Winners of the WFA's President's Award 2015

The WFA President's Award was held for the third time at the WFA's Global Marketer Week 2015 in Marrakech. Australia, China, Finland, Sweden and Pakistan went up on stage to receive the prestigious award from Martin Riley, the outgoing WFA President. The President's Awards are meant to recognise and honour industry leadership initiatives which have helped advance the marketers' agenda and made a real difference. These are being offered at the end of each WFA president's tenure.

After casting his eye back at the recent activities of WFA's 57 national associations, the outgoing president selected the following five entries for an award:

• The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) for "Marketing Dividends", a TV series aimed at elevating the understanding and respect for the marketing profession;
  

• The China Association of National Advertisers (CANA) for making the case for advertising self-regulation in APEC, achieving an endorsement by APEC Heads of State in recognition of advertising self-regulation;
  

• The Association of Finnish Advertisers for "The History of Finnish Advertising", a public campaign looking to promote the role and value of advertising through an online app and documentary in conjunction with MTV Finland.
  

• The Association of Swedish Advertisers for "Win a trip to North Korea", a public campaign emphasising the value of marketing (by imagining a world without) and looking to increase consumer confidence in advertising.
  

• The Pakistan Advertisers Society for "Crack-It", a 12-hour competition which looks to leverage talent and idea outsourcing that can optimise brand communications.

What winners said about the Award:

"Everyone at the AANA is so delighted to receive this award, it means so much to us that our international peers acknowledge and embrace the work we are doing to elevate the profession. I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to the initiative. Scalability was a key criterion for the award and we are very proud that several other countries are planning to follow our lead. Back in Australia, series two is now in development and we look forward to sharing it with you soon." - Sunita Gloster, the AANA's CEO.

"The History of Finnish Advertising is the result of three years of extensive research and writing. The credits for this award also go to the Finnish advertisers, to our producers at Northstar and to MTV for broadcasting it." - Ritva Hanski- Pitkäkoski, Managing Director of the Association of Finnish Advertisers.

"This award is proof that what we do is important. Our North Korea campaign has received a lot of international attention over the years. The fact that people still talk about the campaign, almost three years after it took place, shows that the issue of commercial speech is more relevant than ever. We share this award with all our members, as we would not have existed without them, nor been able to influence policy-makers, the public opinion and the business community." - Anders Ericson, CEO of the Association of Swedish Advertisers.

"Crack-It will help marketers and advertisers tap the technological expertise and solve their problems the 'new fashioned way'. We also see it as a gateway towards the start-ups of tomorrow; a place where imaginative developers, designers and marketers collaborate to shape the future of marketing, advertising and the media industry." - Qamar Abbas, Executive Director of PAS.

Former winners in 2010 and 2013 came from the French, Indian, Peruvian, Chilean, Belgian and British advertiser associations.