Leo Burnett and OMD lead Agency of the Year APAC awards

Campaign's 2024 Asia-Pacific Agency of the Year awards have drawn the curtain on another year of exceptional creativity and impactful work across the region. While previous years saw dominance from a few key players, 2024 tilted the spotlight to a new roster of champions.

Publicis Groupe agencies dominated the 2024 AOY network categories, and its creative arm, Leo Burnett, walked away with not one but two prestigious titles—Asia-Pacific Creative Network of the Year and Asia-Pacific Digital Innovation Network of the Year—showing that creativity and digital innovation go hand in hand. 

You can go through the entire list of Asia-Pacific winners here. 

Key wins

Publicis won the APAC Creative title

Leo Burnett had a remarkable night with a double win in Creative and Digital Innovation categories. 

In the competitive PR space, Publicis’ MSL emerged as the PR Network of the Year. This accolade crowns a year of excellence in reputation management and communications, ending Ogilvy’s reign from 2022 to 2023.

MSL's Margaret Key accepts the PR network win

The other notable Asia-Pacific award of the night went to Publicis for Best Workplace Culture. The agency reclaimed the title from VaynerMedia, the 2023 winner. Philippines-based IdeasXMachina Hakuhodo was one of the most exciting success stories of the night—it won the Asia-Pacific Talent Development Programme of the Year and earned a commendation for Best Culture (Network). 

M&C Saatchi Performance maintained its momentum from 2023, solidifying its leadership in performance marketing. Performics received a commendation in programmatic for its continued success in delivering measurable results in a data-driven world. Publicis Edge claimed the Tech Agency of the Year title, a category that had no shortlist or winner in 2023. Prior to that in 2022, Malaysia's ADA had won this award for three consecutive years.

People categories

On the leadership front, Penny Sadlier of Publicis Groupe was named regional Growth Leader of the Year, while chief executive of BBDO Asia, Tan Tze Kiat, earned a commendation for Asia-Pacific Agency Head of the Year. Both leaders were celebrated for their "vision and resilience in guiding their teams through challenging times". However, the absence of shortlists for Creative Leader, Programmatic Person of the Year, and Account Person of the Year suggests opportunities for future growth and development in these categories.