NYC agency TBWAChiatDay won the 2008 Radio-Mercury Awards $100,000 Grand Prize during the star-studded event and celebration in LA. The spot created for the Mars brand Combos is titled “Broken Heart” and is part of the already highly lauded Man Mom campaign.
This is the third year in a row TBWAChiatDay New York garnered a Radio-Mercury Award with spots created for Mars but it is their first-ever Grand Prize. Last year, the agency won a General Category Prize with a commercial that was part of the Combos Man Mom campaign, and the year before they won in that Category with a spot produced for Starburst.
Winners in this year’s General Category included: BVK for Shorewest Realty Company; Crispin Porter + Bogusky for Coke Zero; DDB Canada for Phillips; Damman Pearce for Finnegan’s Ale, GSD&M Idea City for Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Saatchi & Saatchi for Smith Micro Systems.
In addition to the $100,000 Grand Prize, twelve $5,000 prizes were awarded to each of six General Category winners; one winner each from the Spanish-Language, the Radio Station-Produced, and the Urban Categories; plus one winner from each of three new categories — Political, Entertainment, and Radio Innovations — that debuted in this year’s competition.
A $2,500 award was presented for the best PSA, in the form of a donation to the winner’s charity of choice, and a $2,500 Radio-Mercury Student Award was given to the winning educational institution.
The Radio Innovations Award went to the Richards Group for a Fruit of the Loom commercial for exceptional use of multiple forms of Radio as the driving force within a campaign that leverages the innovation of the medium and drives across multiple touch points through a highly creative, multi-media, integrated campaign.
A Martin|Williams spot for Protect Minnesota was voted the winner of the first-ever Political Category Award. The Entertainment Category premiered with Radio Savant Productions capturing the award for a spot they produced for Big Bear Mountain Resorts.
Bromley Communications won in the Spanish-Language Category with a Continental Airlines spot. The Radio-Station produced prize went to Emmis Communications’ Q101, Chicago for an Aptera Motors commercial. Miami-based la comunidad received their first Urban category win for a commercial created for Mun2. The University of Texas at Austin won the Student Award for a spot developed for the Austin Silent Film Festival. The PSA went to Erwin-Penland for a spot created for Clemson University.
