The Final Heads of Jury for the 2019 APAC Effie Awards have been announced along with the full jury line-up.
Arthur Wei is the Senior Vice President for Sina Corp. and the General Manager for Sina Sports. He is responsible for maintaining Sina’s leadership in Sports content, and led Sina Sport’s transition from a digital media channel to a full-fledged sports company with their own portfolio of sporting events such as the Sina 3×3 Golden League basketball tournament, the Sina 5×5 Golden League futsal tournament, International Youth Equestrian Tournament to name a few.
Arthur has accumulated more that 20 years of experience in marketing, sales and brand strategic management for global technology corporations, heading international teams to solve complex challenges. Prior to joining Sina Corp., Arthur was the Chief Marketing Officer for Lenovo China Geo and Ecosystem and Cloud Services Business Group, and before that, with Hewlett Packard.
Aside from his regular day job, Arthur also serves as a visiting professor for Antai School of Economics and Management in Shanghai Jiaotong University, Central University of Finance and Economics, and is also Vice Chairman of China Sports Industry Research Center. Arthur is also a seasoned Effie judge and has judged at both the Global and Greater China Effie Awards.
On his appointment, Arthur said, “With marketing getting more complex with new evolutions and technology, it has been increasingly difficult for marketers to cut through the clutter, technology norm to deliver the brand’s message. The importance of marketing can never be overstated and I am delighted to accept the role of Head of Jury to review and award the best work in the region”.
Fern Canning is the managing director of Edelman Australia. She is based in Australia and has 20+ years of experience in the industry that spans public relations, social media, brand strategy, sponsorship, experiential and content development in UK, US and Australia.
With her experience across the various sectors in the industry, Fern specialises in the creation of integrated consumer/brand campaigns that stitch together strategy, creative and earned social and digital media. Her work includes supporting the strategic re-positioning of Audi from a car maker to a design and lifestyle brand in the UK, developing a global brand strategy for Peroni Nastro Azzuro and leading EMEA and Global integrated marketing communications campaigns for brands within the P&G and Diageo portfolios.
Fern has worked with a diverse range of brands locally in Australia and internationally including HP, Samsung, GSK, and Unilever brands, to name a few, and has clinched various awards for her work. Her work with Diageo brought her a marketing excellence award for a multi-market integrated campaign. In 2018, she won 2 Effie Awards for her work on HP Australia with Edelman.
“The Effies is the standard that clients and agencies should be striving for. Excellent creative work that truly impacts how people think, feel or behave, is creative work that matters. It’s often not enough of a priority for the industry to measure the business impact of creative work, not least because it takes time and funding, but also because it’s easier to herald a campaign a success if it gains many views. That’s why the work entered into the APAC Effies is so important. I cannot wait to be inspired and in awe of the many entries the jury will have the honour to judge” Fern said upon her appointment.
Commenting on the full line-up of the 2019 Jury, Chairman of the Awards, Charles Cadell said, “I am looking forward to chairing such a senior and experienced group of marketers to help select the best of the best. The diversity of competency, culture, gender and geography that encompasses the Heads of Jury in 2019 will ensure that this team is fully able to represent the unique Asian marketing experience and help showcase its excellence from wherever that may be”.