FOCUS: AGENCY OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2000 - Saatchis finally beats out competition for top title - Agency of the Year 2000: The Winner

After coming close for three years in a row, Saatchi & Saatchi has finally been named Agency of the Year. The agency beat out strong competition from Ogilvy & Mather, Leo Burnett, Bates and BBDO through a combination of major account wins and strong, accountable creative work across the region. In addition, it has continued to consistently win 'Best of Show' at the big award shows in Asia-Pacific, including MEDIA's annual Asian Advertising Awards, even without its creative light David Droga, who left last year for Saatchis London. Some of the major accounts Saatchis picked up this year included Hutchison-Priceline (regional), DBS Bank (regional), PLDT (the Philippines) and NetEase (China). Some might argue that the agency's loss of the regional Visa account - variously estimated at being worth between USdollars 20 million and USdollars 50 million depending on whom you talk to - would have disqualified it as a contender for the Agency of the Year crown. However, because of a dispute over whether Australia should be included in the pitch (MEDIA, September 1) resulted in the agency virtually resigning the account. But that's not meant at taking anything away from BBDO, the eventual winner of the Visa pitch. BBDO, which has been upping the regional creative stakes out of the Philippines for much of the year, was still the dark horse, although it looks poised to be accumulating the critical mass of work needed to make people sit up and pay attention in 2001. Accounts - big or small - aside, Saatchis was one of only a handful of agencies which was able to not only say it was an ideas-driven agency, but to actually show and demonstrate it in an accountable fashion. Part of the success here has been in the overall leadership, but mainly it has been because the leadership has succeeded in telling those below them that what counts is great creative that works and which are seen to work. The following are some of Saatchis accounts and what its campaigns delivered to the client, all backed by independent research: - NetEase (China) - brand awareness tripled, registered users rose 57 per cent, and it is now the top Internet portal in China, up from its pre-campaign ranking of No.3; - Vitasoy (Hong Kong) - top of mind awareness grew from 85 per cent to 90 per cent, while advertising awareness jumped from 19 per cent to 40 per cent; - DBS Bank (Singapore) - one year sales target achieved in only three months; - Far East Tone (Taiwan) - number of customers downloading service and e-coupons soared by around 10 times to 56,000 and 35,000 a day respectively; - Head & Shoulders (Thailand) - sales of the shampoo are up by more than 50 per cent; - Fosters (Vietnam) - top of mind awareness of the beer brand went from zero to 38 per cent. Finally, Saatchis is deemed to be the best among its peers. The agency has done well at award shows around the region for many years, and 2000 was no exception. It won 'Best of the Best' at MEDIA's Asian Advertising Awards, the Hong Kong 4As Kam Fan for the second year in a row and the Golden Gong in Singapore for the third successive year. In the Philippines, it won the 4As Agency of the Year title, which was on top of its first place finish at the Creative Guild awards. All in all, a hard act to follow. However, it wasn't just one or two things which landed Saatchis the prize of Asia-Pacific Agency of the Year. It was all about making great, effective and unique advertising for clients, being accountable, winning new accounts and maintaining existing ones. WINNERS AT A GLANCE AGENCY OF THE YEAR Saatchi & Saatchi MEDIA AGENCY OF THE YEAR CIA Medianetwork ADVERTISER OF THE YEAR Bayer Philippines BEST USE OF MEDIA Optimum Media Direction for Sunday/Saltimbanco MTR Journey MEDIA PERSON OF THE YEAR Ms Sharon Soh, CIA Medianetwork Singapore AGENCY PERSON OF THE YEAR Joint winners: Mr Jeffrey Yu, president Bates Asia and chairman HK4As Mr Barry Owen, head of creative, Ogilvy & Mather Asia-Pacific SUIT OF THE YEAR Mr Jeff Ho, Leo Burnett Hong Kong ASIAN CREATIVE AD OF THE YEAR The Sunday campaigns Client: Sunday Telecommunications Agency: BBDO Hong Kong CHINA AD CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR Unicef, Saatchi & Saatchi China NEW LEAF AWARD DDB Singapore YOUTH MARKETING AWARD Leo Burnett Singapore

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