Effies introduces new category to recognise marketing is more than just advertising
This year’s Australian Effie Awards for effectiveness will include a new category intended to recognise marketing efforts that go beyond advertising.
Announcing the call for entries for this year’s Effies, awards chairman Matthew Melhuish revealed there will be a new Best Marketing Campaign category.
The revamped Effie Awards – a joint effort by The Communications Council and the Australian Association of National Advertisers – are in their second year.
Melhuish, who is also CEO of BMF, said of the new category: “It is trying to offer the opportunity for someone to talk about a campaign that may include some advertising but could get much bigger than that.”
The criteria for the category is to “showcase how a business can generate effectiveness using multiple aspects of the marketing mix including pricing, communications, product/ packaging, distribution and (if appropriate) service”.
Meanwhile, judge Joe Talcott, chairman of the AANA, said that a winning entry took “a brave client, an innovative agency and pretty fair success”.
And Scott Davis, strategy planning director at Leo Burnett said that the secret of writing a winning entry was in making a simple argument, telling a straightfoward tale and putting it in plain language, which he dubbed “wifey speak”.
He said: “You’ve got to use normal language – I call it wifey speak.
“You need to state the problem clearly and you need to show clear linkage between results, the problem and the challenges.”
He added: “Data is king, and to get access to that you need to involve your client.”
The closing date for entries is May 3.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
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Is it just me being overly sensitive (since I am a wife), or does the term ‘wifey speak’ sound demeaning and infantilising?
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I think he was referring to his wife, and how she speaks to him. Trying to make the point, no marketing jargon.
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A derogatory way of saying “layman’s terms”
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I’m trying not to be offended by the comment, but ‘wifey’ speak is pretty demeaning.
You gotta dumb it down for the girls. They don’t understand big words.
I know it’s more about just being clear with your messages and trying to cut out the bullshit, but it’s a rather crappy term.
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pretty sure he just means ‘wifey’ as in someone in your family who doesnt work in marketing.
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During the presentation, Scott said that one of the ways he checked his entry was jargon-free was to run it by his wife, who does not work in the industry. His point was, iIf she understood it, then he’d succeeded.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I get that this remark has kind of been taken out of context (esp by the Mumbrella tweet that brought me here!), but I agree with earlier commenters: why not just say “without industry jargon”.
That said, there’s an interesting interview up at Junior at the moment with Lowe Sydney’s Mel Peters, who uses idiotic jargon such as: “I was able to approach the brand with really powerful insights that led to award winning creative.”
Lady, you’re not in a preso! The reason I found this interesting is that many of the other Junior interviews with male creatives show them talking in, quote-unquote, “wifey speak”. It left me wondering if Peters felt she had to talk jargon to be taken seriously.
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‘out of context’ is really an excuse of last resort!
“wifey speak” is a clearly demeaning term which i expect Scott’s wife would be displeased to hear
examples of advertising people having no PR sensibility just seem to be popping up everywhere, don’t they?
Another one would be the fact that the Effie awards have only just now recognised that marketing goes beyond advertising
Looks like we’ll be waiting a while before the erroneously-titled Communications Council understands that and appoints a senior PR to its board
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Wifey Speak? Does he give the little lady a pat on the head when she understands? It’s more than a tad patronising.
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Yeah kinda funny considering one of the other articles today is: “Morgan: Ad agencies suffering from lack of women in creative roles”
Hmmm
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Oh yeah but nice to see an …um…integrated (sorry if that’s not wifeyspeak) category
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How about we run “Spouse-Speak” up the flagpole and see who salutes?
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Why are women so sensitive. If they spent the time actually working on something constructive there wouldn’t be a sex divide!
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I’m sure if Scott had said “blokey speak” he’d have been OK. Surely he’s just using an expression that’s a bit stickier than “Without industry jargon”? What does Mrs Davis reckon?
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that’s sexist, which I hate.
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Why not just say, in simple terms and avoid all th BS in the first place:)
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I’m Scott’s wife and I’m happy he speaks wifey to me. I don’t care about the markeitng and advertising crap you guys talk about.
I’m a mother with four kids, so just simple ‘wifey speak’ is great for me. Don’t feed me the bullshit – tell me a simple story.
I think any women who were offended by this definitely has a few issues they need to resolve. There is only a small percentage of women who work in advertising in comparison to the majority who stay at home with their kids. Get over yourself because you aren’t curing cancer, you are just selling stuff to people. Glorified sales roles really. Simple stuff sells.
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