George Patterson Y&R Melbourne was crowned AdNews Agency of the Year in front of a record crowd at Sydney's Star City this evening.
GPY&R Melbourne overcame tough competition to take out the annual awards heralding a return to form for the Y&R Brands agency.
The judges praised GPY&R's great body of work in 2010, which included effective award winning and innovative work for clients such as Cadbury and Department of Defence. The Victorian Agency of the Year also added new billings through new clients and organic growth to the tune of $43.7 million.
This year's awards proved to be a comeback year for a number of agencies with MediaCom Sydney bouncing back from a tough 2009 to claim the Media Agency of the Year award, following its impressive new business run which saw the agency awarded IAG, Yum! and Amaysim. MediaCom also triumphed in the Media Network of the Year category.
Whybin TBWA Tequila Sydney also stormed back from a tough year to claim NSW Agency of the Year in one of the toughest category in this year's awards programme, after the agency triumphed in the IAG pitch and snagged hot creative team Dave Bowman and Matty Burton as joint executive creative directors.
Creative Network of the Year went to Clemenger BBDO Australia in recognition of the strong performance from all of the network's agencies in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Tasmania.
The network's direct marketing agency, Clemenger Proximity Melbourne was also awarded Direct Agency of the Year thanks largely to its effective campaigns for Yellow Pages, Guide Dogs Australia and NAB.
The State Agency of the Year award went to Brisbane’s BCM which produced solid work, increased billings and captured new business.
Soap Creative took out the Digital Agency of the Year award for the second year running. The judges praised the digital natives that added 20 new clients to its books including Fosters, Microsoft and Warner Bros Films.
Banjo Advertising was crowned Emerging Agency of the Year after a big 2010 - its second year in business - which saw the agency grow revenues by 114% boosted by new business wins for Rheem, Midas and Krispy Kreme.
Happy Soldier's game changing "Dated Pillows" campaign for Tontine won over the judges to claim both the Ad Campaign and Media Campaign of the Year awards. The judges praised the campaign, which saw Tontine pillows stamped with a "best-before" date, as a great example of the how agencies can work with brands to change their products.
Other winners were:
Specialist Agency of the Year: Downstream Marketing
Promotion Agency of the Year: Momentum Worldwide
Experiential Agency of the Year: Play
PR Agency of the Year: Mango Communications
Click here for a list of the winners.
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