Ogilvy has retained its top spot as the Asia-Pacific Creative Network of the Year for the third year in a row, winning the highly sought-after metal alongside the title of Asia-Pacific PR Network of the Year at Campaign's Agency of the Year awards for 2023 last night. They do however, hand over the honours for Asia-Pacific Digital Network of the Year to fellow WPP agency, Mindshare, who also took home the Asia-Pacific Media Network of the Year award for the second year in a row.
> See the full APAC / Network winners list for 2023 here <
Coming off the back of a double triple-play for two years in both 2022 and 2021, Ogilvy shared the top Network awards with Mindshare for 2023 in an equal split of two and two, with all four wins going to WPP. Network awards are the result of metals won in individual markets. In Australia / New Zealand, Ogilvy took both the Silver home this year for Creative Agency of the Year, as well as PR Agency of the Year. They also scored a hat-trick as the Greater China Creative Agency of the Year and the Greater China PR Agency of the Year for the third consecutive year, while Mindshare also shared the top honours, as the Greater China Media Agency of the Year and Greater China Digital Agency of the Year.
APAC Awards
When it came to the agency categories, a shakeup emerged from a pair of bold new challengers as M&C Saatchi won Asia-Pacific Performance Agency of the Year and VaynerMedia took home the metal for Best Culture across the region. Each take over from last year's winners: OMG Performance in Hong Kong in 2022 for Best Performance, and Grey and Dentsu for Best Culture 2022, respectively.
Meanwhile on the programmatic front, Wavemaker came out on top as the Asia-Pacific Programmatic Agency of the Year for 2023, with Publicis Media's Precision securing a commendation for the same. The two contested again in the Talent Development Programme of the year award category, with Wavermaker taking the position this year, previously won by Publicis Groupe China in 2022. IdeasXMachina took home the commendation for the same, having previously won in the category in 2021 and 2020.
Alas, there was no shortlist and therefore no wins, for the coveted Asia-Pacific Tech Agency of the Year—which has previously been won (for three years consecutively) by Malaysia's ADA.
In the People categories: Initiative's James Smyllie was named Asia-Pacific Agency Head of the Year. The win follows a busy few months for the agency's new business roster, taking on clients this year including Monde Nissin and Finnair. Another coveted metal: Growth Leader of the Year went to The Hoffman Agency's Caroline Hsu, with the award being given out again for the first time after a two-year hiatus.
Finally, and in yet another win for the night, the Creative Agency Head honours also went to Ogilvy, with Reed Collins taking home the metal; a very worthy commendation for the same going to BBDO India's Josy Paul.