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The Directory Big Won Creative Rankings 2011

Issue 22 | March 2012

The 2011 rankings are compiled from some 6,000 awards won by 4,048 campaigns on behalf of 2,461 clients by 1,302 agencies rewarding the efforts of 272 Chief Creative Officers, 690 Executive Creative Directors, 2,373 copywriters and 2,472 art directors. Though there are many new media categories – with Mobile and Branded Content set to be separate categories in 2012 at more awards shows than just Cannes – the single most popular category remains Press. And in 2011 the most awarded piece of work in the world was a print, ‘Heaven and Hell’ for Samsung. BBDO New York regained No.1 status from sister agency AlmapBBO Sao Paulo, No.1 in 2010, by winning awards for ten separate brands in TV, Press, Radio, Direct Marketing, Integrated Media, Digital, Mobile, Design and Alternative & Innovative categories. The ‘traditional’ agency no longer exists. All agencies are driven by decreasing budgets and by the migration of audiences to find solutions to their clients’ problems in areas other than the ‘traditional’ response of TV and print. So we see DDB London, a regular top agency in the Big Won rankings of the past through its press and TV now ranked the 5th most successful Digital agency in the world and Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO similarly achieving a Top 10 ranking as a digital agency and Colenso BBDO Auckland listed as the No.1 Direct agency in the world.

Top 25 agencies in the world 2011

1 BBDO New York 383
2 AlmapBBDO, Sao Paulo 347
3 Y&R Dubai 342
4 Jung Von Matt Hamburg 314
5 Colenso BBDO, Auckland 301
6 Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, London 299
7= Forsman & Bodenfors, Gothenburg 294
7= Ogilvy Frankfurt 294
9 Serviceplan Munich 280
10 Clemenger BBDO Melbourne 247
11 Publicis Conseil, Paris 234
12 Grabarz & Partner Werbeagentur Hamburg 214
13 Dentsu Tokyo 211
14 Wieden + Kennedy Portland 210
15 kempertrautmann, Hamburg 207
16 DDB London 205
17 BBH London 204
18 BETC Euro RSCG, Paris 203
19 JWT Shanghai 199
20 Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam 192
21 DraftFCB New Zealand 182
22 FP7 Manama Bahrain 181
23 Droga5 New York 180
24 Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Buenos Aires 175
25 Y&R New York 174

The Top CEO’s of the top networks

  1. Andrew Robertson (BBDO)
  2. Miles Young (Ogilvy)
  3. Chuck Brymer (DDB)

Top Holding Companies

1. Omnicom 5.434
2. WPP 4.851
3. Publicis 3.145
4. Interpublic 1.467
5. Havas 682

Top 25 campaigns across all media

1. Heaven and Hell Press Samsonite JWT Shanghai 154
2. Decode Jay-Z Outdoor/Digital Bing Droga5 New York 124
3= American Rom Integrated Kandia Dulce McCann Erickson Bucharest 111
3= Save as WWF Digital WWF Jung von Matt Hamburg 111
5. Write the Future Integrated Nike Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam 110
6. Homemade is Best Digital/Design IKEA Forsman & Bodenfors 99
7. Who Killed Deon? TV/Digital Met Police AMV BBDO London 83
8. Wall of Fame Digital Edding kempertrautmann Hamburg 82
9. See the Person Integrated Scope Leo Burnett Melbourne 78
10. Old Spice Response Campaign Direct/TV Old Spice Wieden+Kennedy Portland 72
11. Yellow Chocolate Integrated Yellow Colenso BBDO Auckland 69
12. A hunter shoots Digital Tippex Buzzman Paris 68
13. Burma Outdoor Human Rights Watch JWT New York 64
14= Friendship Machine Outdoor Coca-Cola Ogilvy Argentina 63
14= Musical Fitting Rooms Outdoor/Digital Starhub DDB Singapore 63
16. Break Up Integrated NAB Clemenger BBDO Melbourne 62
17. Accessories Press/Poster Harvey Nichols Y&R Dubai 60
18= Watson Digital IBM Ogilvy New York 58
18= The Journal Integrated New Zealand Ministry of Health DraftFCB Auckland 58
20= Megane Experiment Integrated Renault UK Publicis London 57
20= Light Wall Outdoor BMW Serviceplan Munich 57
22. Welcome Back Outdoor/Digital T-Mobile Saatchi & Saatchi London 55
23. Big Noses Integrated BGH DC Nazca Saatchi Argentina 54
24= Find Red Digital M&M’s Proximity BBDO Toronto 53
24= The 250km Wave Outdoor/Digital Kyushu Rail Dentsu Tokyo 53
24= Lucky Line Digital Uniqlo Dentsu Tokyo 53

Top countries

1. USA 3164
2. United Kingdom 3061
3. Germany 2370
4. Australia 1496
5. France 1446
6. Spain 1066
7. Brazil 1047
8. Sweden 913
9. New Zealand 857
10. South Africa 816
11. UAE 775
12. India 751
13. Canada 703
14. Japan 654
15. China 610

Top 10 agencies for Direct

1 Colenso BBDO, Auckland 173
2 DraftFCB New Zealand 147
3 Clemenger BBDO Melbourne 138
4 Shackleton Madrid 135
5 Ogilvy Frankfurt 122
6 BMF Sydney 99
7 Leo Burnett Beirut 90
8 Mark/M&C Saatchi Sydney 74
9 Proximity London 73
10= Jung Von Matt Hamburg 70
10= McCann Erickson Bucharest 70

Top Direct campaigns

1 American Rom (Kandia Dulce) McCann Erickson Bucharest 61
2 The Journal (New Zea... Ministry of Health) DraftFCB New Zealand 54
3 Yellow Chocolate (Yellow Pages New Zealand) Colenso BBDO, Auckland 48
4 Real Stories (TVNZ New Zealand) Colenso BBDO, Auckland 43
5= Musical Fitting Rooms DDB Singapore 42
5= 4th Amendment Wear 4th Amendment Wear Boulder 42
7 Break Up (National Australia Bank) Clemenger BBDO Melbourne 40
8 My Car Is Your Car Whybin TBWA, Sydney 39
9 Watson (IBM USA) Ogilvy New York 38
10 Quique The Head (Diesel Spain) Shackleton Madrid 34

Explanation

Leo Burnett Beirut’s campaign for Exotica was listed as “Make a Move” and as “Exotica Valentine’s Day” and was given two rankings when it was one campaign.

Together the points would make “Make A Move” No.3 in the Direct rankings.

We don’t want to demote anyone as a result of the error, so we are promoting “Make A Move” to Joint No.3 in the table. With congratulations to Bechara Mouzannar and his team in Lebanon for one of Directory’s favourite campaigns of the year.

Looking at Direct in particular, Indirect Direct continues to win the major awards as agencies use direct measurement techniques to prove how successful they are at building brands.

That said, it was good to see Mail used as part of Colenso BBDO’s integrated campaign for TVNZ, trying to build an audience for Stephen Spielberg’s series of “The Pacific”. It was spectacularly effective, winning an audience of 24% of all New Zealanders. (The same mini-series attracted 1% of all viewers in the UK.)

The highest ranking Mail idea was DraftFCB’s wonderfully off-the-wall ‘MINI Mostnificence’ campaign at No.14 with Proximity London a few points behind at 16=.

For Directory, the most important campaign of the year was DraftFCB’s ‘Depression Initiative’ which was ranked No.2 in the world for Direct. Inexplicably, it failed to win any big prizes at Cannes, in which case it would probably have come in at No.1.

It used direct techniques in order to be able to help thousands of people realise they were not alone and that they could set about dealing with their problems.

Yet again, agencies in Australia and New Zealand set the pace with brilliant strategies backed up with top-drawer delivery integrated across multiple channels. The New Zealand Coastguard ‘Live Rescue’ campaign, for instance, was interesting in how it used TV as a support medium for the online experience of trying to find (and failing) a family lost at sea.

Perhaps one of the surprises of 2011 has been how muted Shackleton Madrid has been. Until, that is, one reflects on the sorry state of the Spanish economy with over 40% of recent graduates still unable to find employment.

In dire economic times, most advertising becomes dire too. 2011 has not been a classic year, partly because in many parts of the world clients have been nervous. Firstly, no advertiser wanted to be seen to be spending freely and, secondly, many clients as individuals were keen to avoid doing anything that could put their jobs at risk.

Against that backdrop, you could easily have expected the work in 2011 to be worse than it actually was.

Looking ahead to 2012, we predict more of the same. More caution in the so called developed markets and more brand-building ideas winning the major direct awards. The heartening thing here is that agencies can now prove to clients that their work works.

For direct marketing specialists, it is no bad thing having competition from the larger ad agencies because they are showing how much can be done with the right tools, especially if there is a decent budget.

Proximity London, for instance, is showing what can be done in social media with hardly any money at all. Its ‘LOL Experiment’ campaign for Royal Mail is helping the agency carve out a distinctive territory for itself. Now all they need is an ambitious client with ambitious objectives and respectable funds so they can really show how to turn the ‘like’ button into a cash machine.

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