Media AOY 2009 – The new creative agencies

As John Hughes’s ’80s teen movie icon Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast.” He could have been referring to the change within the Canadian media industry.

This year’s Media Agency of the Year process moved closer to strategy’s AOY model to reflect the creative contributions that Canadian media agencies are bringing to their clients (see p. 62 for details). “Great media ideas don’t exist in isolation – the days of departmental silos are over – and this is a very good thing,” says MAOY judge and TBWA\Vancouver media director Carmen Hunt.

The agencies that carried away the hardware this year stepped up with Bueller-esque creative solutions that blurred borders, from the editorial/advertising divide to the latest real world/digital hybrids (imagine what Ferris could have accomplished in the internet age). “The smartest executions always seem simple to the observer – proof that they are compelling and logical,” said judge Nancy Evans, SVP at Environics Communications. “In the best campaigns the creative and media strategies were seamless.”

Who pulled it off? Select from the winners links to find out.