Campaign Brief Asia 2018 Creative Rankings: TBWA Shanghai named China Creative Agency of the Year and TBWA’s Nils Andersson + Tony Fan #1 and #2 in China’s Hottest Creatives ranking

The resurgence of TBWA as a creative force as an agency and network can be clearly witnessed in the China market, with TBWA Shanghai topping this year’s Campaign Brief Asia China Creative Rankings.

In depth coverage of the results of the 2018 Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings is being released from today to Wednesday September 19th. The Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings were introduced in 1995 to tabulate Asia’s most creative agencies and individual creatives, based on award winning performances over a two year period at the top global and regional award shows. Make sure you sign up for the Campaign Brief Asia Daily Newsletter so don’t miss any details.

A close look at the breakdown of the China Creative Rankings sees TBWA Shanghai continuing their great creative momentum. TBWA Shanghai has moved up from #5 overall in 2017 to be the top performing creative agency in the country in 2018.

Over the past 2 year ranking period, the improvement has been very significant with the agency increasing from 13th to #1 in China.

In recognition of their standing TBWA Shanghai is named 2018 China Creative Agency of the Year.

TBWA Shanghai has 800 Creative Ranking points from award wins over the past 24 months, with 580pts coming from the past 12 months. The agency’s best performance was at Clio 2017 with 160pts. They also performed well in Campaign Brief’s The Work 2018 (135pts) and managed to win metal across most shows including AdFest, Spikes Asia, Cannes Lions, D&AD, and One Show.

TBWA leads the China Creative Rankings from independent hot shop The Nine Shanghai, who remain in #2 position on the China Hottest Agencies table.

Over the past 12 months The Nine added a creditable 415pts to rise from 270pts last year to 685pts in 2018.

In #3 position is 2017 China Creative Agency of the Year, Publicis Shanghai. The agency’s best performances came at Campaign Brief’s The Work 2018, and they also scored wins at D&AD, Spikes Asia and AdStars. They added 245pts over the past 12 months to their 2017 haul of 350pts for a total of 595pts in this Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings.

Beijing Dentsu China continued to improve and moved up to #4 position – two years ago they were in #21 position.

Equal #5 in the Campaign Brief Asia China Creative Rankings this year is Havas Worldwide Shanghai and Tencent Shenzhen. Both have 275pts overall.

#7 and #8 respectively are J Walter Thompson Shanghai (260pts) and Beijing (250pts). #9 overall is AKQA Shanghai with 245pts.

In #10 and #11 position are two new Chinese agencies to the Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings. mcgarrybowen Shanghai (part of the Dentsu network) were previously unranked, however in 2018 they sit on 230pts. The Shanghai-based Amber China was also not placed in last year’s Creative Rankings however this year the success of their recent print work on Ammeloo Kitchen Knives saw them score points at One Show, AWARD Awards, D&AD, AdStars and The Work. It should be acknowledged that Amber China’s overall total would have been much higher if their many Craft award wins were counted in the Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings.

The highest ranked individual creative in China is the Beijing based TBWA Asia Regional CCO Nils Andersson (pictured in top pic).

Andersson backed up #1 position in China last year with another #1 ranked top performance in 2018. He has a total of 930 Ranking Points overall and leads from TBWA\Shanghai’s Tony Fan (690pts) in #2 position (pictured left).

Fan moves up an impressive 10 positions from #12 in 2017 on this year’s China’s Hottest Creatives chart.

In addition to his own personal ranking, Andersson’s performance leading TBWA’s network creative renaissance, especially over the past 3 years can not be underestimated. Three years ago TBWA was only ranked 6th highest most awarded network in Asia. In 2017 they jumped up to #4 overall, and this year they have improved even further (full story on the Network Rankings later in the week).

Jody Xiong (pictured left) and Candy Chen from The Nine Shanghai are ranked at #3 and #4 in China with 685pts and 610pts respectively. They move up from #11 and #13 positions last year.

Three other TBWA\Shanghai creative fill the next 3 positions on the China Hottest Creatives chart – Jason Jin #5, Changxu Liu and Kissa Lin at equal #6. All three have risen sharply up the China rankings. Jin improves from #33 last year and both Liu and Lin increased from #84 in China last year.

In #8 ranking in China is Si Tan from Beijing Dentsu China (up from #18)

Nine Havas Worldwide Shanghai creatives are then ranked from equal #9 through to equal #14 in China.

NB: The results of the 2018 Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings are tabulated from creative award wins over a rolling two year period. The shows that are included in these calculations are: Ad Stars 2016 + 2017; Spikes Asia 2016 +2017; AWARD Awards 2017 + 2018; AdFest 2017 + 2018; Campaign Brief’s THE WORK 2017 + 2018; Clio Awards 2016 + 2017; London International Awards 2016 + 2017; New York Festivals 2017 + 2018; One Show 2016 + 2017; D&AD 2017 + 2018; Cannes Lions 2017 + 2018.

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VIEW COVERAGE OF THE 2018 SINGAPORE CREATIVE RANKINGS HERE