RIYADH: The inaugural Effie Awards Saudi Arabia took place on Thursday night at Riyadh’s Narcissus Royal Hotel.
The Effie Awards were created in 1967 by the New York American Marketing Association to recognize and celebrate advertising and marketing effectiveness by looking at all facets of a marketing campaign, from brief to execution and impact.
The local version of the awards was organized by NordStella, whose managing director Sahar Rafique said: “Every piece of work recognized today started with someone backing up the idea, convincing the board, fighting for budgets, and then proving it with hard results. That is what the Effie’s are all about: Not the prettiest ad in the room, but the one that actually worked.”
The evening biggest winner was Saudi advertising agency Habbar, which won a Crystal award for Most Effective Advertising Agency Office of the Year; a Black Grand Prix award in Retail for its “Time to Speak Up for Manhood” campaign for Sayyar; a Bronze Banking, Finance and Insurance award and a Performance Marketing award for its “Late for a reason” campaign for Barq; a Gold Retail award and a Marketing Disruptor award for Floward’s “February 14: Judgement Day” Valentine’s campaign; and a Gold Corporate Reputation award and a Travel, Tourism, and Transportation award for the Tourism Development Fund’s “In Your Fave Tourism!” campaign.
Other winners included OMD UAE, which won the Most Effective Media Agency Office of the Year Crystal; a Bronze Experiential Marketing award and Silver Influencer Marketing award for the “Doritos Loaded” campaign; and a Bronze Food & Nonalcoholic Beverages award for “The Return of Lay’s Original Chili.”
Foaj Group took home the crystal for Most Effective Agency Network of the Year, while Mobily won Most Effective Brand of the Year.
Sensodyne took home a number of silver and bronze awards for its “From Clinical to Cultural” campaign, while local navigation app Balady+ took home a Gold and a Silver for its “All Maps of the Past: Thank You and Goodbye!” campaign. MDLBEAST took home a Gold Youth Marketing Products & Services award for “A City of Beasts.”
“The most important part is, this is the first chapter, which means every winner tonight, you are making history. You are the first ever champions, and that is yours forever. So, let’s celebrate the work. Let’s celebrate Saudi Arabia,” Rafique said.
The awards ceremony was preceded by an afternoon of talks, masterclasses, and panel discussions by marketing and advertising industry leaders including Hanibal Ahwash, Google Mena’s Saudi YouTube Sales Lead, who shared insights into the local market.
“The Saudi consumer does not move in a straight line. They are hypercollectors, driven by four distinct behaviors: searching, streaming, scrolling, and shopping. As marketeers, it is not our job to force them into one aspect of the marketing funnel. Our job is to create campaigns that meet them,” Ahwash said, noting that storytelling paired with platform intelligence creates the most effectiveness.
“The next era of growth in the Kingdom isn’t about choosing between human creativity and platform intelligence. It’s actually about figuring out the sweet spot where these two things actually come together,” he added.
His session was followed by a panel titled “The New Saudi Consumer,” in which leaders from the Saudi Tourism Authority, Herfy Food Services, the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation, and the King Salman International Airport Development Company discussed the latest techniques and tools to best capture a share of the Saudi market.
