Ascential plc, a specialist in events, intelligence, and advisory services, has agreed to acquire Effie’s commercial assets, a leading authority in marketing effectiveness.
Pending regulatory approval, Effie will integrate into Ascential’s LIONS Division, which promotes impactful and creative marketing strategies that drive growth. Effie is renowned globally for its role in marketing effectiveness, hosting the most esteemed awards and offering insights, tools, and training across over 125 markets.
Additionally, Ascential plans to establish a long-term partnership with Effie Worldwide, Inc., which will be transformed into The Effie LIONS Foundation, Inc. This global foundation will focus on educating and training future marketing talent, particularly those under-represented in the field. It will also support LIONS’ existing non-profit initiatives and provide access to LIONS Division digital products, enhancing industry reinvestment.
Philip Thomas, CEO, Ascential, commented, “The coming together of LIONS and Effie is a powerful testament to the fact that effectiveness and creativity in marketing are inextricably linked. All enlightened businesses know that creative, effective marketing drives growth. This historic partnership will complement the insights and intelligence on marketing and creative effectiveness LIONS already offers via WARC, The Work and Contagious, providing marketing leaders worldwide with the data and evidence they need to make the case for creative marketing that matters. Meanwhile, the creation of The Effie LIONS Foundation, Inc. will educate and inspire our industry, and broaden the opportunities available to everyone to build a career in creativity and marketing.”
Traci Alford, President and CEO, Effie Worldwide said, “We are excited to join LIONS with such a complementary, yet distinct, portfolio of brands. Closer collaboration between Effie, as the definitive marketing effectiveness benchmark globally, and the LIONS brands is an exciting prospect for the industry as our ability to share insights and find synergies in our data will help to dissect the role creativity plays in driving marketing effectiveness overall. Together we will be able to better understand the key drivers of growth and ultimately help all businesses succeed.”
Headquartered in New York, with offices in Beijing and the UK, Effie has a network of 59 partners covering over 125 markets. Effie will continue to be led by Traci Alford, President and CEO, Effie Worldwide.
