FOCUS: AGENCY OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2000 - Who the finalists were, and why they lost out

Ogilvy & Mather, Agency of the Year for two years in a row in 1998

and 1999, Leo Burnett Bates and BBDO were all just pipped at the post by

Saatchi & Saatchi for the top accolade this year.

All the agencies racked up major account wins, created truly impressive

campaigns and turned in a respectable performance at awards shows around

the region, however, all lacked that extra little something that made

the difference.

The race was so close that for the first time, MEDIA asked all the major

agencies for submissions to argue their case as to why they should win

the Agency of the Year award.

Some agencies were honest and declined the invitation, saying they were

still in the midst of reorganising and restructuring.

For the majority of the others though, they went in with guns

blazing.

But as the smoke dissipated, there were only a few left standing.

The losing finalists were on a par with Saatchis when it came to big

account wins and the creation of some memorable campaigns. However, they

could not match Saatchis' record of taking 'Best of Show' at some of the

top awards shows around the region, including MEDIA'S Asian Advertising

Awards 1999.

- O&M Asia-Pacific won the most awards for the region in Cannes this

year, along with major successes in the One Show and The Clios. Its new

wins included Motorola, Japan Telcom and Rolex, translating into a

growth rate of at least 30 per cent on 1999. This is on top of the fact

that it has been aggressively expanding its interactive capabilities to

ensure the fullest potential of the Internet can be offered to its

clients.

- Leo Burnett won such accounts as Wrigley (China), Prudential

(Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, China and Indonesia) Chung Hwa Telecom

(Taiwan) and Shinsei Bank (Japan), resulting in a revenue growth of

almost 20 per cent.

The agency also bagged large numbers of awards at shows in

Asia-Pacific.

Its creative high point came in Malaysia, where it took the Golden

Kancil for client Petronas.

- Bates has picked up Singapore Airlines e-booking account, President

Milk and the huge NCIC account in Taiwan. Impressive ads, e.g for Nokia

and Heineken, also counted.

- BBDO pulled in 32 awards at MEDIA's Asian Advertising Awards and the

AdFest. Its list of new wins were impressive: Visa Asia-Pacific, Maxis

Telecom in Malaysia, Singapore Tourism Board, and New Zealand Milk and

Pizza Hut in the Philippines.