Commentary

Colenso BBDO is the Most Creative Agency in the World

Congratulations to Colenso BBDO. The agency has been named the smartest creative agency in the world by UK-based marketing intelligence firm Warc. BBDO and Omnicom also top the list as, respectively, the smartest ad network and media holding company. The findings were arrived at through the analysis of hundreds of marketing campaigns in different markets around the world (based on the Warc 100, a ranking of the smartest marketing campaigns) along with points assigned based on awards won. You can check out the full listing here

Whether or not it's true, Dentsu EVP and Board Member Tim Andree told investors during a conference Thursday that the Japanese agency was not interested in buying Interpublic. "We have no interest in IPG," he said. "We will remain acquisitive but scale in and of itself is not a strategy." Hmm, perhaps Levy and Wren should have adopted a little bit of that mindset. While hedge fund Elliot Management took a 6.7 percent stake in Interpublic, it does not appear that will be the tipping point as to whether or not Dentsu will make a play for Interpublic.

After 21 years in business, Wongdoody has rebranded. The agency has stuck with the original black and green color palette but amped it up a bit. Of the shift, Wongdoody Chairman and Co-Founder Tracy Wong said: "When we launched, we deliberately designed our identity to look safe. Who on earth would hire an unknown agency with a wacky name like Wongdoody? So why make it worse with a crazy logo?. However, over the years we became known for our unexpected creative, and that initial conservative identity was at odds with our work. This was a chance for our branding to sync up with what we do." Wait, what? An agency that doesn't put the cart before the horse? There should be some kind of fancy award for that!

Female creative directors rejoice! While it isn't exactly an apples-to-apples finding, it appears that 11% of creative directors are now women, up from 3%, the figure used since an original analysis was done by University of Texas graduate student Kasey Windels in 2004. The 3% figure was arrived at by looking at the percentage of female creative directors winning awards in the Advertising Annuals of Communications Art in 1984, 1994 and 2004. Kat Gordon, founder of the 3% Conference, did the same thing and found that women creative directors now comprise 11% of all award winners. The study isn't perfect and Gordon urges the industry to take a closer look at gender (as well as cultural and ethnic) diversity in the advertising agency world.

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