Recognition
Digital Agency Global Network of the Year
On conferring the award, judges were impressed by AKQA’s demonstration of “excellent business performance, exceptional industry contribution, and extreme creativity of work.”
AKQA has been named Digital Agency Global Network of the Year in Campaign’s Global Agency of the Year Awards, recognising the world’s most accomplished agencies.
The jury cited that part of the rationale for awarding the honour was AKQA’s double-digit growth in 2022, the strongest annual employee survey and client satisfaction results yet, plus the breadth of multiple award-winning projects for clients such as Levi’s, Nike, Netflix, IBM, Sony PlayStation and Epic Games.
Ajaz Ahmed, founder and CEO of AKQA, said: “I’m delighted that AKQA has won Digital Agency Global Network of the Year. To be recognised and celebrated in this way reflects our people’s dedication to leading innovation with clients – across work that both defines our industry and moves the world. Thank you to everyone in our team, to all our clients, for the spirit of partnership that contributed to this extraordinary recognition.”
The awards are judged by a panel of global and regional Chief Marketing Officers, with the process audited by PwC. Gideon Spanier, editor-in-chief at Campaign, said: “Campaign’s Global Agency of the Year Awards recognise and celebrate the best agencies – and the brilliant people working within them. The winners are chosen by a select group of marketers, the people in a position to hire shops and authorise budgets. It’s truly a triumph to win one of these awards.”
Full article announcing the win:
Leading by example. Creating examples that lead.
AKQA plans to double the number of people working at its studios in the U.S. over the next five years. Bringing fresh perspective and creative vision, Tesa Aragones, Jabari Hearn and Shu Hung reunite as AKQA’s North American executives after many successful years of working together as former members of Nike’s global marketing leadership team.
Clients and the Work
GoFundMe
To celebrate GoFundMe’s Year In Help, AKQA collaborated with AI artist Paul Trillo on a groundbreaking approach to storytelling. Using a unique combination of AI technologies, a community street mural was brought to life, weaving together different stories from 2022. Each scene depicts a real-life GoFundMe cause, from rescuing pets from Hurricane Ian in Florida, to helping displaced refugees from Ukraine, demonstrating the real world impact that kindness has on communities.
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
AKQA conceived and developed The Rolls-Royce Motor Cars website, an intelligent lead-generation engine that builds relationships. From changing CTAs through to exclusive content, The Perfect Host adapts to deliver the right message for each individual – a pinnacle luxury digital experience.
Sonho
AKQA Coala.LAB transformed Nego Bala’s story of incarceration and resilience into a music video as part of his debut album’s release. The 15-minute music video, set to the song Sonho (Dreams), portrays the Brazilian artist’s experiences in juvenile detention with a message of hope.
Levi’s
AKQA turned the longevity of Levi’s into an emotive tale, Buy Better. Wear Longer, the second iteration of the campaign for sustainable consumption. The 60-second film speaks to their long-lasting apparel, telling the story of a single pair of 501 Levi’s as they gracefully age from the 1960s to the present day.
Volvo Cars
Volvo Cars and AKQA reframed safety for the entire automotive industry. A physical manifestation of Volvo Cars’ new Safety in Mind vision, the Volvo EX90 displays new technologies designed to help keep you safe on the road, and makes you feel safe too.
Nike
Nike, a client for over 20 years, joined forces with AKQA to celebrate their 50th anniversary by highlighting moments that changed the world with 50 works. Celebrations include the Never Done Evolving campaign with Serena Williams in which she plays her former self through AI and machine learning.
Action Audio
In partnership with Tennis Australia, AKQA set a new standard in sport accessibility. The creation of Action Audio is a world-first system for augmenting live sports with sound enabling 285 million blind and low vision sport fans to follow games in real-time, autonomously for the first time via Google Assistant and AO Radio. The technology was implemented for the US Open in August 2022.
NBA announced Action Audio as one of seven technology companies to join the second cohort of NBA Launchpad, the basketball league’s initiative to source, evaluate and pilot emerging technologies that advance the NBA’s top priorities.
Talent
Our people
AKQA employs over 6,500 people in over 50 countries and, in 2022, we received over 80,000 applications for a career at AKQA via our website, a new record.
Fostering inclusion across the full spectrum of diversity, AKQA continues to take active steps to attract, promote and retain under-represented groups and support our people through a series of company-wide, industry and recruitment opportunities and ERG initiatives.
In the last year AKQA won 101 awards, including eight D&AD Pencils, three Red Dot Design Awards, 34 Clio Entertainment, Music and Sport Awards including two Grand Clios, and was named both Jamstack and Mumbrella Agency of the Year. AKQA has already received notable recognition in 2023, including ten Webby Awards, Gold at both the ADC and ANDY Awards, named as The Dots’ Best Place to Work and honoured as a Most Loved Workplace by Newsweek.
