BMF tops Mumbrella creative agency study
BMF has come out on top of the inaugural Mumbrella Creative Agency Performance and Perception Study, as revealed at Mumbrella360 this morning.
From a field of Australia’s top 30 agencies, an expert panel and Mumbrella’s readership gave the Photon-owned agency the highest overall score – 78.9 out of 100 across 10 assessment criteria.
Clemenger BBDO Melbourne came second, with an overall score of 75.78. Third was Host – the highest ranked independent agency – followed by Droga5 and The Monkeys.
BMF top scored in six of the 10 criteria – creativity, effectiveness, integration, talent, planning and impact on the industry.
Clems Melbourne rated highest in three criteria: commercial success, account management and client stability.
The Monkeys rated as the agency with the most momentum.
Panelists David Thomason, 12 years the head of marketing at Meat & Livestock Australia, where he worked with agencies BMF and The Campaign Palace, and recruitment agent Nick Williams of Williams International, talked about the results and what they think makes a great creative agency:
(August 29 update: An updated, newly weighted version of these numbers appears in the MCAR Mumbrella Creative Agency review, to be published in September. Because the weighting has changed, some of the numbers below are also subject to change in the final version)
The results (total score out of 100):
1. BMF 78.9
2. Clemenger BBDO Melbourne 75.78
3. Host 74.24
4. Droga5 73.1
5. The Monkeys 71.83
6. Whybin\TBWA Sydney 70.44
7. DDB Sydney 68.03
8. GPY&R Melbourne 67.6
9. Leo Burnett Sydney 66.38
10. Clemenger BBDO Sydney 65.29
11. M&C Saatchi Sydney 65.09
12. Whybin\TBWA Melbourne 64.79
13. BWM 61.55
14. 303 Perth 60.9
15. DDB Melbourne 60.67
16. Grey Melbourne 60.59
17. Ogilvy Sydney 56.28
18. Leo Burnett Melbourne 55.69
19. Publicis Mojo Sydney 55.32
20. Ogilvy Melbourne 53.4
21. Oddfellows 53.13
22. JWT Sydney 52.38
23. JWT Melbourne 51.65
24. Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney 51.48
25. M&C Saatchi Melbourne 51.45
26. GPY&R Sydney
27. Innocean 48.78
28. McCann Sydney 47.91
29. Publicis Mojo Melbourne 47.86
30. The Campaign Palace Sydney 45.68
The survey, conducted for Mumbrella by Edentify, was weighted, so that the scores awarded by the panel of industry experts counted for 60% of the total. Results from Mumbrella’s readers counted for 40%.
Respondents were asked to rate agencies out of ten for each criterion, which was tallied to an overall score out of 100. To reduce self-scoring, respondents were asked to declare if they worked at any of the 30 agencies before they could begin.
The full results, with breakdowns by assessment criteria, will be published in the Mumbrella Creative Agency Performance and Perception Study in greater detail in the coming weeks. The report will include qualitative assessments on each agency from Mumbrella’s assessment panel.
Mumbrella’s agency assessment panel:
- Nick Baker, Executive general manager, marketing, Tourism Australia
- David Thomason, Consultant, David Thomason Strategy
- Darren Woolley, MD, TrinityP3
- Anthony Hourigan, CEO, Hourigan International
- William Leach & Sangeeta Leach, partners, The Leach Partnership
- Peter MacDonald, MD, The Agency Register
- Nick Williams, Principal, Williams International
- Chrissie Blackburn, MD, Red Spider
- Esther Clerehan, owner, Clerehan
- Liane Ringham, MD, Inside Story
The assessment criteria
Creativity
- The agency that is producing the highest quality creative work
- The agency pushing creative boundaries
- The agency with the strongest creative culture
Effectiveness
- The agency that produces the most effective work
- The agency with the strongest effectiveness culture
Integration
- The agency that is the least siloed
- The agency that best uses the full spectrum of communications channels
- The agency in which digital is best integrated into work processes and campaigns
- The agency that best integrates the way it works with other agencies
Planning
- The agency with the strongest planning department
- The agency with the strongest planning culture
Account management
- The agency that is best at meeting clients’ needs
- The agency that is best at selling great creative work
Talent
- The agency with the most worldclass talent
- The agency that best develops, nurtures and rewards talent
- The agency with the lowest staff turnover
Commercial success
- The most commercially successful agency
- The agency best at winning new business
- The agency best at finding new revenue streams
Impact on the industry
- The agency with the best ideas or model to transform the industry
- The agency with individuals who have contributed positively to the progress and profile of the industry
- The agency best able to manage its profile
Momentum
- The agency most feared in pitches
- The most exciting agency to work for
- The agency most likely to produce a great campaign now
Client stability
- The agency with the longest-standing clients
- The agency clients least want to fire
- The agency best able to manage conflicting clients
Woot!
To the pub…
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Tim, you do yourself and BMF no favours by proclaiming them winners in one breath, then telling us their client was a judge in the next.
It all sounds like a mother judging their own baby the prettiest in a beauty contest.
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BMF are the shining beacon of meaningful advertising in Australia.
Poor S&S – how the mighty fall.
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Hi oops,
David Thomason, who was one of our ten panelists, was a former client of BMF’s, not current. He was also a former client of The Campaign Palace, which ranked 30th out of 30.
Cheers,
Robin – Mumbrella
Can you tell us how many mumbrella readers were in the panel?
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the scores aren’t that high
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Robin,
Don’t be so sensitive. I’m not doubting BMF’s credentials. I’m just saying the blog’s editorial notes don’t read well and do you and BMF no favours. That’s all. But then, in the words of Nancy Sinatra, “you had to go say something stupid like …” The Campaign Palace is ranked 30 in Australia. This is when the missing caveat becomes obvious – that is, not 30th best agency in Australia, but 30th of the 30 agencies you’ve chosen to include on your list. [P.S. Well done BMF].
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oops
actually, Robin didn’t write “The Campaign Palace is ranked 30 in Australia”, he wrote ‘ranked 30th out of 30’, which clearly wasn’t a stupid thing to say but an honest and accurate assessment of their score.
so I guess the lesson here is that if you’re going to accuse somebody of saying something stupid, it’s probably better if you yourself try to say something smart, not something rather dense
with love
xx
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BMF, Clems Melb and Host have been winning new business and major creative and effectiveness awards consistently over a long period. At the end of the day that’s the most independent way to judge who’s the “best”. They deserve congratulations.
However, I don’t think it is fair or relevant to then have a list of the next best 27, especially considering that on many of the criteria outlined it would be impossible for the panel to know the real story at any agency unless they have worked with them as a client. And then bias obviously comes in.
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That Robin Hicks is dead cute – is he single and gay?
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Don’t you love it when agencies suddenly believe in market research.
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AdNews Agency of the Year, B&T Agency of the Year, Campaign Brief Agency of the Year and now some other ranking system from AdNews (that nobody understands) – hmmm the parasites are really filling their pages with this stuff, and making a buck as well…so why not me? – thinks the parasite who runs Mumbrella.
It’s so easy, you just get those dumb arse agency suckers to spend hours preparing a presentation for you (at the end of their 12 hour days, or over the weekend). Of course they’ll have to meet really strict criteria, stuff like ‘Agency with the best ideas or model to transform the industry’.
Judging?
That’s easy.
I’ll just call up all the other parasites that feed off the industry without ever contributing anything to it.
10 judges. That’ll do.
Um, I’ll get three head-hunters.
They’ll love it cos they can get a close up look at every agency’s most talented staff for free.
Pitch consultants?
Boy that industry is just so popular with parasites I’ll have to limit it to two judges.
Strategic Planners?
More peripheral than parasitic really, but if they’re freelance planners that ticks the box.
Market Researchers?
Limit that to one.
Clients?
The good ones will all be busy, so I’ll get one that is out of work, or consulting as they call it these days.
Actually better get one that is in a job – I know the bloke who signed off on that “There’s nothing like Australia’ jingle. Yeah you know the TVC for tourism that looked just like the American one for National Geographic Channel.
Okay done!
But hang on, this is quite a lot of work… stuff it, I’ll choose the 30 agencies myself.
Who cares if I leave out AJF, they’re winning enough business already, same for Ted Horton’s little agency and Cummins, he’ll never get off the ground.
Wow this will be so influential that the blog will go into meltdown!!!
Cut to Mr Mumbrella wandering off into the night singing “we’re happy little parasites” to the tune of “happy little vegemites”– an advertising line that was written 50 years ago, in a time when there were no parasites.
Perhaps that’s why it’s survived.
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well done BMF
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Ummm and i thought “The agency that best uses the full spectrum of communications channels” would have been a criteria most suited to media agencies???
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what a sad, bitter and twisted bunch of people… what’s up didn’t mummy love you? grow up kids.
Mumbrella, thanks. For an industry that builds brand reputations, a study of ours is really interesting to see and helps us understand what we need to strive for.
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I think Mumbrella has done the industry a great service with the establishment of the 360 Conference. It has the capacity to create an environment for intelligent discussion,debate and education – all powerful tools for enhancing the standing of our industry in the wider business community. I just wish it hadn’t given in to the old ‘best agency’ type rubbish. Leave the ‘who’s best, who’s hot, who’s not’ to others. My advice — if mumbrella stays above all that crap, you’ll look all the bigger for it.
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