Creative Rankings 2009: China comes to the creative fore

The 2009 Creative Rankings, compiled by Media in association with TNS, has a different feel from previous years. Whereas past rankings focused more on up and coming talent, this year’s table puts the spotlight on the creative heads at each winning agency. This isn’t to ignore the role played by more junior members of the creative team. In fact, a full ranking of all creatives can be found online at www.media.asia, including a ranking of the most creative networks, countries, individual offices and brands/advertisers.

This year also saw important changes in methodology. The rankings tabulated all Asian winners from the seven most important international and regional awards shows, including Cannes, D&AD, Clio, One Show, Ad-Fest, as well as Media’s Spikes and Asian Marketing Effectiveness awards (AMEs) to reflect the region’s growing focus on marketing effectiveness in relation to creativity and overall improved business performance.

There was further adjustment to the scores given to individual shows, their categories and awards. This was done following consultation with some of Asia’s leading creative heads, including Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman and regional ECD Asia-Pacific, Mc-Cann Erickson India, Sonal Dabral, regional CD Asia and chairman India at Bates 141, and John Merrifield, creative at large, TBWA Asia-Pacific.

Their input was highly valued and played an important part in how the final ranking was tabulated. A key difference from previous rankings is the decision to dispense with local shows.This was done to ensure a level playing field to all agencies and markets. Experience in past years has shown how easy it is for a strong agency office to dominate a particular market and rise through the rankings, while in a more competitive market an equally strong agency would get less returns. Trying to address this problem through the weightings system only complicated the situation further.

The result of all these changes, we believe, is a much clearer picture of which creatives are making the most impact across Asia-Pacific.

Topping the list, for the first time in the ranking’s history, are a creative pair from China, reflecting the huge steps that the country has taken over the past year in terms of creative strength.

Yang Yeo, chief creative officer at JWT Shanghai, and Sheung Yan Lo - also known as Ma Yan - ECD North Asia and chairman, China, at JWT scored highly for their groundbreaking ‘Shan shui’ work for the China Environmental Protection Foundation.

Yang edged out Ma Yan due to points picked up for work on adidas while at his previous agency, TBWA. Just behind the JWT pair is another representative from China - Spencer Wong, managing director for McCann Worldgroup (Hong Kong), and the national creative officer for McCann Hong Kong and China. His ‘Nike battlefield’ made a huge impact in 2009, bringing home Design Grand Prix awards from Spikes Asia and Cannes.

The Cannes Grand Prix was a major landmark: the first ever for a Greater China agency. A sign of Wong’s versatility, he also collected awards at various shows for work for the Hong Kong MTR Corporation and Dairy Farm’s Wellcome.

In fourth place this year is Mun Tuck Wai, ECD at BBDO Proximity Malaysia. His ‘Two worlds’ campaign for Jeep was a big winner at Spikes Asia 2009, claiming the Print Grand Prix, gold in the Craft Print category, gold in the Outdoor category and a silver in Design. The same campaign was also the second most awarded print campaign in the world in 2009, ranked by the Gunn Report.

In fifth is Adrian Miller, ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi for both Malaysia and Singapore. Among Miller’s many awards this year were a Print Clio for his ‘Stop’ campaign for Guinness, a gold Spike for his work for Silverfish Books and a Cannes silver in the Design category for work for Amnesty International.

The next five places in the top ten represent a spread from across the region, with creatives from New Zealand, Australia, India and Singapore.




1 Yang Yeo
Chief creative officer
JWT Shanghai
When Yang moved to Shanghai in 2006, Campaign Brief named him one of the creative directors that would shape the scene in China. Since then, he has worked hard to live up to the tag. Campaigns he has led have made the global Gunn Report Top 10 three times, and he won China its first Cannes gold Lion for his work for adidas while at TBWA. In addition, he has picked up a number of Grand Prix for adidas, the China Environment Protection Foundation and Ford at effectiveness, digital, and creative award shows regionally and globally.


2 Sheung Yan Lo
ECD, Northeast Asia
JWT
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Sheung - known as Ma Yan - handed himself over to the development of the mainland’s advertising industry in 1996 when he joined JWT Shanghai. Since then, he has built the agency into a creative hot shop in the Greater China region. Ma Yan was promoted to ECD for JWT Northeast Asia in 2001 and from March 2009 he was given further responsibility as chairman for JWT China. In the extended role, he leads teams in both Beijing and Shanghai and is responsible for all clients and management issues. However, he says that being a creative is his lifetime devotion.


3 Spencer Wong
National creative director
McCann Worldgroup HK & China
Wong is currently the managing director for McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong, as well as the national creative officer for McCann Hong Kong and China. Prior to this, Wong served as the regional ECD of Y&R. He was also the ECD of Ogilvy & Mather South China, M&C Saatchi, and Bates Greater China, where he won his first two silver Cannes Lions. To date, Wong has more than 300 major creative awards to his name and he played an instrumental role in leading McCann Hong Kong to win the Nike account. In addition to his role as the chairman of HK 4A’s creative community, Wong has also been invited to judge at leading local, regional and international award shows.


4 Mun Tuck Wai
ECD
BBDO Proximity Malaysia
Mun started his advertising career in Batey Ads as art director. He then moved to Sil Ad and Naga DDB before joining BBDO Proximity in 2006 as creative director. Mun has won numerous creative and effectiveness awards locally and internationally. His ‘Two worlds’ campaign for Jeep is also the second-most awarded print campaign in the world. Mun remains the only Malaysian ECD to win two D&AD Yellow Pencils, an extremely rare accolade. Creatives under his direct leadership have won every major award in the world. His young teams have also won the Malaysian Kancil ‘Young Creative’ award twice, a testament to his knack for mentoring great talent.


5 Adrian Miller
ECD, Saatchi & Saatchi
Singapore/ Malaysia
Miller joined Saatchi & Saatchi Kuala Lumpur in 2006. Since then, the agency has steadily made its way to becoming one of the top creative gencies in the region. Over the past three years the agency has picked up the Malaysia 4As Agency of the Year title twice in a row. It is currently the Campaign Brief Asia Malaysian Agency of the Year and was runner up for the title at this year’s Spikes Asia.The Gunn Report 2009 ranks Saatchi & Saatchi Kuala Lumpur as one of the world’s top 50 agencies. Recently, Miller also took on the ECD position at Saatchis Singapore.


6 Nick Worthington
ECD
Colenso BBDO
Worthington grew up at BBH in London, working on numerous celebrated campaigns including Levi’s ‘Creek’, and with clients such as Polaroid and Boddingtons. He defected to AMV BBDO in 1996, where he continued the award-winning work with three Cannes golds for the ‘Two things at once’ road safety campaign. Worthington moved to New Zealand in 2003 to take up the ECD role at Publicis Mojo, where he helped the office win Agency of the Year and seven Cannes Lions. He came home to BBDO at Colenso Auckland in February 2008. To date, Worthington has won 12 gold Lions, 11 D&AD pencils and countless other awards.


7 Senthil Kumar
ECD
JWT India
Starting his career as a mechanical engineer specialising in missile technology, Kumar’s crossover in to advertising has been a fruitful one. His work has been celebrated across India and recognised globally for the ability to amplify deep local insights into simple and powerful ideas that solve the toughest marketing challenges. His ideas have helped build several big brands in India including Levi's, Nike, Ford, Pepsi, Kingfisher and The Times Of India. In recent years, he has served on the Cannes jury, the Clio Las Vegas Festival jury and the New York Festivals Television and Cinema juries.


8 James McGrath
ECD
Wenger BBDO
Since joining Clemenger BBDO two and a half years ago, McGrath and his team have revitalised some of Australia’s biggest brands and created some of its most memorable campaigns. The agency won eight Lions at Cannes this year, more than any other in Australia or New Zealand. This haul led to Clemenger being individually named as a major contributor to BBDO winning Network of the Year at Cannes. Over the last year, McGrath’s talents have been recognised internationally by being listed as one of Shots magazine’s Top 100 creative talents in the world, and as one of the top four creatives in Australia by Campaign Brief.


9 Warren Brown
ECD
BMF
Brown began his career in 1981 and has worked for several hot agencies on great brands, both in the UK and Australia. He co-founded BMF in 1996, and since then the agency has collected over 250 creative awards at the major shows around the world. Brown’s awards include 11 Cannes Lions, six D&AD silvers and golds and silver and bronze at the Clio Awards. In the 2008 Won Report, Brown was ranked the number-three executive creative director in the world.


10 Ali Shabaz
Chief creative officer
Grey Group Singapore
With a career spanning 17 years in India, the Middle East and Singapore, Shabaz is no stranger to awards. He has amassed quite a collection at major award shows like Cannes, D&AD, The One Show, Clio Awards, AdFest and Spikes. A regular contender at Cannes, Shabaz has won 12 awards since 2005 including a coveted gold for Design Lions in 2008 and another gold for Press Lions this year. During his time as ECD at JWT Singapore, the agency was the third-most awarded WPP office in the world and the most awarded JWT office in the world in 2007. In early 2010, Shabaz was appointed to the newly-created role of chief creative officer for Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia at Grey Group.