Effie South Africa and Ipsos present the 2025 Trends Report

Effie South Africa, in partnership with Ipsos, has released the 2025 Trends Report, offering a focused view of what the 2025 winning cases reveal about driving marketing effectiveness in South Africa. The report was presented at a webinar held on 24 March, exploring how the country’s most effective work made deliberate choices about what it needed to achieve, how strategy showed up across channels, and how creative execution converted attention into action. 

The report reinforces the outcomes identified in Effie South Africa and Ipsos’ previous reports, strengthening an evidence base that has become increasingly consistent across winning work. Effectiveness is rarely accidental. The most successful cases begin with clarity of intent (the job to be done), then orchestrate channel roles and investment with purpose, and rely on creative execution to earn attention, lift awareness and improve recall, and drive behaviour. 

“This is the third Effie South Africa Ipsos Trends Report, and it continues to sharpen what effectiveness looks like in our market,” said Gillian Rightford, ACA Executive Director for Effie South Africa. “The lesson from the 2025’s entries is simple but powerful. Winning brands don’t try to do everything. They are clear about the job to be done. They sequence growth. They orchestrate channels with intent, not noise. And they make creativity carry the commercial load, using humour, emotion, distinctive ideas and clear calls to action to turn attention into action.” 

That discipline comes through clearly in the 2025 Grand Effie winner, TBWA\Hunt Lascaris and City Lodge Hotel Group’s ‘Save Our Stay (SOS)’, where humour and a distinctive creative platform helped the campaign break category conventions, achieve rapid attention and translate intent into tangible action. Across the winning cases, the report highlights how humour and storytelling accelerate cut-through, while distinctive ideas and design choices help brands stand apart in saturated environments, improving recall and strengthening brand identity over time. 

“Winning strategies utilise humour and storytelling to cut through the clutter, reinforcing brand identity and inciting behavioural changes,” said Quantin Montello, Service Line Manager, Creative Excellence at Ipsos. “In today’s saturated environment, reaching your audience at the right moment with precise messaging proves paramount. The 2025 winners show how strong orchestration and clear creative choices turn attention into measurable outcomes.” 

The 2025 Effie South Africa Ipsos Trends Report is available to download, alongside the webinar recording presented on 24 March. Download the report or watch the webinar on Effie South Africa’s YouTube page here. 

For more information, visit https://effie.org/partners/south-africa/ or www.acasa.co.za  

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