The celebrations were just wrapping up on news of PHD having been named Strategy’s Media Agency of the Year for 2010, when lo and behold … we’re celebrating again.

At last night’s 11^th annual Media Innovation Awards, PHD offices in Toronto and Montreal spent much time, in between sips of bubbly, making a bee-line to the podium.

PHD/Touché!PHD combined to take away a total of 11 awards (more than any other agency) including 5 Gold, plus Best of Show for the “Natural Source of Comfort campaign” for the Quebec Milk Producers.

And in an interesting twist, our two offices each won Gold in the Integrated Campaign category.

The breakdown looks like this:

Best of Show – Quebec Milk Producers

Gold – Integrated Campaign (Quebec Milk Producers)

Gold – Integrated Campaign (Unilever Becel)

Gold – Traditional Out of Home (Quebec Milk Producers)

Gold – Fast Moving Consumer Goods (Quebec Milk Producers)

Gold – Social Media (Auto Trader)

Silver – Television (Unilever Becel)

Silver – Branded Content (Unilever Becel)

Bronze - Fast Moving Consumer Goods (Unilever Becel)

Bronze – Charity/Public Service (Quebec Health Ministry)

Bronze – Other Digital (Quebec Milk Producers)

These great achievements are not only a testament to the creative spirit and rigour that exists inside PHD, but also a further demonstration of the power of collaboration that exists between our great clients, creative agency stakeholders, and media outlet partners.

Given that speeches were outlawed last night, we wanted to send a special shout out today to our friends at Quebec Milk, BBDO , Astral, CBS, TVA, Rythme FM, Unilever, CTV, Radio Canada, Transcontinental Publishing, 7 Jours, Auto Trader, John Street, Mosaic, Quebec Health, LG2, Canoe, doyoulookgood.com, and BV Media.

All played a vital role in winning these awards, and so we send along our sincerest thanks.

So last night we were feted with Media Agency of the Year honours by Strategy magazine. I must say I am still recovering from both the shock and the drink of which there was plenty of both. For the record, I was not planning to attend, but some last minute prodding by an anonymous tipster that “it might be a good idea if someone showed” led me to believe we might have a podium finish of some kind. To receive gold was not contemplated, obvious perhaps by my inappropriate attire (jeans and a sweater). “Are you on vacation?” I was asked more than once.

As I penned in a missive to clients today, I am so proud of our team that has worked so hard to produce great work that delivers results. The final campaign that goes live is like a tip of an iceberg - so much goes on beneath the surface ( ok a bad metaphor but anyone in a media agency can appreciate) - it takes a real team effort, almost always beyond “scope of work” to make it happen and get it right. The work we submitted came from both our offices, Montreal and Toronto, a testament to the combined strength and synergies between our teams that I think is unique in this industry.

We are fortunate to have clients that have confidence in us to navigate them through the media ice flows. And more so than ever great media work is not possible without truly collaborative relationships with our agency partners and the media as well. Thank you all!

Fred Forster