Before the advertising world descends on the south of France next month for the Cannes Lions, the awards circuit begins to heat up. The ANDY Awards kicked off the season last month, and May is chock full of ceremonies including D&AD in London and, this week, The One Show in New York during Creative Week.
Not to be forgotten in this list of honors is the Art Director’s Club (ADC) Annual Awards, in its 98th year. Among the winners announced tonight, TBWA Worldwide and Droga5 walked away with agency network of the year and black cube as best in show for The New York Times’ “The Truth Is Worth It” campaign respectively.
TBWA\Hakuhodo in Tokyo emerged as the ADC Agency of the Year, snapping up eight gold cubes—three in product design alone—for its Pride Jersey campaign focused on diversity and inclusion with AIG, named as the show’s brand of the year. A 2018 Cannes Lions winner, the agency developed a custom black fabric for the New Zealand All Blacks and Black Ferns rugby teams that, when stretched, reveals rainbow colors.
Adweek’s 2018 Global Agency of the Year, TBWA Worldwide also saw wins for TBWA\Media Arts Lab for Apple (14 total cubes for “Welcome Home,” “Share Your Gifts” and “Behind the Mac”), golds for TBWA\Chiat\Day New York for Thomson Reuters’ “Unboxing the Truth” campaign and the Columbia Journalism Review for “The Fake News Stand.” TBWA\India rounded out the haul with two bronze cubes for Blink to Speak.
Droga5’s grand prix win, with Furlined as a partner, also included three golds in two craft categories and television/film/online video for films that highlight the importance of investigative journalism and have become one of the agency’s creative calling cards with compelling follow-ups.
Other U.S. “best of” winners included BBDO Atlanta for its Stop Traffick stunt to raise awareness of human trafficking; Nora Krug for “Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home”; DDB Chicago for “Broadway the Rainbow” for Mars Wrigley brand Skittles. Globally, Akestam Holst of Stockholm, Adweek’s 2017 International Agency of the Year, was named boutique agency of the year and Serviceplan Munich won four gold cubes.
In-house agencies had a decent showing this year as well, with the following wins:
• Apple: 14 total cubes (nine with Furlined)
• The New York Times Magazine: 11
• Spotify: nine
• Google Creative Lab, Viceland and Variety Magazine: three each
• National Geographic, Nest Labs, Shiseido, WeTransfer and Dollar Shave Club: one each
