• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, May 31, 2018

She’s like the Energizer Bunny of the awards circuit. She just keeps on winning and winning.

I’m talking about “Fearless Girl,” of course, the Wall Street statue and marketing campaign created by McCann for State Street Global Advisors last year to promote a fund that invests in companies led by female leaders.

Over the past year the campaign has filled a trophy case with awards including 18 Cannes Lions, four Grand Prix among them. It's also received honors from The One Show, D&AD, the Clios and others.

The latest victory came Thursday night at the North American Effie Awards which were presented at a New York gala. Fearless Girl won the Grand Effie trophy (best in show).  Now in its fiftieth year, the Effies honor campaign effectiveness.  That is, advertising and marketing ideas that work.

On International Women’s Day 2017, State Street Global Advisors placed Fearless Girl in New York’s financial district to start a conversation about the power of women in leadership. In three days average daily trading volume of the firm’s SHE fund was up 384%.

A jury panel debated the Grand Effie winner for hours on Thursday before the ceremony at Cipriani East in New York. Sources in the know tell me the debate was intense and went back and forth between Fearless Girl and a close-second contender.

“The Grand Effie jury interrogated the Fearless Girl entry and found that, not only was it effective for State Street’s business and brand, it was effective because of its creative power,” stated Nick Law, Co-Chair of the Grand Effie Jury and Chief Creative Officer of Publicis Groupe and President, Publicis Communications.

Other contenders for the top prize included:

• BBDO Minneapolis and Hormel Foods Corporation for Dinty Moore Stew’s “Lumberjacks Eat Moore” with contributing agency PHD 

• Droga5 and The New York Times for “The Truth is Hard to Find” 

• Geometry Global, KC ShopperConnect and Kimberly-Clark for Depend’s “Family Caregiving Club,” with contributing agencies Collective Bias, Triad Retail Media, BrandShare and Digimarc 

• McCann New York and U.S. Army for “White Hats Wanted” with contributing agency Universal McCann 

• 180LA and Boost Mobile for “Boost Your Voice” 

• Partners + Napier and Highmark Health for Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware’s “Blue Hen” with contributing agencies dPost and PushMP 

• TracyLocke and Pfizer Consumer Healthcare for Advil’s “What Pain? All Gain” 

State Street was also named the most effective marketer and brand in this year’s competition.  Top honors also went to Interpublic Group (holding company), McCann Worldgroup (agency network), McCann New York (agency office) and Droga5 (independent agency). 

Global Effie Award winners were also recognized at the gala for the year’s most effective marketing ideas that worked in multiple markets.  Gold Global Effies were awarded to TBWA\Media Arts Lab and Apple for “The Rock X Siri” (with contributing agency OMD) and Johannes Leonardo and adidas for “Original is Never Finished” for adidas Originals.

For more on this year’s awards you can check out the Effie website.