Delivered in association with Lions, these are the first awards to be built and benchmarked on the consistent, global language of the effectiveness code and judged using the creative effectiveness ladder.

What’s new this year is that campaigns in the Business-to-Business category will be judged against the new B2B Effectiveness Ladder. Moreover, entrants that reach shortlist stage or higher will also receive feedback from jurors about their work, using the relevant Ladder as a reference point. While the process to enter is the same as last year, straightforward and globally accessible, this year WARC has waived the entry fee, too.

Each category will be judged by a high-caliber panel, including senior marketers from some of the world’s biggest brands and top agency professionals and specialists from around the globe. This year’s panel features a number of judges from the UAE on its panels across different categories including:

Business-to-Business: Matthew Turner, Strategy Director, Leo Burnett

Collaboration & Culture: Leila Katrib, Creative Director, VMLY&R Commerce

Customer Experience: Tahaab Rais

Instant Impact: Nick Walsh, CEO, VMLY&R Commerce

Instant Impact: Kiera Doherty Business, Digital, and Marketing Consultant at Bright Company

Commenting on the development, Amanda Benfell, Head of PR and Press at WARC said, “2021 was the launch year of the WARC Awards for Effectiveness and the MENA region, in particular the UAE, performed really well, winning a total of eight awards out of the 61 that was given by the jury. This included a Grand Prix for Good in the Collaboration & Culture category, the Grand Prix in the Instant Impact category, two special awards, one Gold, two Silvers, and one Bronze. Following this performance, we felt that it was important to have the region well represented in our juries for the upcoming WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2022. We look forward to the region's most effective work from the last year being entered and seeing how it performs in these global awards!”

Jury Chairs

Antonia Wade, Global Chief Marketing Officer at PWC is appointed chair of the Business-to-Business category, awarding effective campaigns from one business targeting another. Whereas, Ann Mukherjee, Chairman, and CEO at Pernod Ricard North America, is chair of the Brand Purpose category, for marketing initiatives that have successfully embraced a brand purpose and achieved commercial success as well as benefit for the wider community.

Michael Flatt, Director for Global Integrated Marketing at Xbox, will preside over the Collaboration and Culture category, awarding strategies and instances of brands entering or impacting on the culture that can demonstrate a business outcome. Akira Mitsumasu, Vice-president, CX, Data Analytics and Global Marketing, Japan Airlines, will chair the Customer Experience category, honoring new ways of engaging with consumers and innovative experiences created to connect and immerse on the path to commercial success.

Zena Srivatsa Arnold, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer for Kimberly-Clark, will chair the Instant Impact category, awarding short-term campaigns (with a duration of six months or less) that led directly to an increase in sales. Suresh Balaji, APAC chief marketing officer, HSBC Asia Pacific, is jury chair of the Sustained Growth category, awarding campaigns that have invested in building a brand over time (12 months or more).

WARC has announced the deadline for entries to be March 2nd, 2022, without any extensions. For each category, the juries will award Grand Prix, Gold, Silver, and Bronze accolades. The winners will be announced at the Cannes Lions 2022.

 

Are you planning to enter? Here’s what you need to do next

Download the Entry Pack, which contains all the information you need to enter the Awards – from details on categories and what judges are looking for, to an entry template and full rules for entering. When you are ready to upload your entry, click on Enter the Awards. You'll be taken through to the Lions portal where you can register and upload your entry, as well as submit supporting images and video content.