AKQA, an international digital design and communications agency with a D.C. office, has been named Digital Agency Global Network of the Year in Campaign’s Global Agency of the Year Awards, recognising the world’s most accomplished agencies.  The jury cited that part of the rationale for awarding the honour was AKQA’s double-digit growth in 2022, the strongest annual employee survey and client satisfaction results yet, plus the breadth of multiple award-winning projects for clients such as Levi’s, Nike, Netflix, IBM, Sony PlayStation and Epic Games.  Ajaz Ahmed, founder and CEO of AKQA, said: “I’m delighted that AKQA has won Digital Agency Global Network of the Year. To be recognised and celebrated in this way reflects our people’s dedication to leading innovation with clients – across work that both defines our industry and moves the world. Thank you to everyone in our team, to all our clients, for the spirit of partnership that contributed to this extraordinary recognition.”

D.C.-based creative agency Dorst MediaWorks has opened a office in West Africa, according to Creative Director Steve Dorst. “The result is we will be able to provide more cost-effective, local services to our international development, humanitarian, and private-sector clients,” said Dorst.  Dorst made his first documentary in Africa in 2006 (“Volcanic Sprint” in Cameroon) and says he “jumps” at opportunities to work on the continent.  The initiative started with a friendship. “Last year, I was on a shoot in Benin,” said Dorst. “My counterpart was local producer Teddy Attila. I was impressed at his charisma and commitment to craft. We hit it off exceptionally well.” Since 2017, Attila has led video production, photography, and storytelling for a major international development program – the $391 million Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact for reform and modernization of Benin’s power sector.

The Capital Region Minority Supplier Development Council (CRMSDC) named Montage Marketing Group as its Class II Supplier of the Year. The award recognizes Montage’s performance in the areas of business growth, operations, minority business enterprise collaboration, community involvement, and commitment to CRMSDC. Montage Marketing Group is one of four companies to be honored this year in the competition covering Maryland, D.C., and Northern Virginia. The company will now go on to compete against Supplier of the Year award winners from other councils in the region. CRMSDC’s mission “is to advance minority suppliers in a globalized corporate supply chain and to help our corporate members improve the diversification and innovation of their supply chains by connecting them to well established, certified MBEs.”