The Effie Awards have celebrated the most effective advertising programs in the United States for more than 40 years, and worldwide for more than 5 years. In 2011, Effie Worldwide introduced the Effie Effectiveness Index in 2011, ‘identifi[ng] and rank[ing] the marketing communications industry’s most effective agencies, advertisers, and brands by analyzing finalist and winner data from Effie Worldwide competitions.’

After analyzing results from 39 worldwide Effie competitions, Effie Worldwide in conjunction with Warc, the global marketing intelligence service, announced the 2012 winners for ‘the most effective marketing communications ideas from around the world’:

Most Effective Advertiser: Unilever

Most Effective Brand: McDonalds (for the 2nd year in a row)

Most Effective Advertising Holding Company: WPP Group

Most Effective Agency Network: Ogilvy & Mather

Most Effective Agency Offices: Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai

Most Effective Independent Agency: McKinney (Durham, NC)

See a full list of the top five winners of the 2012 Effie Effectiveness Index in each category here.

Effie Index