At the New York Festivals ceremony held last Thursday night at the New York Public Library's Beaux-Arts building, BBDO Worldwide was named Network of the Year, marking the 5th time in 7 years the advertising network has received this honour, and the second year running. The ceremony aims to honour the world's best work, and BBDO claimed a staggering 89 awards on the night, which is almost double what they took home last year and significantly more than their competitors. Andrew Robertson, president and CEO of BBDO Worldwide was quite humble, simply stating that "The best work works great for our clients.” He also said that he felt gratified to see so many of their agencies “From every part of the world, doing great work."
The New York Festivals aim to honour the world's best work, and BBDO claimed a staggering 89 awards
14 BBDO agencies won awards on the evening, with a total of 2 Grand Prix Awards, 15 Golds and a Special United Nations Department of Public Information First Place Award for the networks exemplary public service. The Grand Prix Awards were claimed by the Brazilian agency, Almap BBDO and AMV BBDO in London, for their work for Bayer and Guinness respectively. The public service award meanwhile went to the Colombian company Sancho BBDO for their El Tiempo Publishing House campaign. The festival received entries from 67 different countries this year, which festival president Michael O'Rourke believes shows that the New York Festivals “Is the most diverse advertising awards competition in the world.” The festival is judged by what he refers to as a 'Dream Team', which means that for BBDO to be named Network of the Year for the second year in a row is “Truly an impressive achievement."
BBDO also won big last week at the 2014 Facebook Studio Awards, taking home more awards than any other network. Colenso BBDO and AIM Proximity took home a Blue trophy in the 'Best Goodwill Marketing' category for their "Trial by Timeline" campaign for Amnesty International and also won a Silver for "The Smart Phone Line" for Samsung New Zealand. Finally, the Melbourne-based Clemenger BBDO earned a Silver for their “FootifyFM” campaign for the Australian National Bank. Robertson was again humble, saying of the haul that the company's goal is simply “To create the best work on all platforms."
Only 15 awards were given out at this year's Facebook Studio Awards, of which 3 went to BBDO
2014 saw the Facebook Studio Awards returning for its third year, with the awards set to recognise advertising agencies who use Facebook in inventive, creative and engaging ways to help promote their clients' brands. Members of the Jury are chosen from Facebook's own creative council, and winners are judged based on the craft, execution, scale, targeting and results of their Facebook content. This year saw entries from 80 countries, though only 15 awards were given out, 3 of which went to BBDO. No other agency took home any more than one! This marks the latest in a long line of big wins for BBDO, who were also the most-awarded agency in this year's Gunn Report, for the second year in a row.
BBDO Worldwide Official Website
Full list of this year's New York Festivals winners
Full list of this year's Facebook Studio Awards winners
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from Kidderminster in the UK who would probably win a Facebook Award himself, if they gave out an award for the most 'colourful language' used in a status update.
