Awards season has arrived, and Creative Artist Agency made a strong entrance—beating out more traditional ad shops for the top honor at the ANDYs.
The Hollywood talent powerhouse's marketing unit, launched in 1998, took home took home the GRANDY for "Back to the Start," its more-than-2-minutes-long Chipotle ad, a meticulous stop-motion homage to sustainable farming set to a brand-sponsored Willie Nelson cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist." The video, created with director Johnny Kelly and named among Adweek's 10 Best Commercials of 2011, was originally slated to run only in movie theaters and online, but eventually found its way, in its entirety, to a TV buy during the Grammys. The ANDY's Best-in-Show honor comes with a $50,000 cash award, bound for the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, the brand's sustainable foods charity.
Among agency networks, Leo Burnett led the pack with 18 global wins: 6 gold, including four for its Toronto office's work with homeless charity Raising the Roof, as 7 silver, and 5 bronze. Y&R followed with 10 global honors, of which 4 were gold, 2 silver, and 4 bronze. Wieden+Kennedy took 7 total, 2 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze. DDB won 5 total, comprising 2 silver and 3 bronze. Among the other winners: 3 awards for CP+B (2 silver, 1 bronze), 6 for production company MJZ (sharing 3 gold with BETC Euro RSCG, 1 gold and 1 bronze StrawberryFrog, and 1 silver with Droga5). JWT Shanghai won 2 gold, while TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles won 1 gold and TBWA\Paris won 1 silver.
Also among the winners: Muh-tay-zik | Hof-fer for the U.S. State Department-sponsored website Slavery Footprint, which picked up a gold and the ANDY's Richard T. O'Reilly Award for outstanding public service.