Sam Coons, Copywriter 

Last Thursday, I joined a handful of CPers who attended the 63rd annual Hatch Awards, hosted at Big Night Live. Connelly Partners had a great showing, taking home a collection of 15 awards, including 5 Golds. But just as important, we took home a few insights on the common threads amongst the winning work. 

The main takeaway wasn’t a huge surprise this year. Consumers just want to have fun. But not just any fun. Simple fun. The overwhelming majority of winning work had not only that ever-important “big idea” to it, but nothing felt like it was beaten to death by committee. Work ranging from clients like Progressive, to Bowery Farms, to Valvoline were all as easy to laugh at as they were to digest. And while we always look to move people emotionally in our work, we just can’t forget that bringing a little levity to someone’s day by making them chuckle at a silly joke or gasp at an incredible visual is still doing exactly that.

Our own winning work this year understood this, with simple, fun campaigns for clients like Boston Pride for the People, 123.ie, and Kayem. We couldn’t be more pumped for these wins!

As we shuffled out of the venue to celebrate before shifting into full gear for 2025, two words were repeated amongst us as an unofficial mantra for the year ahead. “Do less.” You just might win more that way.

Find the full list of winners here.

The Out of Home Advertising Association of America has announced the winners of this year’s OOH Media Plan Awards, which recognize the essential role media planning plays in the development of successful OOH campaigns. Recipients of the award demonstrate how the elements of creative design, thoughtful placement of messages, and proper allocation of budgets unite to produce outstanding communications strategies. Winners tap into the emotional fabric of society and promote inspiring messages that elevate the industry. 

The Williamsburg Tourism Council’s “Life. At Your Pace” OOH activation, which launched in early 2023, has won a Gold Award for OOH Media Plan of the Year. We are honored to be among this year’s recipients. 

Learn more about this year’s awards here.

Travel Weekly, a leading provider of news, research, opinion, and analysis to the North American travel trade marketplace, has announced the results of the 2023 Magellan Awards. This year saw a record-breaking number of entries submitted from across the globe.

The awards honor excellence in design, marketing and services across various industry segments, including Hospitality, Airlines, Airports, Travel Destinations, Cruise Lines, and more. Entries are judged against Travel Weekly’s standard of excellence.

We are thrilled to share that our client, the Williamsburg Tourism Council, has secured one Silver and two Gold Magellan Awards.

Check out the full list of winners here and the official press release here. 

We’re excited to announce that our work for Boston Pride for the People has been shortlisted in the Communication Arts Typography Competition’s advertising category. 

The Competition celebrates the best use of typography as the primary visual element in design and advertising, as well as new typeface designs, calligraphy and hand lettering. Winners receive the Award of Excellence, one of the most coveted awards in the industry, and are published in the publication’s Typography Annual.

Read more about the competition.

Connelly Partners’ work for 123.ie has been shortlisted for the 2023 Effie Awards Ireland in the Finance and Insurance category. According to IAPI, this year’s awards have attracted a diverse range of submissions and those shortlisted have demonstrated their ability to leverage creativity and strategic thinking to achieve impactful results for their clients. The awards serve as a platform to recognize the creativity and innovation behind these campaigns as well as their measurable impact on business objectives.

Recipients of the award will be announced on October 20, 2023. 

Check out the full list of nominees. 

Additional coverage:
Business Plus: IAPI Announces Shortlist for Effie Awards Ireland 2023
Marketing.ie: IAPI Announces Effie Awards Shortlist

Connelly Partners has reeled in a spot on the AdAge Small Agency Awards list! Our campaign for Gorton’s Seafood has won in the Best Use of TikTok category. We couldn’t be more stoked to be on the list of trailblazing agencies who are leading the way to advertising’s future. 

Check out the full list of winning agencies here. 

From the deep sea to your TikTok stream! We couldn’t be more thrilled to be recognized by AdAge and TikTok for bringing client Gorton’s Seafood’s personality to life on the platform. The winning campaign harnesses the power of a creator-first approach and taps into the viral nature of TikTok to reach a new, younger audience. 

We’d like to give a special thanks to the Gorton’s team for their partnership and for allowing us to bring them into the world of TikTok.

See here for more details about the campaign.

The Cannes Young Lions competition has concluded and a team from Ireland is among the winners. Robin Winchester, Motion Designer, and James Stedman, Junior Designer, from FCB Huskies, won bronze in the design category of the competition.

Ireland had a record number of teams shortlisted for the competition this year. One of the teams included Daragh Griffin of Connelly Partners Dublin, who was shortlisted for his work in the print category. These seven teams, brought to Cannes by IAPI, were part of the 444 teams at the Cannes Young Lions competition from across the globe.

Read more about the conclusion of the Cannes Young Lions competition.

Image courtesy of IAPI

Additional coverage:
Marketing.ie: IAPI Sends 14 Young Lions to Cannes

In June, CP’s Daragh Griffin will be attending the prestigious Cannes Lions Festival as part of the 14-member team chosen by IAPI to represent Ireland in the Cannes Young Lions Competition. This competition is a chance for young marketers to showcase their creative abilities, both at home and abroad. Daragh’s print work for GOAL, which impressed the judges, is slated to appear in the Business Post soon. 

We wish Daragh all the best as he moves forward to this next stage of the competition. 

Check out his winning work here.

For more information, read the full article here.

Connelly Partners is the 2023 AdAge A-List winner for Best Agency Culture! 

Over the past year, we’ve launched new programs, revisited long-standing traditions and gotten rid of what’s not working. The goal was to help employees do their jobs better, serve clients better, embrace curiosity and find the best balance between focus on CP as a business and as a place that continues to fuel and encourage employee life experience. 

We encourage employees to get outside of the office and their comfort zone, and bring those experiences back to the agency and our clients. That’s why we send employees to live and work around the world, provide a student loan paydown program, celebrate tenure with a sabbatical, and more.

With a renewed focus on our culture, clarity on what it means to us and how we can invest in CP in ways other agencies just don’t think to – we’re proud of the culture we’ve built. 

Read more about our win in AdAge here.

Check out the full list of A-List winners.