Nissan has repeated its top ranking as the Middle East’s most effectively marketed automotive brand following the announcement of the influential Effie Awards, the ‘gold standard’ in marketing communications effectiveness.

Effie Awards reward campaigns, from any discipline, which have achieved success through proven, effective marketing communications.

Nissan has been awarded ‘the most effective automotive brand’ in the Mena region for the third year in a row and is ranked fifth in the Mena area overall. This is higher than any other car maker, with the next best automotive brand appearing in 12th position.

“The Effie Index benchmarks the brands, marketers, agencies and game-changing companies that are doing it right, it’s a great resource,” said Nissan Middle East regional managing director Samir Cherfan.

“This is the third year running we’ve excelled in the Effies and our prominent position in the rankings reflects the consistency of our product line-up, customer service and aftersales. The recently released rankings bear testimony to the fact that Nissan is consistently delivering ideas and top-class marketing initiatives that work.”

This year’s rankings were determined after rigorous evaluation of data collected between June 2013 and June 2014. Industry experts analyse data, case studies and ongoing work from 40 worldwide Effie Award competitions to arrive at their rankings.

Nissan’s Mena points tally of 24 was its highest score for any region in the world, while its global ranking of 12th was also particularly impressive.

The annual Effie awards were launched in 2011 and are the most comprehensive global ranking of marketing effectiveness, according to analysts.

“The awards create healthy competition for top performers in industry, including the automotive sector, so Nissan is extremely proud of the latest Effie ranking, which continues the momentum of the previous two years,” said Cherfan.

“The Effie Index enables shifts and trends to be monitored, evaluated and studied and leveraged globally and regionally so it is also a useful tool.”

Nissan achieved record sales in the Middle East of 217,685 vehicles in the 2013 financial year – up 20.9 per cent on the previous year’s 180,015 units. March was the highest sales month in the company’s history in the region reaching 28,900 units. In addition, overall market share grew from 7.0 per cent to 8.0 per cent over the 12-month period.

Nissan’s sales volume in the GCC for the latest financial year ended at 162,238 units, an increase of 27.2 per cent, or 127,559 sales, on the previous year. The Nissan-Infiniti market share for GCC is currently 9.9 per cent per cent, a hike of 18.7 on financial year 2012. Nissan-Infiniti GCC sales volume has increased 20.5 per cent, taking the current tally to 195,439. – TradeArabia News Service