Warc 100: Australia ranks #3 behind US and UK; McCann Melbourne top ranked agency in OZ

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Australia has ranked #3 in the Warc 100, a global ranking of marketing campaigns based on performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions. Havas Worldwide Sydney and One Green Bean’s ‘Fair Go Bro‘ campaign for Virgin Mobile was the only Australian campaign to make the top 10 at #10.

McCann Melbourne is the most awarded Australian agency with the agency being named three times. Metro Trains’ ‘Dumb Ways To Die‘ ranked #18, V/Line’s ‘Guilt Trips‘ ranked #19 and Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation’s ‘100 Day Challenge‘ ranked #76.

Says Pat Baron, ECD, McCann Melbourne: “We take the work we do for our clients’ businesses very seriously. To see that work rank so highly in what is essentially a list that acknowledges best practice in advertising, is really gratifying.”

Other Australian agencies who made the Warc 100 include Leo Burnett Melbourne (#29), UM Sydney (#34), The Monkeys (#42), Whybin\TBWA Sydney (#54), AJF Partnership (#61), Match Media (#62), Starcom MediaVest Group/Havas Worldwide/One Green Bean (#64), DDB Sydney (#67), VML Australia (#75), M&C Saatchi Sydney (#78), Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne (#81), JWT Sydney/Perth (#89), Clemenger BBDO, Sydney (#99).

VML Australia was ranked as the #1 digital agency in the Asia-Pacific region and #7 in the world.

 

Says Aden Hepburn, managing director and executive creative director at VML Australia: “This is an extremely proud moment for an agency just three years old today in Australia. It’s also a huge testament to the ambition, passion and dedication of our agency staff, and just as much to our amazing clients who we partner with every day to create outstanding work.”

Says Jon Cook, global CEO at VML: “I’m incredibly proud of Aden and every VMLer who has contributed to the exceptional work and growth of VML in Australia. This is a wonderful honor and a great example of how talented people and amazing client partners have made VML the globally recognized agency it is today.”

Says Jason Buckley, Y&R Group ANZ CEO: “VML Australia has shown great passion and determination to make it to this point. The relentless focus on delivering best-in-class work for our clients is what motivates the team, and it’s pleasing to receive the recognition from our industry for this.”

A mobile-led initiative for Unilever was named the world’s best marketing campaign, according to new data from Warc.

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On the list of the year’s top 100 campaigns, this year’s number one was ‘Kan Khajura Tesan‘, a campaign for Hindustan Unilever developed by Lowe Lintas and PHD in India. The campaign reached ‘media dark’ rural Indian populations with an always-on mobile media channel offering music, jokes and Bollywood content, interspersed with ads. The channel gained 12 million subscribers in less than 10 months from launch, including one million unique callers per month.

Says Priya Nair, executive director, Homecare, at Hindustan Unilever: “Kan Khajura Tesan is a great example of creating branded content using an unconventional medium. It has allowed us to build a platform that creates a two way connection between brands and consumers. We are only at the beginning of our journey with building mobile as a marketing medium.”

The Warc 100 is an annual list of the world’s best marketing campaigns, agencies and brands, based on their performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions. It is a benchmark for commercial creativity, allowing organisations to compare their performance with their peers.

 

Lowe Lintas India, the agency behind ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’, was named the top creative agency. 

Says Joseph George, CEO, Lowe Lintas India: “Warc is an organisation we hold in very high regard. And so this recognition is both extremely satisfying and spurring. We have had a terrific run on creative effectiveness this year across the globe; and all the accolades have further reinforced our belief in the type of work we want to do and believe in.”

WPP was the top holding company, ahead of Omnicom Group. BBDO Worldwide was named the number one agency network.

Says Andrew Robertson, president and CEO of BBDO Worldwide: “We believe the best work works best. Our goal is to be, and to be seen to be, the network that produces the most creative work that works best for its clients. The best proxy we have for measuring our performance against other agencies in effectiveness and the quality of our thinking is award schemes like those that are tracked by Warc. For us, it’s very very important. We aim to win it every year.”

Coca-Cola was the top brand in the ranking, beating McDonald’s (2nd) and Mercedes-Benz (3rd). Meanwhile, Unilever was ranked the top advertiser, ahead of Procter & Gamble. 

Across the database for 2015, the US was the top-ranked nation, ahead of the UK in 2nd. Australia, India and China made up the rest of the top five.

Elsewhere, Starcom MediaVest Group Chicago was named top media agency, with PHD Mumbai in second place. 360i New York was top digital agency, with R/GA New York in second.

Says Mike Cooper, CEO of PHD Worldwide: “It’s an honour to see that the top two most effective campaigns in the world over the past 12 months are both for work that PHD has carried out for Unilever. Both ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ for Hindustan Unilever from PHD in India and ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ for Dove from PHD International are examples of how creativity and innovation are at the heart of effective and strategic communications planning.”

Says Louise Ainsworth, CEO of Warc: “These rankings reflect an incredible body of work from across the globe – congratulations to the clients and the agencies who made it happen. Together these campaigns form an inspirational set of case studies, from which brands and agencies everywhere can learn.”

To compile this year’s rankings, Warc tracked more than 2,200 winning campaigns from 87 different competitions. It assigned points based on the awards won (for example, Gold, Silver or Bronze), then weighted those points based on the competition’s rigor and prestige in the global industry. Warc has developed a proprietary methodology to weight competitions, based on its own adspend data and a global poll of senior planners and strategists.

The top 10 campaigns (Title / Brand / Agency / Market) in full are:

1. Kan Khajura Tesan Hindustan / Unilever / Lowe Lintas/PHD / India

2. Real Beauty Sketches/ Dove / Ogilvy & Mather São Paulo/PHD / Global

3. Travel Yourself Interesting / Expedia / Ogilvy & Mather London / UK

4. Help A Child Reach 5 / Lifebuoy / Lowe Lintas / India

5. Beautiful Hair, Whatever the Weather / Pantene / Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide, Starcom MediaVest Group / US

6. Bentley Burial /&
nbsp;Brazilian Association of Organ Transplants / Leo Burnett Tailor Made / Brazil

7. SMART TXTBKS / SMART Communications / DDB DM9 JaymeSyfu / Philippines

8. #YouDrive / Mercedes-Benz / AMV BBDO / UK

9. The Hornbach Hammer / Hornbach / HEIMAT Berlin / Germany

10. Fair Go Bro / Virgin Mobile / Havas Worldwide Sydney/One Green Bean / Australia