Via Agency, Baldwin& Take Top Honors at Small Agency Awards

The Via Agency was named Advertising Age's Small Agency of the Year tonight at the second annual Small Agency Conference and Awards show in Denver, and Baldwin&'s "Find Your Burt" effort for Burt's Bees took home the Gold for Campaign of the Year. "The winners of these awards show year after year that great client work that moves business isn't a factor of agency size, but rather intelligent, creative and strategic thinking and strong execution -- and these winners have it in spades," said Ad Age Editor Abbey Klaassen. "Some of the best work in the industry is being done by the small-agency community and we're delighted to give these shops their well-deserved due." Judges this year had to sort not only from hundreds of entries from the U.S. and Canada, but entries from 20 other countries as well. Ultimately, 19 awards were given out for regional winners, size-category winners and for the agency with best culture. A strong showing was made by California shops, and for the first time there were ties in some categories. "It's getting harder each year to judge the contest," said Ad Age Managing Editor Ken Wheaton, who also edits the Small Agency Diary blog. "But it's also getting more exciting as we see more entrants from around the world and get to know some home-based agencies that might not have been on our radar. And while we hate to see them grow, it's really inspiring to watch some of these shops jump categories or outgrow the space -- especially in this economy." Indeed, John Coleman, CEO and founder of winning agency Via, said that 's part of the goal. "We aspire to have a culture that maintains itself through its growth," he said. "My personal aspiration is to outgrow the small agency awards in the next few years, but not at the expense of our ability to do really inspired work," he said. Baldwin& founder David Baldwin said of working on the Campaign of the Year: "As an ad person, you're a professional, the results should be the reward. But to have companies and clients you actually believe in, it's so much sweeter. ... The cool thing about Burt is that he's not a professional ad guy. He's sort of just living his life up in Maine and we just wanted to show people that . He's the soul of the whole thing." Profiles of the winning agencies will run in the Aug. 8 print edition of Advertising Age and online. Here's the complete list of winners: Small Agency of the Year Winner, Overall Gold Winner, Campaign Gold Small Agency of the Year Winner, Overall Silver Winner, Campaign Silver Winner, International Agency of the Year Winner, Small Agency of the Year Culture Winner, Gold, 1 to 10 employees Winner, Silver, 1 to 10 employees Winner, Gold, 11 to 75 employees Winner, Silver, 11 to 75 employees Winner, Gold, 75 to 100 employees Winner, Silver: 75 to 150 employees (tie) Winners: West Region (tie) Winner, Southwest region Winner, Southeast region Winner, Midwest region Winner, Northeast region

Via Agency, Baldwin& Take Top Honors at Small Agency Awards

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