By Fabio Buresti, executive planning director/partner, The Monkeys.
Every time I see the call for entries every year, part of me just dies inside.
You’ve got to prepare yourself mentally for the challenge ahead, because an Effie is not easy to win. Seeing how few Golds were awarded last year is testament to how much tougher it’s getting and how much better your entries need to be from a numbers and rigour point of view.
Don’t be a lone wolf
An Effies paper can’t just be one person’s responsibility – you need to get different people in with different skillsets. From a client point of view, you need to get them excited about it from the get-go and show them how important it is. If you have a client heavily invested in it and pushing you along, it brings out the best in what you want to do.
Be a pest
You need to embrace the fact that you’re going to be a pest and annoy the hell out of everyone, because what matters is doing a great job and winning an award. I can’t tell you how much we had to spend on things like chocolate-coated strawberries and flowers for clients just to make up for the continual investigation of numbers and pushing for more data and different angles. On a daily basis, it does take its toll, so anything you can do to soften that is really important.
Have a case before you start writing
We’ve been guilty in the past of just getting stuck in and writing the story while waiting for the numbers to come through – then when you do get them, there’s nothing there. There’s no point in starting until you have the data, so you know you have a really tight story. If you can’t show the ROI, you’re not going to win an Effie.
Don’t venture too far down the rabbit hole
When you go down a rabbit hole, it starts to not make sense – you can end up with too much mumbo jumbo in there. Just cut to the chase. Think about how can you write this so the average person can pick it up and it can make complete sense. Try and strip out the crap and make it as simple and clear as possible.
It’s only as good as the first 100 words
Don’t underestimate these – they are incredibly important. The judges have a lot of papers to read so if you can’t nail it in that first 100 words, you’ve probably got a big problem on your hands. Some of the judges may not even read the whole paper. I often start with those crucial first 100 words to get an overall flow of the paper. We really sweat it – I can’t tell you the amount of lunches we went to where we took the actual draft of the executive summary along in different versions. Probably too many beers later, we would end up debating which way to go, changing it, tweaking it. You just have to be so invested in it that you are looking for every opportunity for your client and the senior members of your business to be as engaged as possible – to use everyone’s experience to get that 100 words absolutely spot-on.
Don’t be precious
As a strategist you can be incredibly precious. It’s important to let go a bit and invite criticism all the way through – it is the best thing to make your entry stronger. Use it as an opportunity to make it the best it can be. The closer you hold it, and the more nervous you are about sharing it, the bigger challenge you’re going to have when it goes into circulation.
Embrace your brand’s tone of voice
Try and capture the tone of the brand. If you have a brand that’s quite provocative, then try and convey that sentiment within the paper. It just makes it more exciting for the people reading it and also helps wrap it up into a really nice story. If you have trouble doing that, speak to a copywriter that worked on the campaign to help you weave that into the story.
The idea is just as important as the results
The Effies are all about results but you can’t underestimate the power of the idea as well. If your paper is all results and no idea, you’re going to struggle. You have to prove that the idea and the strategic thinking behind it was solid – and that it captured people’s imaginations. It also needs to be something that the industry’s proud of – it needs to have something special about it to get through. It can’t just be a celebration of numbers, it needs to be the whole package.
It’s a painful process, but when you’re sitting at the table on the night waiting for your names to get called out, it’s absolutely worth it. You have to think of it as a long-term investment and make it part of your day job. Don’t just leave it for after work. It will never get done and it deserves a lot more than that. Good luck.
On time Effies entries close April 20. Visit www.effies.com.au.