Coke, Unilever Top Smartest Brand and Advertiser Rankings

LONDON, September 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

• Coca-Cola named smartest brand in the world by Warc
• Unilever named number one advertiser in the world
• New annual rankings reflect performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions

A new ranking of the world's smartest brands and advertisers has been topped by Coca-Cola and Unilever respectively.

Warc, the global marketing intelligence service, has today revealed the top brands and advertisers - brand owners - from the Warc 100 database, which tracks performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions.

Louise Ainsworth, CEO of Warc, said: "These rankings show which companies are really using marketing communications to build their businesses. The Warc 100 allows client-side marketers to benchmark the performance of their marketing activity, and to see which companies are able to link creativity with business performance."

The Warc 100 is a benchmark for commercial creativity, allowing organisations to compare their performance with their peers. It is an annual list of the world's best campaigns, agencies and brands, based on their performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions.

To compile the rankings, Warc tracked more than 1700 winners in 75 different competitions. It assigned points based on the awards won (for example, Gold, Silver or Bronze), then weighted those points based on the competition's rigour and prestige in the global industry. Warc has developed a proprietary methodology to weight competitions in consultation with Professor Douglas West, Professor of Marketing at King's College London.

The top 5 brands in the Warc 100 are: 

     Brand            Product Category              Points
1.    Coca-Cola         Soft Drinks                   274.0
2.    McDonald's        Retail                        233.8
3.    Vodafone          Telecoms                      220.6
4.    Dove              Toiletries & Cosmetics        151.2
5.    Pepsi             Soft Drinks                   113.4
The top 5 advertisers in the Warc 100 are:
      Advertiser          Product Categories               Points
1.    Unilever            Food, Household & Domestic        550.7
2.    PepsiCo             Soft Drinks, Food                 431.3
3.    The Coca-Cola Co.   Soft Drinks                       407.5
4.    Mondelez            Food                              284.7
5.    Procter & Gamble    Food, Household & Domestic        271.9

In July, Warc announced the world's smartest 100 campaigns, based on their performance in competitions across calendar year 2013.

Four of the 100 were Coca-Cola campaigns, with the brand's flagship global 'Share a Coke' initiative, developed by Ogilvy & Mather Sydney, the top-ranked at number 20. Also represented were campaigns from McCann Philippines ('The OFW Project', 58th), Socialab in Beijing ('Nickname Summer Campaign', 88th) and Ogilvy & Mather Bogotá ('Download Concert', 92nd).

For Unilever, the star performer was 9th-ranked 'Real Beauty Sketches', developed by Ogilvy & Mather São Paulo for Dove, its personal care brand. Also on the top 20, in 16th, was 'Help a Child Reach Five', a community initiative launched in India by Lowe Lintas, SapientNitro and PHD for Lifebuoy, a soap brand.

The Warc 100 has been developed to reflect the growing importance of strategic thinking and measurement rigour in marketing. It will showcase the best work, and will help raise awareness of the leading cases.

About the Warc 100:  

The Warc 100 is a ranking of the world's top marketing campaigns and companies, based on their performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions.

Warc tracked more than 1700 winners in 75 different competitions to compile the rankings. It assigned points to each winner, based on the award it won (Grand Prix/Gold/Silver/Bronze, or equivalents). It then weighted the points, based on the rigour and prestige of the competition. Each competition has a weighting between 1 and 5 - Warc has assigned these weightings based on a number of factors, including a survey of senior planners around the world. The methodology was developed in consultation with Professor Douglas West, Professor of Marketing at King's College London.

More details of the methodology are available on the Prize website.

Warc will release further data from the Warc 100 in the coming months.

About Warc:  

Warc.com is an online service offering advertising best practice, evidence and insights from the world's leading brands. Warc helps clients grow their businesses by using proven approaches to maximise advertising effectiveness.

Warc's clients include the world's largest advertising and media agencies, research companies, universities and advertisers.

Warc also publishes leading journals including Admap, Market Leader, the Journal of Advertising Research and the International Journal of the Market Research Society.

In addition to its own content, Warc features advertising case studies and best practices from more than 50 respected industry sources, including: ARF, Effies, Cannes Lions, ESOMAR and IPA. Warc hosts three annual case study competitions: Warc Prize for Innovation, Warc Prize for Social Strategy and Warc Prize for Asian Strategy.

Founded in 1985, Warc is privately owned and has offices in the UK, U.S. and Singapore.

For Media Enquiries, contact:

David Tiltman                        
Head of Content, Warc                    
e david.tiltman@warc.com                  
t +44(0)754-0000-373                    

Imaad Ahmed
Marketing Director, Warc
e imaad.ahmed@warc.com
t +44(0)207-4678138