Also in this special report:
* Palmer Jarvis leads the pack p.37
* Breakdown: Clients p.38
* Breakdown: Advertising Agencies p.38
* Breakdown: Creative Directors p.38
* Breakdown: Copywriters p.39
* Breakdown: Art Directors p.39
* Breakdown: Television p.40
* Breakdown: Magazine p.40
* Breakdown: Newspaper p.42
* Breakdown: Transit p.42
* Breakdown: Outdoor p.43
* Breakdown: Direct Marketing p.43
* Breakdown: Radio p.43
Chris Staples. Alan Russell. Ian Grais.
If you grew tired of hearing these names at industry awards shows in the past year … well, sorry, but here they are again.
As the architects of two of the past year’s most celebrated advertising campaigns – on behalf of Crime Stoppers and Vancouver’s Playland amusement park – this trio brought home a truckload of prizes for themselves and their agency, Palmer Jarvis Communications, in 1997.
And their success has, in turn, secured first-place honors for Palmer Jarvis (to be renamed Palmer Jarvis DDB by Jan. 9 if a planned merger with DDB Canada is approved by all parties) in Strategy’s annual Creative Report Card – further confirmation, if any should still be needed, that this Vancouver-based agency is currently one of the two or three most formidable creative shops in the country.
The Creative Report Card charts the results of the major Canadian advertising awards programs held in 1997, to provide a snapshot of Canada’s most celebrated agencies, clients and creative talent.
Staples took first-place honors in the creative director category, by a wide margin over the closest finisher, Steven Landsberg of Ogilvy & Mather.
Top copywriter honors went to Russell, while Grais finished first in the art director category.
Among clients, Timex Canada earned the greatest number of points, on the strength of Ogilvy & Mather’s much-lauded Olympic-themed campaign for Indiglo Night-Light watches. Federal Express Canada finished in second place, thanks to bbdo’s work for them in print and outdoor, while Playland took third.
bbdo took second place in the agency category, followed by Ogilvy & Mather. Roche Macaulay & Partners Advertising, the winner of Strategy’s 1997 Agency of the Year competition, finished fourth.
The Creative Report Card is undertaken separately from the Agency of the Year. In that exercise, Strategy asks a panel of clients and advertising professionals to evaluate work from a shortlist of agencies (see second section).
While the Agency of the Year competition evaluates current work, the Creative Report Card tends to reflect the performance of agencies during the previous year, since there is generally about a year’s delay between the time advertising creative is developed and the time it makes it to the awards circuit.
The Creative Report Card, therefore, largely reflects an agency’s work in 1996.
It should be noted that this ranking does not purport to reveal the names of the ‘best’ creative directors, art directors or copywriters – or that a low number of points means that one is among the ‘worst.’ Such judgments are purely subjective, and Strategy would never claim to possess the authority to make a definitive determination.
Rather, the Creative Report Card serves as a comprehensive record of whose work the industry has honored most highly in the course of the previous year.
Strategy has developed a grading system that provides a cumulative measure of the hundreds of individual advertising awards presented in the past year.
Here’s how the system works:
Strategy assigns a point value to each gold, silver, bronze and certificate of merit (or the equivalents), weighted according to the relative importance of each awards program, as judged by Strategy’s editorial staff.
National awards programs are accorded greater weight than regional shows.
In the same way, awards shows that honor a cross-section of media are accorded greater weight than those that look at only a single medium.
By adding up the points accorded to each award-winning piece of advertising, Strategy is in turn able to assign points to each agency, client, creative director, art director and copywriter whose work is honored.
The Creative Report Card uses, as its foundation, the results of the major national and regional advertising awards programs that recognize excellence in consumer advertising. These are:
* The Advertising and Design Club of Canada awards (all media), presented by the Advertising and Design Club of Canada.
* The Applied Arts awards (all media), presented by Applied Arts magazine.
* The Ad Rodeo awards (all media), presented by an independent advertising industry committee based in Calgary, Alta.
* The Bessies (tv), presented by the Television Bureau of Canada.
* Les Coqs d’Or (all media), presented by the Publicite Club de Montreal.
* The Extras (newspaper), presented by the Canadian Newspaper Association.
* The Marketing awards (all media), presented by Marketing Magazine.
* The Radio Impact awards (radio), presented by the Radio Marketing Bureau.
* The rsvp awards (direct response), presented by the Canadian Direct Marketing Association.
(The Billi awards, which honor excellence in outdoor advertising, have been postponed until early in the new year. The 1997 Lotus awards, the b.c. advertising industry’s annual celebration, were held too late this year to be included in our ranking. We hope to have both back in next year.)
As a group, these awards shows recognize excellence in seven media categories: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, outdoor, transit and direct response marketing.
The Creative Report Card begins with overall listings of advertising agencies, clients, creative directors, art directors and copywriters.
Within the seven media categories, results are broken out by agency, client, creative director, art director (with the obvious exception of radio) and copywriter.
A summary of the top performers in each category appears on the first page of this report.
As usual, since the various awards were announced, a number of creatives have changed agencies. (Can’t you people all just stay put?) To be consistent, they are listed with the agency for which they won the award. In categories where an individual won awards for more than one agency, each agency is listed.
Awards programs and annuals were our reference for all credits.
Due to limited editorial space, listings below 10 points have not necessarily been included.
AGENCIES
Palmer Jarvis 63
Ogilvy & Mather 46
Roche Macaulay & Partners 19
Ammirati Puris Lintas 15
Cossette Communication-Marketing 9
Highwood Communications 8
Bensimon Byrne/DMB&B 5
TBWA Chiat/Day 4
Harrod & Mirlin 3
Leo Burnett 3
Corrida 2
CLIENTS
Playland 40
Libraries of Metropolitan Toronto 26
Crime Stoppers 24
Labatt Breweries 15
CFRB Radio 12
The Resume Place 11
Depressive and Manic Depressive Association of Ontario 9
Duracell Canada 9
The Toronto Rape Crisis Centre 5
Calgary Stampede 4
Metro Toronto Zoo 4
S.O.S 4
The Calgary Stampede 4
Corby Distilleries 3
Nature’s Solutions 3
Procter & Gamble 3
Ville de Montreal 2
CREATIVE DIRECTORS
Chris Staples
Palmer Jarvis 63
Ian Grais
Palmer Jarvis 50
Steven Landsberg
Ogilvy & Mather 46
Geoffrey Roche
Roche Macaulay & Partners 16
Doug Robinson
Ammirati Puris Lintas 15
Jack Neary
Cossette Communication-Marketing 9
Jeff Lennard
Highwood Communications 8
Steve Williams
Highwood Communications 8
Brett Channer
Bensimon Byrne/DMB&B 5
Dave Crichton
Roche Macaulay & Partners 4
Duncan Bruce
TBWA Chiat/Day 4
Graham Lee
Roche Macaulay & Partners 4
Brian Harrod
Harrod & Mirlin 3
James Lee
Roche Macaulay & Partners 3
Jeff Finkler
Leo Burnett 3
Gerald Coulombe
Corrida 2
ART DIRECTORS
Ian Grais
Palmer Jarvis 63
Michael Kirkland
Ogilvy & Mather 26
Marissa Mastenbroek
Ogilvy & Mather 20
Linda Carte
Roche Macaulay & Partners 15
Robert Goulart
Ammirati Puris Lintas 15
Todd Mackie
Cossette Communication-Marketing 9
Jeff Lennard
Highwood Communications 8
Armando Lulu
Bensimon Byrne/DMB&B 5
Gary Holme
TBWA Chiat/Day 4
Steve Mapp
Roche Macaulay & Partners 4
Cher Campbell
Harrod & Mirlin 3
Darcy Parke
Highwood Communications 3
Elspeth Lynn
Leo Burnett 3
Scott Dube
Ogilvy & Mather 3
Nicholas Dube
Corrida 2
COPYWRITERS
Alan Russell
Palmer Jarvis 63
Ron Thomson
Ogilvy & Mather 37
James Lee
Roche Macaulay & Partners 19
Andrew Manson
Ammirati Puris Lintas 15
Brian Smith
Ogilvy & Mather 9
Dennis Forbes
Ogilvy & Mather 9
Randy Stein
Cossette Communication-Marketing 9
Steve Williams
Highwood Communications 8
Brent Choi
Bensimon Byrne/DMB&B 5
Aubrey Singer
TBWA Chiat/Day 4
Michael O’Reilly
Roche Macaulay & Partners 4
Jonathan Weiss
Harrod & Mirlin 3
Lorraine Tao
Leo Burnett 3
Trent Burton
Ogilvy & Mather 3
Gerald Coulombe
Corrida 2
