The Big Won Report: Colenso BBDO, Auckland ranked world’s most awarded advertising agency; Worthington ranked #2 ECD, Slavin #1 Copywriter
For the first time a New Zealand advertising agency, Colenso BBDO, has fought off strong international competition more than ten times its size, to be named the world’s most awarded advertising agency, according to The Big Won Report released in London today.
It’s the first time a New Zealand or Australian agency has won the title, and betters the previous top performance, which was Colenso BBDO’s fifth placing last year.
Two Australian agencies made the Top 20 – Whybin\TBWA\Tequila Sydney was ranked number 9 (up from 105 last year) and George Patterson Y&R Melbourne was ranked number 20 (up from 377 last year).
Of the top five agencies, three were from the BBDO Worldwide network with BBDO New York ranked second and Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO London ranked fourth.
Australia was ranked #4 country in the world behind the USA, Germany and UK, while New Zealand was ranked #10.
Leo Burnett, Melbourne’s 7-Eleven ‘BYO Cup Day’ campaign was ranked #7 campaign across all channels in the world, with GPY&R Melbourne’s Australian Defence Force ‘Mobile Medic’ at #10, Ogilvy Sydney’s Coca-Cola ‘Share a Coke’ at #11 and Colenso BBDO Auckland’s DB Breweries ‘Sorry about the twigs’ at =#17.
DDB Sydney’s print campaign for Volkswagen ‘Park Assist Technology’ was ranked #6 press/print campaign in the world while BMF Sydney’s ‘Nocturnal Migration’ spot for Tooheys Extra Dry was ranked #9 TV/Film campaign.
The Aussies and Kiwis performed admirably in the direct marketing league tables, with Colenso BBBDO Auckland ranked #1 and Whybin\TBWA\Tequila Sydney at #3 and BMF Sydney at #8. Four of the Top 10 DM Campaigns in the world are from Australia (GPY&R Melbourne, Whybin\TBWA\Tequila Sydney, Ogilvy Sydney and Leo Burnett Melbourne) while three are from New Zealand (all from Colenso BBDO).
The Big Won is an annual global report tracking award performance of marketing communications agencies across all media categories and disciplines throughout the year. The rankings analyse the results of 39 industry awards shows, approximately 4,500 campaigns or pieces of creative by more than 1,500 agencies from around the globe to give a conclusive ranking.
Several Aussie and Kiwi creatives are ranked in the league tables of the world top 10 ECDs, Copywriters and Art Directors.
Nick Worthington, creative chairman of Colenso BBDO, Auckland is ranked #2 ECD in the world, while Matty Burton, joint ECD at Whybin\TBWA Sydney is ranked #6.
Aussie expat Levi Slavin (left), creative director at Colenso BBDO Auckland is ranked #1 copywriter in the world, while Colenso’s Simon Vicars is ranked #6.
Colenso’s James Tucker is ranked equal #5 art director in the world along with former Colenso creative Jae Morrison, now a commercials director represented by Thick As Thieves in NZ and Finch in Australia.
Colenso BBDO’s performance comes off the back of an award-winning year, winning Gold at the Cannes Festival of Creativity, the New Zealand Effies, The Caples, Spikes Asia and New Zealand’s own Axis Awards, as well as winning the Diamond Echo Award and being named Campaign Asia Australia/New Zealand Agency of the Year and YoungGuns International Agency of the Year.
To achieve the status of the world’s best creative agency in 2012, Colenso BBDO Auckland won a total of 110 awards (30% of which were Golds or Grands Prix) with 20 separate pieces of work on behalf of 11 different clients including Levi Strauss, Mars Petfoods, DB Breweries, Frucor Beverages, and State Insurance.
“When you look at the most awarded marketing campaigns over the past few years, many of them have gone further than just advertising. We no longer view ourselves as just supplying advertising, but as creative service providers using a range of channels to solve core business problems,” says Nick Worthington (above left), Colenso BBDO creative chair.
“We are still pinching ourselves after hearing the news. The whole agency is absolutely thrilled that a few people in a relatively small Auckland office have beaten the rest of the world,” says Colenso BBDO managing director, Nick Garrett (above right).
“It’s particularly pleasing to receive this accolade as it highlights the variety of award-winning work across so many of our different clients, not just one or two campaigns. It’s a testament to the hard work the team have put in over the last couple of years to be more commercially creative, and we are very lucky to work with so many great clients and wonderful brands.”
Some of Colenso BBDO’s award-winning work includes building a pinball-esque skatepark to promote new flavours of Mountain Dew, a website that used facial recognition technology to help people find a look-a-like dog – their “Doggelganger” – from the SPCA for the Pedigree adoption drive, as well as putting twigs inside Monteith’s cider boxes to remind people that it was the only cider on the market made from real apples and not concentrate.
“Colenso BBDO is one of the most consistently performing agencies in the world. Part of its success comes down to its ability to evolve and adapt to new channels, and deliver award-winning work across a vast number of clients and categories,” says Clemenger Group New Zealand chief executive, Jim Moser.
Colenso BBDO was also named the world’s best direct marketing agency for the second year in a row, and BBDO held onto its number one ranking for global advertising networks.
Top agencies in the world for creativity across all media 2012
(points in brackets)
1. Colenso BBDO Auckland (573)
2. BBDO New York (530)
3. Serviceplan Munich Gerrmany (431)
4. Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO London (358)
5. Jung von Matt Hamburg (352)
6. Leo Burnett Beirut (330)
7. DDB Singapore (316)
8. Dentsu Tokyo (310)
9. Whybin TBWA Tequila Sydney (282)
10. Forsman & Bodenfors Sweden (277)
11. AlmapBBDO Sao Paulo (270)
12. Ogilvy Frankfurt (262)
13. BETC Euro RSCG Paris (256)
14. Ogilvy Sao Paulo (255)
15. BBH London (228)
16. Y&R Dubai (219)
17. Memac Ogilvy Label Tunis (212)
18. JWT Shanghai (211)
19. Y&R Malaysia (210)
19. George Patterson Y&R Melbourne (207)
Top agencies – Asia/Pacific
1. Colenso BBDO Auckland (573)
2. DDB Singapore (316)
3. Dentsu Tokyo (310)
4. Whybin\TBWA\Tequila Sydney (282)
5. JWT Shanghai (211)
6. George Patterson Y&R Melbourne (207)
7. Hakuhodo Tokyo (152)
8. Leo Burnett Melbourne (147)
9. BMF Sydney (139)
10. DDB Rapp New Zealand (118)
Top agencies – New Zealand
1. Colenso BBDO Auckland (573)
2. DDB Rapp Auckland (118)
3. Draft FCB Auckland (80)
4. AIM/Proximity Wellington (39)
5. Special Group Auckland (34)
6. Publicis Mojo Auckland (27)
7. Republik Auckland (23)
8. String Theory Auckland (12)
9. Clemenger BBDO Wellington (11)
10. Barnes Catmur & Friends (9)
23 Comments
To the bar!
Go the twigs!
They made a cinema ad and played it once for a room full of agency staff. (Did you ever see the ad? Any of your friends? Your family?)
They made a website with facial recognition that didn’t work. At all. (try it twice with the same photo and see for yourself)
They put a camera in some jeans, got 10million views, but forgot to but a logo on it. (Do any of your non-agency friends know it’s for Levis?)
And somehow they are rated the best in the world? This is like Toyota making a car just for their employees, that doesn’t actually have an engine, and which they didn’t bother naming, and winning consumer car of the year for.
Shhhhhhh….don’t mention the dirty secret about their scam ads. There are still some people whom are obviously fooled by them.
Anyhow, this is a great press release that sets up the change in power for later this year.
Agree. Currently best in the world at making award show entry videos.
Hello, Cynical. Perhaps you should consider changing your screen name to “Bitter”?
Well done getting the gong – must have quite a bit of time on their hands to enter so many.
Killer result team…well done from across the ditch.
I agree with cynical – very well put. They have achieved what for their clients?
That advertings awards are total sham… What real world results did ‘Big Won’s number 1 agency’ score for their clients? Oh sorry, guess we’ll have to look to FCB to deliver that crown…
Although to be fair, fuck knows what they (FCB) are doing killing the Vodafone brand!!!
How many of these award-tally things are there? It kinda feels like the wine industry -every second bottle at the wine shop has some metallic sticker claiming that it won this or that.
Somehow, anyhow, I just gotta get ahead of Toby Talbot… Am I? Am I now? What? He’s coming back! Cue shit in pants.
@cynical you misspelt coward.
They know the game, they know its rules and how to win it. Don’t hate on them for knowing what they’re doing when it comes to these things. Really, if you had the opportunity to ‘be the most creative in the world’ would you do that? Or stay behind to ‘score results for the clients’ .
Congratulations guys and well deserved .More than makes up for being robbed of Digital Agency Of The Year .
It always amazes me at how bitter and twisted this industry can be and why it’s so hard for people just say ‘Bloody well done’ .
No, it not hard for Colenso to pat themselves on the shoulder saying ‘Bloody well done’. However, they are also bitter and twisted.
Maybe award recognition makes these ad nerds feel cool.
Well done I guess…
Peter A…..
Sorry my team is behind all the negative comments.
Maybe posting here makes these ad nerds less jealous.
Colenso is simply an gancy where clients are sidelined to the main agenda – winning awards no matter for whom or how… And you know what, there would be nothing wrong with it either if they were winning for big bugget clients with mainstream ideas, not flights of fancy (under the guise of ‘breakthrough’) excecuted in a dark alleyway at 2am. Everybody sing, “Aint notihg going to break my stride.” Wow, what a cracker that was!
Where’s the evidence that Colenso’s work doesn’t work for their clients? Does anyone here claiming that have any numbers to back themselves up?
Um…
There might be a clue in the exodus of clients that caused them to lay so many people off.