lg2 and Jam3 enjoy big night at ADCC -

Lg2 was named Advertising Agency of the Year at Directions, the Advertising & Design Club of Canada’s annual awards show, in Toronto Thursday.

The honour—one of five distinctive red Scarlet Letter honours for collective achievement handed out by the ADCC—was based on the agency’s award haul across all categories, a tally that included six Golds for five different clients, along with nine Silver and 21 Bronze.

Long considered one of the most prestigious shows in the Canadian creative industry, Directions celebrates creativity and design across eight different categories. The show also stands out for being judged by an all-international jury, intended to ensure that no politics or loyalties influence the process and that each entry is evaluated solely on its creative merit.

“What I love about this show is that it’s not based on what won somewhere else,” said Andrew Simon, president of the ADCC and chief creative officer at Edelman Canada. “It’s truly a representation of what a wide assortment of the top creative leaders around the globe deem worthy of recognition.”

Aside from lg2, the other recipients of the Scarlet Letter Awards were:

Rethink for Design Agency of the Year;
Underline Studio for Design Studio of the Year;
Jam3 for Interactive Agency of the Year; and
Skin and Bones for Production Company of the Year.

“The red trophy means a lot to lg2,” said Luc Du Sault, vice-president and executive creative director at the agency’s Quebec City office. “And it’s not an easy task, especially this year with so much great work in the competition.”

“We’ve always admired and had the utmost respect for the ADCC and their international jury structure,” added Chris Hirsch, vice-president and ECD in Toronto. “A Gold trophy from the ADCC is something to be incredibly proud of. And this year’s Scarlet Letter Award for Agency of the Year is a testament to the incredible talent working together across all three Lg2 offices.”

All of lg2’s Golds were awarded in advertising categories:

Advertising Transit, Single: “Bone vs Steel” for Société de l’assurance automobile du Quebec;
Advertising Billboard, Campaign: “Lights Off” for Casper;
Advertising Typography, Campaign: “Subjectif” for 13th Street Winery;
Advertising Posters, Campaign: “The Best is Relative” for ManchuWOK;
Advertising Posters, Single: “Architect” for ManchuWOK; and
TV Single, 30 Seconds: “Painting” for Les Producteurs de lait du Quebec.

There were 46 Golds handed out Thursday night and 303 awards in total across the show. You can see some of the winning work below, but it has all been added to the ADCC’s deep digital archive of winners through the years, and published in an awards annual next month.

One of the other big Gold winners was Jam3, which took home five Golds to go with its Scarlet Letter.

The Golds were for:

Promo, Single category: “Operation AirDrop at Coachella” for Adidas Originals;
Interactive Advertising – Mobile category: “Operation AirDrop at Coachella” for Adidas Originals;
Interactive, Digital Installations: “Unlock the Drop—ComplexCon” for Adidas;
Interactive, Experience Design category: “Unlock the Drop—ComplexCon” for Adidas;
Interactive Narrative: “East of the Rockies.”

The prestigious Les Usherwood Award, given in recognition of lifetime contributions to the quality of Canadian creative, was given to director Steve Chase.

Chase was introduced by former creative partner Terry O’Reilly, who was first teamed with Chase 35 years ago. O’Reilly recalled how Chase was at first unhappy about having to work with someone so inexperienced, only for the pair to hit it off. Chase eventually moved from art direction to directing, and O’Reilly praised his pure talent as a top commercial director in the U.S. for years, and his determination to fight for his ideas “and never back down.”

In the ADCC Student Competition, Gold was awarded to Rachel LeBlanc, Lee I, Mirabelle Eze, Tara Magloire and Marwa Hassan from Miami Ad School Toronto for their Advertising entry “The Truth Translator.”

Tanner Garniss-Marsh from Conestoga College, won Gold in Graphic Design for Oko Electric Vehicles.

lg2, “Bone vs Steel” for Société de l’assurance automobile du Quebec