• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, March 23, 2015

The 4As today revealed the winners of its first-ever 4A’s Partner Awards. The Partner Awards recognize and celebrate creativity and collaboration among agencies, brands, media and technology companies. The Awards were presented today at a ceremony during the 4A’s Transformation Conference held in Austin, Texas. Creativity and Collaboration are the themes of this year’s conference.

The awards, underwritten by MediaLink, were selected in the following six categories:

Brand Partnership:

Large Agency

TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles,

“What's in the Box?”

Partners: Nissan, OMD, Amazon.com

Creative Partnership:

Large Agency

72andSunny

“Meet Me at Starbucks”

Partners: Co.MISSION Content Group, Ideas United,

m ss ng p eces, Starbucks Coffee Company, Stopp/Family

Mid-Sized Agency

theAudience

“Spent: Looking for Change”

Partners: American Express, Tag

Media Partnership:

Large Agency

DigitasLBi/New York         

“MOTO X Print”

Partners: Motorola, Razorfish, WIRED

Technology Partnership:

Large Agency

VML

“Rip Curl Search GPS”

Partner: Rip Curl

Small Agency

Firstborn

“Dew VR Skate Experience”

Partners: Mountain Dew, Brain Farm, Antfood, Immersive Media

Diversity Partnership:

Large Agency

72andSunny

“Made with Code: Holiday Lights”

Partners: Google, Nexus, National Park Foundation

Cause Partnership:

Large Agency

BBDO

“American Red Cross Hope.ly”

Partners: American Red Cross, Bitly

Mid-Sized Agency

Spark

“A Hero's Welcome”

Partners: ConAgra Foods, DDB San Francisco, Tris3ct, POSSIBLE,

Edelman, Scripps

Small Agency

Mekanism

“It's On Us: Partnership to End Sexual Assault”

Partners: The White House, Generation Progress, PVBLIC Foundation

In addition to category winners, there were two special jury-nominated awards:

Most Innovative Partnership

72andSunny

“Made with Code: Holiday Lights”

Partners: Google, Nexus, National Park Foundation

Partnership of the Year

TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles

“What's in the Box?”

Partners: Nissan, OMD, Amazon.com

Jury Chair Chuck Porter, Co-Founder and Chairman of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, said: “TBWA’s ‘What's in the Box?’ idea was pretty brilliant. It generated huge buzz, and the payoff wasn’t just a gag, it was a true demonstration of real news — for the first time ever people can buy a car on Amazon. It was just a great way to dramatize a new service. 72andSunny’s ‘Made with Code: Holiday Lights’ was fresh and contemporary and engaging. It was a really smart strategy, executed beautifully. Everyone loved it.”

4A’s Chief Marketing Officer, Alison Fahey, who spearheaded the creation and execution of the award, noted that all of this year’s winners demonstrated how great partnerships can elevate creativity to new levels. “There are unique challenges that occur when individuals and companies with different personalities and cultures collaborate to achieve a common goal on behalf of a client,” she said. “We’re saluting those who put their egos aside for the greater good of creating the most meaningful work. The jury did a fantastic job of choosing the best creative collaborations in the business.”

Fahey also cited that entries were up significantly from last year’s O’Toole Awards, which were replaced by the Partner Awards.

The jury for the 4A's Partner Awards featured creative, digital, media and PR agency leaders as well as marketers and technology executives.