On Friday, November 24, during the national Effie Awards Ukraine ceremony, the winners’ names were announced.

The mine safety Watch Your Step! campaign, implemented by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in cooperation with East Europe Foundation, received two Effie Awards Ukraine: “silver” in the Non-profit category and “bronze” in the Crisis Response / Critical Pivot category.

The main objective of the awareness Watch Your Step! campaign, which was implemented with the financial support of DanChurchAid from June, 2022 to February, 2023, was to raise public awareness about the mine threat It helps to minimize the number of accidents, deaths, and injuries following the improper handling of explosives. 

Thus, within the campaign framework, the mobile application “Demining Ukraine” was developed, training on explosives identification was conducted, an interactive safety class was created for children in one of the State Emergency Service units, a series of open lessons in the northern regions of the country was held, a children’s board game was designed, etc.

Also, in cooperation with the TNMK band, we created the song and clip “Watch Where You Are Going”, and the online course “Watch Your Step! Watch Where You Are Going!”, where Oleh (Fahot) Mykhailiuta became a co-presenter. The said products became popular among millions of Ukrainians and were recognized by the jury of international communication awards. 

The detailed case is available at: https://bit.ly/mine_safety_awareness_campaign

On Monday, November 27, Viktor Liakh, the President of East Europe Foundation, congratulated Volodymyr Demchuk, the acting head of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. He handed the awards and expressed hope for further fruitful cooperation.

“Nowadays, up to 30% of the Ukrainian territory must be thoroughly searched for explosive objects. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine along with international partners make all the efforts so that people in the de-occupied territories could return to a safe life and work as soon as possible. We also conduct awareness-raising activities. And we really appreciate the fact that East Europe Fund joined our numerous partners in 2022. These awards are another proof of our cooperation efficiency. These efforts save lives,” noted Volodymyr Demchuk, the head of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

Victor Liakh, the President of East European Foundation: “The Foundation has always tried to contribute its expertise and resources to overcome the challenges Ukraine faces. The mine safety issue could not be an exception for us. We are happy that our and the State Emergency Service joint efforts are highly appreciated by communication practitioners. However, our main reward will be the saved lives and health of Ukrainians.” 

The awarding ceremony of the Effie Awards Ukraine was preceded by the Best Marketing Practices conference, where the cases of the award finalists were presented. Mine safety Watch Your Step! campaign was presented by Oleksandr Khorunzhii, press officer of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, and Viktoriia Gladchenko, communications manager of East Europe Foundation.

About Effie Awards:

Effie Awards is the largest award in the field of marketing communications, which evaluates the combination of strategy, creativity and, respectively, the communications efficiency. The competition was founded in New York in 1968, and nowadays, to become its winner means to become a global symbol of success in the industry.

The competition judges are guided by Effie’s many years of international experience and the independent opinion of each jury member. Competent representatives of the marketing and advertising industry analyze the campaigns and determine the winners by categories. Evaluation takes place in two stages. Voting is conducted anonymously and confidentially.

The 212 jury members, responsible for the evaluation of the competition entries submitted to the Effie Awards Ukraine 2023, are leading Ukrainian marketing professionals, heads of large companies, and experts in the advertising industry.

The list of this year’s Effie Awards Ukraine winners is available at: https://effie.org.ua/winners/2023/