AME's Grand Jury members are strategic, innovative, analytical, critical thinkers, and creative storytellers dedicated to ensuring brand awareness and equity, these qualities embody AME's esteemed jury. Serving as emissaries of effectiveness, The 2025 AME jury panel are recognized globally as industry leaders and award-winning marketers, they ensure that every entry submitted to the AME Awards is evaluated with the utmost care and consideration.
2025 AME Grand Jury member Tiffany Fettig-Pante is Group Media Director at H/L Agenc. She has worked in advertising agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, and Australia for the past 15 years. Specializing in holistic media strategy, planning, buying and implementation, she plays a critical role in bringing innovation to traditional and digital media programs. Tiffany has worked on a variety of B2B and B2C client accounts in the alcohol, entertainment, technology, auto, financial, industrial, QSR, and nonprofit verticals, making her a flexible and senior member of the media team at H/L Agency.
In the interview below Tiffany share her perspective on maintaining effectiveness across global markets, storytelling and effectiveness, the current state of influencer marketing, and why effectiveness competitions are essential for measuring impact.
AME Awards: Why are effectiveness competitions like the AME Awards essential for measuring impact and industry growth?
TiffanyFettig-Pante: They push agencies and marketers to take campaigns full circle with a results-oriented goal to set themselves up for success at campaign inception. Often times we have a great idea, bulletproof media plan and stellar creative, but after the campaign hits the market we’re not in a position to answer the big question – “did it work?” Even branding campaigns can be measured for success, we just have to get ahead of understanding the baseline beforehand and how to structure the campaign to yield clear results.
They inspire other marketers to do more than the status quo and embrace new ideas that might be initially uncomfortable. They allow first-movers and innovative thinkers to validate their theories in front of like-minded industry leaders (and let them have a humble brag). Effective campaigns become actionable and proven case studies for other marketers looking for “permission” to step out of their comfort zone. Effectiveness awards keep healthy competition alive, which keeps the industry moving and makes it more exciting.
AME Awards: In your experience, what role does storytelling play in the effectiveness of a campaign? Are there elements of narrative or structure that make campaigns especially memorable or impactful?
TiffanyFettig-Pante: Storytelling plays an extremely important role in campaign effectiveness; the biggest challenge now is conveying that story in just a few seconds since our audience’s attention span is extremely short in the world today. We might also assume we can use sequential messaging or build frequency upon the first exposure, but sometimes that’s not possible with budget or privacy limitations. So the best story is one that wastes no time acknowledging a challenge and how our brand can fix it, with a few bits of humor or emotion weaved in to add interest and relevance.
AME Awards: How are brands reimagining influencer marketing to be more impactful? Any examples of partnerships or approaches that have been proven most effective?
TiffanyFettig-Pante: Influencer marketing has well and truly hit the mainstream and is at a tipping point. It sits at the intersection between organic social, paid media, PR, business affairs, talent management, and probably dozens of other spaces. Seeing how far it has come over the years, influencer marketing has become both easier and harder to navigate. While celebrity or macro influencers may have mass reach and appeal, the most impactful influencer partnerships I’ve seen are those that are more niche and community-based. These mid-level or even micro influencers often have a captive and loyal following that is a great base for paid amplification, and will yield stronger engagement in the long run.
AME Awards: What challenges do brands face in maintaining effectiveness across diverse global markets, and how do you approach creating strategies that resonate across different cultures?
TiffanyFettig-Pante: We all should acknowledge that there will never be a one-size fits all campaign or strategy that appeals to everyone within the many distinct global audiences and cultures out there. There can, however, be a global brand identity that is memorable, inoffensive and maintains brand values. Then whenever possible, brands should tailor their messages as much as possible for their specific target audience and choose media channels the target is already using. Understanding societal, economic and other cultural factors at play will also impact how effective a brand’s campaigns will be, allowing them to course correct as much as possible.