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Compiled by Warc, the international marketing insights company, the annual Effective 100 Ranking is produced by combining the results of the industry’s most important global and regional effectiveness award shows of 2022. The awards tracked are determined by a global industry panel survey and consultation with the WARC Rankings Advisory Board.

Commenting on the themes of the most effective campaigns in the world, Amy Rodgers, head of Warc Creative, said: “In our final ranking, the Effective 100, we see that three of the top five campaigns involved celebrity endorsements to reach target audiences and deliver brand growth.”

“Cadbury used Indian actor and film producer Shah Rukh Khan to promote and endorse small local stores. McDonald’s asked multiple celebrities, including Travis Scott and BTS, to share their favourite McDonald’s order and released these orders as meals. Meanwhile, Jif partnered with Ludacris to help improve their brand perception.”

“The collection of work that is the Effective 100 will provide inspiration to help the industry embed a culture of effectiveness going forward.”

World number one campaign for effectiveness: Contract for Change

The most awarded campaign for effectiveness is Contract for Change by FCB Chicago and FCB New York, for which Michelob made the US agricultural sector more sustainable by creating a programme that incentivised farmers to become organic growers.

In second place is Not Just a Cadbury Ad 2.0 by Ogilvy Mumbai and Wavemaker Mumbai. Cadbury increased sales of its celebrations product to pre-pandemic levels during Diwali with this geo-targeted campaign that made Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan the ambassador for small, local stores. In third, is Famous Orders by Wieden+Kennedy New York for McDonald’s. The fast-food brand released various celebrities’ orders as meals to engage with multicultural youth after years of sales and market share decline amongst younger US audiences.

Winning creative agency for effectiveness: FCB New York

After entering the top 10 for the first-time last year, FCB New York has risen from number seven to become the top creative agency. It had three campaigns in the top 100 including the number one campaign, Contract for Change.

Ranked second is Alma Miami, the most improved agency, rising from 45th last year. In third place is Energy BBDO, Chicago, a new entry to the Effective 100 Ranking.

Winning media agency for effectiveness: Wavemaker Mumbai

Up from fifth position last year to claim top spot, Wavemaker Mumbai’s best performing campaign was Not Just a Cadbury Ad 2.0, ranked second this year. Mindshare New York entered the top 10 to claim second place, up from number 17 last year. Zenith Bogotá is ranked third.

Number one digital/specialist agency for effectiveness: Semetis, Brussels

The highest ranked agency is a new entry – Semetis Brussels. Its top ranking is down to its work on The Breakaway for Decathlon, which ranked third.

Narrative Los Angeles, jumps up from 41st to claim second place. Taking joint third position are BlueMedia Shanghai, up from 40 last year and new entry WeberShandwick Singapore.

Network for effectiveness: Ogilvy

After nine years of placing in the top five networks for effectiveness, Ogilvy has risen one place to become the number one network for the first time ever. The network has nine campaigns in the top 100 and seven agencies in the creative agencies ranking.

DDB Worldwide moves up from fifth to take second place this year with a total of seven campaigns in the top 100 and three creative agencies and two digital/specialist agencies ranked in the top 50. Leo Burnett is in third, rising from ninth last year. The network has nine campaigns and three creative and one digital/specialist agencies in the top 50.

Winning holding company for effectiveness: WPP

WPP has ranked in first place for the fifth consecutive year, with nine networks in the top 50, including Ogilvy in first place. The holding company has now claimed top position across all three Warc Rankings.

Omnicom Group is in second place and Interpublic Group in third.

Number one brand for effectiveness: McDonald’s

McDonald’s is the highest ranked brand for effectiveness for the fourth year in a row, accruing more than twice the points of second place. Three of its campaigns ranked in the top 100 and 35 more campaigns from 24 different countries contributed to its total points.

KFC moves up one place to be ranked second and Cadbury’ in third, moves up from number 17 last year.

Advertiser for effectiveness: Anheuser-Busch InBev

After topping the advertiser ranking for effectiveness for the first-time last year, Anheuser-Busch InBev has retained its position. It had four campaigns ranked in the top 100, three of which are from Michelob Ultra, 37 other brands contributed to its total points including Corona, Cerveza Presidente and Pony Malta.

Climbing up two places from last year, McDonald’s claims second place and Unilever comes in at third.

Number one country for effectiveness: US

The top three countries have remained the same for the past three years, with the US claiming first place, followed by China in second and India in third. The USA has 25 campaigns in the top 100, while China and India have four each.

The UK recovered slightly from last year, rising from 7th to 4th. It has three campaigns in the top 100, with its best performing campaign coming in 10th place. The most improved country is France, rising eight places to 9th.

The world’s top ten most highly ranked campaigns and companies in the 2023 Warc Effectiveness are 100 are:

Top campaign for effectiveness

RANK	CAMPAIGN	BRAND	AGENCY	LOCATION	CATEGORY	POINTS
1	Contract for Change	Michelob Ultra	FCB Chicago / FCB New York	USA	Alcoholic Drinks	83.5
2	Not Just a Cadbury Ad 2.0	Cadbury	Ogilvy Mumbai / Wavemaker Mumbai	India	Food	77.8
3	Famous Orders	McDonald’s	Wieden+Kennedy New York / Alma Miami / Burrell Chicago / IW Group Los Angeles / OMD New York	USA	Retail	75.2
4	The Breakaway: The first eCycling team for prisoners	Decathlon	BBDO Brussels / Semetis Brussels	Belgium	Retail	62.2
5	The Lil Jif Project	Jif	Publicis New York / PSOne New York / Zenith New York	USA	Food	56.7
6	#Flutwein – Our Worst Vintage	AHR Valley Wine Region	Seven.One AdFactory / Creative House Munich	Germany	Alcoholic Drinks	55.8
7	The Smile that Changed an Industry	Colgate	Red Fuse Communications Paris / Wavemaker London / VMLY&R Paris	France	Toiletries & Cosmetics	51.6
8	Long Term	Canadian Down Syndrome Society	FCB Toronto / UM Toronto	Canada	Non-profit, public sector & education	51
9	Come to OYO	OYO Rooms	The Script Room Mumbai / McCann New Delhi	India	Transport & Tourism	46
10	There’s a glass & a half in everyone	Cadbury	VCCP London	UK	Food	45.9

Top creative agencies for effectiveness

RANK	2022 RANKING	AGENCY	AGENCY NETWORK	LOCATION	REGION	POINTS
1	7	FCB	FCB	New York, USA	NORTH AMERICA	162.5
2	45	Alma	DDB Worldwide	Miami, USA	NORTH AMERICA	159.4
3	New	Energy BBDO	BBDO Worldwide	Chicago, USA	NORTH AMERICA	102.3
4	New	FCB	FCB	Chicago, USA	NORTH AMERICA	96.5
5	5	Ogilvy	Ogilvy	Mumbai, India	ASIA-PACIFIC	93.7
6	28	Wieden+Kennedy	Wieden+Kennedy	New York, USA	NORTH AMERICA	89.2
7	New	FCB	FCB	Toronto, Canada	NORTH AMERICA	86.6
8	14	MullenLowe	MullenLowe Group	Boston, USA	NORTH AMERICA	81.2
9	50	Leo Burnett	Leo Burnett	Chicago, USA	NORTH AMERICA	75.7
10	9	Publicis	Publicis Worldwide	Bucharest, Romania	EUROPE	71.1

Top media agencies for effectiveness

RANK	2022 RANKING	AGENCY	AGENCY NETWORK	LOCATION	REGION	POINTS
1	5	Wavemaker	Wavemaker	Mumbai, India	ASIA-PACIFIC	78.8
2	17	Mindshare	Mindshare Worldwide	New York, USA	NORTH AMERICA	68.3
3	1	Zenith	Zenith	Bogotá, Colombia	LATIN AMERICA	64.5
4	New	EssenceMediacom	EssenceMediacom	London, UK	EUROPE	54.8
5	New	UM	IPG Mediabrands	Toronto, Canada	NORTH AMERICA	53.1
6	7	Mindshare	Mindshare Worldwide	Shanghai, China (Mainland)	ASIA-PACIFIC	52.1
7	32	Starcom	Starcom	Chicago, USA	NORTH AMERICA	49.4
8	New	EssenceMediacom	EssenceMediacom	New York, USA	NORTH AMERICA	48.6
9	New	Goodstuff	Stagwell Media Network	London, UK	EUROPE	45.2
10	New	Mindshare	Mindshare Worldwide	Stockholm, Sweden	EUROPE	44.4

Top digital/specialist for effectiveness

RANK	2022 RANKING	AGENCY	AGENCY NETWORK	LOCATION	REGION	POINTS
1	New	Semetis	Omnicom Media Group	Brussels, Belgium	EUROPE	62.2
2	41	Narrative	The Narrative Group	Los Angeles, USA	NORTH AMERICA	45.6
3	40	BlueMedia	BlueMedia	Shanghai, China (Mainland)	ASIA-PACIFIC	35.7
3	New	Weber Shandwick	Weber Shandwick	Singapore, Singapore	ASIA-PACIFIC	35.7
5	6	Havas Play	Havas Media Group	Paris, France	EUROPE	35.6
6	23	Adbid		Bogotá, Colombia	LATIN AMERICA	35.3
7	4	Arc Worldwide	Leo Burnett	Chicago, USA	NORTH AMERICA	34
8	New	Jack Morton		Boston, USA	NORTH AMERICA	32.4
9	New	Ingage	GroupM	Istanbul, Turkey	MIDDLE EAST	30.8
10	2	Edelman	DJE Holdings	New York, USA	NORTH AMERICA	29.3

Top network for effectiveness

RANK	2022 RANKING	AGENCY NETWORK	HOLDING COMPANY	POINTS
1	2	Ogilvy	WPP	877.5
2	5	DDB Worldwide	Omnicom Group	681.4
3	9	Leo Burnett	Publicis Groupe	568.1
4	3	BBDO Worldwide	Omnicom Group	533.9
5	6	IPG Mediabrands	Interpublic Group	524.8
6	4	Dentsu International	Dentsu	458.5
7	1	McCann Worldgroup	Interpublic Group	443.5
8	New	EssenceMediacom	WPP	390.8
9	13	Grey Group	WPP	378.1
10	12	Publicis Worldwide	Publicis Groupe	362.4

Top holding companies for effectiveness

RANK	2022 RANKING	HOLDING COMPANY	POINTS
1	1	WPP	2696.6
2	2	Omnicom Group	1840
3	3	Interpublic Group	1657.3
4	4	Publicis Groupe	1601.7
5	5	Havas Group	542
6	6	Dentsu	460.7
7	7	Stagwell	159.4
8	8	Accenture	141.2
9	9	BlueFocus	39.6
10	10	ADK	21.4

Top brands for effectiveness

RANK	2022 RANKING	BRAND	ADVERTISER	CATEGORY	POINTS
1	1	McDonald’s	McDonald’s	Retail	336.2
2	3	KFC	Yum! Brands	Retail	155.6
3	17	Cadbury	Mondelēz International	Food	153.5
4	33	Michelob Ultra	Anheuser-Busch InBev	Alcoholic Drinks	152.8
5	2	Burger King	Restaurant Brands International	Retail	124.9
6	7	Dove	Unilever	Toiletries & Cosmetics	105.1
7	10	Pepsi	PepsiCo	Soft Drinks	95.3
8	New	Change The Ref	Change The Ref	Non-profit, public sector & education	89.6
9	9	IKEA	IKEA	Retail	89.4
10	New	Canadian Down Syndrome Society	Canadian Down Syndrome Society	Non-profit, public sector & education	86.6

Top advertisers for effectiveness

RANK	2022 RANKING	ADVERTISER	PRODUCT CATEGORIES	LOCATION	POINTS
1	1	Anheuser-Busch InBev	Alcoholic Drinks, Retail, Soft Drinks	Belgium	534.6
2	4	McDonald’s	Retail	USA	348
3	2	Unilever	Food, Household & Domestic, Soft Drinks, Toiletries & Cosmetics	UK	328
4	8	Mondelēz International	Food, Soft Drinks	USA	289.3
5	5	Procter & Gamble	Household & Domestic, Pharma & Healthcare, Toiletries & Cosmetics	USA	248.1
6	7	PepsiCo	Food, Media & Publishing, Soft Drinks	USA	214.1
7	6	Yum! Brands	Retail	USA	174.8
8	10	Nestlé	Food, Soft Drinks	Switzerland	152.3
9	3	Restaurant Brands International	Retail	Canada	146.1
10	17	Mars	Food, Household & Domestic	USA	136.7

Top countries for effectiveness

RANK	2022 RANKING	COUNTRY	POINTS
1	1	USA	1798.7
2	2	China (Mainland)	1114.2
3	3	India	624.3
4	7	UK	438.4
5	4	Colombia	435
6	11	Brazil	433.7
7	10	Canada	426.9
8	8	Australia	364.6
9	17	France	336.9
10	9	United Arab Emirates	318.1