History appears to be made every year that Rethink enters the awards circuit, and 2024 is no exception. For the first time in AOY’s 35-year-existence, Rethink snagged its sixth-straight Agency Gold. It’s a feat that’s coupled with the shop’s first-ever quadruple win – with three Golds across the Design, Digital and PR categories.

The Golds were collected by the indie agency in Toronto on Wednesday evening in front of a packed 400-plus industry crowd. The agency’s portfolio of Gold-winning work was created for clients Molson Coors, Uber, Kraft Heinz, Knix, Scotiabank, A&W, Éditions du Boréal, Penguin Random House and the Quebec Maple Syrup Producers.

But Rethink wasn’t the only Gold winner of the night. The top medalist for the Media category was Initiative, an agency that led Gold-winning planning and buying strategies for brands Black & Abroad, Destination Canada and CBC. Meanwhile, the highest-scoring Small Agency was Angry Butterfly, who took home the honours for clients Stok’d Cannabis, the Co-operators and Dairy Farmers of Canada.

Each year, strategy tabulates the results to also recognize the Campaigns of the Year (COY) – work that received the highest combined score across each category. This year Rethink took home three of the six titles for the following campaigns: “Coors Light’s Out” for Molson Coors (in Agency); “QJar Codes” for Kraft Peanut Butter (in Digital); and “See My Name,” another campaign for Molson Coors (in PR).

As for this year’s Silver winners, they include Courage, Lg2, McCann, UM, Citizen Relations and Lifelong Crush. The Bronze medalists include Broken Heart Love Affair, Sid Lee, FCB, Media Experts, Edelman and Mackie Biernacki.

Angry Butterfly left the stage with its own Campaign of the Year in the Small Agency category, being recognized for the “Next to Stok’d” work it led for Stok’d Cannabis. Over in Media, Touche! snagged the award for its “Sans Emission” program for Volkswagen. And finally, DDB took home the Design COY for Liberation75’s “Young Again Never Again” campaign.

While the agencies were lauded for their creative, PR, design, digital and media work, five marketing organizations were each presented with a 2024 Brand of the Year trophy. Previously announced online, the brands include Kruger, Sephora, EQ Bank, the ROM and Tilley. Articles about each company and their achievements are set to be rolled out in strategy in the coming days.

Decided by jury members from both brands and agencies, strategy’s 2024 AOY winners are divided into six categories, representing a diverse crop of medalists – some familiar, some new to the top of the podium – which can be found below, in winning order. Watch this space over the next week for features and cases for each of the winners from this year’s Fall issue of strategy magazine.