TBWA Creatives Named As Creatives Of The Year

TBWA Creatives Named As Creatives Of The Year By Media

Auckland, New Zealand: Monday, 15 December 2008 - At the 2008 Agency of the Year Awards last week, MEDIA magazine named Andy Blood and John Merrifield as joint winners of the Creative of the Year title. This is the first time in the history of the awards two creatives have been jointly honoured.

Andy Blood, Group Executive Creative Director of TBWA\WHYBIN\Tequila in New Zealand was recognised for his role in the agency's fourth year of groundbreaking work for a mixture of both big and boutique clients such as adidas, ASB Bank, Mercury Energy and Flossie.com, two of which went on to win the coveted Grand Prix at Cannes in 2007 in both the Promotions and Media categories. Andy was also Media's Creative of the Year Runner-Up in 2006 and 2007.

David Walden, CEO of the TBWA\Whybin\TEQUILA\, comments: "This accolade highlights the fact that New Zealand creative talent is world class and world beating. It's a great way for or agency to finish the year".

John Merrifield, Creative-at-large TBWA\Asia Pacific was recognised for his role in the development of the highly regarded adidas Olympics campaign which won China's first ever Gold Lion at Cannes, and for his creative leadership of the LG "Scarlet" and Limitless "Human Thread" global campaigns. He was also lauded for creating "The Book" for TBWA Asia-Pacific's 10th Anniversary. John previously won Media's Creative of the Year in 2004.

2008 saw Blood and Merrifield appointed to the network's global creative board, the "Band of Brothers" by John Hunt, TBWA's Global Creative Director. Both have also contributed greatly to the industry with Merrifield Chairing the Citra Pariwara awards in Indonesia and the Young SPIKES competition for MEDIA, and both serving as a judge at numerous award shows around the world including Cannes, D&AD, AWARD, ADFEST, SPIKES and Young Guns.

TBWA\Asia Pacific was named Runner-Up Creative Agency of the Year. The agency won the title in both 2004 and 2005.

The 2008 Agency of the Year Awards honour the very best the Asia-Pacific advertising industry has to offer, highlighting agencies, brands and individuals that set a new standard in communications strategy and execution in the region.

About TBWA\

TBWA Worldwide (www.tbwa.com) creates Disruptive ideas for global clients, including ABSOLUT, adidas, Apple, Beiersdorf, Henkel, Infiniti, Mars, McDonald's, Michelin, Nissan, Pernod Ricard, Pioneer, Samsonite, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore Airlines, Sony PlayStation and Visa. TBWA is one of the fastest-growing networks in the Top-Five, and was named by ADWEEK as Global Agency Network of the Year and the most-awarded Agency Network by Creativity magazine in 2007. TBWA has 267 offices in 77, and approximately 12,000 employees worldwide.

TBWA is part of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com ( http://www.omnicomgroup.com/ )), a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

ENDS

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