Agency of the Year winners' words: Advice for new entrants

The deadline for 2017 Agency of the Year entries is 29 September. Please visit aoyawards.com for complete information and entry kit.

We asked some of last year's winners...

What was your strategy for preparing your entry?

Ronald Barreiro
Managing partner and general manager     
Dentsu Jayme Syfu
2016 Philippines Creative Agency of the Year - Gold

An honest to goodness story of your agency’s journey is a good starting point. At the end of the day though, no matter how beautiful your story is, it all boils down to achieving or exceeding your desired results.

Anish Daryani
CEO
Phibious Group
2016 Indonesia Independent Agency of the Year - Gold

Make your strategy to enter the awards in the beginning of the year, not when the nominations open in September. It will give you a perspective on what aspects of the business you should focus on. Spend the rest of the year working towards your objectives, and the days before the entry deadline, focus on talking about the results.  

Anna Chua-Norbert
Talent director
DDB Group Philippines
2016 Southeast Asia Talent Management Person/Team of the Year - Gold

FOLLOW THE RULES. They are there to make the judges lives easier. Read the instructions. You don’t want to get disqualified for not following simple format directions. Tell the story from your heart but always have results to back it up. Preferably in summarized charts that are easy to read. Once you hit the submit button, pray! 

Casey Loh
Executive creative director
GOVT Kuala Lumpur (now The Clan)
2016 Malaysia Independent Agency of the Year - Gold

Be honest and be ready to put lots of hours into this. It's not an easy task running an agency, meeting the day-to-day tasks head on and ensuring that the entry is up to scratch. If the work suffers and clients don't get their due time, then I'd suggest re-looking into priorities before anything. Most importantly, be ready for rejection but walk away knowing that the self-reflection exercise was all worth it. 

Amir Hamzah
Associate planning director
Havas Media Indonesia
2016 Southeast Asia Channel/Engagement Planner of the Year - Gold

Believe. You need to believe in your work. If you believe what you have done is truly meaningful to your client’s business and for your team, writing the entries should be easy. Winning the award is something else, but if you believe that you have really done a great job that is already half the battle.