LONDON: AMV BBDO has been named the top creative agency in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, while Unilever is the number one advertiser, according to new data from Warc.

The rankings are based on the Warc 100 database, which tracks winners of effectiveness and strategy awards from around the world each year.

When filtering results to campaigns from EMEA only, UK agencies topped all of the agency charts. AMV BBDO was top in the creative agencies category, scoring 103.4 points to second-ranked JWT Cairo's 101.6. Both the number one media agency (OMD UK) and digital agency (OgilvyOne London) are also based in London.

To compile the rankings, Warc tracked more than 1,700 winners in 75 different competitions, assigning points based on the awards won (for example, Gold, Silver or Bronze), then weighting those points based on the competition's rigour and prestige in the global industry.

Unilever, headquartered in the UK and the Netherlands, was the number one EMEA advertiser, on 211.3 points ahead of Heineken on 176.1.

Three of the top five brands in EMEA are headquartered in the region, with Vodafone (UK) in first, Unilever-owned Dove (Netherlands/UK) 3rd and Heineken (Netherlands) 4th. US-owned McDonald's and Sprite came 3rd and 5th, respectively.

BBDO Worldwide was the top agency network across EMEA, beating Ogilvy & Mather into second place (473.8 points to 401.8). But WPP was the top holding company for the region on 1450.3 points, with Omnicom Group on 1352.3.

Further discussion and analysis of the regional rankings are available here.

Turning to the global rankings, BBDO Worldwide and Omnicom were top agency network and holding company respectively. Meanwhile, the global brand and advertiser rankings were topped by Coca-Cola and Unilever.

In July, Warc released the Warc 100, a ranking of the world's 100 smartest marketing campaigns, which was topped by 'Vodafone Fakka', a campaign for Vodafone by JWT Cairo.

Data sourced from Warc