TBWA for Lidl is UK’s first Grand Effie winner – shame it’s moving the account

The UK Effie Awards, which purport to reward ad effectiveness, has announced its winners and they are: Aldi and John Lewis tied as UK Marketers of the Year; adam&eveDDB (John Lewis’ agency) as Agency of the Year and Lidl and agency TBWA (below) as winner of the UK’s first Grand Effie.

As ever with such awards reality seems to be veer in a different direction from time to time. John Lewis’ profits plummeted to just £1m in the first half of 2018, blitzed by its “never knowingly undersold” promise, while Lidl is currently reviewing its ad business out of, um, TBWA. Doubtless it feels it can be even even more effective with someone else.

Effies were also awarded to IKEA and agency Mother (Gold), Beano/Red Brick Road (Silver), McDonald’s/Leo Burnett London (Silver), Yorkshire Tea /Lucky Generals (Bronze), Sainsbury’s/AMV BBDO (Bronze – Sainsbury’s has also departed the agency for Wieden+Kennedy) and Glasgow School of Art/ J. Walter Thompson (Bronze).

A&E won for brands including the Automobile Association Marmite as well as John Lewis.