GPY&R Melbourne and Leo Burnett Sydney win Gold at International ANDY Awards in New York

The 2012 International ANDY Awards, now in its 48th year, was held in New York tonight.

George Patterson Y&R Melbourne was awarded two Gold ANDYs for AFL ‘Game Signatures’ while Leo Burnett Sydney took home one Gold for Leo Burnett, one Silver for Surfrider Foundation and one Bronze for Canon Australia.

The Glue Society, Sydney won a Silver with AMV BBDO London for Doritos.

For the third consecutive year Leo Burnett was the most awarded network, with a total of 18 awards.

Leo Burnett Sydney’s Gold in the Graphic Design category for its internal “Apple Box” campaign highlights the agency’s legacy through illustrations of work, signatures of employees and stories about Leo Burnett himself.

Says Andy DiLallo, CCO Leo Burnett Sydney: “I am proud of the entire team for this great result at the 2012 Andy awards. This is the first big international awards show of the year so it is fantastic to see Leo Burnett Sydney making a strong start and being honoured on the world stage this way.”

The impressive number of wins from the Leo Burnett Worldwide network includes six Gold, seven Silver and four Bronze. Seven offices from the Leo Burnett Worldwide network, including Sydney, Detroit, Toronto, Madrid, Mumbai, Shanghai and Chicago were recognised

Says Mark Tutssel (left), CCO, Leo Burnett Worldwide: “To be the ‘Most Awarded Network’ for the third year in a row is a great honour. IIt demonstrates the consistent level of creative excellence originating from the Leo Burnett network.”

Tutssel – one of this year’s judges – said: “This year’s show was judged by the best of the best in the world. The creative standard was incredibly high and the competition was tough. I couldn’t be more proud of our performance and people.”

The global advertising show’s most prestigious honor, The GRANDY, has been awarded to Chipotle and CAA Marketing, a division of Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, for its unique, animated storytelling campaign “Back to the Start” in the Branded Content category, in addition to three more Gold awards for the campaign.

As the GRANDY winner, CAA Marketing and Chipotle receive the GRANDY championship ring, acknowledgement as Best in Show, and a $50,000 cash award which will be donated to the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation.  As the first show of the season that traditionally predicts many subsequent winners in the advertising awards circuit, The ANDY Show & Party takes place this evening at Good Units in the Hudson Hotel in New York City.  Sponsors include Facebook, 24/seven, Bang Music, Post Factory, dwinQ and Grey Goose Vodka.

The GRANDY “Back to the Start” winner is a charming and engaging two-minute, stop-motion animated film commissioned by Chipotle as a branding campaign to highlight its long-standing commitment to sustainable agriculture and local farmers. Created jointly by CAA Marketing and Chipotle, it depicts the life of a farmer as he transforms his family farm into an industrial animal factory before seeing the errors of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future. Directed by filmmaker Johnny Kelly, the film’s soundtrack is the song “The Scientist,” a Coldplay classic sung by country music legend Willie Nelson. The film ran in 5,700 theaters nationwide, aired once on broadcast TV during the 2012 Grammy Awards and has been distributed digitally as well as on both Chipotle’s dedicated website and on Facebook.

“It’s great to see such an evolution in the work submitted this year. The consumer landscape is changing and we as agencies need to strive to build things that address this shift in behavior in innovative ways,” says Bob Greenberg (left), ANDY Awards Chairman, and Chairman/CEO/Global Chief Creative Officer of R/GA.

This year, for the first time, the ANDY Awards is a more socially-driven, interactive event, paving the way for a new game-changing direction in creative awards shows. Not only is the Show & Party being produced as an immersive experience emulating an underground bunker to reflect the show’s campaign theme “Enter the Apocalypse” about the 2012 Mayan end of the world prediction, but the winners are being announced in separate areas of the venue often by video, replacing the long-form, theater-style presentation. There has been full integration of Facebook in the marketing mix as well as attendees at the Show being checked in digitally with a badge that will enable them to share information and photos on Facebook through the badge’s barcode.