With judging for the Effie Awards Ireland 2024 well underway, Ascential, the holding company for the Cannes Lions, has announced that it is to acquire Effie Worldwide Inc which organises the Effie marketing effectiveness awards in 125 markets in collaboration with 59 partners.
The acquisition will further strengthen Ascential’s presence in the advertising and marketing space with events like the Cannes Lions and the Dubai Lynx Awards, in addition to the marketing intelligence business WARC and the creative platform Contagious.
In July, the UK-headquartered Informa agreed to acquire Ascential for £1.2bn.
Subject to regulatory approval, the Effies will become part of Ascential’s Lions division. In addition, Ascential will also “ embark on a long-term partnership with the not-for-profit organisation, Effie Worldwide, Inc., which will be preserved and transformed into a new global Foundation, The Effie LIONS Foundation, Inc.” This will be dedicated to “educating the next generation of talent, offering training for all marketing students, especially those under-represented in the marketing community.”
Additionally, Ascential says the Foundation will provide a home for Lions’ existing not-for-profit initiatives and provide access to some of the Lions’ digital products.
According to Philip Thomas, CEO, Ascential: “The coming together of Lions and Effie is a powerful testament to the fact that effectiveness and creativity in marketing are inextricably linked. All enlightened businesses know that creative, effective marketing drives growth. This historic partnership will complement the insights and intelligence on marketing and creative effectiveness Lions already offers via WARC, The Work and Contagious, providing marketing leaders worldwide with the data and evidence they need to make the case for creative marketing that matters.”
“As the licence holder for Effie Awards Ireland and the Irish festival representative for Cannes Lions, I am delighted that the two biggest global benchmarks (Effies and LIONS) for effectiveness and creativity have merged,” says Charley Stoney, CEO of IAPI.
“With the scale and reach that Ascential now has, there is no doubt that the Effie programme will become bigger and better for all concerned”, says Charley Stoney, CEO, IAPI. “With companies such as WARC already within the Ascential family, it will provide us with access to thought leadership through fully analysed case studies on a global scale. Through this partnership there is huge potential to have standardised and indisputable global statistics that will help marketers and IAPI members state the case for marketing effectiveness.”
