Warc 100 ranks Saatchi Sydney’s ‘Penny The Pirate’ as world’s most effective campaign

‘Penny the Pirate’, developed by Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney and OMD for OPSM, has been named the world’s most effective marketing campaign, according to the annual Warc 100 rankings.

The campaign, which combined traditional and digital media, producing an engaging printed book and app to highlight vision problems in children, scored 139 points to hit the number one spot on the top campaigns ranking. Following the initiative, more than 126,000 parents bought the reading book, and the number of eye tests conducted by OPSM increased by 23% year-on-year.

Other Australian agencies to make the top 100 include Leo Burnett Melbourne ranked #15 for SPC #SPCSunday; Clemenger BBDO Melbourne ranked #19 for DrinkWise Australia ‘How To Drink Properly’; Leo Burnett Melbourne ranked #30 for Slurpee ‘Xpandinator’; Clemenger BBDO Melbourne ranked #54 for Snickers ‘Aussie Builders’; The Brand Agency Perth ranked #84 for St John Ambulance Western Australia ‘Break the Barrier’.

Aussie expat David Droga and his agency Droga5 New York scored an impressive three campaigns in the top 10 ranking for Newcastle Brown Ale ‘If We Made It’ (#6), Honeymaid ‘This is Wholesome’ (#7) and Under Armour ‘I Will What I Want’ (#10).

The Warc 100 is an annual list of the world’s best campaigns, agencies and brands, based on their performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions in the previous calendar year. To compile this year’s rankings, Warc tracked more than 2,000 winning campaigns from 79 different competitions.

In second place on the rankings was ‘#LikeAGirl’, by Leo Burnett and Starcom Mediavest Group for Always, scoring 126 points. ‘Project Architeuthis’, a campaign developed for America’s Navy by Campbell Ewald, was third on 81 points.

Rounding out the top five were ‘Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables’, a campaign for Intermarché from Marcel, in fourth, and ‘Live Test Series’, from Forsman & Bodenfors for Volvo Trucks, in fifth.

The other campaigns on this year’s top 10 were ‘Share a Coke’, a global initiative from Coca-Cola, in eighth, and ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’, from MullenLowe Lintas Group and PHD for Hindustan Unilever, in ninth. The latter campaign was ranked 1st on the Warc 100 in 2015.

Says Jonny Bauer, global chief strategy officer at Droga5: “We are very happy to be recognized in this year’s Warc 100. We are doing our best to create the most influential work that’s deeply rooted in future facing strategy. This acknowledgement really makes us feel like we’re onto something.”

Elsewhere on this year’s Warc 100 rankings, the US retained its position as top country for strategy and effectiveness awards wins, scoring 3078 points. The UK came second on 1670 points, also holding position from last year, while India rose to third, reaching 1013 points, up from fourth in 2015.

Says David Tiltman, head of content at Warc: “The Warc 100 represents the best work in marketing – breakthrough campaigns that have delivered tangible results for their clients. The rankings are a benchmark of excellence in the industry. The clients and agencies that feature in them are some of the best in the business.”

OMD Sydney was ranked Top 3 of the World’s Best Media Agencies. This new accolade bolsters a stellar year for OMD, having been named Campaign Asia-Pacific ANZ Media Agency of the Year as well as taking out the 2015 Festival of Media Global Grand Prix Award and Agency Network of The Year. OMD Australia also ranked in the 2015 BRW Best Places to Work in Australia list for the 7th year running and were awarded the 2015 B&T Employer of The Year Award.

Says Peter Horgan (left), CEO, OMD Australia: “This is testament to the talent that we have in this market, and it is great to see Australian media agencies rubbing shoulders with the world’s best.”

The OPSM Penny The Pirate campaign produced by OMD and m2m Australia together with Saatchi & Saatchi has also been ranked the world’s best marketing campaign according to The Warc 100 annual rakings. To compile this year’s rankings, Warc tracked more than 2,000 winning campaigns from 79 different competitions. This top ranking caps the 17 gongs received for this globally recognised campaign, including four gold awards at the 2015 Festival of Media Asia Pacific, five gold awards at the 2015 Festival of Media Global awards, and three gold including Campaign of the Year at the M&M Global Awards.

Says Stephen Li, CEO of OMD APAC: “It is an honour to see our work top WARC 100 rankings and our Sydney office being ranked as the #3 best media agency in the world. OMD’s performance in the report is testament to the talent of our teams and our focus on delivering exceptional campaigns that leverage the best of creativity and effectiveness.

“The WARC accolade comes close on the heels of OMD being named the most creative agency by the Gunn Report for the 10th consecutive time and we are charged to continue the momentum and raise the benchmark of excellence.”

You can read full results from the Warc 100 on warc.com/warc100, and also view a summary of results.