We’ve written many times in the past about our work with Newcastle Brown Ale on the big 2014 Super Bowl campaign, “If We Made It.” The campaign — which you can read about extensively here — has been winning accolades from the marketing community since it kicked off in early 2014. It’s won a Cannes Lion and been named the “Best Campaign of 2014” by Adweek — and now we have even more news to share.

Last night, our own Dave Fransen, Mike Keliher and Jörg Pierach attended the annual Effie Awards Gala in New York City. It’s a big night for our industry, as the Effies are considered the “Oscars” of the advertising/marketing world. And we went home with an armload of hardware, along with a very cool, unexpected honor.

First off, the programmed awards. Newcastle’s “If We Made It” received Effies in four categories:

• Gold award, “David vs. Goliath”
• Gold award, “Seasonal”
• Gold award, “Beverages — Alcohol”
• Silver award, “Small Budgets — Products”

These are huge honors, and proof of what we knew all along — “If We Made It” is one of the most memorable, creative and engaging campaigns we’ve had the pleasure of working on, along with our partners at Droga5.

Even more exciting: Fast Horse was named one the most effective independent agencies in North America, according to the Effie Index. We ranked third overall, just behind Droga5 and Wieden + Kennedy.

Our team has delivered some our best work recently, and seeing it recognized in such a prominent way is incredibly rewarding. When I joined this agency 12 years ago, it was hard to imagine that our little shop would some day be honored on the same stage as the two hottest creative agencies in the world. And yet, here we are. The only thing better is knowing our best work is yet to come.