Directory Big Won Rankings: McCann Melbourne ranked #1 agency in the world, Leo Burnett Sydney #8, GPY&R Melbourne #17, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne #18; Australia #2 country

Rankings from the 2013 Directory Big Won have been released, which look at agency performance across all marketing communication platforms.

Australia has performed brilliantly, ranked number 2 in the world with 3316 points, close behind the USA on 3869 points and ahead of the UK on 2412 points, Brazil on 2236 points and Germany on 1633 points.

McCann Melbourne is ranked #1 agency in the world, with Leo Burnett Sydney at #8, GPY&R Melbourne at #17 and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne at #18. New Zealand performs brilliantly too, with Colenso BBDO, Auckland at # 4 and DraftFCB Auckland at #6.

Overall, Ogilvy was #1 ranked agency network in the world with BBDO #2, DDB at #3 and Leo Burnett at #4.

McCann Melbourne’s “Dumb Ways to Die” was the big hit of the year, ranked #1 campaign across all media. The original video has had over 68 million views on YouTube. The copies and parodies take that number to around 100 million views.

The song became a Top 10 iTunes hit in Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam. Wikipedia records there have been over 65 different cover versions. As well as providing press and outdoor ads, it is also a game. It has generated over 700 stories in online and offline media worth over $50 million “for a fraction the cost of one TV ad.”

Coca-Cola ‘Small World Machines’ via Leo Burnett Sydney was ranked #6, Australian Defence Force ‘Mobile Medic’ via GPY&R Melbourne was at #11, Virgin Mobile ‘Fair Go Bro’ via Havas Sydney was at #13 and Seek ‘Volunteer to promote volunteering’ via Leo Burnett Melbourne was ranked #16 campaign.

McCann Melbourne was ranked #5 in Direct, with Leo Burnett Melbourne at #8 and Leo Burnett Sydney at #10.

Individually, McCann Melbourne’s John Mescall (far left) was ranked #1 ECD and #1 Copywriter, while Leo Burnett, Sydney’s Andy DiLallo was ranked #6 Chief Creative Officer. McCann Melbourne’s Pat Baron (near left) was ranked #1 Art Director and #4 Copywriter, while Leo Burnett Sydney’s Justin Carew was ranked #10 Art Director.

Australia and New Zealand continues to exert a disproportionate pull on the global awards shows with ideas that are fresh, often innovative and usually funny. (The exception here being Colenso BBDO’s ‘Trial by Timeline’ work for Amnesty.)

For Australia to rank No.2 in the world is amazing. And with New Zealand at No.9, Singapore at No. 10, Japan at 12, China at 14 and Thailand at 19, the Asia-Pac region has claims to being more of a creative hub than Europe with six countries in the Top 20 or the Americas, which have four. 

Further information can be found here.