On October 26, Moscow's Forum Hall became host to the EFFIE/THE BEST BRAND 2006 award ceremony - the most prestigious prize in the area of marketing and advertising.

The competition has attracted an impressive number of participants, with a total of 302 submissions made. This testifies to the growing prestige of the event, and that Russian companies are taking more seriously their efforts to boost their intangible assets. What is even more pleasing is that almost one half of the applicants for the prize came from regional companies, said Yelena Biryukova, the Chairman of the award's Organizing Committee.

Meanwhile, it must be noted that regional projects did not garner as many prizes at this ceremony as last year. "In 2005, quite a few regional projects won gold awards," summarized Vladimir Filippov, the chairman of the jury. "There aren't as many of them among this year's winners. Regional submissions were considerably weaker than those from national projects. This was probably the biggest disappointment this year. I think that the award and the marketing community should make training marketing and advertising specialists in the regions their mission, so that the overall potential in marketing and the level of professionalism in this area might increase in the country at large." The quality of submissions varied in different categories, which was another trend at this year's contest. "The majority of submissions were of a similar quality last year," said RBC General Director Yury Rovensky, one of the members of the jury. "This year, there are remarkable works, but at the same time some projects are clearly a failure." The same uneven situation is characteristic of some specific categories. For example, there were many strong submissions in the "Health and personal care products" category, whereas the "Goods for children" category looked relatively weak. According to the jury's general assessment, consumer goods-related brands (foods, children's, and electronics) performed the best this year.

There was unexpectedly strong performance from the mass media. Surprisingly, grocery retail chains did not win any prizes this year. "In 2006, only one food retail chain applied for participation in the competition. It was a major and well-known company," Yelena Biryukova continued. "But unfortunately its submission was not the strongest, and didn't even collect enough points to make it to the top three." Jury members admitted that global brands found a worthy place at the contest. As for Russian projects, premium brands showed fairly good results, even in cases when they were promoted on a relatively small budget. In contrast, despite impressive financial resources, mass-volume Russian brands failed to show any outstanding creativity, said Vladimir Yevstafyev, Vice President of the Russian Association of Communication Agencies. In the words of Vladimir Filippov, the main thing was that the competition showed how well our advertising and marketing specialists understood the essence of brand: "this is seen in the way that the submissions were written, in how brands were promoted and how goals were set, as well as what results were achieved - not only in sales, but also in customer loyalty. For the most part, the jury assesses how well and professionally the submission is written. Then it compares the budget with the targets that were set, and tries to evaluate the complexity of the market situation - those are the key things."

The Grand Prix was awarded to three projects this year: Aeroflot - Russian Airlines ("Change of Image"), MegaFon ("Reputation and Credibility"), and the family bonus card loyalty program Malina ("New Name"). The remaining 108 brands won gold (40), silver (41) and bronze (27) prizes.

The event seemed to have gathered all of the Russian capital's marketing and advertising public - those whose occupation is to create and promote brands. Among the guests were Deputy Culture and Mass Communication Minister Dmitry Amunts, VimpelCom's Honorary President Dmitry Zimin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wimm-Bill-Dann David Yakobashvili, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Euroset Yevgeny Chichvarkin, MTS Vice President for Finance and Investment Vsevolod Razanov, Arnold Worldwide Managing Partner/ Group Account Director Barbara Reilly, Union of Right Forces (SPS) political party leader Nikita Belykh, producer Iosif Prigozhin, TV presenter Boris Notkin, singer Valeria, artist Nikas Safronov, fashion designer Helen Yarmak, TV soap star Nelly Uvarova, and other figures with highly recognizable brand names.

The informal part of the evening began with music by Bach and an animated film, which gave a brief overview of the history of Russian brand building. "There can be no losers in this competition!", the ceremony's hosts, Russian television stars Anton Komolov and Yana Churikova, encouraged the seekers of the main prize, the EFFIE/THE BEST BRAND 2006 award. Construction group MIRAX chief Sergei Polonsky agreed: "An award like THE BEST BRAND calls for mobilizing all your strength in order to win. And even if we don't, we know that we will lose to a very strong rival. So, we won't feel ashamed of losing to them, because it is in this struggle that the core group of winners is formed." Nevertheless, Polonsky had no reason to worry - his company took home a gold award in the "Real Estate and Construction" category. The headliners of the concert program were the popular Russian singer Valeria (with her hit "Nezhnost Moya" ("My sweet one") and the stellar world famous opera quartet Amici Forever, who have sung before the royal courts of Europe at the most important receptions and ceremonies (the winners of the Milan opera art academy's special prize and a Grand-Prix at the Vienna International Opera Festival). The grand finale of the show was the Aquatique Show, a mystifying dancing fountains performance, in which water, light, and sound intertwined in the most fascinating way. This high technology art performance made fountains dance in sync with music and lights. Music knows no boundaries, and fountains have shown they can dance to any kind of rhythm, from jive to step.