Ad campaign ‘Meet Graham’, agency AlmapBBDO, network BBDO Worldwide, holding company Omnicom Group, brand Nike, advertiser Volkswagen Group and USA top the rankings
Global, 12 January 2018 – Gunn Report, the global index of creative excellence in advertising, today released the results of the newly launched Gunn 100, a ranking of the top 100 creatively awarded advertising ideas of 2017- regardless of their communication discipline – and the companies behind them.
The rankings, which include the top creative agencies, agency networks, holding companies, brands, advertisers and countries, are compiled by analysing the results of more than 40 of the world’s most important international, regional and national creative awards shows.
Ranked the most creative campaign in the world is ‘Meet Graham’, created by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne for Australia’s Transport Accident Commission, depicting what a human would have to look like to withstand a low speed crash.
In second place is McCann New York’s ‘Fearless Girl’. In honour of International Women’s Day, asset management firm State Street Global Advisors installed a bronze statue of a defiant girl staring down the iconic Wall Street’s ‘Charging Bull’ sculpture, which sparked a conversation on women’s equality issues in the US.
Ranked third is Pedigree’s humorous ‘Child Replacement Programme’ campaign in New Zealand, created by Colenso BBDO Auckland, which encourages parents to adopt a dog once their children have left home.
Three themes have emerged from the world’s most creative campaigns:
- A year of ‘purpose’: purpose-driven marketing continues to dominate with brands (as opposed to charities or not-for-profit) using social or environmental causes in brand-building activity.
- Creativity meets tech: A number of high-ranking campaigns found innovative ways to use emerging technology.
- Emotion drives film-led work: A combination of emotional engagement and high production values was a recurring theme in film-led campaigns.
BBDO agencies dominate the league tables following an impressive performance around the world with four agencies listed in the top ten. Most notably AlmapBBDO São Paulo tops the most creative agencies leader-board for the fourth time in the 19 years of Gunn Report. BBDO New York is ranked second and Dentsu Tokyo third.
BBDO Worldwide heads the networks table, for an impressive twelfth consecutive year with 36 different offices contributing to their total. McCann Worldgroup are in second place and Ogilvy & Mather third.
Andrew Robertson, President and Chief Executive BBDO, comments: “We know that award-winning work works better in the marketplace, so topping the Gunn 100 matters. When we say we’re focused on The Work. The Work. The Work, we mean it: winning Gunn for 12 years in a row proves it.”
For the first time Gunn Report has included a ranking of holding companies based on their creative output. Omnicom takes poll position followed by WPP in second and Interpublic Group in third place.
Nike has bounced back from 12th position last year to take first place in the brands table for the fifth time. Volkswagen, IKEA, Getty Images and McDonald’s follow.
German multinational Volkswagen Group, is the most creative advertiser with both Volkswagen and Audi ranking in the top ten brands. They had two campaigns in the top 100 and a further 30 from across all regions that contributed to their tally. Mars takes second place followed by Nike, Procter & Gamble and Samsung.
Jochen Sengpiehl, Head of Marketing, Volkswagen, says: “We are very pleased that Volkswagen Group has been named best advertiser of the world in 2017. Our campaigns are based on a tremendous passion for the automobile and people. Volkswagen is committed to creative advertising that convinces customers. This honour shows that our campaigns throughout the world have reached a top-class level and will provide the entire team with motivation to do even better and to defend the title.”
USA retains its place as the most creatively awarded country in the world by far. United Kingdom and Australia follow.
The most highly ranked ideas and companies in Gunn 100 are:
Top 10 world’s most creatively awarded campaigns
| Rank | Campaign title | Brand | Agency | Points |
| 1 | Meet Graham | Transport Accident Commission | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | 684 |
| 2 | Fearless Girl | State Street Global Advisors | McCann
New York |
395.6 |
| 3 | Child Replacement Programme | Pedigree | Colenso BBDO Auckland | 302.3 |
| 4 | Evan | Sandy Hook Promise | BBDO
New York |
300.7 |
| 5 | Endless Possibilities | Getty Images | AlmapBBDO
Sao Paulo |
294.4 |
| 6 | The Field Trip to Mars | Lockheed Martin | McCann
New York |
286.9 |
| 7 | We’re The Superhumans | Channel 4 Paralympics | 4Creative
London |
262.9 |
| 8 | Landcruiser Emergency Network | Toyota | Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney | 256.3 |
| 9 | Nike Unlimited Stadium | Nike | BBH
Singapore |
254.1 |
| 10 | Like My Addiction | Addict’Aide | BETC
Paris |
247.9 |
Top 10 world’s best creative agencies
| Rank | Agency | Location | Points |
| 1 | AlmapBBDO | São Paulo, Brazil | 786.4 |
| 2 | BBDO | New York, USA | 688.3 |
| 3 | Dentsu | Tokyo, Japan | 651.1 |
| 4 | adam&eveDDB | London, UK | 615.8 |
| 5 | McCann | New York, USA | 605.9 |
| 6 | Wieden+Kennedy | Portland, USA | 603.5 |
| 7 | Clemenger BBDO | Melbourne, Australia | 603.1 |
| 8 | BETC | Paris, France | 493.3 |
| 9 | DAVID | Miami, USA | 488.6 |
| 10 | Colenso BBDO | Auckland, New Zealand | 382.3 |
Top 10 world’s best creative agency networks
| Rank | Network | Points |
| 1 | BBDO Worldwide | 4256.4 |
| 2 | McCann Worldgroup | 2940.8 |
| 3 | Ogilvy & Mather | 2928.5 |
| 4 | DDB Worldwide | 2344.6 |
| 5 | Leo Burnett | 1593 |
| 6 | TBWA Worldwide | 1540.5 |
| 7 | J. Walter Thompson | 1401.6 |
| 8 | Y&R | 1396.7 |
| 9 | Saatchi & Saatchi | 901.9 |
| 10 | Wieden+Kennedy | 864 |
Top 10 world’s best creative holding companies
| Rank | Holding company | Points |
| 1 | Omnicom Group | 8891.5 |
| 2 | WPP | 7062.6 |
| 3 | Interpublic Group | 4511 |
| 4 | Publicis Groupe | 4114.4 |
| 5 | Dentsu | 1056.8 |
| 6 | Havas Group | 863.3 |
| 7 | Hakuhodo DY Group | 785.9 |
| 8 | MDC Partners | 551.8 |
| 9 | BlueFocus Communication Group | 331.1 |
| 10 | Accenture | 79.6 |
Top 10 world’s best creative brands
| Rank | Brand | Sector | Points |
| 1 | Nike | Clothing & Accessories | 820.5 |
| 2 | Volkswagen | Automotive | 650.3 |
| 3 | IKEA | Retail | 639.1 |
| 4 | Getty Images | Business & Industrial | 503.9 |
| 5 | McDonald’s | Retail | 469.7 |
| 6 | Audi | Automotive | 429.2 |
| 7 | Burger King | Retail | 422.8 |
| 8 | Snickers | Food | 417.1 |
| 9 | Adidas | Clothing & Accessories | 398.9 |
| 10 | Netflix | Media & Publishing | 383.6 |
Top 10 world’s best creative advertisers
| Rank | Advertiser | Location | Points |
| 1 | Volkswagen Group | Germany | 1097.3 |
| 2 | Mars | USA | 1023.4 |
| 3 | Nike | USA | 835 |
| 4 | Procter & Gamble | Germany | 759.3 |
| 5 | IKEA | Sweden | 743.6 |
| 6 | Samsung | South Korea | 606.3 |
| 7 | Heineken | Netherlands | 515 |
| 8 | The Carlyle Group | USA | 508.5 |
| 9 | Alphabet | USA | 489.5 |
| 10 | Restaurant Brands International | USA | 483.7 |
Top 10 world’s most creative countries
| Rank | Country | Points |
| 1 | USA | 8657.2 |
| 2 | UK | 3259.9 |
| 3 | Australia | 2710.7 |
| 4 | Germany | 2089.3 |
| 5 | France | 1978.6 |
| 6 | Brazil | 1637.0 |
| 7 | Japan | 1632.4 |
| 8 | Argentina | 1152.3 |
| 9 | Thailand | 1045.7 |
| 10 | Canada | 1033.3 |
Emma Wilkie, managing director of Gunn Report, says: “Gunn 100 offers an independent and objective overview of the best creative ideas from around the world and the companies behind them providing benchmark rankings that encapsulate and inspire the industry.”
The full Gunn 100 rankings – including the world’s top 100 creatively awarded campaigns, top 50 creative agencies, agency networks, brands, advertisers, countries and top holding companies as well as commentaries, the work and credits – is available by subscription on www.warc.com/gunnreport.
The WARC 100 effectiveness rankings will be announced on 26 February and the Gunn media rankings are released in March.
About Gunn Report – The global index of creative, effective and media excellence in advertising
Gunn Report celebrates award-winning qualities in advertising. It ranks the world’s best creative, effective and media ideas as well as companies and countries based on their performance in the most important international, regional and national creative, media, effective and strategy awards contests to produce Gunn 100, WARC 100 and Gunn Media.
The campaigns it showcases have the power to produce an immediate impact on sales and a longer-term impact on brand building. The Gunn Report’s research articles further demonstrate the commercial power of creativity.
As well as the various rankings, Gunn Report offers a library of more than 3,500 award-winning creative campaigns and a series of research studies. The Gunn Report was founded by Donald Gunn in 1999 and was acquired by WARC in 2016. Gunn Report is available online by subscription.
About Gunn 100 & Methodology
The Gunn 100 is an annual ranking of the world’s most creative advertising and marketing ideas, along with the best-performing agencies, networks, holding companies, brands, advertisers and countries. Gunn 100 rankings are compiled by analysing the results of over 40 of the world’s most important global, regional and national creative awards contests. The awards shows tracked will remain confidential to avoid prejudicing entries to competitions. Points are earned based on the level of the award and are weighted according to the standing of each competition in the global marketing industry, determined in part by a survey of senior advertising management.
About WARC – your global authority on advertising and media effectiveness
warc.com is an online service offering advertising best practice, evidence, insights and data from the world’s leading brands. WARC helps clients grow their businesses by using proven approaches to maximise advertising effectiveness. WARC’s clients include the world’s largest advertising and media agencies, research companies, universities and advertisers.
WARC runs four global and two regional case study competitions: WARC Awards, WARC Innovation Awards, WARC Media Awards, The Admap prize, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy and WARC Prize for MENA Strategy.
Founded in 1985, WARC is privately owned and has offices in the UK, U.S. and Singapore.