Warc 100 ranks Saatchi Sydney’s ‘Penny The Pirate’ as world’s most effective campaign; MullenLowe Lintas Group + PHD India come in at #9 for Unilever’s ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ campaign

‘Penny the Pirate’, developed by Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney and OMD for OPSM, has been named the world’s best marketing campaign, according to the annual Warc 100 rankings.

The campaign, which combined traditional and digital media, producing an engaging printed book and app to highlight vision problems in children, scored 139 points to hit the number one spot on the top campaigns ranking. Following the initiative, more than 126,000 parents bought the reading book, and the number of eye tests conducted by OPSM increased by 23% year-on-year.

From Asia, MullenLowe Lintas Group and PHD India’s ‘Kan Khajura Tesan‘ campaign for Hindustan Unilever made the top 10, ranked at #9. BBDO/MediaCom India also was a high performer with “Touch the Pickle” for Whisper sitting at #12.

Other Asian campaigns to make the top 100 include Mullen Lowe Lintas Group India at  #17, 25, 39 and 90.

BBDO China came in at #41 and #42. TBWA\Digital Arts Network/Carat Singapore sit at #44, DDB/OMD/Marketing Store Singapore and Ogilvy & Mather India sit in joint position at #49, DDB Mudra India at #52 and BBH/PHD Singapore at #61. Leo Burnett Philippines and Tribal Worldwide China both sit at #62. Havas Worldwide India follows at #75. OMD Hong Kong ranks #83, BBDO India at #92 and Leo Burnett Solutions Sri Lanka at #99.

David Droga and his agency Droga5 New York scored an impressive three campaigns in the top 10 ranking for Newcastle Brown Ale ‘If We Made It’ (#6), Honeymaid ‘This is Wholesome’ (#7) and Under Armour ‘I Will What I Want’ (#10).

The Warc 100 is an annual list of the world’s best campaigns, agencies and brands, based on their performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions in the previous calendar year. To compile this year’s rankings, Warc tracked more than 2,000 winning campaigns from 79 different competitions.

In second place on the rankings was ‘#LikeAGirl’, by Leo Burnett and Starcom Mediavest Group for Always, scoring 126 points. ‘Project Architeuthis’, a campaign developed for America’s Navy by Campbell Ewald, was third on 81 points.

Rounding out the top five were ‘Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables’, a campaign for Intermarché from Marcel, in fourth, and ‘Live Test Series’, from Forsman & Bodenfors for Volvo Trucks, in fifth.

Says Jonny Bauer, global chief strategy officer at Droga5, “We are very happy to be recognized in this year’s Warc 100. We are doing our best to create the most influential work that’s deeply rooted in future facing strategy. This acknowledgement really makes us feel like we’re onto something.”

Elsewhere on this year’s Warc 100 rankings, the US retained its position as top country for strategy and effectiveness awards wins, scoring 3078 points. The UK came second on 1670 points, also holding position from last year, while India rose to third, reaching 1013 points, up from fourth in 2015.

Says David Tiltman, head of content at Warc, “The Warc 100 represents the best work in marketing – breakthrough campaigns that have delivered tangible results for their clients. The rankings are a benchmark of excellence in the industry. The clients and agencies that feature in them are some of the best in the business.”

You can read full results from the Warc 100 on warc.com/warc100, and also view a summary of results.