SHORTLIST 2025
Congratulations to all our shortlisted nominees!
Agency of the Year
This award recognises professionals responsible for account management who have displayed the most innovation, skills and enthusiasm in bringing the benefits of advertising to their clients’ businesses resulting in the development of solid business relationships.
Daniela Wurster, VML Canada

Lindsay Day, Lifelong Crush

Melissa Champagne, Spark Foundry

Saloni Wadehra, Courage

Shawne Elnicki, No FIxed Address Inc.

This award recognises agency producers who have displayed the most innovation, skills and enthusiasm when executing agencies’ campaign ideas.
Agency Producer Team, Lifelong Crush

Clair Galea, Courage

Giordan Sora, Diamond

This award recognises the best agency specialising in providing experiential marketing solutions.
Diamond

Mosaic North America

Salt XC

Zulu Alpha Kilo

This category recognises the most creative advertising agencies.
Anomaly Toronto

In 2024, Anomaly’s Focus was Focus. Strengthen client relationships. Super-charge our talent. Elevate our creativity. And do it all in the name of locking in enduring ‘emotional contracts’ with our people and partners. Not simply financial ones. After all, when everyone else is thinking short-term – in this world of ‘jump balls’, ‘projects’, and ‘sprints’ – committing for the long-term is exactly what an agency that’s built to depart from the norm does. And in Anomaly Toronto’s 12th year, that’s precisely what got us on our A Game. We won big, in Canada and beyond, with the additions of Pepsi, lululemon, Gatorade, Ferrero, and Country Crock to our roster – all alongside substantial organic growth amongst long-term clients. We super-charged our offering and ideas with new ‘star talent’ across creative, strategy and accounts. And we delivered business-redefining results for our clients, which were celebrated with the metal that rewards results and cultural impact – from EFFIEs, , to Clios, to a Global Campaign Awards Gold for our very own DE&I initiative.
Cossette

Courage

Leo Toronto

No Fixed Address

Rethink
Zulu Alpha Kilo

The award recognises creative directors working (largely) from Canada who have overseen the best work during the review period. The winner will have not only set the standard for creative excellence but have also raised the bar for innovation and disruptive big ideas.
Derek Blais, Lifelong Crush

Erin Kawalecki, Angry Butterfly

Jenny Glover, Brian Murray & Stephanie Yung, Zulu Alpha Kilo

Joel Holtby, Courage
Vinicius Dalvi, Publicis Toronto

This award recognises the Canadian team behind the best work during the review period. The winning team will have not only set the standard for creative excellence but have also raised the bar for innovation and disruptive big ideas. Ideally, the team will have created campaigns for more than one brand.
Allen Kwong & Mike Richardson, VML Canada

Matt Miller & Tommy Yong, Courage

This award recognises the very best agencies specialising in media including but not limited to planning and buying.
Cossette Media

Initiative

Media Experts
PHD Canada

Spark Foundry

Starcom

UM
This category is for any specialist agency, or specialized team within a larger agency, that focuses entirely on helping brands reach and connect with new Canadians and those with a strong ethnic connection and identity.
Barrett and Welsh

Ethnicity Multicultural Marketing

Visionnaire

This category recognises the achievements, performance and excellent work of pr consultancies in Canada.
Agnostic

Citizen Relations

Craft Public Relations

Heads+Tales

NKPR
Pomp & Circumstance PR

Rethink PR

Any agency based in Canada with 20 or less full time staff. These small agencies are not only undersized threats to the larger players in their category, but in many ways set standards in terms of work quality and craftsmanship, operations / culture.
Akcelo

Berlin

Berlin is an independently owned Edmonton-based agency, founded in 2012. What began as a public relations and strategy shop has evolved into something unique in Western Canada—an agency that understands public opinion, media, and policy, paired with a creative department that's consistently turning heads.
Our sweet spot? Clients get media and public relations support, advocacy, strategy, and full-service creative—often on the same project. Few shops can pull that off, but we've made it our specialty. We offer clients a sophisticated understanding of what moves hearts and minds in Alberta, backed by top-notch creative work, winning awards left and right.
Speaking of awards, 2024 was our year. We dominated the ACE Awards in Edmonton with 17 wins, including Best in Show, and earned international recognition from Applied Arts and Communication Arts. We even made Strategy’s Small AOY Shortlist—the first Edmonton agency to do so.
The numbers back up the buzz. Revenue jumped 30% each of the past two years. With 20 full-time staff, we’re winning big in forestry, healthcare, building and development, and government work. We've built something different, and it's working.
Conflict

Hard Work Club

Involved Media

Public Office

Ray

The Garden

This award recognises the best agencies specialising in delivering social media solutions for brands. The judges will be looking for innovative use of social platforms and effective engagement strategies in the social space.
Clark Influence

Courage

The Kitchen North America

We Are Social Canada

Open to agencies that are within their first two years of operation. All disciplines are welcome. Open to agencies that are not backed by or affiliated with an existing holding company, agency or network.
Category Communications

Good Eggs & Co.

This award will celebrate the planner/strategist who has helped to deliver the best results for their clients through insightful, original and evidence based thinking.
Christine Maw, VML Canada

Courtney Mulock, Publicis Toronto

Geoff Gingerich, Lifelong Crush

Heather Segal & Maxine Thomas, Zulu Alpha Kilo

Rami Dudin, Courage

Amin Todai, Tadiem

Brent Choi, Angry Butterfly

Caroline Kilgour, Lifelong Crush

Caroline Kilgour led the launch and transformation of Lifelong Crush from a production-focused subsidiary to a full-service creative agency by 2023. As the sole employee at its inception in 2020, she scaled the business into a stand-alone agency with a blend of creative and strategic expertise. Caroline's vision is centered on providing modern marketers with an agile agency that maintains high production standards. She is focused on building a versatile, "maker-minded" team that can handle everything from creative concepts to production, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness for clients. Caroline has evolved Lifelong Crush into an independent entity, expanding the creative and strategic teams with top talent, and developing a "direct-to-production" model that streamlined workflows. Her client-centric approach, including a new client onboarding process and satisfaction measurement, has ensured strong partnerships and results. Under Caroline’s leadership, LLC grew by 75% in its first full fiscal year post-relaunch, securing major clients like OK Tire, Kicking Horse Coffee and Destination Toronto. The agency has earned multiple industry awards, including Strategy Small Agency of the Year and several Clio and Cannes nominations. Caroline’s leadership combines vision, innovation, and empathy, creating a thriving culture and positioning LLC as a top industry player.
Dhaval Bhatt, Courage

Joseph Bonnici, Tadiem

Mike Sutton, Zulu Alpha Kilo

Priyanka Goswami, No Fixed Address

Devon MacDonald, Cairns Oneil

Erica Kokiw, PHD Canada
Helen Galanis, Initiative

Karel Wegert, Media Experts

Samantha Kelley, Touché!

Shelley Smit, IPG Mediabrands

Strategy
The category will recognize executions and campaigns that represent innovation only possible through the use of artificial intelligence tools and platforms.
Pepperoni Hug Spot

See You There
Initiative and McCann

Young Again Never Again

This category awards the most creative campaign that uses one or more social media influencers or a celebrity’s social platforms to increase the brand's reach. This can be as a standalone initiative or as part of a wider campaign.
Address change

BMO - Bills Paid On Time
Bud Light Buckle Up Tour

Napoleon Dynamite x Ore-Ida: TOT-PROTECTING PANTS

The McDonald’s Remix Playbook

The Undercover Kindness Project

Tim Hortons Flatbread Pizza x Lance Stroll

We Do We

The category rewards a company that uses branded content at the heart of a media
campaign.
Meow-a-Thon

Michelob Ultra - Ultra Hole Challenge

PIZZA WRMR

Short Life Stories

Stigmavir

Undone

The category recognises innovative media activity underpinned by a creative, audience-focused use of data.
Art Rate Monitor

Run on Heinz

Sephora Illumination

The Toxicity Rating

Vector Become Your Player

Voice 2 Diabetes
KVI Brave Fund Inc.

New ideas in the use of digital media that deliver something tangible for an advertiser, including but not limited to insights that break new ground in digital, a new digital or social networking application, or new use of gaming (including console games, PC games, social or mobile gaming).
Hair Hair Everywhere

Meow-a-Thon

No Need For Speed

The Toxicity Rating

Vector Become Your Player

This award recognises the clever use of new ideas in media that deliver something tangible for an advertiser such as a clever media insight, a new digital or social networking application, a buzz or viral marketing campaign, or a new piece of technology.
Judges will be looking to see how the innovation led to business results.
BMO - Business Carols - Move Over Mariah

BMO BRB Screen

Bratwurst Summer

Coors Light Fix Tixflation

Hair Hair Everywhere

Next to Stok'd

UltraLuxe Bathroom Guide

Wäsche of the Wild

Creative
Awarded to the best creative idea in audio and radio advertising. Includes any form of radio broadcast, internet advertising, streaming audio content, downloadable content and podcasts.
Bacon is Rain

Our Song

Sound of a Hug

The Remix

Yukon is a little bit Metal

Awarded to the best creative experience idea. Includes live events, pop-ups, brand activations, festivals and immersive experiences.
Airways

Art Rate Monitor

Asshole Activists

Fix Tixflation

Pepperoni Hug Spot

SHT

Text Peanut 1,300 Times

Wäsche of the Wild

Awarded to the best creative idea in out of home advertising. Includes 6-sheets, 48-sheets, 96-sheets, giant posters, digital and interactive posters, cross tracks, bus sides, taxis, ambient posters and special builds.
Rainbow Deposits X Pride Placements

Bratwurst Summer

Doki Doki: Posters You Can Hear

Mudern Art

Porch Pirates

Rebrand for ROM, Canada's Largest Museum

Sketchy Animals

The Sizzle Board
Truth Boxes

Awarded to the best creative idea in film advertising. Includes TV ads, cinema, idents, branded documentaries and brand films.
Book Whoever You Want To Be
Help Us Remain

Opera

The orange
