Ad Week Report Card Doesn't Bother with Creativity's Effectiveness
Ad Week published its agency report cards for 2007 today. Some interesting findings. For establishing a baseline, the mag found:
[T]he average gain for the 35 shops we evaluated was 7.6 percent, just a hair more than the 2006 average of 7.5 percent. (2005's average, coincidentally, also was 7.5 percent, down from 7.7 percent in 2004.) By comparison, the average revenue growth among the 14 media agencies we assessed was 14 percent.Reading the report cards, it's an impressively deep dive into the workings of the various agencies. If I had one quibble, it's that agencies are given their creativity grade based on "creativity, originality, positioning and strategy. We do not gauge effectiveness." I understand that there are higher callings than the bottom line (and the bottom line is effectively covered in other sections of the report card), but couldn't Ad Week at least factor in whether the beautifully conceived and executed advertisements, you know, moved some units?
It's worth it to take the time and read the individual report cards, but if you're looking to skim, the always helpful and insightful Catherine Taylor over at Adverganza took the time to compile all the grades into one neat list:
First, the grades for creative agencies:
Arnold: B
BBDO: B+
Bartle Bogle Hegarty: B+
Campbell-Ewald: C-
Campbell Mithun: D
Carmichael Lynch: C
Cramer-Krasselt: B
Crispin Porter + Bogusky: B+
DDB: B-
Deutsch: B
Doner: D
DraftFCB: C
Euro RSCG: B
Fallon: C-
Goodby, Silverstein + Partners: A-
Grey: C+
GSD&M Idea City: D+
Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos: B+
JWT: C+
The Kaplan Thaler Group: B
Leo Burnett: C-
Lowe: D+
The Martin Agency: B+
McCann Erickson: B+
Merkley + Partners: B-
Mullen: B-
Ogilvy & Mather: C+
Publicis & Hal Riney: C+
Publicis USA: A-
The Richards Group: C
Saatchi & Saatchi: A-
TBWAChiatDay: B-
Wieden + Kennedy: B
Young & Rubicam: C+
Zimmerman: B-
Here are the media agency grades:Carat: B-
Horizon: B
Initiative: A-
Mediacom: B+
Mediaedge CIA: A-
Mediavest: A-
Mindshare: B-
MPG: B
OMD: B
Optimedia: B+
PHD: B+
Starcom: B
Universal McCann: B
Zenith Media: A-