• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, September 28, 2022

The Global Effie Effectiveness Index was issued today and Omnicom unseated WPP as the Most Effective Holding Group—the first time that WPP hadn’t won since 2012. Omnicom had been the prior-year winner in 2011.

The holding group prize is a compilation of the Effies won by its agencies around the world and the Effie organization credited “impressive wins” by Omnicom agencies BBDO, DDB and TBWA for helping to put Omnicom in the top spot.

WPP fell to the number two position while the rest the top 5 has remained unchanged since 2016, with IPG, Publicis Groupe and Dentsu holding their positions.

McCann Worldgroup retained its position as Most Effective Agency Network for the fourth year in a row.  The IPG agency network earned 4 Grand Effies in 2021.  Omnicom’s BBDO Worldwide placed second, WPP’s Ogilvy was third, and Omnicom’s DDB Worldwide and OMD took the fourth and fifth spots respectively.

The top 5 in the Most Effective Agency Offices were: FP7 McCann Dubai, DDB Colombia, McCann Tel Aviv, Sancho BBDO and McCann Worldgroup India.

The top 5 Most Effective Independent Agencies were: Special Group, GUT Buenos Aires, Gres Todorchuk, Interaction and Suno United Creators.

AB InBev took the number one spot as Most Effective Marketer for the first time, after entering the top 5 a year ago, with work for brands including Cerveza Nuestra Siembra, Quilmes, Victoria, Andes, Brahma, Poker, and Michelob ULTRA, among others. After four years in the top spot, Unilever moves to No. 2, with work for brands including Lipton, Good Humor, Dove, Lifebuoy, Rexona, Knorr, Omo, and Surf Excel.

PepsiCo ranked third, while McDonald’s and Procter & Gamble rounded out the top 5 spots.

It was a big year for QSR, with McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC taking the top three positions in the rankings for Most Effective Brand. McDonald’s moved up one spot to take the number one position, while Burger King jumped five spots to claim the second position in the rankings. KFC retained its ranking at number three. Entel and Chevrolet took the fourth and fifth spots, respectively.