'Why Them?'

Each year, I weirdly look forward to cramming into a conference room with a gaggle of Adweek colleagues, poring over PDFs and watching seemingly endless reels—all with the aim of selecting the Agencies of the Year.

This year, of course, we couldn't all be in the same room, but that was pretty much the smallest change in the Agency of the Year process this time around.

Instead of reviewing a litany of successes and comparing impressive growth metrics, we saw most agencies taking pride if they could merely break even. Most ended up considerably in the red and had to endure heavy layoffs.

In the end, we had clear winners in each of our four categories:
• U.S. Agency of the Year: The Martin Agency
• Global Agency of the Year: FCB
• Breakthrough Agency of the Year: Highdive
• International Agency of the Year: Droga5 London

So what was it that made each stand out in such a bizarre year? Check out this week's episode of our podcast, Yeah, That's Probably an Ad, to hear from me and my agency-coverage colleagues Minda Smiley and Doug Zanger to find out how each winner made the cut (and what else we saw along the way).

I hope you'll find it's an intriguing peek behind the curtain of our selection process.

So which agencies would YOU have honored this year? I'd love to hear your picks at the email below or at @Griner on Twitter.

David Griner
Creative and Innovation Editor, Adweek
[email protected]
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