Fearless Girl Wins The Grand Effie at 2018 North American Effie Awards

The Power of SHE aka “Fearless Girl” campaign from McCann New York and State Street Global Advisors was presented with the Grand Effie trophy (best in show) at the 2018 North American Effie Awards Gala held on May 31 in NYC.  The rankings for the most effective marketers were also revealed at the end of the gala.  Since 1968, the Effie Awards have honoured marketing ideas that work.  

The most effective marketer and brand coming out of the 2018 North American Effie Awards competition is State Street Global Advisors.  Additional highest ranking companies include: IPG (holding group), McCann Worldgroup (agency network), McCann New York (agency office) and Droga5 (independent agency). 

According to the Grand Effie winner’s entry, “Companies with women in leadership perform better, but women are underrepresented. On International Women’s Day 2017, State Street Global Advisors placed Fearless Girl in New York’s financial district to ignite a conversation about the power of women in leadership. In three days SHE drove average daily trading volume of the SHE fund up 384%.” 

“The Grand Effie jury interrogated the Fearless Girl entry and found that, not only was it effective for State Street’s business and brand, it was effective because of its creative power,” said Nick Law, Co-Chair of the Grand Effie Jury and Chief Creative Officer of Publicis Groupe and President, Publicis Communications.

The North American Grand Effie winner was debated hours before the Effie Awards ceremony by the Grand Effie Jury.  Grand Effie contenders (the top scoring Gold Effie Award winners) included Fearless Girl along with:

• BBDO Minneapolis and Hormel Foods Corporation for Dinty Moore Stew’s “Lumberjacks Eat Moore” with contributing agency PHD

• Droga5 and The New York Times for “The Truth is Hard to Find”

• Geometry Global, KC ShopperConnect and Kimberly-Clark for Depend’s “Family Caregiving Club,” with contributing agencies Collective Bias, Triad Retail Media, BrandShare and Digimarc

• McCann New York and U.S. Army for “White Hats Wanted” with contributing agency Universal McCann

• 180LA and Boost Mobile for “Boost Your Voice”

• Partners + Napier and Highmark Health for Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware’s “Blue Hen” with contributing agencies dPost and PushMP

• TracyLocke and Pfizer Consumer Healthcare for Advil’s “What Pain? All Gain”

“Effie Awards celebrate more than great work, we recognize the insights and strategy that lead to significant, measurable results,” said Traci Alford, President and CEO of Effie Worldwide. “There is much to be learned from Effie winners’ success to grow our businesses and move our industry forward. Congratulations to all of this year’s winning teams.”

The North American Effie rankings reflect points accumulated from finalist and winning case studies from the 2018 North American Effie Awards competition and will be factored into the 2019 Global Effie Index.

Highest Ranked North American Effie Award winners:

Most Effective Marketers:  State Street Global Advisors, Procter & Gamble, Mars

Most Effective Agency Networks: McCann Worldgroup, BBDO Worldwide, Geometry Global

Most Effective Independent Agencies: Droga5, Cramer-Krasselt and Giant Spoon (tied for second place) and Terri & Sandy and Tombras (tied for third place)

Most Effective Brands:  State Street Global Advisors, U.S. Army, IBM

Most Effective Agency Offices:  McCann New York, Geometry Global (New York), Energy BBDO (Chicago)

Most Effective Holding Companies:  Interpublic (IPG), Omnicom, WPP Group

Global Effie Award winners were also recognised at the gala for the year’s most effective marketing ideas that worked in multiple markets worldwide.  Gold Global Effies were awarded to TBWA\Media Arts Lab and Apple for “The Rock X Siri” (with contributing agency OMD) and Johannes Leonardo and adidas for “Original is Never Finished” for adidas Originals.

Winning and finalist North American and Global Effie case studies are rigorously examined, debated and evaluated by seasoned industry leaders over at least two rounds of judging.  A complete list of Gold, Silver and Bronze winners for the North American Effie Awards, as well as the opportunity to read the winning case studies, is available on www.effie.org.  

Download the full winners list.