The Anomaly team accept their Grand Prix at the 2025 Strategy Awards in Toronto on Tuesday night. (Matt Forsythe)

The Strategy Awards jury has awarded two Grand Prix honours in 2025.

The Grand Prix was given to Anomaly for its work “Bud Zero King of Zero” for Labatt Breweries of Canada. As part of the campaign, the brand sent customized “King of Zero” cans to 28 goalies who have never allowed a goal by all-time NHL goalscoring leader Alex Ovechkin. The no-alcohol brand Budweiser Zero featured each goalie’s jersey number, the number of shots on them by Ovechkin and the goals conceded – 0. The custom cans featured a goalie mask and the message, “The greatest goal scorer of all time couldn’t score on you.”

The Public Service Grand Prix was given to Bensimon Byrne for its work, “My Friend, Max Hate,” done in collaboration with non-profit White Ribbon. In that work, a PSA warns young boys about the dangers of the “manosphere,” a network of negative online communities. The work follows the journey of a young boy who falls under the spell of an angry, misogynistic puppet.

The Bensimon Byrne team pick up their Public Service Grand Prix at the 2025 Strategy Awards. (Matt Forsythe)

In all, 16 Golds were presented to agencies and brands on Tuesday evening in Toronto, alongside 25 Silver and 17 Bronze.

Bensimon Byrne was the most-medaled agency of the night, with 10 Strategy Awards in total, including two Gold, five Silver and three bronze, as well as the aforementioned Public Service Grand Prix. Courage and FCB Canada each earned six trophies, rounding out the top three medal winners. Courage took home two Gold, one Silver and three Bronze. And FCB Canada won one Gold, four Silver and one Bronze.

Gold-medal winning brands included Tentree (led by Dentsu Creative); the Art Gallery of Ontario (Zulu Alpha Kilo); Bud Zero, Labatt Breweries of Canada (Anomaly); White Ribbon and Casey House (Bensimon Byrne); KFC and Skyscanner (Courage); the Coca-Cola Company and Fuze (VML); Black & Abroad (McCann); the SickKids Foundation (FCB); and TD (Leo).

Nicole Tapscott, chief commercial officer at Knix, accepts the Gold Medal Award. (Matt Forsythe)

The evening also saw long-time advertising and marketing leader Nicole Tapscott of Knix awarded the Gold Medal Award, a lifetime achievement honour that is given to an industry giant by the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA). During the show, New Establishment winners Maggie Duffy (Discover Halifax), Cédric Degallaix (Cossette) and Wassim Ghaya (OMG) were also honoured.

To see the full list of winners, plus case studies, the jury panel and more information about the program, visit the Strategy Awards website.