US, Australia dominate Warc 100

Warc, 11 July 2014

LONDON: The US and Australia are the nations most represented in the newly launched Warc 100, an annual ranking of the world's best marketing campaigns based on performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions.

Given the array of brands and the volume of advertising in the US, it was perhaps not surprising that it should have the greatest number of entries in the Warc 100. Its total of 22 was twice as many as Australia, the second-ranked nation, on 11.

Latest adspend figures from Warc suggest that the US accounts for 28% of the world's adspend in PPP terms, for the latest year for which such data are available, while Australia contributes 1.5%.

These two nations also supplied three of the top five entries. 'Small Business Saturday', from Digitas and CP+B for American Express, came second, while 'Thank You, Mom' (W+K and Procter & Gamble) and 'Overstay Checkout' (Naked) came fourth and fifth respectively.

China was the third most-represented nation with nine entries, although adding in Hong Kong's five brought the total to 14. The UK also had nine entries, while Colombia had five.

"It's increasingly likely that breakthrough thinking will come from non-mainstream markets," according to David Tiltman, Warc director of content. He added that this was one of the reasons for setting up the Warc 100. "We want to make sure that people are aware of the best thinking that's out there and are able to view the best case studies in the world," he said.

The category that featured most often in the Warc 100 was not actually a commercial one: government and non-profit had 13 entries, suggesting that brands might usefully consider how these bodies go about changing consumer behaviour.

Among the commercial categories, soft drinks led the way with 11 entries, followed by food (10), retail (9), financial services (8) and automotive (7).

Creative agencies dominated the rankings, being responsible for 80% of the Warc 100. The remaining 20% was evenly split between digital and media agencies.

To compile the rankings, Warc tracked more than 1,700 winners in 75 different competitions. It assigned points based on the awards won (for example, Gold, Silver or Bronze) and then used a proprietary methodology, developed in consultation with a leading academic, to weight those points based on the competition's rigour and prestige in the global industry.

Further data from the Warc 100, including the world's top agencies and brands, will be revealed later in the summer.

Data sourced from Warc