Y&R Dubai was the world’s third most creative agency in 2011, according to the annual Big Won Report. The ranking represents the highest ever position for a Middle East agency.
Y&R’s chief creative officer, Shahir Zag, is also ranked number one art director and copywriter by the independent report – the highest position ever for a regional creative. The agency’s performance is largely thanks to the success of its ‘Accessories Required’ campaign for Harvey Nichols, which was the world’s 17th most awarded campaign across all media in 2011 and the second most successful print campaign. Y&R Dubai is also listed as the number one agency for outdoor and the second placed creative shop for print.
The Big Won report ranks agencies, individuals and countries by the number and quality of awards won across all media during the year and is a register of who’s winning what at advertising awards shows around the world. In 2011 it logged 6,000 awards won by 4,048 campaigns on behalf of 2,461 clients by 1,302 agencies, rewarding the efforts of 272 chief creative officers, 690 ECDs, 2,373 copywriters and 2,472 art directors.
Y&R’s achievements in 2011 also helped push the UAE to 11th position in the country rankings, down one spot from 10th in 2010, when the report declared that the UAE was the number one country in the world for print advertising. The highest ranked country was the US, followed by the UK.
Also winning plaudits were Leo Burnett Beirut, which was ranked seventh in the list of top agencies for direct, and Leo Burnett Cairo, which was placed ninth for TV and film. Leo Burnett Beirut’s ‘Make a Move’ for Exotica was the third most awarded direct campaign, although its final placing was made after the report was released due to the campaign’s listing under two different names. FP7 Bahrain came in 22nd in the overall top agencies list and Leo Burnett Beirut was 26th. Komal Bedi Sohal was ranked second in the list of art directors.
BBDO New York is named the number one agency and Omnicom the top performing holding company. The most awarded campaign across all media last year, according to the report, was ‘Heaven and hell’ by JWT Shanghai.