Ah, the Effies. They don’t get nearly enough cred in the agency world…at least not in my department. But I happen to have a huge amount of respect for them–after all, it is what they’re paying us to do, right? Deliver campaigns that work. How nice of the Effies to remind us of that.

It was a huge surprise (sarcasm) to see Old Spice take the highest honor in the show. Yawn. However, it is refreshing to see such a creatively great campaign win the biggest award for effectiveness, too. That is no small feat. Mad props. For comparison’s sake, one of the other Grand Effie finalists was an online cooking competition with Paula Deen for Philadelphia Cream Cheese. But it was effective, I guess.

In the global competition, which is a whole different sort of challenge, the big awards went to Snickers (“You’re Not You When You’re Hungry“), IBM (“The Smarter City,” very cool), and 5 Gum (“Stimulate Your Senses“). It’s not easy to sell stuff around the entire world, so high five to them (especially the writers, I totally empathize).

The most awarded agencies in the competition were BBDO, Saatchi + Saatchi and Leo Burnett.

And I’d say that’s all you need to know about the 2011 Effies. Oh, besides this, of course.

(p.s. The links above will take you to the brands’ award pages where you can see their entry videos. Always interesting to see how different agencies make their case.)