In 2019, as part of Effie’s 50th anniversary celebrations, Effie Europe introduced a special recognition – Best of the Best Europe – to recognise the most effective marketing efforts in the region. This track was open to past Gold/Grand Effie winners. In order to celebrate effective work across all of Europe, the programme is now open to entries from countries without an Effie programme as well.
The 2026 edition welcomes 2025 Gold/Grand Effie Winners from local Effie programmes, as well as entries from countries without an Effie programme that have run between 1 January 2024 and 31 March 2026. The category is split into an Effie Partner track (for the 2025 Gold/Grand Winners) and a track for the non-Effie markets. Campaigns can be entered into a maximum of two categories. Of those two categories, only one category submission may be an industry category. You are not required to enter an industry category – you may enter two specialty categories instead. If you’re not sure, or if you don’t see your product or service category listed here, contact us and we’ll try to help.
Best of Europe - Effie Partner Track: any 2025 Gold/Grand Effie-winning campaign from a local Effie programme in Europe may be submitted:
Best of Europe – non-Effie markets: countries without an Effie program are welcomed to participate as well. Any effective marketing effort that ran in a country in Europe that you can tell a great results story about should be considered. Specifically, any campaign that ran between 1 January 2024 and 31 March 2026 may be submitted.
All vehicles & automotive aftermarket products including cars, trucks, motorcycles, vans, both brand and model advertising, gasoline, motor oil, tires, batteries, paint, quick-lube, oil change, muffler, transmission, windshield wipers, enhancements, etc.
Includes cosmetics, fragrances, hair products, nail products, skincare treatments, salons, spas, etc.
Beverages: All beverages, including alcoholic & non-alcoholic.
All products and services related to:
-Agriculture, Industrial, Building: All related products, materials, tools, and services.
-Devices & Furnishings: All home and business devices, appliances and furnishings including smart home devices, kitchen appliances, etc.
-Electronics: Devices may be aimed at consumers or businesses – TVs, radios, mobile devices, home entertainment, laptops, tablets, cameras, computer hardware, game consoles, drones, external or integrated VR/AR devices, sound systems, etc.
-Internet & Telecom: Mobile network providers, high speed Internet access services, online services, bundled communications (internet, telephone, and TV), etc.
-Software: Software, groupware, operating systems, SaaS/IaaS and Cloud based services, software/apps stored locally on a computer/tablet/ mobile device, etc.
Apparel, accessories, jewelry, styling services, clothing rentals, eyewear and footwear.
Fast-moving consumer goods including household goods, office products, personal care, pet care, etc.
All food products, including fresh, packaged and frozen food; snacks; desserts.
Municipal or state economic development, lotteries, utilities, civil, diplomatic or armed forces, parks, libraries, public services, etc. Includes political messages and recruitment efforts.
Health and wellness products and services that can be directly purchased by a consumer with or without physician involvement. Efforts may also be targeted to physicians or healthcare professionals. Also including work related to health insurance, dental and medical care services.
All products and services related to:
-Entertainment: including apps, movies, programs (TV, online, radio), books, music, DVDs, games, toys, comics, podcasts, etc.
-Culture & the Arts: Plays, museums, music organizations, concert series, cultural festivals, theatre festivals.
-Sports & Leisure: All sporting events, sports teams, sport sponsorships, etc. Products and services aimed at hobbies, leisure and recreation, including but not limited to dating services/apps, wedding planning platforms, personal development/improvement programs/ apps, genetics/ancestry testing services, sporting and camping goods/ services, etc.
-Media & Entertainment Cos.: open to all media and entertainment companies including broadcasters, streaming services, websites (entertainment, lifestyle, news, trade, etc.), magazines, newspapers, consumer or trade media, radio and television stations
-Gaming & E-Sports: All forms of e-sports and multi-player video games, including virtual reality, arcade, console, mobile, online & computer games.
Quick service, casual dining, mid-scale, fine dining and other restaurants. Any type of restaurant may enter.
Open to all retail companies (online and/or brick & mortar) with general or specific merchandise, including department stores; online retailers; clothing, fashion, shoes or jewelry stores; food retailers; movie/book stores; furnishings and design retailers, discount/bulk retailers; home & garden stores, pet care; toy stores; specialty stores; convenience stores, etc.
Financial products and services including: overall corporate/brand image and capabilities of a financial institution; specific products or services including credit cards, charge cards, debit cards, home banking, loans, mobile payment services, mortgage, mutual funds, etc.
Includes services such as mobile network providers, high-speed Internet access services, online services, delivery services, consulting, accounting, legal, employment, realtors, domestic services, etc.
All modes of transportation such as air, train, bus, taxi, subway systems, rideshares services, bike shares, car rentals, ferries, as well as all forms of travel/tourism including cruises, hotels, resorts, amusement parks, travel websites and booking services, travel tours, tourism campaigns, etc.
For the AI Category, entrants are required to showcase their effective use of artificial intelligence to drive meaningful business outcomes. This category recognizes outstanding campaigns and initiatives where AI was leveraged as a pivotal tool to achieve specific business goals, whether it be enhancing customer engagement, optimizing operations, increasing sales, or any other measurable objective.
Entrants must provide clear evidence of how AI was integrated into their strategy and demonstrate the tangible impact it had on their business growth and desired results. This includes detailed metrics, analytics, and any other relevant data that highlight the effectiveness of the AI implementation. The judges will be
looking for entries that not only display creativity and technical proficiency but also a profound understanding of how AI can be harnessed to produce real, quantifiable success.
This category is for marketing efforts from businesses targeting other businesses. Business-to-business efforts for any type of product or service, from any marketplace segment, are eligible to enter.
This category is for effective efforts centered on a particular business goal. Efforts in the following categories should enter: Corporate Reputation (marketing efforts to promote corporations, not exclusively their products); Marketing Disruptors (efforts that changed the marketing model for the brand/category); and Renaissance (efforts that renaissance a brand).
This category is for efforts that effectively reached their audience through the creation of original branded content that is not advertising. The core of the entry should be content designed to be consumed/ experienced and sought out by the consumer for entertaining or informative reasons. Entrants must detail the content, how it related back to the overall brand and business goals, how it was distributed to, and shared by, the audience, and the results it achieved for the brand and business. Branded content may be produced and distributed by either publishers or independently and can include long form entertainment.
Note: Judges will expect to understand why branded content was chosen as a tactic.
This category honors brands that have effectively reached their audience via strategic integrations and partnerships. Submissions should detail how the brand was seamlessly interwoven in an engaging way. Detail the strategic reasoning behind the partnership – why was this partner chosen over others? Clearly explain the selection process of the partner, and how this partnership led to the results that met the brand objectives.
Honoring the most effective integrated campaigns based on a specific shopper insight and designed to engage the shopper and guide the purchase process to achieve conversion. Eligible campaigns include those for single or multiple brands, and/or a category solution. Entries may be brand-driven, retailer-driven, or a combination of the two.
For brands that created positive change by effectively pivoting their marketing program or business activities
in response to significant structural and cultural shifts and moments of crisis (e.g., pandemic, social justice movement, political events, etc.). Entrants need to pinpoint the pivot, and frame for the judges how the
messaging/campaign shifted, the team adjusted the approach to production or go-to-market planning, etc.
Demonstrate the effectiveness of the action for the brand. Examples can include a pivot in positioning, a change in portfolio management, a digital acceleration, etc.
This category is to showcase how you can create a brand experience beyond traditional advertising.
Work that truly brought a brand or product to life and interacted with a specific audience to achieve desired objectives should be entered. You may have re-invented the product demo, re-imagined the pop-up store, or led a “brick and mortar” retail overhaul; you could have created a new game, an alternate or virtual reality experience or interactive/immersive film experience that effectively showcases a new product or brand personality – it could have been anything. As long as you can prove it truly came alive and worked.
The winners of this award will show how advertisers are reaching out to their audiences to establish meaningful relationships, memorable, engaging experiences, and unique connections with their brands.
Entrants must address how the brand experience related back to the overall brand strategy.
This category recognizes brands that successfully partnered with influencers to achieve short or long-term marketing goals. Influencers can range from micro to macro and include social media personalities, brand ambassadors, and bloggers. Clearly define the strategy, target audience, and why the influencer was chosen. Highlight how the influencer engaged the audience, influenced consumer behavior, and contributed to the brand's success by driving measurable business results.
In this category, innovative single marketing & business activities or entire marketing programmes will be awarded. You can submit any actions or business idea that has had an exceptionally positive impact on the market position of a brand, product or service. If communication was a significant element of marketing mix, work should be submitted in another competition category of Effie.
Examples of eligible activities in this category include: product/service innovation; change in packaging, both in terms of its appearance and size; design, technology or ux innovation; consumer involvement in product development; operation change; introduction/change of a loyalty program, introduction of a new distribution channel, etc.
This is about outstanding effectiveness as a result of media-led ideas. The line between what constitutes a creative idea and a media idea is blurring. There are occasions when the media idea drove the entire effort. Of course, media cannot exist without the content, but this award is intended to recognize those cases that were led by the media thinking where the integration of media and message led to the success. The award honors media-led ideas that are powerful enough to become the genesis of the communications program itself, to the extent that the program would not have been successful without the strategic media idea.
-Positive Change – Brand: Recognising brands that are making the world a better place by using the power of their marketing platforms for "good." This category celebrates for-profit brand efforts that effectively combined business goals with a social and/or environmental/sustainability cause (health, education, community, family, etc.)
-Positive Change – non-profit: Recognising non-profit organizations and associations whose marketing efforts have effectively driven positive change for society and/or the environment and successfully contributed back to the organization's purpose
Efforts used to introduce a new product or service. Whether it is the creation of a whole new brand, a new product from an existing brand, or a new line extension, submissions in this category need to present how audience insights were leveraged to overcome the barriers faced by products/services being launched for the first time. Address the category situation and how your product/service was new and the situation you faced as a result of it being new. For example, what specifically was new? Why did the newness matter?
This category highlights the success achieved through strategic collaborations between retail media networks and brands, driving measurable business growth for both parties. Whether digital or instore, or omnichannel, demonstrate how your efforts were tailored to specific customer segments using data-driven insights. Showcase the use of multiple channels, both online and offline, to deliver a cohesive and effective campaign that resonates with your target audience and drives tangible results for both retailer and brand.
Cases eligible for this category must represent the only communications efforts for this brand during the qualifying time period. To be eligible, an entry may not be for a line extension, a sub brand, or have an overarching brand campaign to support it. Value of donated and non-traditional media as well as activation costs must be included. This category is all about what you were able to achieve with a small media budget, rather than small production and creative budget. Budget eligibility is as follows: €1 million.
This category is for efforts that set out with the explicit purpose of using social as the primary touch point or have social at their heart. The kind of idea that is specifically designed to take advantage of the socially connected consumer and the influence of social. This could include efforts that effectively worked with key influencers to reach their target audience to achieve short or long-term marketing goals.
Judges are looking for campaigns that begin with a social idea, as opposed to advertising or integrated campaigns with a social media element. They will need a clear rationale for why social was the right way to tackle the brief, and evidence of how social activity measurably and materially drove the commercial result. It is not enough to count the number of impressions, likes or shares. You will need to measure and prove the commercial value of social through the direct effect it had on audience behaviour or perceptions and demonstrate correlation with the achieved business results.
Efforts that experienced sustained success for at least three years are eligible for entry. At a minimum, include at least three years of creative work and case results, and include the current competition year’s results. Work must have a common objective in both strategy and creative executions; with a continuation of core executional elements (e.g., spokesperson, song, theme, tagline, etc.) that demonstrates effectiveness over time. Entries should present the campaign as a clear journey across the years, highlighting key moments, milestones, and turning points that shaped its evolution and effectiveness. As part of the entry, specifically address how the effort evolved over time (e.g., media choices, targeting, insights, new products/services, etc.). Answer all questions for the initial year and describe how/why change occurred over time.
*A separate entry form and different creative requirements are required for the Sustained Success category.
For effective efforts around a particular moment in time or current event. Efforts in the following categories should enter: Seasonal Marketing (efforts focused on time-based interests of their target audience) and Current Events (efforts that effectively leveraged immediate relevance, interest or importance via a targeted strategy around current events (e.g. elections, World Cup, Olympics, economics, etc.
