Marketing success celebrated at the Beacon Awards

FCB Media at the 2016 Beacon Awards. Photo / Supplied

After dominating last year's Beacon Awards, it seems FCB Media weren't keen to give up the crown, with another golden run tonight.

The organisation took out the coveted Media Agency of the Year award for the second year running as well as securing the supreme award of Best in Show for its innovative "Made from Remains" project for New Zealand Fire Service.

The campaign was a winner amongst the judges who also awarded it three golds, with Anna Chitty, Best in Show judge and chief executive of PHD China, saying the diversity of the short-listed entries made the task of choosing a winner difficult.

"From the campaign objective, the driving insight, creativity in execution, business results and the degree of difficulty for delivering the entire effort, all elements were scrutinised and we are thrilled to see that the New Zealand media community is still delivering world class work," Chitty said.

"The technical expertise in the industry came through many of the entries, and the power of collaboration and integration both across function and discipline is delivering brilliant outcomes for New Zealand clients."

This year's judging panel awarded just 16 Gold and 31 Silver awards, with just half of the entries making it to the finalist stage - illustrating the high bar set by the judges.

FCB collected a total of nine golds and seven silvers throughout the night for its work with clients including Flight Centre, Volkswagen, Inland Revenue, Maritime NZ, New Zealand Fire Service and Mitre 10.

A sell-out crowd of just under 1000 turned out to the Viaduct Events Centre to celebrate the 2017 Beacon Awards, which were hosted by CAANZ in association with NZME, owner of the NZ Herald.

MediaCom was another winner on the night with four golds for Safekids Aotearoa's driveway safety campaign, plus a gold and three silvers for its challenger campaign for Maori Television's launch of Game of Bros, and a silver for its work with KFC.

The final few golds were awarded to MBM for its work on The K Bar Experience for J.H. Whittaker & Sons, and Ogilvy & Mather for its social experiment campaign 'Do You Care Enough To Be A Cop?' for New Zealand Police.

Advertiser of the Year went to Safekids New Zealand after collecting four golds with MediaCom.

The Beacon Award for Sales Person or Team of the Year went to The Media Collective at Bauer Media Group, while Adshel was named Media Business of the Year.

Julie-Ann Hedges of MediaCom Wellington won the Sandy Smith Inspiring Individual Award. Described as an icon of the industry, Hedges was acknowledged as a straight shooter, talented thinker and an enormously encouraging leader.

The 2017 Beacon Awards were hosted by CAANZ in association with NZME.