Burger King and Ogilvy top the Creative 100

Fast food chain Burger King has emerged as the top brand in the 2021 WARC Creative 100 rankings, thanks in no small part to its Moldy Whopper campaign, which also helped ad agency Ogilvy leap from fifth to top spot in the network rankings.

The 2021 WARC Rankings – Creative 100, Media 100, Effective 100 – were postponed from Q1 until now because of the disruption to the awards industry caused by COVID-19. Many award shows paused in 2020 and resumed in 2021 to judge two-years of work. 

The top three spots in the different categories within the Creative 100, along with scores and movement from the last ranking, are listed below.

Campaigns

1. Moldy Whopper · Burger King · INGO Stockholm / DAVID Miami / Publicis Bucharest · 800.9 points
2. Stevenage Challenge · Burger King · DAVID Madrid / DAVID Miami · 483.5 points
3. The E.V.A. Initiative · Volvo · Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg · 272.1 points

Brands

1. Burger King · 680.3 points · no change from #1 
2. IKEA · 564 points · up from #4
3. Diesel · 359.7 points · up from #9

Advertisers

1. Restaurant Brands International · Canada · 816.9 points · no change from #1
2. Anheuser-Busch InBev · Belgium · 811.3 points · up from #3
3. IKEA · Sweden · 564 points · up from #8

Agencies

1. DAVID Miami · Ogilvy · 483.6 points · up from #23 
2. Impact BBDO Dubai · BBDO Worldwide · 477.9 points · up from #5
3. Publicis Milan · Publicis Worldwide · 386.6 points · up from #7 

Networks

1. Ogilvy · 2186.1 points · up from #5 
2. BBDO Worldwide · 1409 points · down from #1
3. DDB Worldwide · 1128.9 points · down from #2

Holding companies

1. WPP · 3724.3 points · up from #3
2. Omnicom Group · 3680.2 points · down from #1
3. Interpublic Group · 2480.9 points · down from #2

Countries

1. USA · 3603.2 points · no change #1
2. UK · 1111 points · no change #2
3. Brazil · 1083.6 points · no change #3

Commenting on the rankings, Mark Read, CEO, WPP, said: “If our role is to make the best work, connect brands seamlessly with audiences and produce outstanding results for our clients, then there’s no better endorsement than to top the WARC 100 rankings for creative, media and effectiveness. It’s a wonderful tribute to our fantastic people, agencies and clients, and my thanks goes to them all.”

Full rankings are listed here. WARC Rankings subscribers can also view all the ranked creative, credits and case study summaries, in addition to further data by category and region.

These annual league tables are produced by combining the winners’ lists from the industry’s most important global and regional awards shows – as determined by the WARC Rankings Advisory Board and a worldwide industry survey – and by applying a rigorous proprietary three-step methodology.