India's creativity ranking improves: Gunn Report

According to Donald Gunn, founder of The Gunn Report, which is presented at ADFEST every year, there is a revolution in progress. ADFEST’s decision to launch the Effective Lotus at this year’s “Connect the Dots 2013” festival of advertising is perfect timing as there is now real proof that creative advertising brings real value to brand marketing campaigns through greater market share and ROI.

Recently the Institute of Practitioner in Advertising in the UK (IPA) and The Gunn Report combined their databases in the IPA/Gunn Study. The study compared advertising that had been awarded for both creative excellence and improving business results. It found that over the period of the study from 1996 to 2012, advertising that was both effective and creatively awarded was seven times more effective as advertising that was not awarded for its creativity. For the period from 2004-2012, this factor increased to twelve times more effective.

Says Gunn, “The study shows that two things are happening at the same time. Firstly, advertising that is strategically accurate but with a tendency to be boring is finding it harder to deliver commercially. Secondly, ads that people like and talk to their friends about are working better and actually faster than ever before, thanks to connectivity and the internet.”

Says Jimmy Lam, President of ADFEST, “This is a powerful statement and one that is difficult for creatives to ignore.” He continues, “ADFEST has wanted to introduce Effective Lotus for a number of years but wanted to make sure that it struck the right balance alongside our main focus of creativity. It is great to know without doubt that we are on the right track.”

The winners of the Gunn Report Asia Pacific 2012 were announced by Donald Gunn and Emma Wilkie of The Gunn Report at the first speaker session of Connect the Dots: ADFEST 2013 held at PEACH, Royal Cliff Hotels Group in Pattaya, Thailand from 17-19 March 2013.

Topline news snippets for Asia Pacific from the 2012 worldwide results in The Gunn Report include:Japan ranked 4th in “Most Awarded Countries in the World”

• China continues to improve its creative ranking, reaching 14= with 42 points in 2012, versus 17th with 30 points in 2011
• India’s creativity ranking is also improving. It was 14th with 42 points in 2011 and moved up to 13th position with 44 points in 2012
• Dentsu (Tokyo & Fukuoka) amassed 31 points to make 5= position in the “Most Awarded Agencies in the World in 2012”, making it Asia Pacific Agency of the Year for 2012.
• “Most Awarded Digital Agencies in the World in 2012” featured two agencies from Japan in the top 5. Party Inc (Tokyo) was 4= with 10 points and Hakuhodo Inc (Tokyo) was in first position with 15 points, ie, Digital Agency of the Year for Asia Pacific and the World.
• The most awarded agency network in the world in 2012 was BBDO, with DDB and Ogilvy & Mather coming second and third respectively.

The main function of The Gunn Report is to identify the best new ads in the world every year and to reveal who is doing them, for today’s audience and for posterity. Donald Gunn concluded, “We can now say that we do this for creativity and effectiveness and celebrate both. We are happy that this is giving us a tiny, tiny part to play in advertising’s ‘second revolution’”.