This year, Adweek is not only celebrating the best ad agencies in the business but also striving to help other shops understand what makes the best of the best truly stand out.
That’s why, for the first time, Adweek has a theme for its Agency of the Year awards program: Building a Better Agency. Adweek asked each finalist across all seven categories to explain how it is building a better agency for the future.
Last year, TBWA took home the title of Adweek’s Global Agency of the Year.
How we got here
Adweek invited any agency to enter (without a fee) its yearly Agency of the Year awards program by providing information about its past year and best work.
A team of Adweek editors and reporters combed through the entries and generated a list of five finalists in each category. Adweek’s internal jury deliberated over these finalists, taking into account three main factors:
- Business success (client wins and losses, revenue growth, strategy and use of technology)
- The work (a reel featuring the agency’s 10 best and most effective pieces of creative)
- Talent and ESG (creating an environment for employees to succeed through its culture and benefits, as well as advancing DEI and sustainability)
On Oct. 10, Adweek will reveal the winning agencies. Below, in alphabetical order, are the finalists for Global Agency of the Year.
Dept
Dept is scaling dramatically. In less than 10 years of existence, the agency has already crossed the half-billion mark for revenue. Already at 4,000 employees, Dept anticipates hitting 5,000 next year, working on an array of new clients, including BMW, Netflix, Constellation Brands, United Airlines, eBay, Google Store, Samsung and Diageo. The digital agency has prided itself on being at the forefront of marketing technology and has fully embraced artificial intelligence. Dept employs 400 specialists across five continents, and this unit enabled 30% of Dept’s 2022 revenue.
Dept’s work varies significantly from client to client, but its innovative use of technology is often the common throughline in the work. It’s used AI to aid the teaching of American Sign Language and helped design more visually appealing charging ports for Audi.
How it’s building a better agency: “This year, our relentless focus on clients combined with some major investments in new technologies and methodologies, brings unparalleled value to our clients, helping them move faster, automate and future-proof their growth,” said Dimi Albers, global CEO. “Culturally, our unwavering commitment has been to strive to use technology and marketing as a force for good. As a globally certified B-Corp company, we’re actively delivering work that pushes our teams and clients in that direction.”