Mindshare awarded Global Media Agency of the Year by Advertising Age

Mindshare was awarded the Global Media Agency of the year (2008) yesterday. The award follows a momentous year for the WPP-owned network, which restructured its operation during 2008 merging 12 agency units into four: Client Leadership group; Business Planning; a creative media thinking unit called Invention; and The Exchange, which handles on and offline trading.

AdAge said the global restructure if the business as a key reason for the award and also noted successes such as the Chinese version of 'Ugly Betty', which had been commissioned on behalf of Mindshare's client Unilever and 'In the Motherhood' a joint U.S. project by Unilever and Sprint' which used an integration with The Ellen DeGeneres Show to drive women to inthemotherhood.com where they could tell real-life stories.

The online comedy drama had 5.5 million viewers and has now been picked up by Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) and made into a network TV series that will make its debut March 26.

AdAge also noted groundbreaking work for Mindshare clients Maybelline and Nike and the network's integration of groundbreaking communications planning agency Michaelides & Bednash into the network's global Invention group.

Dominic Proctor, chief executive of Mindshare Worldwide, said: ''We'd like to thank Advertising Age for voting us Global Agency of the Year. 2008 was a momentous year as we have been driving change across our business - from our structure and our approach right through to our own brand look and feel - once again taking the lead position in the industry.''