What did the judges talk about at the 2023 Effie Automotive Awards final jury?

The final jury of the 2023 Effie Automotive Awards was successfully completed in Aranya. In this year's event, the number of new companies increased by 40%, the number of new brands increased by 17%, and the number of application cases covered 70+ well-known automotive ecological brands. After strict and professional evaluation by more than 70 preliminary jury members, 71 works stood out.

During the final judging period, the organizing committee of the Effie Automotive Award interviewed a number of final judging committees, including the marketing leaders of domestic and foreign automobile brands, decision-makers and creative leaders of agency groups, and executives of cutting-edge marketing agencies and Internet platforms, through their multiple perspectives and professional insights, to understand the trends and characteristics of the 2023 Effie Automotive Award shortlisted case works.

Talking about innovation: breakthrough attempts under budget constraints

Ma

Founder/Chairman of Shanghai Chima Advertising Media Co., Ltd

In the case of the recovery period of the general environment and the reduction of the budget marketing budget, in the case, we saw some small budgets, but there were big and wonderful campaigns. In so many years of car cases, some people say that good ideas have been excavated, but in fact, this is not the case, there are some interesting entry points in the case, very good insights, easy to impress the audience.

Stone road

Iota Strategic Partner

At a time when budgets are generally tightening, both new energy and traditional manufacturers are hoping to win more revenue in more refined operations, which has caused a general collapse in the creative landscape. In this context, we can see that some brands have the courage to break through, try new forms and means, and even dare to bet their budgets on the implementation of high-risk projects, and they are indeed moved.

Shirun

Vice President of Sanrenxing Media Group Co., Ltd

From the review cases, it can be seen that some brands closely follow the characteristics of the Z generation crowd, innovate boldly in creativity, and retain the brand's own genes in the core, which is a very good attempt, and also provides a blueprint for many new brand marketing innovations.

You Ning

CEO of Telelink Advertising Greater China

From most of the cases in this review, I feel the pressure of the automotive industry as a whole recently, and everyone will be more concerned and pay more attention to the conversion of sales brought by marketing communication, and many projects and cases are directly facing sales. And more and more, more and more fragmented marketing platforms, but also tested every car marketer, in the limited budget space and scattered communication platform tossing and turning, with ingenuity, not with heavy weapons, is also a great feeling of this award!

Zhou Qiming

Executive Creative Director of Beauty Advertising

As a part of the business chain, today's marketing behavior is increasingly difficult to perform independently from the overall market and consumption environment - this is fully demonstrated in this marketing case related to the Effie automotive industry. In addition to a considerable number of excellent works, we can see that marketing agencies are subject to the adverse current of the passenger car market, and marketing actions struggle between applause and applause.

Talk about change: reconstruct the user communication system and pursue effective growth

Guo Yuanqiu

Ogilvy Beijing Managing Director of Ogilvy Advertising Beijing

Ogilvy once said that we sell or else, it's all about selling. He believes that advertising ultimately needs to help brands solve problems, not just creatives. Creativity is the expression of a certain thought, opinion or feeling, to obtain recognition or approval, while advertising is to persuade, to influence, to create and disseminate content, change people's perceptions and feelings, and thus promote behavioral changes. Fortunately, in the automobile cases that have entered the final trial, we can clearly see that everyone attaches importance to "efficiency", which is worthy of recognition.

Law Yingxian

Deputy General Manager of Country Garden Service Brand

This year, in the final cases, we have seen many cases of cultural export marketing that emphasizes "nationalization" and automobile service brands that emphasize brand experience, which is a breakthrough in the industry and brand marketing.

Tang Hong

SUNeVision General Manager of SUNeVision Strategy Center / Executive Chairman of CAAC Automotive Marketing Research Committee

Today's automotive market is no longer just a competition of products and prices, but more of an arena for brand story, user experience and value communication. It is in this context that effective marketing becomes even more critical. True effective marketing is not just the pursuit of numbers and data, but how to impress every consumer more directly and authentically, so that they have a deep emotional connection with the brand.

Tang Yao

Vice President of Shenzhen Yuanrong Qixing Technology Co., Ltd

At this year's Effie Automotive Awards final judge, I saw that marketing in the automotive industry is changing, and many car brands are actively thinking: What do users care about most right now? How can I have an effective conversation with my users? What exactly should a car look like? These reflections are helping us create more marketing models, which can not only help brands improve tonality and awareness, but also provide users with more emotional value and interaction, and give more innovation to the entire automotive industry.

Yang Xi banknote

indigo social CMO

I am becoming more and more indifferent to the advertising narrative method of "Gao Daquan". If the brand invites celebrities to endorse, it is just a beautiful film, and the traditional video advertising routine is repeated, which will generally feel a pity. Judges prefer to see "breakthroughs" in marketing cases. Therefore, when conducting market analysis, what are the "challenges" faced, and it will be a plus to explain how to break through. Digital humans, avatars, and AIGC applications, if they cannot show the unique experience of the brand/product, do not serve marketing, and will not add too many points. Do this at the same time, and you won't look young. Marketing for brands, product services, can through marketing creativity, the ability to explain the product point clearly, this ability is very important and scarce.

Challenges: New energy brands have few awards, and ROI affects innovation

Ding Xiaoning

Chief Operating Officer of Beijing Jels Advertising Co., Ltd

Challenge: How to better use communication to establish the concept of brand, value is currently lacking in cases, most of the cases are selling products, doing product marketing. There are few good car brand communication cases. Development opportunities: The spread of the brand's image, value, and concept will easily attract the judges, and it will also be very prominent.

Guo Yuanqiu

Ogilvy Beijing Managing Director of Ogilvy Advertising Beijing

From the case reviewed, everyone may have some misunderstandings about the effect itself, as if there is traffic there is an effect, there is a conversion, in fact, traffic is the cost, brand is the asset. The dividend of traffic should not only be reflected in sales, but also precipitated into brand equity. There's also the feeling that mission-driven brands focus on real social issues, not just fun social topics. Ordinary brands define competitive differentiation, while leading brands define the relationship between the industry and people, and this aspect is worth working together.

Liu Xu

Managing Director of Beijing Leo Burnett Advertising Co., Ltd

As a judge of the Effie Automotive Award, I feel that the evaluation of the effectiveness of the case is becoming more and more challenging year by year. In the current Chinese automobile market, the dimension of competition is unprecedented, new brands, new technologies, new channels, etc. are emerging one after another, and the effectiveness of marketing communication is difficult to judge with conventional data.

Liu Yingzhao

Senior Vice President of Insay Group

I evaluate the cases of automobile experience marketing, corporate reputation, effect marketing public relations and other categories, the overall impression: the level of cases entering the final trial is somewhat uneven, I hope that more high-level works will come to the final judging site in the future, so that the judges will be amazed, and even fiercely debate what award a wonderful work should take, hoping that more pioneering works will enter the final review in the future.

Wang Hongru

Baidu MEG sales business platform transportation industry leader

With the continuous development of automotive products, the continuous enrichment of user car scenarios, combined with the development of automotive technology, the interaction between the public and automobiles is also constantly strengthened, and various segmentation needs and marketing scenarios will be more diverse. It is hoped that the selection of the Effie Automotive Award can combine the development of the industry to give more marketing categories subdivision and diversified scenarios to accommodate; Be able to always pay attention to the changes in the needs of the industry and users, and enrich the selection scope and criteria in a timely manner to adapt to such changes.

Yang Xi banknote

indigo social CMO

As far as personal cognition is concerned, the effective closed-loop of new energy brands has done a good job, and car brands are encouraged to sign up directly. In recent years, there is a voice in the market that will question and discuss the ROI of advertising effect, which will affect the innovation and leadership of the overall marketing to a certain extent, as can be seen from the participating cases.

Talking about the award: jointly building a marketing vane for automobile ecological effectiveness

Liu Xu

Managing Director of Beijing Leo Burnett Advertising Co., Ltd

There are some cases that bring surprises, not so much that I am judging, but that I continue to learn during the judging process, learning those brand stories that are not resigned to conventional ideas, courageous and amazing execution, and beyond imagination. New perceptions of automobiles and new understandings of brand values will continue to create new possibilities.

Liu Yingzhao

Senior Vice President of Insay Group

Effie, the pragmatic hero. The final review of the 2023 Effie Automotive Awards, from the publicity launch to the gathering at the judging site, from the detailed arrangement of the process to the exchange of judges in various fields, all reflect the word "effectiveness", efficient, concise, and in one step. It is hoped that judges in various fields and categories will break the boundaries and fully exchange industry trends and insights, so that effective marketing can go deeper into the practical level.

Wang Hongru

Baidu MEG sales business platform transportation industry leader

The fairness and transparency of the Effie Automotive Awards are key to its success. Each case was rigorously selected and evaluated, taking into account the diversity of categories, the innovativeness of the case, or the combination of user experience and project sustainability. This comprehensive evaluation method can more comprehensively reflect the current situation and trend of marketing in the automotive industry. In this selection, some cases that focus on user experience, integrated cross-border marketing, and in-depth interaction between brands and users are impressive, and they also show the effectiveness of marketing in the automotive industry.

Zhang Liang

Chief Digital Officer (CDO), SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Corporation

This year's Effie Automotive Awards case shows more creative, more systematic and more integrated characteristics, and the brand side also shows more practical desire and requirements. It is expected that Effie will continue to promote the Automotive Award to become the vane of excellent marketing activities in the automotive industry with a high-quality development path, show the new style of automobile marketing in the new era, promote the promotion of excellent marketing ideas, methods and tools in the industry, and become a platform for Chinese automotive people to learn and communicate with each other.

ZHOU Juan

Director of Communications and Marketing, Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales and Service Co., Ltd

This year, the Effie Automotive Awards cover 70+ well-known automotive ecological brands, reflecting close attention and keen insight into the automotive industry, and also reminding automotive brands to pay equal attention to quality and efficiency in marketing, break the inherent situation, improve energy and efficiency, and achieve accelerated breakthrough and new growth. As the inventor of the automobile, Mercedes-Benz has never stopped exploring, creating, subverting and innovating. We are at the forefront of the industry, focusing on trends and building the future together with Effie.

Talk about expectations: Looking forward to witnessing more effective works with more judges

Li Li

Weibo Yi Vice President of Weibo Yi

The automotive industry has always been the brightest jewel in the crown of the advertising industry. In recent years, due to changes in the media environment and user behavior, the transformation from traditional brands to new energy tracks within the automotive industry has brought many challenges and opportunities to the development of automotive advertising. The number of cases I reviewed this time is not much, and there are some sub-tracks that even only one brand has been shortlisted, but it is still remarkable in terms of quality, and it also reflects Effie's high specifications and strict requirements, and I look forward to seeing more and better cases in the future.

Liu Rui

Gate Interactive Partner

The automotive industry is undergoing disruptive changes, from product to marketing to brand building, full of breakthrough innovation and uncertainty. We have seen the efforts of traditional car companies to transform, and we also see that new forces are establishing their own communication systems; I believe that after 5-10 years of industry reshuffle, automotive marketing will gradually return to the position of the leader in consumer goods marketing, and the Effie Automotive Award will become a witness of this special period.

Ma

Founder/Chairman of Shanghai Chima Advertising Media Co., Ltd

Looking forward to more brands next year, especially new energy brands to join Effie. Looking forward to seeing more Chinese brands in next year's Auto Awards.

Shirun

Vice President of Sanrenxing Media Group Co., Ltd

It is a great honor to participate in the final selection of the Effie Automotive Awards, and the cases that reached the final judging this time are still remarkable, they represent the most innovative marketing techniques and creative attitudes in the automotive field. It is hoped that next year's Effie Automotive Awards will again attract more entries and become China's top automotive marketing award.

Wang Hongru

Baidu MEG sales business platform transportation industry leader

The Effie Automotive Awards are a unique testimony to innovation and excellence in the automotive industry. This award is not only a recognition of automobile marketing, but also a praise for scientific and technological progress and life philosophy. I look forward to seeing more innovative automotive marketing cases in the future, and I look forward to the Effie Automotive Awards continuing to maintain its fair and professional selection method to provide the public with more high-quality automotive excellent case transmission!

You Ning

CEO of Telelink Advertising Greater China

"Product" and "effect" are the most unified combinations in marketing, but the most difficult to balance in actual cases. The emergence of electric vehicles has broken the automobile pattern of the past few decades, and has achieved the opportunity for China to overtake in this industry corner, and I look forward to seeing more awards and case studies of electric vehicles in marketing in the future!