This year’s Marketing Agencies Association Worldwide’s (MAA) Globes have been the most successful for Australian agencies, which included the top gong, the Best in the World for Leo Burnett‘s Earth Hour campaign.

The MAA Globes for the Best Promotional Marketing Campaigns in the World for 2008, hosted this year in Toronto, Canada, were hotly contested and had the highest amount of entrants since the awards’ conception.

But the Aussie highlight of the night was Leo Burnett’s taking home an impressive two Globes and the coveted Best in the World award.

“While we’re blown away to have Earth Hour named the Best Promotional Marketing Campaign in the world – what really blew us away is how we’ve created a campaign that has changed the world we live in for the better, with over 50 million people taking part in Earth Hour in 2008,” says Martin Walters, managing partner promotional marketing, Leo Burnett Australia.

Other notable Globes winners from Australia included CSM for its Carlton Draught ‘Plastic Cup’, which got gongs for Best Sponsorship or Tie-In Campaign and Best Integrated Communications Campaign, and agency BMF came away with a bronze award for its Toohey’s Extra Dry ‘Harvested’ campaign.

“The entries this year demonstrated far more creativity and innovation than in recent years, with more emphasis on multi-tiered promotions which involved more than three marketing disciplines. Promotion marketing is expanding rapidly within North and Eastern Europe and throughout Asia in the areas of experiential, tie-in promotions, cause relation and loyalty,” says Mike Da Silva, president MAA Worldwide.