John St. was named Agency of the Year while Kraft took home the top Marketer honour and Astral Media won Media Player of the Year at Marketing’s third annual Marque Awards in Toronto last night.
“It wasn’t easy picking any of this year’s winners,” said Christopher Loudon, publisher and editor-in-chief of Marketing. The winners were chosen from the Top 10 finalists in each category, which were announced in October. The finalists were on hand last night to receive their honours and to see which of its competitors would take the #1 spot in each category this year.
“In each case, we deliberated long and hard over a few of the finalists that had a strong case for the top award. But in the end we feel very good about putting John St., Kraft and Astral at the top of our lists for 2008,” he said.
“John St. was really close last year and kept producing on all levels this year,” added Loudon. “Kraft can claim two of the best campaigns of the year and Astral cemented its spot as true national media leader in the last 12 months.”
As in past years, the winners were chosen by Marketing’s editorial team, however, for the first time, a panel of industry advisors was called upon this year to share their thoughts and opinions on what agencies, marketers and media organizations should be considered for the honours.
“Having the advisory panel really helped, particularly to come up with our Top 10 finalists,” explained Loudon. “And working with them, our staff, who study this industry day after day, decided which organizations deserved to be crowned the best of the best in their fields this year.”
Full profiles of the three winners can be read today on MarketingMag.ca. and in the Dec. 8 issue of Marketing on streets Monday.
Click here to read the case for John St., here to see why Kraft is Marketer of the Year and here for the recap of Astral’s Media’s exceptional year.
