• by Dacia Ray , August 4, 2004

Agency execs filtered past human MSN butterflies fluttering on plush carpeting Tuesday at MSN's second annual Emmessenny Awards at New York City's Crobar. The Web network doled out large cash prizes and beauty pageant-themed accessories to agency teams that had submitted online ads to MSN.com over the past year.

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners took the Best in Show prize of $25,000--and a tiara--for its Hewlett-Packard "Capture the World" campaign. This new category was added this year in honor of Goodby, since judges felt the ad team had conveyed their message in all three additional categories of branding, direct response, and rich media.

First-prize winners were Carat Interactive for adidas, OgilvyOne for Famvir, and Grey Interactive for Liz Claiborne. Each received a check for $10,000. Second-place winners--including Digitas Boston for Pontiac GTO and MarketSource for Johnson & Johnson--took home $5,000. Media 8's U.S. Army campaign and Beyond Interactive's Warner Bros. Starsky & Hutch campaign tied for second place. All received trophies and posed for pictures with the MSN butterflies.

Close to 300 online campaigns were submitted to the competition--almost double the number submitted last year, according to MSN. Top-tier agencies representing big-name clients comprised a majority of the increase in submissions this year, which pleased MSN. Winning campaigns were displayed on several flat-screen TVs as Joanne Bradford, chief media revenue officer of MSN.com, played host for the ceremonies.

"The biggest names are bringing their advertising online and developing some incredible campaigns that maximize the online benefits like interactivity and targeted reach," said Eric Hadley, director of advertising and marketing for MSN. "In all categories, our winners illustrate how solid online advertising can resonate with intended audiences and enable companies to meet business objectives via the Internet."

The competition was designed to promote online advertising and stretch the thinking of traditional marketers, and to recognize creativity in online advertising that appears on MSN.com throughout the entire year.