Wieden+Kennedy was the big winner at tonight’s ADC 90th Annual Awards gala in New York, taking two prestigious ADC Black Cubes for Best-in-Show in Advertising and Interactive and being selected as Agency of the Year, based on cumulative points.
W+K Amsterdam won the ADC Black Cube in Advertising for the “Write the Future” commercial for Nike (broadcast media/television commercial), while W+K Portland received the ADC Black Cube in Interactive for the Old Spice “Response” campaign (online content, branded short films/animation short). The agency won three ADC Gold Cubes for those efforts (two for Nike), as well as an ADC Hybrid Award for Old Spice.
The gala, which took place for the first time in the ballroom at the luxurious Hotel Eventi in New York, also saw presentation of the ADC 90th Annual Awards Agency, Network, Interactive Agency, Design Team and School of the Year honors, based upon most cumulative ADC Cubes won across all categories. The winners were:
• ADC Agency of the Year: Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, OR, USA
• ADC Network of the Year: Young & Rubicam (second year in a row)
• ADC Interactive Agency of the Year: BBH, New York, NY, USA
• ADC Design Team of the Year: The New York Times Magazine, New York, NY USA (second year in a row)
• ADC School of the Year: School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, USA (second year in a row)
Overall, ADC awarded work created in 24 countries. To view the complete list of all ADC 90th Annual Awards Gold, Silver, Bronze, Merit, ADC Designism, ADC Hybrid and ADC-Popcorn, Indiana Student Brief winners, please visit www.adcawards.org/winners/.
Other top winners for the night were Y&R, with 15 awards overall and three ADC Gold Cubes, including two by Y&R Chicago for “It Rarely Stops” on behalf of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and two ADC Gold Cubes each presented to @radical.media, New York (plus an ADC Hybrid Award), BBH, New York, The New York Times Magazine, New York, Masashi+Qanta+Saqoosha+Hiroki, New York and Tokyo, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA and School of Visual Arts, New York.
This year also marked the inaugural ADC Designism Award, honoring work for a nonprofit that drives social or political change. The first ADC Designism Award winners were 4th Amendment Wear, Boulder, CO, for its in-house collateral/promotional effort, and JWT, New York for the “Burma” campaign on behalf of Human Rights Watch (also an ADC Gold Cube winner in Design). The actual “Burma” installation is included in the ADC 90th Annual Awards exhibition of winning work on view at the ADC Gallery.
The evening kicked off with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at the Hotel Eventi, followed by an awards presentation using a lively and engaging format. ADC Gold and Silver Cube winners were asked in advance to create and submit their own 30-second acceptance videos in which they were given free rein to be creative in how they thanked their teams and expressed their views on the challenges of creating winning work. In lieu of having people come up on stage to accept each award, the widely varied and entertaining video acceptances were screened as each Gold and Silver Cube winner was announced.
ADC Cubes were presented by an array of top creatives, including ADC 90th Annual Awards chair Steve Simpson, chief creative officer, Ogilvy North America; ADC Advertising jury chair and club past-president Paul Lavoie, chairman, co-founder, TAXI, New York; Janet Froelich, creative director, Real Simple, ADC Hall of Fame laureate 2006; Kathy Ryan, director of photography, The New York Times Magazine and ADC Photography jury chair; Brian Collins, chairman, chief creative officer at COLLINS: and ADC board member; Doug Jaeger, partner, JaegerSloan, Inc. and ADC president; Rob Feakins, chief creative officer/president, Publicis New York and ADC board member; Deb Morrison, distinguished professor of advertising and brand development, University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications, ADC Grandmaster and Advertising juror; Wayne Best, cofounder, Cog and ADC Hybrid jury chair; Rei Inamoto, chief creative officer, AKQA and ADC board member; and Benjamin Palmer, cofounder/CEO, The Barbarian Group and ADC board member (via video).
At the conclusion of the awards gala, the celebration continued across the street from the Hotel Eventi at the official ADC 90th Annual Awards after-party at the ADC Gallery. The open-bar after-party included food by the city’s preeminent green caterer The Cleaver Company (www.cleaverco.com), signature cocktails and live DJ sets by Veronica Vasicka, founder of pioneering electronic music label Minimal Wave Records (www.minimalwave.com).
ADC gratefully acknowledges Image Source, Sappi, Mother Tongue Writers and BraveDog for their sponsorship support of the ADC 90th Annual Awards gala and after-party, and thanks partner Moleskine for providing the gala invitations.
All ADC Cube-winning work will be included in the distinguished Art Directors Annual 90, the Annual Awards Exhibition at the ADC Gallery in New York and in the subsequent global traveling exhibition. The work will be permanently highlighted in the ADC online archive, and possibly used in future ADC promotional materials.
The Art Directors Club ((www.adcglobal.org)) is the premier organization for integrated media and the first international creative collective of its kind. Founded in New York in 1920, the ADC is a self-funded, not-for-profit global membership organization serving as a hub for a broad range of creatives including creative directors, art directors, graphic designers, digital designers, environmental designers, copywriters, illustrators, photographers and others. The club’s mission is to connect creative communications professionals around the globe, and to provoke and elevate world-changing ideas. It focuses on the highest standards of excellence in communications for the industry, and encourages students and young professionals entering the field. ADC provides a forum for creatives in Advertising, Design, Interactive Media and Communications to explore the direction of these rapidly converging industries. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
