The 11th China Advertising Festival has concluded with an awards ceremony in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. The highlight of the evening was the unveiling of China's Effie Awards, the Chinese branch of the world's highest honor for effective advertising.

Three golds, ten silvers and ten bronzes were given out at the first ever Effie Awards ceremony in China. The Effie Awards, launched by the New York American Marketing Association in 1968, measure the success of advertisements by the results they generate in terms of increased sales and market share. The China Advertising Association signed to introduce the award at the end of 2003. But before that, it had its own effective ad awards at the past two sessions of the national ad festival to promote the upcoming China Effie Awards. And this has proved helpful.

President of China Advertising Association Yang Peiqing said, "The China Effie Awards are now fully recognized by advertisers and ad agencies. They have sent very good entries this year. We hope the introduction of the Effie Awards will promote them to pay more attention to effective ad campaigns and integrated marketing communication."

Also presented on Saturday were the regular awards of the annual China Advertising Festival. Over 200 entries were awarded prizes at the festival. Joint ventures, including J. Walter Thompson Shanghai, Ogilvy Beijing and Leo Burnett China, were the biggest winners. J. Walter Thompson also won the Grand Award with its intruding ad for Nike. McCann Erickson won the top prize of the Youth Design Contest, another major event of the festival. Industry insiders point out that this might be an early sign of increasing international competition as China prepares to open its advertising industry to foreign companies.

(CCTV.com November 1, 2004)