This most likely is the most anticlimactic Agency of The Year award profile I will ever write. That’s because I called GroupM as our probable holding company-level entity of the year at the mid-year mark back in July, based on what it had already accomplished by that point. I added that it was GroupM’s to lose, and challenged its peers to step up and prove me wrong.

Others did rise to the challenge, especially Havas Media, but in the end -- and after reviewing all our year-end notes and pitches -- I stand by the early call, and can add several other important industry-leadership milestones accomplished by GroupM since then.

Some of the rationale is based on things GroupM did in the past 12 months that were on par with what some of its peers have also done, including the application of carbon-emission calculators to its media-buying process, developing diversity-inclusion marketplaces utilizing programmatic technology to redirect budgets into minority-oriented and minority-owned media, and also to recruit more diverse professional talent to its organization.

But GroupM went well beyond transforming its own organization to actually impact the industry -- as well as the world -- at large.