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How the best creative ideas are often the most effective

It is hard to measure how much creativity drives results in campaigns, but recent research from marketing information analysts WARC on the health of creativity, claims that 38% of the world’s most creative ideas are also effective.

Key findings

  • Lead media: Ideas awarded both creatively and for effectiveness are almost twice as likely to lead with TV as any other channel
  • Creative strategy: Emotion is used in more than half of the ideas
  • Campaign objective: They focus their objectives on brand building
  • Hard metrics: Measurement is focused on sales, PR and social media
  • Sector: They are most likely to come from the retail sector

Discussing the connection between creativity and results, Amy Rodgers, managing editor, research and rankings at WARC, says: “The link between creativity and effectiveness is a much-discussed subject, and although there is compelling evidence that creativity is a key driver of increased effectiveness, the link is difficult to measure. 

"We wanted to use the wealth of awards data that powers our WARC Rankings, to put a number on how often awarded creativity results in effectiveness. The result? 38% of the best creative ideas over the past four years were also awarded for their effectiveness. As concern mounts over the focus on short-termism negatively impacting creative effectiveness, we’ll continue to measure this conversion, giving the industry a benchmark to work from in efforts to measure the effectiveness of creative work.”

5 characteristics of the 126 most creative and effective ideas


The WARC Rankings Creative 100, has just been released and the world’s most creative campaigns and agencies are listed below.

Top 10 world's most awarded campaigns for creativity

Rank

Campaign title

Brand

Agency

Points

1

The Whopper Detour

Burger King

FCB New York

271.9

2

Viva La Vulva

Bodyform/Libresse

AMV BBDO London

227.7

3

Dream Crazy

Nike

Wieden+Kennedy Portland

223.3

4

The Truth Is Worth It

The New York Times

Droga5 New York

198.8

5

Changing the Game

Xbox

McCann New York

159.4

6

Broadway the Rainbow

Skittles

DDB Chicago

114.1

7

StorySign

Huawei

FCB Inferno London

107.4

8

Keeping Fortnite Fresh

Wendy's

VMLY&R Kansas City

100.3

9

ThisAbles

IKEA

McCann Tel Aviv

100

10

Safety Hub

NRMA Insurance

CHE Proximity Melbourne

87.7

Top 10 world's most awarded agencies for creativity

Rank

Agency

Location

Points

1

McCann

New York, USA

376.6

2

Droga5

New York, USA

375.8

3

Wieden+Kennedy

Portland, USA

297.4

4

AMV BBDO

London, UK

234.6

5

Impact BBDO

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

222.5

6

adam&eveDDB

London, UK

221.2

7

Publicis

Milan, Italy

211.3

8

FCB

New York, USA

200.0

9

Africa

São Paulo, Brazil

196.3

10

McCann

London, UK

181.0


Top 10 world's most awarded networks for creativity

Rank

Network

Points

1

BBDO Worldwide

1316.5

2

DDB Worldwide

1113.5

3

McCann Worldgroup

1068.4

4

TBWA Worldwide

853.8

5

Ogilvy

707.1

6

FCB

637.8

7

Wieden+Kennedy

457.5

8

Droga5

429.5

9

Publicis Worldwide

418.9

10

VMLY&R

405.3

Top 10 world's most awarded holding companies for creativity

Rank

Holding company

Points

1

Omnicom Group

3367.1

2

Interpublic Group

2067.5

3

WPP

1964.8

4

Publicis Groupe

833.8

5

Accenture

512.3

6

Dentsu

483.1

7

Havas Group

225

8

MDC Partners

198.2

9

Hakuhodo DY Group

160.8

10

BlueFocus

10.6

Top 10 world's most awarded brands for creativity

Rank

Brand

Product Category

Points

1

Burger King

Retail

490.7

2

Nike

Clothing & Accessories

338.1

3

Xbox

Technology & Electronics

257.8

4

IKEA

Retail

211.1

5

Bodyform/Libresse

Toiletries & Cosmetics

200.0

6

The New York Times

Media & Publishing

198.8

7

Apple

Technology & Electronics

198.0

8

Volkswagen

Automotive

179.7

9

Diesel

Clothing & Accessories

146.3

10

KFC

Retail

146.2

Methodology

For the Health of Creativity study, WARC analysed the results of the award shows tracked between 2015 and 2018 for creativity, media and effectiveness.

WARC’s Creative 100 Ranking is produced by combining the results of the industry's most important global and regional creative award shows tracked throughout 2019. The awards tracked are determined by the WARC Rankings Advisory Board and a worldwide industry survey.

For more information, data and to view previous WARC Rankings, the successor to the Gunn Report, go to warc.com/rankings

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