Campaign Brief Asia 2020 Creative Rankings: Tencent Shenzhen wins China’s Creative Agency of the Year award with Nils Andersson + The Nine’s Jody Xiong heading the China Creatives ranking

October 1 2020, 1:09 pm | BY Kim Shaw | No Comments

There’s been a huge shakeup on the creative playing field in China over the past few years. Increasingly, local agencies are emerging and dominating creatively.

In our 2016 Creative Rankings the top 12 creative ad agencies in the market were multi-national agencies. It read as a who’s who of traditional agencies – Ogilvy Beijing at #1 followed by Fred & Farid Shanghai, Publicis Shanghai, BBDO Shanghai, Y&R Beijing, Cheil Shanghai, Havas Shanghai, W+K Shanghai, JWT Shanghai, Cheil Beijing, Grey Beijing and Y&YR Shanghai.

Fast forward five years and it’s a completely different story.

The new #1 most awarded creative agency of 2020 is Tencent Shenzhen, the in-house creative agency of the Tencent Chinese multinational technology company. With 1375 Creative Ranking points Tencent has risen from #5 position in 2018 on the back of strong performances at Spikes Asia, AdFest, D&AD, Cannes Lions and Campaign Brief’s THE WORK. Tencent also sits firmly in Asia’s Top 20 best performers in these 2020 Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings. Tencent’s creative department is headed by ECD Akae Wang (pictured above).

At #2 is independent agency The Nine Shanghai, who for the past three Creative Rankings, have maintained this #2 position in China.

In #3 position is this year’s big improver – Cheil Worldwide Beijing. The agency moves up nine spots from #12 in 2018.

Amber China has also shot up the ranking this year – from #11 in 2018 to #4 this year.

Last year’s #1 agency TBWA\Shanghai is seemingly on the decline after falling away on the awards circuit during 2019 and 2020. Only 15 their 400 Creative Ranking points total are from the beginning of 2019 onwards.

Loong Shanghai are a new entry into the China Rankings. The independent startup is ranked at #6 overall in the market.

McGarrybowen Shanghai, Ho Communications Shanghai and Isobar Shanghai and Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai round out the Top 10, filling the next 4 ranking positions.

Beijing Dentsu China and Publicis China have both dropped down the Creative Rankings coming in at #11 and #12 respectively. Beijing Dentsu China previously were #4 and Publicis China ranked #3.

Over the next 10 days Campaign Brief Asia will be releasing these country by country results of the 2020 Creative Rankings, before releasing the complete tables and Asia Rankings as a 80 page magazine downloadable pdf. The Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings were introduced 25 years ago (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.

In this year’s China Creative Rankings Nils Andersson, TBWA’s former chief creative officer, has narrowly maintained the #1 position, for the third Creative Rankings in a row. Andersson has 1220 Creative Ranking points from his time in China with TBWA and also helping out with award-winning regional projects with TBWA Thailand.

The Nine Shanghai’s Jody Xiong and Candy Chen this year both move up one position to #2 and #3 most awarded creatives in China.

Three from the Tencent Shenzhen creative department fill the next few spots. Breaking into the Creative Rankings this year at #4 is ECD Akae Wang followed by Ivy Huang at #5 (up from #90 in 2018) and Zita Zou (also up from #90 in 2018).

Cheil Beijing creative director Kimmy Liu also enters the Creative Rankings for the first time at #7 with 615 points.

Cone Gong, who has worked at Amber Shanghai and W Shanghai moves up 10 places to #8.

At equal #9 in the China Creative Rankings is Loong Beijing team Tengtao Yuan and Wei Xu.

NB: The results of the 2020 Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings are tabulated from creative award wins at the 11 award shows included over a rolling two year and a half year period starting from AdFest 2018 (March 2018) through to Campaign Brief’s The Work 2020 (June 2020). The shows that are included in these calculations are: Ad Stars, Spikes Asia, AWARD Awards, AdFest, Campaign Brief’s THE WORK, Clio Awards, London International Awards, New York Festivals, One Show, D&AD and Cannes Lions.

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