Venables Bell & Partners took home the coveted Best of Show award at The One Show in New York on Friday night for REI's #OptOutside, a cross-platform campaign in which the outdoor retailer closed on Black Friday and urged employees and customers alike to get outside and enjoy nature on a day best known for rampant consumerism.
"This is an amazing honor," said Will McGinness, executive creative director at the San Francisco agency. "This wouldn't have been possible without our incredibly brave clients who were willing to take their beliefs as a company and act on them in such a bold way. #OptOutside was an idea that came from the core of who they are as a company and ended up transcending marketing into an actual movement. Which is something you rarely see."
Mediavest | Spark, Tool of North America, North Kingdom and Edelman also worked on the REI campaign.
Ellie Kemper, star of the Netflix comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, hosted the 43rd Annual One Show Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on Friday night, which honored the year's best film, interactive, cross-platform, IP, mobile, social, UX/UI and radio work. The One Show also hosted a separate gala on Wednesday night at Gotham Hall, hosted by Michael Ian Black, at which the print and outdoor, design, direct, branded entertainment, responsive environments and PR winners were announced.
The Martin Agency was named Agency of the Year, and Geico was named Client of the Year. Together, they also picked up the inaugural Penta Pencil, given to an agency-brand team that has created stellar work for five continuous years. Wieden + Kennedy also won a Penta Pencil for its work with Procter & Gamble's Old Spice.
BBDO won Network of the Year for the second year in a row, with eight of its offices winning Gold Pencils, including Best in Radio (Sancho BBDO in Bogotá) and the first Gold Pencil win from Russia (BBDO Russia Group).
WPP was named Creative Holding Company of the Year.