The Art Directors Club (ADC), the premier organization for integrated media and the first global creative collective of its kind, has announced the winners of the ADC 88th Annual Awards program tonight at its Awards Gala, held at the ADC Gallery in New York.
This year marked the first time ADC named an Agency, Network, Design Firm and Interactive Agency of the Year. Winners scored the most cumulative ADC Cubes across all categories for the year.
ADC Agency of the Year award goes to Saatchi & Saatchi, New York which won eight awards (four Gold, one Silver, one Bronze, two Merit) . ADC Network of the Year award was won by Leo Burnett with 12 awards (three Gold, two Silver, six Bronze, one Merit). While ADC Design Firm of the Year award went to Pentagram Design with six awards (one ADC Design Sphere, one Gold, two Bronze and two Merit) , R/GA with three awards (two Silver, one Bronze) was given ADC Interactive Agency of the Year award.
Saatchi & Saatchi, New York collected the most ADC Gold Cubes with four, followed by Ogilvy & Mather, Frankfurt and Leo Burnett, London with three each. Burger King work from Crispin Porter + Bogusky was highly awarded, collecting an ADC Hybrid Cube and a Gold Cube in Interactive for “Whopper Sacrifice” and a Gold Cube in Advertising-integrated campaign for “Whopper Virgins.”
There were no winners of the newly created ADC Black Cube for best-in-show in a category.
“A surprising development of the ADC Black Cube’s inaugural year is that none were awarded by the advertising, design or interactive juries, which reflects a rigorous judging process that does not separate the idea from execution or innovation or art direction,” said Ami Brophy, CEO, ADC. “Our newly minted ADC Black Cube was introduced to elevate the best in show by channel – the ‘goldest’ or ‘uber gold’. Now, we’ll have to wait till the ADC 89th Annual Awards to see what work captures ADC Black.”
YouTube was selected to receive the ADC Vision Award, presented by the ADC Board to a company or individual whose work embodies the ADC mission to connect in new and exciting ways, provoke the industry, address important issues and presents breakthrough ideas. Past recipients of the ADC Vision Award, established in 1954, include IBM, Volkswagen, RCA, Levi-Straus, Ford, MTV Music Television and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
All Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists and Merit winners will be included in the Art Directors Annual 88, a hardcover book to be published by RotoVision SA in November 2009.