MEXICO CITY—Financial services firm Airfox and its PR agency Sherlock Communications took home the Platinum SABRE Award for the best public relations program in Latin America last year for their work “Fighting Financial Exclusion in Brazil.”

The JeffreyGroup, meanwhile, won Regional Agency of the Year honors, recognizing its continued growth, its status as the leading independent network in the region, and the quality of its creative work, which earned it six SABRE awards across the region—more than any other agency.

Announced at an event in Mexico City, managed in conjunction with Mexican trade association PRORP, other Agency of the Year winners included Weber Shandwick (Mexico), Approach Communications (Brazil), and Venezuelan firm Pizzolante (Other Markets).

The Sherlock/Airfox campaign, which employed a wide variety of creative tactics and non-traditional media to reach an underserved population in Brazil, beat out four other finalists for the Platinum award. In order, the top five campaigns included:

  • I Love My Balls—Liga Contra el Cáncer Perú with Orange 360 and Wunderman Thompson
  • Bad Luck Boxers—P&G Gillette with MMK , São Paulo
  • Huawei: El Camino de un Gigante—Huawei with Extend Comunicaciones/A Weber Shandwick affiliate
  • Aeromexico Special Situation Durango—Aeromexico with Zimat Consultores

As previously announced, JeffreyGroup took home more Gold and Diamond SABREs than any other agency (six); followed by Weber Shandwick (five); Sherlock Communications and Mexican firm Zimat Consultores (four each); and Peruvian agency Orange 360 (three).

“We continue to see the quality of creativity, strategic thinking, and results improving throughout Latin America,” said Paul Holmes, who chaired the SABRE jury. “Choosing from among a bumper crop of entries was more difficult than ever, but there were some exceptional campaigns, evidence that Latin America is a vibrant part of the global PR community.”