• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 17, 2008

For the sixth time in the six years Media magazine has been selecting an agency of the year, we have chosen all or some part of Starcom MediaVest Group. This year, we picked MediaVest, but I must confess that the decision was especially tough, because the next strongest contender was also so good. That contender was Starcom.

So now that I've once again demoralized - and likely alienated - every other leading media agency that we cover, I need to remind you of our criteria and why MediaVest nailed it so well. And why SMG, as an organization, has consistently done so over the past six years. Those who've read this obligatory letter in past years already know how truly awkward and painful it has been for me to write it. And this year is no different. We've gotten heaps of pressure from the industry, and even internally, criticizing our perennial SMG selections.

And all I can do is give the same standard disclaimer that we have no personal preference for Starcom or MediaVest. There is no cozy relationship. If anything, the pressure was double this year for us to weigh against them. MediaVest simply did the best job of any agency of demonstrating how it delivered on the criteria we ask each nominee to prove to us: strategic vision, innovation and industry leadership. Starcom was pretty close. All the other shops made good cases, but they weren't even close.

I'm sorry. We're not doing this to win friends and influence people. We are doing this because we established a high bar, and we're not going to back off that standard just to make people happy. There are plenty of good agencies in the business who are doing a great job based on other criteria - winning new business, growing their billings base, buying media cheaper or more efficiently. What we have always sought, are examples of how agencies are transforming the business of media in ways that the rest of the industry will follow. For six years, SMG has simply done that better than anyone else.

Over the years, we've added more categories, and for the first time, another organization has taken top honors for two consecutive years. San Francisco-based Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, our Media Department of the Year in 2007, has won again - even though the GS&P team tells us they no longer have a media department. And if that categorization defies logic, consider this: We picked a Media Boutique of the Year - Michaelides & Bednash - that is no longer a boutique, but now an integral part of a soon-to-be overhauled Mindshare.

And neither of the two organizations that tied for Holding Company of the Year would call themselves a "holding company." We use that term to describe the organization responsible for overseeing media services within a big agency holding company, but this year's winners, WPP's GroupM and Publicis' VivaKi, both think they're something else. In fact, the VivaKi team suggested a whole new categorization to define it: "Media Accelerator of the Year."

Perhaps the only category that won't generate any controversy, and certainly is unlikely to win again is our Media Client of the Year: Barack Obama.