At the 2010 Antigua Festival, few agencies from the region received awards and this indicates that we are still far from the competitive level that could lead us to be legitimate winners on the world stage. With few exceptions, the Festival was dominated by Ogilvy, BBDO and well, with permission, Tribu DDB.
In a quick review and without any notes, so I apologize if I incur in any inaccuracy, the awards showed the fierce competition that the Guatemalan agencies Ogilvy and BBDO decided to take, after a 2009 where they were surprised by a JWT that in that year led without discussion.
In the duel between these two agencies, the last days were of high tension because they were the only ones with more than 20 finalists, which also showed that they had bet on volume and to achieve agency of the year, Jade, which finally took BBDO and was again denied to Ogilvy Guatemala, although the latter was crowned with the Jade to the network.
It was a finish that must have left the folks at BBDO with a sense of victory, as they won the Agency of the Year award in their own backyard after a brief interruption. In fact, just take a look at today’s Adlatina publication, where one goes in headline and the other goes in pale gray and small. On the LatinSpots side, BBDO also took the headline and a prominent mention, which I get the impression 
Alka-Seltzer as the main scorer. Gastón Bigio, as president of the jury and Creative Director for the Latin region of Ogilvy, must have been very satisfied because his network fulfilled its mission and with the key contribution of Costa Rica, Colombia and other countries, managed to shine at the end of the awards. The deserved headline publications in orange will surely come tomorrow or the day after.
It is interesting, and leaves me wondering, what would have happened for BBDO if all its agencies in the region participated with the same level of commitment that was seen in Ogilvy’s agencies. Possibly they could have doubled Jades in the end, and they could have taken the Network as well. However, Juan Mauricio Wumser’s enthusiasm and passion, as well as that of Bigio himself, gave Ogilvy a chance to sound their loud vuvuselas and celebrate the Network of the Year Jade.
Meanwhile, as newcomers to the regional competition, all of us who were at the Tribu DDB agencies awards ceremony, only six months into their regional organization, left happy, content and satisfied. With the Jades of el taier / Tribu DDB from Guatemala, plus those of Tribu DDB in Costa Rica, it seems to me that we were the third network among the winners, and with them we sent an unequivocal announcement that we have come to compete. As a country, Costa Rica saw JWT, jotabeqú / Grey and Father add Jades as well.
For 2011 the competition will be red hot. I have no doubt that Wumser and its ogilvyans in the region will go for a year of hard work, as with three recent Bronze Lions and such a good Antigua, they will go for Agency of the Year at any cost, while I have no doubt that BBDO will do its best to keep it.
As new players, I anticipate that in 2011 we will be competing even harder, although I recognize that it will take two or three years for our project to mature to the level of our aspirations. In the meantime, we left very satisfied with the 8 or 10 jades we took this year for the taier / Tribu DDB and its agencies in the region.
Now of course, in between invitations, what are the other agencies in the region going to do? Where is McCann, Lowe, Draft/FCB, Garnier, TBWA, Saatchi, Leo and so many more? The best creatives only want to be in the winning agencies, and whoever is looking for a creative agency will probably not look among those that are not even participating.
Congratulations to Ogilvy for its Network of the Year in Antigua, as well as to BBDO Guatemala for its Agency of the Year at the same festival. Congratulations to Tribu DDB for all their Jades, and to our colleagues in Costa Rica from Tribu DDB, applause in ovation because we had a new and excellent award. A round of applause for all the winners, although I recognize that I applauded a little louder when it was the Costa Rican agencies, and to UGAP for their great festival.
