• Viral Video: Definition 6
    Viral video ads' importance to brands now and in the years ahead is nearly impossible to overstate - and Atlanta-headquartered Definition 6 has firmly established itself in the top ranks of the medium's pioneers. Definition 6's recent coups include its latest work for HBO: an "Immortalize Yourself" app created for the summer 2011 launch of True Blood's fourth season. The app enabled True Blood fans who liked the show's Facebook page to insert themselves and their friends, via an auto-populating function, into a mini-episode featuring the cast of the show, which was shot specifically for this app.
  • Gold: Digitas
    When a champ is defending his title, he needs to keep pace with the challengers and adapt to various fighting styles, always staying a step ahead. Digitas, a global agency whose regional offices have more people than most agencies have in their entirety, is surprisingly fleet of foot for a heavyweight, and has stayed in front in 2011 by correctly anticipating the next move. To this end, the agency's new Mobile Labs, which have been in the works for about a year and a half and are now coming to fruition, have positioned Digitas for the next generation of mobile …
  • Holding Company: GroupM
    OMMA hasn't usually named an Agency of the Year in the holding company category, but for GroupM, which pushed the definition of industry leadership to new levels, we felt compelled to make an exception. That's because GroupM went to Washington to take on the privacy debate, which affects just about every company operating online these days. Privacy is one of the most complex but also one of the most important issues in the digital advertising business, and as such warrants a high degree of insight and attention. This past year the holding company worked with industry groups like the 4A's …
  • Interactive: Digitaria
    There's no arguing that Digitaria has delivered impressive results for clients such as Under Armour and Qualcomm. But the interactive agency has also delivered knock-out results for charity using innovative technologies that have defined them as a digital leader. Their most recent innovation is the the lra Crisis Tracker, a real-time mapping technology developed for the nonprofit Invisible Children that debuted this fall. The tracker is an early warning system following Uganda's rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army, as they move through Africa. That's all in a day's work for Digitaria, but the effort epitomizes what they've done well - …
  • Silver: AKQA
    Even a few years ago, AKQA, while highly respected for its creativity and work, was still seen as digital boutique. That word no longer applies. akqa now has seven offices around the globe and over 1,000 employees. "We're still focused on our digital skill set," says CEO Tom Bedecarr, "but clients come to us and see that we have a good understanding of strategy. We have a good team from creative to technology to client services. And media has become a more important ingredient." In fact, Bedecarr pegs the growth of the agency's media business at 60 percent in the …
  • Mobile: R/GA
    This year - considering the still-nascent state of mobile marketing - we had to ask exactly what it meant to be the best mobile agency, and R/GA gave us the answer...: "Creative excellence in the work; innovation in the work; and diversity in the work," says Richard Ting, senior vice president and executive creative director of mobile and social platforms at R/GA - OMMA's mobile agency of the year for 2011. "In my mind, being the best mobile agency means delivering on these three criteria." There's also the matter of preparation as Interpublic's prized unit began engaging in the mobile …
  • Best Media Planning: MediaVest
    While there's no shortage of data on consumer behavior, breakthroughs in media planning can only happen when strategists "distill what is really meaningful and powerful," says Bill Tucker, MediaVest's CEO. At MediaVest, which takes Agency of the Year honors especially for its strategic and innovative approach to cross-platform campaigns, Tucker says that alchemy requires "a special ability to understand human beings and to gain insight on what is most relevant to them at a certain point in time." MediaVest asks, "What is the relationship with the brand to consumers and how does the brand enable consumers to get where he …
  • Best Search: Covario Inc.
    2011 was a breakout year for Covario Inc. Founded in 2006, the San Diego search agency's growth dramatically accelerated in 2011 due to advancements in its agency services and analytical technologies across paid search, seo search, social media and offline advertising. Covario also significantly expanded its services team in London, Singapore and Beijing to better support client programs worldwide.
  • Political: SS+K
    After the fanfare from the 2008 grand slam for Democrats across the country, in no small part due to SS+K's involvement in Obama's youth campaign, the Democratic National Committee enlisted ss+k to revamp its image. It wanted a timely message that reflected the young Democrats that emerged from the newly Obamanized America. What SS+K did was use consumer marketing knowledge to bring a decades old brand into the 21st century. SS+K's roots are purely political. In 1993 partners Rob Shepardson, Lenny Stern and Mark Kaminsky found themselves working at the Sawyer Miller Group - a political consultancy about to be …
  • Creative: Deutsch
    If the well-established, full-service advertising agency Deutsch proved anything this year, it's that creative digital content isn't solely the province of upstart digital-only shops. In fact, Deutsch, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles (each with its own roster of clients), is behind some of the most innovative digital work currently out there. To wit: Deutsch New York produced a Windows Azure iAd for Wired's iPad magazine that allowed programmers to not only see but tinker with the iAd's code; hooked teens on a gesture-based, Green Lantern-inspired online augmented-reality challenge for MilkPEP; and scored interest in DIRECTTV's NFL …
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