The UK has maintained its place as the world’s number-two advertising market in terms of innovation and creativity in media, according to Warc’s Media 100 ranking (formerly the Gunn Media 100). The strength of UK agencies kept the market in second place behind the US in the rankings, which are based on performance in the top media awards schemes around the world.
A total of six UK agencies made the rankings, four of which are in the top 20: MediaCom ranked fifth, Havas Media seventh, PHD 13th and Mindshare 14th.
Creativity and innovation in media placement are becoming increasingly important to brands looking to reach consumers in the ‘attention economy’. There are multiple examples in the Warc Media 100 of brands and their agencies finding unusual and unconventional channels that help them to cut through, to surprise and to grab attention.
For example, Gillette's deodorant campaign "I don’t roll on Shabbos" by MediaCom Connections Tel Aviv takes top honours as the most awarded campaign. Using a multimedia approach, biblical texts and a battle of synagogues to appeal to the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel, Gillette’s share among the Orthodox population grew from 3% to 15% and brand awareness from 15% to 55%.
The success of Gillette’s top-ranked campaign contributed to MediaCom Connections Tel Aviv taking first place in the media agencies leaderboard. Other multi-award-winning work for Gillette, Pantene, Always and Fairy added to their points.
MediaCom retained its position at the top of the media networks list, with its agencies having a stronghold in the top 10. Just six points behind, PHD Worldwide follows in second place. Mindshare Worldwide moves up one place to third and IPG Mediabrands enters the top networks table for the first time.
The top three positions in the holding company ranking remain unchanged on last year, with WPP taking the top spot, significantly ahead of Omnicom in second and Interpublic Group in third.
In terms of brands, Gillette jumps from ninth to first, with two campaigns in the top 10 – alongside its number-one campaign, "Baby face" is in at number eight. Gillette and McDonald’s are the only two brands to retain top-10 ranks this year.
Last year’s first and second ranked advertisers have switched places this year with less than two points between them.
Procter & Gamble tops the table with work on five brands in the top 100 and Unilever follows in second place with work on four brands in the top 100. New entrants in the top 10 advertisers are 21st Century Fox at four, Tourism Australia at eight and AT&T at nine.
Volkswagen group made the biggest climb up the ranking from 29th last year to fifth this year with work from Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen contributing points.
The UK’s top advertisers in the rankings are GlaxoSmithKline, Sainsbury's, Vodafone, Tesco, RB and Cancer Research UK.
The Warc Media 100 is compiled by tracking the most important global and regional media awards as selected by the industry.
The full Warc 100 rankings, which include the Warc Creative 100, Warc Effective 100 and Warc Media 100, are available on .