The annual Media 100 Ranking is produced by combining the results of the industry’s most important global and regional media award shows tracked throughout 2019, as determined by the WARC Rankings Advisory Board and a worldwide industry survey.
Monty: The World’s First AI Predictive Commentator for Foxtel, by Mindshare Sydney, is the most celebrated campaign for media excellence of 2019. Australian pay TV network Foxtel ran a game-changing campaign to encourage people to pay to watch cricket, a product they had previously enjoyed for free.
To deliver more value and transform the viewing experience, Foxtel created Monty, a predictive AI commentator able to forecast when wickets would fall in live games. When Monty predicted a wicket, it triggered mobile display ads, pre-roll video and OOH to get people to watch, delivering an average weekly sales increase of 18%.
In second place is The First Colonel to Conquer eSports, by Mindshare Shanghai, which strengthened KFC’s relationship with gamers in China by integrating itself in League of Legends. In third, The Adaptive Data Lighthouse by Mindshare Mumbai for soap brand Lifebuoy, targeting people in rural India, at most risk of infections preventable by good hand hygiene.
Starcom Chicago is ranked #1 media agency, having climbed up from #20 last year. Campaigns for Samsung, Vans, ESPN and The North Face, all ranked in the top 100, driving the agency to the top of the table.
Mindshare Worldwide claims top position as the most awarded Network, improving its rank from 3rd last year. The media network had 27 different agencies contributing to its total points, eight of them in the top 50; and an impressive 16 campaigns ranked in the top 100. MediaCom drops down to second place and IPG Mediabrands is up one place to third.
WPP continues its run at the top of the media holding companies ranking, driven by the strong performance of its Mindshare Worldwide network, together with a further 10 networks in the top 50. Omnicom Group retains its second position, as does Interpublic Group in third.
A strong performance in Asia by KFC led the fast food retailer to the top of the brand rankings this year, with two campaigns in the top 100, including #2 campaign, The First Colonel to Conquer eSports.
Foxtel improved its rank from sixth last year to second this year and Lifebuoy moves up from 13th to second place. Three brands entered the top 50 for the first time: Sport Chek / Canadian Tire goes straight in at #7, while Uber Eats and Uber rank #9 and #10 respectively.
Unilever improved its rank to hit the top of the advertisers table this year. The FMCG giant has three brands in the top 50 – Lifebuoy, P/S, Knorr – with a further 25 brands contributing to its success. Yum! Brands follow in second place and Procter & Gamble in third.
USA retained its top country rank for a third year with 22 campaigns in the top 100, three of which made the top 10. Australia improved its rank by one place to take second place, with 10 campaigns within the top 100. China jumps from 6th to third place with 11 campaigns.
The most highly ranked campaigns and companies in the 2020 WARC Media 100 are:
The award shows tracked to compile this latest WARC Media 100 were:
Global: (1) Cannes Lions (media categories), (2) Festival of Media, (3) Effies (media categories), (4) M&M Awards, (5) WARC Media Awards, (6) Adweek Media Plan of the Year, (7) Internationalist Awards, (8) I-COM Data Creativity Awards, (9) MMA Smarties, (10) World Media Awards, (11) D&AD (media categories)
Regional:
– APAC: Spikes Asia (media categories), Tangrams, Festival of Media APAC, MMA Smarties APAC, Effie APAC plus local markets (media categories)
– Europe: Eurobest (media categories), IAB Mixx Awards Europe, MMA Smarties EMEA, EACA Euro Effie plus local markets (media categories), Campaign Media Awards
– Middle East & Africa: Dubai Lynx (media categories), Loeries (media categories), MMA Smarties MENA, Effie MENA plus local markets (media categories)
– LATAM: El Ojo de Iberoamerica (media categories), MMA Smarties LATAM, Effie LATAM plus local markets (media categories)
– North America: MMA Smarties North America, Effie North America plus local markets (media categories)
