Creative concern, X3M Ideas, has emerged ‘Agency of the Year’ at the 2023 Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF) Awards, with 276 points, ahead of its closest rival, Noah’s Ark, that scored 255 points. Insight Publicis Limited garnered 234 points to emerge third in the highly competitive contest.

A breakdown showed that X3M Ideas clinched 15 gold, 20 silver and seven bronze, while Noah’s Ark won 12 gold, 16 silver and 17 bronze. Insight went home with nine gold, 16 silver and 15 bronze.

Nineteen other creative agencies participated in the competition, including Leo Burnett Limited, which took the fourth position with nine gold, four silver and four bronze, amassing 117 points in the end.

In the final analysis, X3M Ideas’ Glo “School teacher” got a silver, Showmax “No one tells a story like we do” clinched four silver and a gold.

Its creative work for Nirvana’s “Lyrics of innocence” bagged a gold, silver and bronze, while FNM’s “My Kitchen” received a silver, even as Migo got a gold and bronze.

Others works that fetched recognitions for the organisation include:  Jameson in Design for its Independence Day pack, which got two silver and LPM’s “Voices in my air” that nicked gold and two silver in radio and New Media. The rest of the 11 gold, nine silver and five bronze were shared between The Extra Step Initiative’s “Soot Life Expectancy,” Loritem’s “Wasteful Culture” and Newsrooms’ vote to predict.

Chairman of the LAIF Management Board, Jay Chukwuemeka, said this year’s awards, 18th in the series, presented a major opportunity to celebrate outstanding creative works in the last twelve months, and drive inclusion.

He observed that this edition was quite symbolic, considering the fact that it coincided with the golden celebration of Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN).

With the theme, ‘A New LAIF’, the awards featured six major categories and inclusion of new categories with over 550 entries received from 19 creative agencies located across Nigeria and registered under AAAN.

Reacting, Chief Executive Officer of X3M Ideas, Steve Babaeko described the feats as another wake-up call to his team to continue giving their best to any brief that comes to them.

He lauded AAAN and the LAIF Management Board for raising the bar this year.