Accenture Song and UM stand out in Japan/Korea AOY Awards

In the 2022 Agency of the Year Awards for Japan and Korea, Beacon Communications won a Gold for Japan Creative Agency of the Year. The agency also won a second Gold for Japan/Korea Integrated Marketing Agency of the Year. Meanwhile, TBWA takes Gold for Korea Creative Agency of the Year and another for Japan/Korea Best Culture. But overall, UM and Accenture Song have the most to celebrate.

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< See Japan/Korea's full winners list >

Both agencies have won a total of three Gold awards.

• UM retains two Golds that it won last year: Japan Media Agency of the Year and Korea Media Agency of the Year, but also picks up a third Gold this year for Korea Digital Agency of the Year that last year was awarded to Cheil Worldwide.
• Accenture Song wins Gold in two categories for the fourth straight year: Japan Digital Agency of the Year and Japan/Korea Consultancy of the year. It also picks up Gold in the Japan/Korea Integrated Marketing Agency of the Year.

Accenture song also has four winners in the people-related categories (see below).

Last year's most dominant network overall, Cheil, wins two Golds this year, down from four last year (Japan/Korea Brand Experience Agency of the Year / Japan/Korea Content Marketing Agency of the Year) and takes Silver for Korea Creative Agency of the Year. But Cheil failed to win in the people categories this year.

In PR Agency of the Year categories, the jury gave no Gold award for Japan or Korea, instead Material won Silver for Japan PR agency of the Year and KPR & Associates won Silver for Korea.

Other Gold winners:

• UltraSuperNew wins Gold for second year in a row for Japan/Korea Independent Agency of the Year.
• TBWA\HAKUHODO for Japan/Korea Best Culture.
• McCann Health for Japan/Korea Specialist Agency of the Year—which it has won every year since 2018.

UltraSuperNew

People awards

In the individual and team categories, Accenture Song has four winners (and also picked up a commendation), while TBWA Hakuhodo celebrates three and Droga5 takes one award.

The Japan/Korea Agency Head of the Year is Junichiro Kurokawa of Accenture Song; the Japan/Korea Account Person of the Year is TBWA Hakuhodo's Shun Ozawa; and the Japan/Korea Creative Person of the Year is Droga5's Motonori Sugiyama.

Junichiro Kurokawa, Accenture Song

Accenture Song's other wins are for Japan/Korea Channel/Engagement Planner of the Year (Yusuke Tanada), Japan/Korea New Business Development Team of the Year (Industry Team), and Japan/Korea Young Business Leader of the Year (Rina Sato). The jury also gave Accenture Song's Yasuko Takeda a commendation in the Japan/Korea Strategic/Brand Planner of the Year category.

TBWA Hakuhodo's other two winners are Emi Fujita for Japan/Korea Strategic/Brand Planner of the Year, and Misa Masuda for Japan/Korea Young Achiever of the Year.