Several hundred advertisers and agencies attended the Gala Stratégies event presented by the Montreal Marketing Association/Publicité-Club de Montreal, where awards were presented in five categories, as well as to two university student groups who developed marketing challenges by advertisers in competitions aimed at encouraging experience and new blood to enter the marketing and advertising industry.

Laboratoires Paladin's strategies for Plan B also took top prize in the category 'Audace' (risk taking) accepted by Mark Beaudet, vice-president sales and marketing.

Publicis' Canada's fundraising campaign for the MIRA Foundation won in the Innovation category, accepted by Catherine Provost, account supervisor.

The Creative category was won by TELUS for its Web broadcasts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League games, also in association with agency and media partners TAXI and Media Experts. The award was accepted by Catherine Patry, director of marketing communications, consumers markets, and Tee Tran, TELUS' general manager, mrketing communications.

The Impact category was won by Boulangeries Gadoua for its repositionning of the brand. Recipient Philippe Gadoua, vice-president marketing, said that the company worked with four partners: Headspace Marketing, Touche! PHD, Parallèle Gestion de Marques (brand management), packaging company Emballages Gadoua Vitalité, and B-Street.

Andrée Lebrun, communications director, accepted the award for the Commission des normes du travail (working standards) in the Efficiency category for its educational campaign 'Mets tes droits au travail' (Put your rights to work). The client worked with Cartier Communication.

At the student level, the Défi Marketing TD Meloche Monnex challenge (a long-running competition of the MMA) for client YMCA was won by a team from the Université Laval.

And the 17th edition of la Relève publicitaire, a former contest of the PCM, this year for client Proxim with the guidance of bleublancrouge, was won by the team from the HEC.