A year earlier, BBDO had finished in 14th place, but Isabelle Musnik, editor of The Gunn Report, explained that the agency has risen in the ranks because it is increasingly entering and winning award competitions versus media agencies. The Gunn rankings use a point system based on honors bestowed by dozens of annual competitions including Media magazine's Creative Media Awards.
"Today there's a big battle between media agencies and creative agencies," Musnik explained, "because each wants to take claim as most creative." She noted that "creative agencies want to be perceived as creative media agencies."
advertisement
advertisement
Taking second place in the agency rankings was Group M's MindShare--up one position from 2006--while Publicis Groupe's Starcom MediaVest fell from second in 2006 to fifth place in 2007. Interpublic's Universal McCann placed fourth, up one slot.
With both OMD and BBDO faring well individually, Omnicom Media Group topped the list of media agency holding company units--knocking the 2006 winner, WPP's Group M, into second place. Publicis and Interpublic finished third and fourth--the same as the previous year--while Aegis at No. 5 and Havas at No. 6 flipped rankings.
For the second straight year, Nike was ranked the most creative of media clients, followed by Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Adidas and a fifth-place tie between top-five newcomers Axe and Nissan. Sony and Lynx, the second- and third-place finishers in 2006, dropped out of the top five.
Nike's "Barrio Bonito" won for media campaign of the year, followed by Nissan's "Qashqai," Amnesty International's "Not Here But Now," and Mastercard's "Happy New Year." And the U.S. repeated as the country earning the most creative media points, followed by the U.K., Germany, Spain and India.
Most Awarded Agencies Worldwide 2006 & 2007
2006 | 2007 | ||||
Rank | Agency | Points | Rank | Agency | Points |
1 | OMD | 206 | 1 | OMD | 234 |
2 | Starcom MediaVest | 116 | 2 | MindShare | 110 |
3 | MindShare | 107 | 3 | BBDO | 101 |
4 | Mediaedge:cia | 69 | 4 | Universal McCann | 87 |
5 | Universal McCann | 64 | 5 | Starcom MediaVest | 81 |
6 | Mediacom | 59 | 6 | Carat | 57 |
7 | ZenithOptimedia | 56 | 6 | Mediacom | 57 |