Baldwin&, Mono Take Top Honors at 2012 Ad Age Small Agency Awards

Twenty-two-person ad agency Baldwin& was named Agency of the Year in Advertising Age's Small Agency Awards at the fourth-annual awards show. The show, along with the Small Agency Conference, was held in Minneapolis this year. Hometown agency Mono's "Human Doing" campaign for BlueCrossBlueShield Minnesota was named Campaign of the Year. Last year, Baldwin&, based in Raleigh, N.C., won Campaign of the Year for its "Find Your Burt" effort for Burt's Bees. New York-based Sub Rosa took home silver in the overall agency of the year category. Johannes Leonardo's "Project Re: Brief" effort for Google was awarded silver for campaign of the year. Previous overall winners include Via, in Portland, Maine; Pereira & O'Dell in San Francisco; and Rockfish Interactive, based in Rogers, Ark., which is now owned by WPP. "The creative ideas and the strategic thinking we are seeing out of the small agency community is highly impressive," said Ad Age Agency Editor Rupal Parekh, one of the judges. "The work these shops are doing is original, unexpected and above all has a huge impact on their clients' bottom lines. I'd stack up any of the shops on our list this year against big agencies in terms of quality of output. They are really leveling the playing field." This year saw an increase in entries from minority-owned shops and what are typically described as "multicultural" shops. A number of such shops took home awards based on results they're garnering not just for ethnic marketing, but for general-market marketing as well. "This is our fourth Small Agency Awards and we continue to be impressed by the quality of entries, proving that size has no bearing on the ability to offer effective marketing ideas," said Editor Abbey Klaassen. "I can confidently say that our winners exemplify creativity, entrepreneurialism and ingenuity -- there's a lot to be learned from them, no matter what your size." To learn more about these agencies, look out for the August 6 issue of Ad Age , which will feature profiles on each of the award-winners. SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR INTERNATIONAL AGENCY OF THE YEAR SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR: CULTURE SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR: 1-10 EMPLOYEES SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR: 11-75 EMPLOYEES SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR: 76-150 EMPLOYEES SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR: NORTHEAST REGION SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR: MIDWEST REGION SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR: SOUTHEAST REGION SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR: SOUTHWEST REGION SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR: WEST REGION

Baldwin&, Mono Take Top Honors at 2012 Ad Age Small Agency Awards

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