BBDO Pakistan has yet again bagged Pakistan’s ‘Agency of the Year 2016’ award at the Campaign Asia-Pacific Awards 2016.

The agency won gold for the second consecutive year in the ‘Creative Agency of the Year 2016’ category for the South Asia region out of the four shortlisted from Pakistan including Ogilvy & Mather, Prestige Grey and Spectrum Y&R at the South Asia Agency of the Year Award Show held on November 30 in Mumbai.

Ogilvy & Mather won the silver while Spectrum Y&R went away with a bronze.

Since 1994, the Campaign Asia-Pacific ‘Agency of the Year Awards’ are held annually to recognise leadership, management excellence in advertising in local markets through five separate regional competitions held in Australia/New Zealand, Greater China, Japan/Korea, South Asia and South-East Asia.

The awards, open to all media, advertising, creative, digital, PR, independent and specialist agencies from countries in the Asia-Pacific region (including Australia and New Zealand) is given for the overall performance in the year and the scores are calculated through various award wins, business results, staff growth and contribution to the industry.

BBDO Pakistan won the same award last year as well and has been named as one of the Top 20 Most Awarded Agencies in Asia for 2016 by Campaign Brief Asia. The agency also won the Grand Prix and Effectiveness Awards at Dubai Lynx, Grand Prix at Tambuli Awards and Grand Prix at MENA Digital Awards. “The award is recognition that BBDO continues to produce award-winning work and build great relationship with our client partners,” said Ali Rez, Regional Creative Director, Middle East and Pakistan, Impact BBDO.

“Our goal is to continue creating great work that receives international recognition and raise the standard of advertising in the country, while enabling great business results for our clients,” he added.

Meanwhile the bronze-winner; Spectrum Y&R, though has not won a gold yet, it is the only agency to have won four awards in a row; a total of two silver and two bronze at the Campaign Asia awards. Zohra Yusuf, Creative Director, Spectrum Y&R said awards; especially globally-prestigious ones such as Campaign Asia’s were satisfying since an agency’s creativity and professionalism is recognised by an international and independent jury. “It certainly attracts attention. Clients invite you to pitches and above all, they inspire and motivate the team,” she said.

Spectrum Y&R, in collaboration with Y&R Singapore, earlier this year, started an innovative effort: ‘Kites of Hope’ to raise awareness about missing children and won a bronze at the Spikes Asia under the Small Special Solutions category. The agency also won the US-based 46th Creativity International Print and Packaging Design Award for its outstanding packaging for the LU Bakeri range (Continental Biscuits).

Yusuf said it was hard to say why the agency did not win the gold since she hadn’t seen other entries, but added that it was a challenge and the agency needed to plan ahead. “We need more innovation and overall excellence in performance,” she said, adding that in Pakistan, adapting to new media, providing creative and cost-effective solutions along with finding good talent remains a major challenge.

In the ‘Pakistan Media Agency of the Year’ category, PHD Pakistan won gold (again, for the second time) and OMD earned a silver at the award ceremony.