O&M dominates Agency of the Year awards

Singapore - Ogilvy & Mather has bounced back to win Marketing magazine's Agency of the Year award for 2008, taking the title away from defending agency Saatchi & Saatchi, which edged out O&M in 2007.

Ogilvy's coronation as Singapore's top agency took place on Wednesday night (3 September 2008) at a sold out gala event held at the Singapore Marriott. At the inaugural event for Marketing's Agency of the Year special edition, O&M were the consistent achievers, winning Gold in the Creative Agency category as well as in the Interactive Agency category.

Stephen Mangham, group chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Singapore said receiving top honours at the awards, which is based on clients' votes, was very gratifying.

"We are particularly pleased that there is such a strong team performance across the disciplines, underpinning our commitment towards our 360 (degree) thinking," he said.

The backing and support from the industry was also particularly pleasing to Marketing's editorial director, Tony Kelly who said he was overwhelmed by the support shown in both attendance at the event and supporting the event in other ways. "We really were delighted that the industry has embraced these awards and recognizes that this is the most valid and accurate way to recognize excellence in agency performance and relationships," Kelly said.

Over 500 industry players attended the event where 40 trophies were handed out across 11 categories. The Awards were strictly decided through extensive polling of marketers in Singapore.

This year new categories were added to better reflect agency performance across the full spectrum of the advertising and marketing discipline including, creative, media, public relations, events, digital, direct marketing, branding and sports marketing. Local independent agencies were also recognized and trophies were awarded to the highest ranked local agency in most of the categories.

"I think last night's inauguration was a success, in terms of turnout as well as content. It covered not just the key categories of creative, media & PR, it also covered interactive, DM, Sports, Event marketing etc. Considering there are so many other award shows in Singapore, it is fair to single out the success based on the fact that this is the benchmark Industry award voted by senior client marketers as well as agency professionals," Sony Wong, MD of MindShare Singapore, said.

MindShare topped the Media Agency of the Year category for another year as well. Up and coming creative agency, The Secret Little Agency was also recognised in a new category, titled The Next Big Thing, which recognises a new agency with high potential, and was created to help develop and encourage growth and innovation in the market.

The Agency of the Year special edition will come out in print along with the September issue of Marketing in the coming weeks. Event attendees were all given a copy of the edition in advance.