Leo Digital steps into the spotlight with Ogilvy and Mindshare at the Greater China AOY

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WPP's creative and media agencies garnered the most metal, by a considerable margin, at the Greater China Agency of the Year Awards in Shanghai Tuesday night.

>> See the full list of Greater China Agency of the Year winners <<

Ogilvy and Mindshare led the way, with each capturing the regional Greater China Agency of the Year title in its respective category. The other regional award, for Greater China Digital Agency of the Year, went to Leo Digital Network.

Ogilvy's glittering haul included four golds (Creative AOY for both China and Taiwan, plus Taiwan Digital AOY and Greater China Integrated AOY) as well as three silvers (in the Hong Kong Creative, Hong Kong Digital and Greater China PR categories).

On the media side, Mindshare won two golds—taking bragging rights in China and sharing glory with co-gold winner (and GroupM stablemate) MediaCom in Hong Kong. Mindshare added a silver and a win in the people categories, while GroupM contributed a gold for Greater China Talent Development Program of the Year.

Notably, three of Ogilvy's four golds were repeats of 2018 wins, as was one of Mindshare's two golds.

Two other agencies left the gala dinner with a pair of golds:

• Shanghai's Tomorrow, which struck gold as Greater China Boutique AOY and Greater China Independent AOY.
• IPG Mediabrands' Reprise, which won the golds for Hong Kong Digital Agency of the Year and Greater China Social Media Agency of the Year.

Publicis Media agencies Zenith and Starcom won gold as well, for Taiwan Media AOY and Greater China Best Culture, respectively.

As for Omnicom agencies:

• TBWA won the gold for Hong Kong Creative AOY and added three silvers and a bronze.  
• BBDO, which won two gold awards a year ago, had to content itself with two silvers and a bronze.
• BBDO also won two awards in the people categories, including Greater China Agency Head of the Year for Tan Tze Kiat (Terence Chu of APAX Group was also named a winner in this category).
• OMD and PHD each won one silver and one bronze, a letdown from last year, when each won a gold (China Media AOY for PHD and Hong Kong Digital AOY for OMD).

Additional gold winners were:

• Accenture Interactive for Greater China Consultancy of the Year (the company also added a silver and a bronze).
• Auditoire for Greater China Experiential Marketing Agency of the Year.
• Leo Digital Network for China Digital AOY.
• McCann Health for Greater China Specialist Agency of the Year.
• MediaMonks for Greater China Production Company of the Year.
• Switching-Time for Greater China PR Agency of the Year.

KFC was named Greater China Brand of the Year, after finishing behind Uniqlo last year, and the Greater China Marketer of the Year is Amy Chen, for her work on Lay's, Doritos, Sunbites and Cheetos.

A number of lesser-known agencies had multiple occassions to cheer, including X-Line of Taiwan (a silver and a bronze), SMS Group of China (two silvers) and APAX Group of China (a bronze and the aforementioned Agency Head of the Year co-win). 

With a trio of wins, the people/team categories proved to be a bright spot for agencies under the Dentsu umbrella, which elsewhere had only a smattering of silvers and bronzes:

• Chris Chen of Isobar was named Greater China Creative Person of the Year.
• A Dentsu X Taiwan team won Greater China New Business Development Team of the Year.
• Winnie Kang of Isobar China was named Greater China Strategic/Brand Planner of the Year.