effie brief should aim
for perfection, for maximum transparency
and convincingness.”
(Account Planning Group Romania)

About APG Romania
The APG exists to champion excellence in creative thinking.
The APG is the foremost and longest-established
organisation representing the interests of account planners
worldwide. It is a non-profit-making members' organisation,
with around 700 members, open to account planners,
communications strategists and anyone with an interest in
these areas. It is run by a committee of volunteers voted by
committee and ratified by members. Its activities include
training, meetings, seminars, social events, or publications.
UAPR and IAA Romania are our partners.
More info on www.apgromania.ro.

Role of this white paper
 Any Effie case study should rely on a smart strategy,
impressive creativity and excellent results, not on
tricky copywriting or incomplete, misleading facts &
figures
 This paper was prepared by the Account Planning
Group Romania in order to reveal the most
common Effie paper tricks
 It is a shared educational paper, useful especially for
Effie judges, but also for Effie case writers
 It is meant to complete the “Tips for a good case”
that are found on www.effie.ro/effie_tips.html

More info on this white paper
 It was generated by Romania’s senior strategists working
within advertising agencies or research companies, all
APG members
 All contributors are experienced Romanian or Euro
Effie submitters, judges or both
 The next 35 questions, POSITIVE EXAMPLES &
details are referring to the Brief of Effectiveness only *
 The paper benefits of UAPR’s and IAA’s official support
* Sustained Success will be taken into consideration next year

The Kit
“Tricky Questions for Effie case studies 2009” includes:
 .PPT/.PDF presentation
 One training session for judges prior to judging days held by APG
Romania leaders
A separated version will be submitted to Effie entrants.

Content
The tricky Qs are split on Effie Brief template chapters:
1. Marketing Challenge
2. Campaign Objectives
3. Target Audience
4. Creative Strategy
5. Media Strategy
6. Other supporting Communication Programs &
Marketing Components
7. Evidence of Results

1. Marketing Challenge

1. Marketing Challenge
 Is there really a market situation described or
merely a brand status?
MARKET SITUATION
BRAND STATUS
SWOT
Marketing Mix
Brand challenges
Market dynamics
Main competitors
Challenges

1. Marketing Challenge
 Are there any historical facts about the brand to
be considered?
 Brand with long history have residual familiarity that can be
boosted with a campaign after long hiatus
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
“Our brand was launched with the ambition to claim market leadership,
in line with the vision that broadband was the future of telecom. But
research showed that “Price of the service” and “Connection speed” were
the most important buying criteria – and on both of these measures,
our brand was inferior.
It was also carrying the negative associations of being owned by a
large company, who was struggling at that time with an high churn
rate.
In marketing-speak, we needed to turn an uncompetitive product into a
highly desired brand.”

1. Marketing Challenge
 Is the brand victimising too much in this chapter
(emphasizing weaknesses) or omitting its
current strengths?
 Brand should present both goods and bads (perceived
quality, brand equity, distribution, price gaps etc)
 Do they compare vs. direct competitors?
Write Goods & Bads
vs. vs.
Itself Others

1. Marketing Challenge
 What are market shares and total market’s
dynamics?
 How did brands’ sales developed? (absolute, relative figures)
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
“The BRAND was the newest player on a highly dynamic
market: by 2007, the total consumer internet connections
increased with 70% vs. PY.
[…] So while the technology used by the brand was a
legitimate alternative, the brand had managed to achieve only
5.2% of total fixed broadband connections by Jan’07.
(Source: …)”

1. Marketing Challenge
 How mature is the category?
 Marketers know that it is easy for a brand with high marketing
power to dominate a low developed market
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
“When the brand was launched (Jan’07), the Internet market had
already been built by cable companies and neighborhood networks.
And until 2007, two big cable companies – ABC and DEF – controlled
the market.
Not only they enjoyed tremendous structural advantages thanks to
their cable TV penetration, but they were also owners or wholesalers
for smaller Internet providers.
Our brand was the newest player on a highly dynamic market: by
2007, the total consumer broadband connections increased with 70%
vs. PY.”

1. Marketing Challenge
 If you're dealing with a line extension among
others SKUs, there should be shared data about
previous line extensions to see a benchmark

2. Campaign Objectives

2. Campaign Objectives
 Is there a correlation between the Marketing
Challenge and Campaign Objectives?
 e.g. Market is growing at slow pace and objective is to exceed last
year's sales – this is not a correlation
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
“Marketing Challenge
- Reverse the 3-year declining sales trend and bring
refreshment to a brand that is perceived as one “for older
people”
Objectives
- Increase volume share vs. the same period last year (by at
least 1,5 pp)
- Strengthen brand perception by making young consumers
see it as cool again”

2. Campaign Objectives
 Are they marketing objectives, communication
ones or both?
 Brand equity levels are the first to change after communication
 Case studies showing only sales objectives are most often
incomplete
 Communication objectives should come first
MOST EFFIE ECASES FOLLOW
CLASSIC COMMUNICATION MODELS
AIDA
Hierarchy of effects
Lavidge and Steiner

2. Campaign Objectives
 Are image indicators tailored on brand's
strategy?
 Advertising Awareness alone is not a convincing
indicator
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
“Our salami brand targeted parents, promising them
to help in the rollercoaster adventure of parenting.
The image objectives included increase on the “Helps
me take better care of my children” indicator even
though this indicator was not traditionally tracked in
the category. “

2. Campaign Objectives
 Aren't the objectives too low vs. market’s
dynamics?
 e.g. Maintain market share on a growing market
Diapers market growth (vs. PY): +50%
Huggies sales objective (Jul-Sep vs. P3M): +3%

2. Campaign Objectives
 Unexplained objectives vs. own brand are
dubious. Growing objectives vs. competitors are
way much stronger
+X% vs.

3. Target Audience

3. Target Audience
 Quality of marketing research: Are there any
bright new consumer insights?
 Communication strategy should be based on strong, deep consumer
insights
 Briefs that show innovative consumer research results should get more
points vs. the ones that claim obvious, cliché facts
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
“For our young audience, the Internet conveys information and
facilitates experiences that help them evolve. By accumulating
information they are able to move to the “next level” of their identity,
modeling it by experiencing new life situations (some more bizarre than
others).
But the key insight is happening after each online experience: every time
you get back to the computer, you start this “experiencing” cycle all over
again. In this sense the Internet is truly nonstop.”

3. Target Audience
 How does the Consumer Insights / Creative
Strategy relate to Communication Objectives?
POSITIVE EXAMPLES
“The key-insight is happening after each online
experience: every time you get back to the
computer, you start an “experiencing cycle” all
over again. In this sense the Internet is truly
nonstop.”
“In order to regain relevance in the category and boost stagnant sales, our soft small
cake brand needed to expand its traditional consumer base made of housewives by
recruiting volume-driving mainstream young women.
Therefore, it needed to develop a communication that both targeted young women, and
added hype to the brand.
The creative strategy started from the RTB of the product – a combination of “a
lot” from each ingredient preferred by women in cakes – and looked for the insight that
made sense in the current lifestyle of young women to best deliver the promise of the
cake.
The result was the cake for the picky women who only go for a lot of everything.

4. Creative Strategy

4. Creative Strategy
 How does the Creative Strategy relate to
Communication Objectives?
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
“In order to regain relevance in the category and boost stagnant sales, our
soft small cake brand needed to expand its traditional consumer base made
of housewives by recruiting volume-driving mainstream young women.
Therefore, it needed to develop a communication that both targeted young
women, and added hype to the brand.
The creative strategy started from the RTB of the product – a
combination of “a lot” from each ingredient preferred by women in cakes –
and looked for the insight that made sense in the current lifestyle of young
women to best deliver the promise of the cake.
The result was the cake for the picky women who only go for a lot of
everything.

4. Creative Strategy
 Is there a rationale for the key-message and
explanation why this would work?
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
“Our beauty brand was promising to help
women revive their long term relationships.
The rationale behind that was built around a research
finding showing that the secret reason for which the
targeted 30 and smtg. married women wanted to look
good was precisely to bring back the romantic passion
in their a bit too established couple. “

5. Media Strategy

5. Media Strategy
 Are there any major changes in brand’s media
mix?
 Some brands introduce for big campaigns important
new media channels (e.g. print or TV)
ARGUMENT
Doing TV for the first time is likely to generate a big splash
Our chocolate confectionary product had never advertised on TV although
it practically owned the category.
In the face of increased competition from multinational players replicating
the product and advertising it on all media, this product introduced its
first ever TV campaign.
Results should be evaluated in view of the fact that first-time national TV
campaigns have a higher reach potential than any other media. How does
the investment compare to that of the competitors? Is TV the main
medium?

5. Media Strategy
 Are competitors’ media strategies unclear?
 Briefs should compare brand’s media power with
competitors’ (media weights, media mix, quantitative
variations)
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
“What did main competitors do during our
campaign?
Media agency estimated that during the same period, we
were outspent by both detergent leading brands. Market
leader spent 3.5 times more budget than us on main
media (TV, OOH, Print, Radio – around 250.000 EUR),
while no.2 player spend 2.1 times more.”

5. Media Strategy
 Is the brand having exclusive media channels?
 What if the ‘hero brand’ is using more media
channels?
ARGUMENT
What if the brand is its own medium?
The TV channel was looking to regain likeability for its star system
and also to create cohesion among staff internally. To support the
proposed positioning the agency suggested to use the Visual ID pack
of the TV station to promote the message. Thus the advertising
message was inserted every time the station ran its station promo
packs. Is this negatively reflecting on the competition who did not
have access to this medium?

5. Media Strategy
 Are Media Budget & Campaign Objectives
correlated?
ARGUMENT
Am I paying for TV when my objective is loyalty?
“The telecom operator was seeing problems with retention and
customer service appreciation. The media strategy however, included
a heavy presence on national TV.
Since retention and loyalty are mostly developed using direct
marketing tools, one should consider the level on investment on non-
core media like TV.”

5. Media Strategy
 Is the media budget linked with the strategy?
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
Am I spending a fortune on a drive test call?
“Our premium car brand is looking for approximately
1000 users for a drive test. Should it be spending that
much? Should it be investing in TV? “

5. Media Strategy
 Pay extra attention to the reference period
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
“Our candy brand developed a promotion
between August and October. The media
campaign started in August.
Is the growth strongly noticeable and directly
correlated with the promotion period ? “

6. Other Comm. Programs
& Marketing Components

6. Other Comm. Programs
& Marketing Components
 Is there a campaign that did not have “other
marketing activities”?
 In most cases there should be some distribution changes, promo-packs,
promo packaging, special prices, trade promo
ARGUMENTS
In some product categories, communication cannot solely explain radical changes on the
market. Sometimes an increased number of outlets or a retailer’s push can explain why a
brand has an unexpected volume growth. As Effie case writers sometimes try to minimize the
effect of the other marketing components it is important to double check how important was -
in fact - a promotional mechanism that was only briefly mentioned.
e.g. For three months (Sep 08-Nov 08) Brand X benefited from a retailer’s promotion that
had limited effect on sales.
Example of questions you may want to ask:
- as the promotional mechanism implemented at national level or it was only local?
W
- hat percent of the total sales are usually attributed to that specific retailer?
W
- Did the promotional mechanism include media exposure? To what extent?
If the case fails to provide relevant information it should raise suspicions.

6. Other Comm. Programs
& Marketing Components
 Be sure the campaign isn't a promotion in
disguise (especially for long campaigns)
ARGUMENTS
If you you are aware that a category is highly promotional (e.g.
beer, mobile communications, automotive) and the case tries to
demonstrate the efficiency of an image campaign on more than 3
months you should ask yourself some question marks and you should
find the hidden promotion which is written somewhere in case study.
The creative materials can also betray a hidden promotion, even if the
promotional offer is presented for a short time in the packshot.

6. Other Comm. Programs
& Marketing Components
 What was these components impact?
ARGUMENTS
When on top of the submitted campaign the brand also run an in
store promotion for examples, the impact on sales should be
ideally isolated: “The promotions accounted for X% of the sales
volumes”. If such an analysis is not available, is should be at least
replaced by comparing the investment behind that promotion to
the overall campaign budget.

6. Other Comm. Programs
& Marketing Components
 When did these activities interfered with the
campaign?
Sales
(volumes)
In-store Campaign
promotion
Jan Feb Mar Apr May

6. Other Comm. Programs
& Marketing Components
 Are the any details given or correlations made in
order to eliminate the doubt of their possible
influence?
 There should be some logical arguments (with figures
or not)
ARGUMENTS
Correlations between series of data like price index,
distribution, GRPs, and can be made for 3 months campaigns
if the data is available with weekly precision.

7. Evidence of Results

7. Evidence of Results
 You know graphs can enhance poor results. Are
those graphs having truncated scales?
 Hero brand vs. competition or before/after graphs are most
common
Market
share
87%
85%
75%
Before Post
campaign campaign

7. Evidence of Results
 Is Advertising Recall measured? Is there any
advertising indicator that moved in the same way
with Brand Awareness?
 Uncompleted data doesn't show who influenced who
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
Campaign goal: Rebranding
“We measured not only the new brand awareness reached during the two months campaign
but also the evolution of the indicators where the main competitor scored best innovative
brand ( 52 % higher than competitor), it’s a brand for everyone ( 28% higher), compared
to period before of the rebranding campaign.
The most impressive proof of campaign efficiency is given by the fact that the new brand
became the most preferred brand in highly competitive category. ( Consumer
Regard, Synovate May 07)”

7. Evidence of Results
 Cases that show an EVOLUTION of results rather
than punctual ones should get more points
vs.

7. Evidence of Results
 Relative sales results (%) alone are dubious
without knowing the absolute base. Are there
any absolute figures?
 Market share
 Share of consumers
 Sales increase (volumes/value)
 Orders (for services)

7. Evidence of Results
 Where it’s a head to head fight for leadership, is
there a statistical error included? (for tracking,
retail data)
vs.

7. Evidence of Results
 Let’s say the brand increased with x%. How much
was it vs. total market growth or vs. its main
competitor?
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
Goal: As Client anticipated a market growth of 30% in 2007, our objective was to have
a 50% sales increase in volume in July-September - 2007 vs. 2006 same period for our
BRAND.
Evidence of results: Our brand had a sustained growth in the period considered
(overall 2007 market growth was 47%) - (AC Nielsen data)
We managed to have a 3.6 times growth versus the 50% growth initially set
as target.
• In JJ 2007 vs. 2006 same period volume sales target was exceeded by 392%
• In AS 2007 vs. 2006 same period volume sales target was exceeded by 326%
• In Aug-Sep 07, main competitor decreased in volume sales with 17%

7. Evidence of Results
 Wouldn’t be fair to see both before vs. after
campaign results, but the same period vs.
previous year as well?
 vs. Off-air (before on-air): Shows clearly a short-term evolution
 vs. 2007: Diminishes seasonality’s influence (for Volumetric Sales)
OR shows that 2008 results were superior (for Market Shares)
vs.
vs.

7. Evidence of Results
 Is there any cannibalisation?
 The “hero” variant/SKU increased brand’s sales, but what
happened with the other SKUs in portfolio?
POSITIVE EXAMPLE
“Overall, the brand cannibalization in the first 3
months after launch was only 18.6%, showing that
the new variant managed consistent and stable
growth for the brand.”

7. Evidence of Results
 What if there is few syndicated data available?
(retail audit, share of consumers, market shares)
 It is important to know that even in 2009 some big markets lack
in valuable, reliable sales data – for example:
 FINANCE (Banks, insurance)
 TELECOM (internet/TV subscriptions/)
 The low investments in market research overall market can be
caused by
 Sales data are highly confidential (e.g. Financial markets)
 Complicated measurement (e.g. Telecom)

APG Romania project team
 Stefan Stroe, Grey Bucharest (project leader)‫‏‬
 Elena Ionita, Leo Burnett
 Diana Ceausu, McCann Erickson
 Razvan Matasel, Arsenoaiei & Matasel
 Bogdana Butnar, MRM Partners
 Stefan Chiritescu, Graffiti/BBDO
 Costin Radu, IQads/Smark
Special thanks to:
 IAA Romania board
 UAPR board
 Effie 2009 Organizing Committee

Looking forward for 2010 brochure.
Thank you.