One judge perhaps summed up Droga5 best with a one-liner: “Droga5 is redefining the paradigm between design and advertising”. Nina Hendy reports.

The comments aren't that surprising – Droga5 has been one of the most talked about creative shops in the country since opening in Sydney back in 2007, and produced a long list of inspiring campaigns in 2009.

In the more traditional space, the agency created the biggest TV spot in Australia, 'The Regulars', while on the digital side, it created the most viralled film in Australia, 'Vanilla Ice Says Sorry'. It's also created one of the country's most successful and enduring fundraising properties in 'Raise a Glass', and built a new brand for Foster's – VB RAW. And that's just in the last 12 months.

The campaigns are among the most talked about in the industry. Droga5 created 'VB The Drinking Chips', a campaign that showed that if punters ate more chips, they would drink more beer. It was dubbed 'the best hot chip for the best cold beer', in the shape of an extra hot packet of chilli chips that assaults your mouth to a point where only an ice cold VB will suffice.

Then there was the VB RAW campaign. The brief was to make VB Green more attractive to youth, but the answer didn't lie in a new ad campaign but a brand new product, dubbed RAW. Droga5 developed the taste with the brewers and stripped it back to four natural ingredients. It named the product, developed the packaging, and launched it through one of the biggest seeding and sampling campaigns ever undertaken in Australia.

Another highlight during 2009 was the V Australia campaign. Droga5 was engaged to create awareness of the brand online and promote its new one-way fares to three overseas destinations. The agency created the 'One-Way Ticket' Facebook application, a competition where users nominate their 10 'frienemies' for a trip away – one way. V Australia then gave away 10 one-way trips to the most nominated frienemies.

The result was astounding. Friend removals and relationship status changes were rife across Facebook, with people vying to get rid of their frienemies. More importantly, V Australia's Facebook Fan Page swelled from 1900 fans to 12,000 after just one week of the app's release, opening up a brand new market of travellers.

But Droga5 says it's all simply about making its clients' advertising better. Its Hotshop entry says that over the past two years, the company's compass has steered it clear of the wrong clients, the wrong work and the wrong people. In fact, the agency says it's as much about the work it doesn't do, as it is about what it does do.

But that has meant walking away from lucrative pitches because it didn't believe in the process, or the people involved. It has meant telling clients it wasn't ready, when it knew it could put the business in jeopardy. And it has meant doing what's right instead of what's trendy while ignoring the army of naysayers. It’s brave stuff that will ensure the agency will continue to be watched closely by its industry peers.

FINALISTS:

Publicis Mojo Sydney

Three Drunk Monkeys

Leo Burnett Sydney