O&M unstoppable at HK AOTY 2011 Awards (gallery)

Embracing the awards’ new judging process – a judging panel consisting of nine senior client side marketers – the Group claimed top honours for Creative Agency of the Year, Digital Agency of the Year, Brand Consultancy of the Year and Direct Marketing Agency of the year, indicating a clear consensus by the judges that the coveted blue M cube belonged in the agency’s camp this year once again.

See gallery below

The awards, held at the Conrad Hotel to a sold out crowd of more than 600 agency, media and marketing professionals.

The event saw several new winners of the Gold, including OMD (Media Agency of the Year), Weber Shandwick (Public Relations Agency of the Year) who snatched the prize from Ogilvy PR, local agency Luminous (Event Marketing Agency of the Year and Local Hero).

In the Market Research category, Synovate continued to maintain its stranglehold on Gold, claiming it for a third year running and pulling away from its rival Nielsen.

Local agencies made their presence known to the industry with DesignerCity (Digital), SPRG (PR), and Datatrade (Direct Marketing) winning the Local Hero Award and paving the way for others in their wake.

For the first time Marketing introduced the MARKies, with several agencies taking part in the inaugural awards to find out who can lay claim to the most innovative and effective campaigns and projects in Hong Kong.

A few of the big winners include Leo Burnett who bagged four MARKies, OMD & DDB Group Hong Kong nabbed three awards together, but overall, DDB Group Hong Kong dominated with eight MARKies.

Local agency TCOB (Taking Care of Business) was hailed by Marketing's editorial staff as The Next Big Thing, joining last year’s winners New Digital Noise as a noteworthy agency in the industry.

The Agency of the Year Awards 2011 was sponsored by Apple Daily, Green Tomato, Hotmob, The Economist Online and The Wall Street Journal Asia, and supported by partners Boardroom Research, Chivas, Golden Gate Wine Co, Heineken and Privé.

Full results for Agency of the Year Rankings 2011

Market Research Consultancy of the Year

• Gold             Synovate
• Silver            Oracle Added Value
• Bronze          CSM Media Research

Public Relations Agency of the Year 

• Gold               Weber Shandwick
• Silver             Hill & Knowlton
• Bronze           Edelman Hong Kong
• Local Hero     Strategic Public Relations Group

Creative Agency of the Year

• Gold             Ogilvy & Mather Group, Hong Kong
• Silver            Grey Hong Kong
• Bronze          DDB Group Hong Kong
• Local Hero     Eight Partnership Limited

Direct Marketing Agency of the Year

• Gold             OgilvyOne Worldwide Hong Kong
• Silver            RAPP Worldwide
• Bronze          Datatrade
• Local Hero     Datatrade

Digital Agency of the Year

• Gold             OgilvyOne Worldwide
• Silver            Razorfish (Hong Kong) Co Ltd
• Bronze          Isobar Hong Kong
• Local Hero     Designercity

Event Marketing Agency of the Year

• Gold             Luminous EMC ltd
• Silver            Jack Morton Worldwide
• Bronze          AQ Communications Ltd
• Local Hero     Luminous EMC Ltd

Brand Consultancy of the Year

• Gold             Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong
• Silver            DDB Group Hong Kong
• Bronze          Sedgwick Richardson
• Local Hero     Eight Partnership Limited

Media Agency of the Year 

• Gold         OMD
• Silver       Mindshare Hong Kong Ltd
• Bronze     PHD

The Next Big Thing

• Winner     TCOB Media

2011 Agency of the Year

• Winner     Ogilvy & Mather Group, Hong Kong