Small Ad Agencies Reap Two of Three Top Awards : Advertising: One-man Acme shop, two Smart Guy’s are honored. dGWB, a large firm, is cited for best poster.

IRVINE —  In step with a national trend, small agencies walked away with two of three top honors during Saturday night’s 36th annual Orange County AdClub awards ceremony.

One of three “Best of Show” awards went to Acme Advertising, a one-man operation run by Sakol Mongkolkasetarin of Fountain Valley. He won in the print advertising category for his work for Pacific Snax Corp., which makes rice snacks shaped like popcorn.

The top honor in broadcast advertising was awarded to Smart Guy’s Advertising Co. in Huntington Beach, a two-person agency. Tim O’Donnell and Pat Zimmerman, the owners, won for ads they created for Hovik Jewelry in Santa Barbara.

The top award for poster advertising went to dGWB in Irvine, one of Orange County’s largest independent agencies, for its work for Vans canvas shoes.

For Mongkolkasetarin, 27, the award caps a solo career that was forced on him after he had been laid off by two now-defunct agencies. He started Acme in his parents’ living room, and in March, he won four Belding Bowls--the West’s most prestigious contest. dGWB hired him the same month.

His success is part of a string of recent victories by smaller agencies that has bigger agencies talking about how to return to their roots.

Executives at the county’s larger agencies, who meet frequently to discuss industry matters, talked privately Wednesday about the growing dominance of small agencies in awards ceremonies. Contests, to a great extent, measure the industry’s most prized attribute--creativity.

The executives feared, in part, that big agencies and their clients have lost their nerve. “In this economy, no one is taking chances,” said Greg Smith, a consultant who attended Wednesday’s meeting.

The breakup and downsizing of so many large companies during the recession has put many talented people on the street to fend for themselves. And technology has helped them do with computers in short fashion what artists and expensive typesetting equipment used to do.

In the Orange County AdClub contest, the “Best of Show” awards are chosen from among gold medal award winners. In all, 26 gold medals were awarded, along with 56 silver medals and 118 merit awards.

The number of entries declined from 951 last year to 653, but the number of awards rose from 152 to 200. About 500 people attended the show.

Winning the highest number of awards was dGWB, with eight gold medals and 40 silver and merit awards. Lawrence & Mayo in Newport Beach won 27 awards, including three gold. Acme Advertising won five gold and eight other awards, and Smart Guy’s won eight awards, including two gold.

Other winners were:

Side Show Advertising, seven awards, including one gold; Foote, Cone & Belding, six awards, two gold; Look Ma, No Budget, six awards; Lenac, Warford, Stone, five awards, one gold; Strottman International, five awards; Thom Surman, five awards; Do Good Advertising, three awards, one gold.

InterCommunications Inc., three awards; Morrison, Lee & Stevens, three awards; Roberts, Mealer & Co., three awards; TTA/Newport Inc., three awards; Anderson Communications, two awards; Carrie Sandoval, two awards, one gold; Carsten Brydum, two awards; Children’s Hospital of Orange, two awards; Forsythe Marcelli Johnson, two awards; G2 Advertising, two awards; Grey Advertising, two awards.

Ingram Micro, two awards; J2 Marketing Services, two awards; Left Coast Design Inc., two awards; Peter Samuels Photography, two awards; Reimers & Hollar Inc., two awards; Saatchi & Saatchi DFS, two awards; Schiada Design, two awards, one gold; South Coast Communications, two awards; W.R. Robertson Advertising, two awards.

Brian Andre & Associates, one award; Chad Bruse, one award; Back Bay Communications, one award; Bonnie Toth Advertising, one award; Esprit Communications, one award; Evans, Hardy & Young, one award; Fisher Business Communications, one award; Graphic Edge, one award; Koppes Pettit Advertising, one award.

ProMedica International, one award; Cheryl Story Dismon, one award; Mike Escobedo Design, one award; Nickel Advertising Design, one award; Noevir Inc., one award; Pete Bixler, one award; Robert Bell Photography, one award; Steven Ricker, one award; Marketing Workshop, one award; Undisclosed Agency, one award; TH&M; Advertising, Irvine, one award; Townsend & O’Leary, Laguna Hills, one award; Vargas Design, one award; Vic Huber Photography, one gold.