E
ach year, the Agency of the Year (AOY) Awards recognise outstanding business performance in the advertising and communications industries. Given out by marketing and communications journal Campaign Asia, the awards are split into five regional competitions:
- Australia and New Zealand
- Greater China
- Japan and South Korea
- South Asia
- Southeast Asia
With honours also given to networks, the AOY Awards is the only programme that honours agency excellence at both the local and regional levels.
In 2018, the AOY Awards celebrated their 25th anniversary and expanded to the UK as well as the rest of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). The UK agency of the year will be revealed in March and the EMEA winner will be named in April.
Tops in Asia
The AOY Awards are a chance to congratulate agencies that have shown leadership, innovation, creativity and contribution to the industry throughout the year.
The 2018 Japan/Korea Agency of the Year Awards ceremony took place at Andaz Tokyo Toranomon Hills on 6 December, and the network honours were presented at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia in Singapore on 13 December.
Regional and local management teams from major agencies attended to celebrate the successes their teams and those of fellow firms in the media, marketing and advertising fields.
At Andaz Tokyo, eight individual and team awards plus 12 agency awards were given out. The panel of 11 judges reviewed and scored entries independently in the first round. Scores were then sent to auditing provider PwC to confirm the shortlist, before it was discussed at another meeting of the judges to determine the winners.
TBWA\Hakuhodo, based in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, was named Japan’s Creative Agency of the Year for the eighth year in a row, and the firm’s Digital Collective took home Japan Digital Agency of the Year honours. The bronze Japan/Korea Best Culture of the Year as well as seven awards from the people and team categories also went to TBWA\Hakuhodo. Six out of the seven were gold.
Ebisu-based MediaCom won Japan Media Agency of the Year after having finished third in 2017. In addition, their Asia–Pacific Chief Executive Officer Mark Heap was named Asia–Pacific Media Agency Head of the Year. MediaCom teams in Vietnam, India and Japan received gold accolades, those in Indonesia and Hong Kong won silver, and bronze went to their New Zealand and South Korea operations.
