Accenture Song and TBWA stand out in Japan/Korea AOY Awards

TBWA Hakuhodo has been crowned Gold for Japan Creative Agency of the Year in the 2023 Agency of the Year Awards for Japan and Korea. The agency also scooped Golds in the Japan/Korea categories of Best Culture and Talent Development Programme of the Year, while scoring no less than five winners in the people-related categories.

< See Japan/Korea's full winners list >

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But overall, Accenture Song had the most to celebrate. Accenture Song won five Gold awards in total. The agency retained the two Golds that it won last year: Japan Digital Agency of the Year and Japan/Korea Consultancy of the Year. In addition, it also picked up three more Japan/Korea Golds this year for Data Analytics, Integrated Marketing and E-commerce Agency of the Year, bettering its Silver position in the latter category last year.

Among the Korean awards, Ogilvy took Gold as Creative Agency of the Year. It beat out Cheil (Silver) and TBWA (Bronze), though the latter agencies had solid nights overall, winning multiple awards including Silver (TBWA) and Bronze (Cheil) in Korea’s Digital Agency of the Year category.

Accenture Song won five Gold awards in total.

On the media side, UM, which dominated last year’s Japan/Korea awards with three Golds, exchanged those for Silvers for Korea Digital Agency of the Year, Japan Media Agency of the Year and Korea Media Agency of the Year.

In PR categories, the jury gave one Gold award to Weber Shandwick for Japan PR Agency of the Year. While there was no Gold awarded for Korea PR Agency of the Year, the Silver went to KPR & Associates.

Other Gold winners:

• Cheil scooped two Gold Awards for Japan/Korea Brand Experience Agency of the Year and Japan/Korea Content Marketing Agency of the Year.
• IPG Health Japan was awarded Gold for Japan/Korea Specialist Agency of the Year. 

People awards

In the Japan/Korea individual and team categories, TBWA Hakuhodo dominated with five winners. Agency Head of the Year was earned by Akihiko Imai; Account Person of the Year went to Yu Hashimoto; and Creative Leader of the Year is Takahiro Hosoda. TBWA Hakuhodo's other wins were for Channel/Engagement Planner of the Year (Kengo Kimura) and Young Creative Person of the Year (Masatoshi Usami).

Accenture Song, Droga5 Tokyo and 65dB Tokyo all walked away with one people award. Accenture Song's win was New Business Development Person/Team of the Year for their Industry Team. Sister-agency Droga5 Tokyo won Strategic/Brand Planner of the Year (Kiwa Kawada). 65dB Tokyo was awarded the win for Young Achiever of the Year (Saki Adachi).