The Process

As in previous years, the AOY process began with an open call to agencies to submit their top five cases of the year. From this list, the shortlist was selected based on a poll of about 50 senior agency and marketing execs from across Canada. Each person was asked which shops stood out based on the strength of their work. Points were earned based on the number of times a particular agency was selected to be on the shortlist. The agencies invited to participate are listed below. Each shortlisted agency submitted five campaigns representing work executed for five different brands over the previous 12 months.

The judges were asked to provide a creative and strategic mark for each campaign. Working in isolation, the judges gave each campaign an overall score of zero to 10 based on strategic insight and the ability to execute creatively. Judges who declared conflicts were omitted from the scoring on relevant cases and/or agencies.

The scores were then totaled and averaged, with equal weighting. The agency with the highest final score was the winner.

The Scores

Here are the judges’ averages that determined the 2010 Agency of the Year:

Creative scoresStrategic scoresOverall scores
Taxi 7.43 DDB 7.30 DDB 14.60
BBDO 7.38 Sid Lee 7.20 Taxi 14.53
DDB 7.30 Taxi 7.10 Sid Lee 14.41
Sid Lee 7.21 CP+B 7.06 BBDO 14.31
CP+B 7.17 Lg27.03 CP+B 14.23
Lg2 7.15 BBDO 6.93 Lg2 14.18
John St. 6.91 John St. 6.87 John St. 13.78
Juniper Park 6.90 Leo Burnett 6.72 Leo Burnett 13.61
Leo Burnett 6.89 Rethink 6.67 Rethink 13.52
Rethink 6.85 JWT 6.64 Juniper Park 13.49
JWT 6.59 Juniper Park 6.59 JWT 13.23
TBWA\Toronto 6.58 Lowe Roche 6.33 Lowe Roche 12.90
Lowe Roche 6.57 TBWA\Toronto 6.26 TBWA\Toronto 12.84
Cossette 6.36 Cossette 5.96 Cossette 12.32