• Incubator: GE/OMD
    Not long ago, incubator referred to a place where tiny babies grew big and strong. Now it's part of a corporate lexicon of "I" words - including innovation, iteration, and ideation - that refer to the hatching of cool ideas. But while most companies spend money to grow their own talent and business, OMD teamed up with client General Electric to help student entrepreneurs grow theirs. The impetus for the GE/OMD Innovation Incubator is fairly classic: looking to tap into the swell of new digital ideas, ad agency devises program to spot, train and nurture young talent that will help …
  • Independent Media Services: Horizon Media
    Not many media agency chief executives would have the self-confidence to star in a funny online video celebrating the win of an "intriguing person" award and, perfectly deadpan, introduce his "partner," Little Bill, an action figure version of himself in matching grey suit and red tie. And few would honor a photographer's request to stand on a conference room table, immaculate in formal business suit, for a shoot celebrating an Agency of the Year award. Hard to imagine any other media head doing either of those things. Irwin Gotlieb? Seriously. Laura Desmond? Surely not. But Horizon Media Founder, president and …
  • Interactive TV: BrightLine
    For years, the big question in interactive advertising has been that of scale. Can the industry deliver ads to more than just a few pockets of homes here and there? When BrightLine is in charge, the answer is clearly yes. In 2011, it created a campaign for Degree for Women that scaled across 90 million homes, representing the largest interactive ad campaign to date, running on satellite, Xbox and VOD. And since opening its doors in 2003, it has steadily become the go-to shop for innovative and wide-reaching iTV campaigns. Its specialization in iTV has helped the agency to dominate …
  • Network: SMG
    The field of communications has been high mowing in recent years: Competition for audiences' attention has never been greater - amid historically dry corporate budgets and consumer spending. Such unforgiving conditions didn't keep Starcom MediaVest Group from celebrating one of its best years ever, earning it the honor of Media Network of the Year. During 2011, SMG landed multinational clients including Microsoft, Burger King and CocaCola; introduced new innovations to leverage digital speed and hyperlocal knowledge; and employed their bold "human experience," strategy to connect clients to customers. "The heritage of SMG is to strategically lead our clients in the …
  • Client: American Express
    While plenty of marketers have one or two signature dishes they prepare really well - heartwarming TV campaigns, for example, or engaging digital display - American Express has turned itself into an online test kitchen in overdrive. At any given moment, the financial services company has more bubbling on its new-media stoves than all the chefs cooking on reality TV. "Whether you think of AmEx as a service company, a payment solutions provider, or a travel service, the company is superb at marketing," says Christina Smith, senior vice president and group director at MediaLogic, which specializes in social marketing. Among …
  • Media Person: Occupy Wall Street
    Every now and then a movement has so much viral firepower behind it that it can become personified. And in the case of Occupy Wall Street, the protest didn't just become a megastory. It became a metastory. Of course, Occupy Wall Street isn't a person. But in the way that one person can rise above the noise each year in the media business, OWS has also risen above the noise while also being the noise. By now, everyone knows how it happened. Spawned by Adbusters, an obscure journal for "culture jammers" and beloved by anarchists, the Occupy Wall Street Movement …
  • Out-of-Home: Posterscope
    Out-of-home may be the oldest medium in the world. But to Posterscope, winning MEDIA's out-of-home honors for the second year in a row, it's also the most revolutionary. In fact, discovering new ways to integrate billboards, bus-stop posters, cinema ads and a host of other out-of-home media formats into the constantly evolving digital and social media landscape is one of the most important things the agency does, says Connie Garrido, its CEO. "This is an opportunity to be a part of a larger, more consumer-centric media ecosystem," Garrido says. "Media technology is all converging and we need to look at …
  • Shopper Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi X
    If Dina Howell has one mission at Saatchi & Saatchi X, it's to help clients understand that shoppers and consumers aren't the same people, and that speaking to them effectively requires two different approaches. "When you are a shampoo consumer, you're in the shower. You're thinking about how it squeezes out of the bottle, and how it smells. Not when you are a shopper," says Howell, the agency's worldwide CEO, who joined a year ago after retiring as vice president of global media and brand operations at Procter & Gamble. "Then you're noticing different things: Is the shampoo you want …
  • Media Supplier: Meredith
    Meredith may be best known as the publisher of such long-in-the-tooth titles as Ladies' Home Journal, Family Circle and Better Homes and Gardens. But this Des Moines-based company is turning itself into a digital dynamo, re-engineering its relationship with readers and advertisers. It's made our list because of its solidified position as a leader in cross-platform content creation and marketing solutions. It has made acquisitions and investments that enable it to better serve agency partners and brands now, and it continues to make moves that will ensure those decades-old titles have a valuable place on marketing plans for the foreseeable …
  • Media Analytics: Universal McCann
    We were so impressed with Universal McCann's new media analytics technology that we created a new category and declared the Interpublic agency this year's winner. UM has found an innovative way to refine the media plan as it's playing out. Therefore, it can make adjustments accordingly and, it is hoped, reach the targeted audience more effectively. How does it work? Think about Wall Street, where stockbrokers constantly evaluate which stocks are working harder than others and moving money around to their advantage. Well, over on Madison Avenue, this media agency has produced a continuous cycle of "measure, analyze, optimize." It's …
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