The 4A's Reveals Winners of the 2017 Partner Awards

LOS ANGELES, April 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The 4A's, the leading trade association representing the advertising agency business, closed out the first day of its flagship conference, Transformation, by unveiling the winners of the third annual 4A's Partner Awards.

The 4A's Partner Awards celebrate the ad industry's most creative collaborations and shine a light on partnerships that challenge convention to produce truly innovative work. The Awards recognize small, medium and large-sized agencies, who vie in their competitive sets across a range of categories: Brand, Cause, Creative, Diversity, Media, Pro Bono and Technology.

From those category winners, two are elevated to top prizes. Partnership of the Year was presented to the Ad Council with partners, including Goodby Silverstein & Partners, for the "'I Am a Witness' Bullying Prevention" campaign (which won the Pro Bono Partnership: Mid-Sized Agency category) and Most Innovative Partnership was awarded to Ogilvy New York, with Amnesty International, for "The Refugee Nation" (which won the Diversity Partnership: Large Agency category).

"Collaboration is a cornerstone of our industry, and to be able to judge such impactful, creative work borne out of these partnerships was a great experience," said Steve Simpson, jury chair of the 4A's Partner Awards and chief creative officer, Ogilvy & Mather North America. "We were thrilled to see so many of the winners focus on making a positive impact: from rallying the global community to supporting refugees and raising awareness about the warning signs of gun violence to helping local residents get home safely on Super Bowl Sunday."

"The winners of this year's Partner Awards created impactful work that showcases the best of what our industry has to offer," said Alison Fahey, chief marketing officer, 4A's. "As advertising continues to evolve, it's these partnerships that are driving the most innovative work."

4A's Partner Awards winners were selected in the following categories:

• Brand Partnership: Mid-Sized Agency—CP+B L.A. took home the award for its "NBA 2K Boost" campaign with partners 2K Sports and Fitbit. The campaign is designed to inspire gamers to get outside to exercise by pairing the basketball game franchise with Fitbit.
• Brand Partnership: Large Agency—Ogilvy New York won for its "Not Easy" campaign, in which it partnered with IBM and Alex da Kid (KIDinaKORNER) to turn data from music and culture into cognitive music; the commercial also featured X Ambassadors, Elle King and Wiz Khalifa.
• Creative Partnership: Small Agency—Preacher won with partners Squarespace, the David Lynch Foundation, Sandro Miller and John Malkovich for "Playing Lynch." In this campaign, Preacher developed an immersive digital experience tapping into Lynch's most iconic characters; the campaign included a social media push with hidden Squarespace sites and an array of clues on Reddit, SoundCloud and Lynch fan sites.
• Creative Partnership: Large Agency—BBDO New York took home the prize with partners Bacardi/Bombay Sapphire, Golden Artist Colors and New York Academy of Arts for "Ingredients of a Masterpiece." To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Bombay Sapphire's most imaginative bartender competition, the campaign turned cocktail ingredients into paints, which were used to illustrate the cocktails then featured in an international art gallery.
• Media Partnership: Large Agency—Horizon Media and partner Secret Weapon Marketing won for "A Lift from Helpful Honda," in which they offered Southern California residents complimentary UberX rides home during the Super Bowl in an effort to reduce alcohol-related crashes that could cause injury or death.
• Technology Partnership: Small Agency—theAmplify and partners Automat and COTY Inc., for its CoverGirl brand, were honored for their campaign "Influencer Chatbot, KalaniBot, for CoverGirl." This was the first influencer chatbot marketing campaign that drove conversations and engagement by inviting fans to use the messaging app Kik to interact with a chatbot version of 16-year-old American celebrity, Kalani Hilliker.
• Technology Partnership: Large Agency—McCann New York, UM, Weber Shandwick and Momentum Worldwide partnered with Framestore VR Studio to take home the award for "Field Trip to Mars," which launched at the 2016 USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C. "Field Trip to Mars" is the first-ever headset-free group virtual reality vehicle experience that transported its passengers, in a yellow school bus, to the surface of the Red Planet.
• Diversity Partnership: Large Agency—Ogilvy New York took home the award with its partner Amnesty International for "The Refugee Nation," which organized support—including the creation of a flag and an anthem—to root for the refugee team in the Rio Olympics and shape how the public thinks of refugees.
• Cause Partnership: Mid-Sized Agency—Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, in conjunction with MINI USA, Feeding America and the Wall Street Journal, took home the award for "MINI TAKES THE STATES: #DefyHunger." In July 2016, the campaign launched in the U.S. and participants traveled more than 4,300 miles to raise funds for more than 1.3 million meals to be donated to Feeding America.
• Cause Partnership: Large Agency—Two winners took home this award: DigitasLBi/New York with partner Ketchum for "Care Counts," to install Whirlpool washers and dryers in schools to provide clean clothes for underprivileged students. VML took home the second award with partners MLB Urban Youth Academy, Kansas City Sports Commission and the city of Kansas City, Missouri, for "Relay the Way," to bring baseball back to the community.
• Pro Bono Partnership: Mid-Sized Agency—The Ad Council partnered with Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Adobe, musical.ly, live.ly, Disney | ABC Television Group, Paramount Pictures, Clevver, Social Native, Get Schooled, After School, Whisper, We Heart It, Wishbone, Slingshot, Johnson & Johnson, WWE, Facebook and Twitter for "'I Am a Witness' Bullying Prevention." The campaign launched an "I Am a Witness" emoji to help prevent and take action against cyberbullying.
• Pro Bono Partnership: Mid-Sized Agency—BBDO New York won with partner Sandy Hook Promise for "Evan," a powerful commercial that made waves with its surprise ending, raising awareness about the warning signs of potential violence in an effort to end school shootings.

Extreme Reach is the Presenting Sponsor of the Partner Awards and VIP Sponsor of Transformation. Winners of the Partner Awards were selected by an esteemed panel of jurors, representing leaders from a variety of agencies and major brands. To view the full list of winners, please visit http://partnerawards.aaaa.org/2017-winners.

About the 4A's Partner Awards
The 4A's Partner Awards celebrate the ad industry's most creative collaborations and shine the light on partnerships that challenge convention to produce truly innovative work. The Partner Awards recognize small, medium and large-sized agencies, who vie in their competitive sets across an array of categories, and the outstanding work they create with their partners.

About the 4A's
The 4A's is the catalyst for bringing together the right people in the right place at the right time to address the advertising industry's most critical business issues. We provide leadership, advocacy, guidance and community to our members and the industry at large, with proprietary access to the people, information and tools needed to make smarter management decisions. Its mission is to help agencies become more successful. Visit the 4A's at www.aaaa.org.

Contact: 
Samantha Wolf
Havas PR
Tel. 646-515-3574
[email protected] 

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