Feature... New faces climb creative ranking

There was a big change at the top of this year’s annual ranking of Asia-Pacific’s young creatives, with only two of the 2007 top 10 retaining their place in the elite list. This reflects the ranking’s emphasis on new talent - the list excludes regional and executive creative directors who held their senior positions when working on the winning campaigns.

For the first time in three years, the Creative Juice\G1 Thailand partnership of Prangthip Praditpong and Jon Chalermwong, who had together held the number one spot for the previous two years, was nowhere to be seen. Taking over from the Thai duo, Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore creative director Richard Copping jumped up from joint third in last year’s list to take top spot, while his former Saatchis creative partner Jagdish Ramakrishnan moved up one place to second .

Copping and Ramakrishnan apart, the 2008 creative leaders are a collectiion of mostly new faces, with none of them featuring in last year’s top 10. Much of this is the result of the award show success enjoyed this year by Ogilvy & Mather Singapore, under the watchful eye of now-departed executive creative director Sonal Dabral. Five of the Ogilvy team take up places in this year’s top 10 and, of these, only one - Ashidiq Ghazali - was named in the 2007 Top 100.

Almost exclusively, this year’s top 10 creatives can thank the medal haul of one or two big campaigns for their ranking. At the top of the list, Copping and Ramakrishnan scored high for the gold Lions they picked up at Cannes 2007 with the ‘Couch/Walkies/Sticks’ campaigns for the Thai SPCA.

Likewise, the Ogilvy & Mather Singapore team racked up the points with their work for FHM, which won three gold Lions at Cannes and three gold Pencils at the 2007 One Show. Further down the list, Noranit Yasopa and Pipat Uraporn followed up their success in the 2007 regional award shows with four gold Lions at Cannes for their ‘Barriercycle’ and ‘Railcycle’ campaigns for client Clima.

Campaigns with a conscience were once again the big winners for Asia’s creatives. Alongside Saatchis work for Thai SPCA, other notable campaigns included Ogilvy & Mather’s campaigns for Singapore Hospice, which pocketed four gold Lions at Cannes and Y&R Philippines ‘Bullets/Warship/Cross’ for Soroptimist Philippines, which picked up a gold at the 2007 Clios. Ogilvy & Mather Thailand’s ‘Tree’ for WWF was also a big winner, picking up a haul of medals at Cannes and Spikes .

In fact, WWF proved to be a rewarding client for creative agencies over the past year, and was the most awarded in the region, ahead of FHM , Clima and adidas. In addition to Ogilvy Thailand’s ‘Tree’ campaign, Leo Burnett Australia’s ‘Earth Hour’ for WWF was a big success at Spikes, where it was awarded the Platinum Spike to go along with the gold it won in the integrated category and the award show’s inaugural Green Spike. The campaign had earlier won a Titanium Lion at Cannes.

Unsurprisingly, given its dominance in the individual rankings, Singapore took over Thailand’s mantle as the best performing region in Asia. Singapore was the best market for three of the top four networks - Ogilvy & Mather, Saatchi & Saatchi and JWT. New Zealand also made a strong showing - as it did last year - and was the best performing market for two of the top 10 networks.

As in 2007, when it came to ranking the leading networks in Asia, the performance of one or two stand out offices made all the difference. Saatchi & Saatchi was dependent on its Singapore office for well over half of its total awards, while Ogilvy can thank the contributions made by its Singapore and Thailand creatives. Both Lowe and Y&R were boosted by the award show performances of their Australian offices, Lowe Hunt and George Patterson Y&R, respectively.

The one surprise in this year’s network list was Leo Burnett, which made it to third place in the rankings despite not breaking into the top 10 in 2007. Leo Burnett’s high position came off the back of the strong showing from its Thailand and Australia offices which were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the overall list of best performing agencies, behind the Saatchis and Ogilvy Singapore offices and Dentsu of Japan. Bubbling just under the lead 10 were two of last year’s best ranking networks, Publicis and Hakuhodo, which sat just ahead of DDB, DraftFCB and Grey.

In keeping with another trend from previous Media creative rankings, this year also saw a fresh round of departures from the agency’s creative desks.

Most high profile was the departure of Jagdish Ramakrishnan, who left Saatchis after an 11-year stint for new challenges as executive creative director at BBDO Singapore. Elsewhere, Noranit Yasopa made the short journey across Bangkok to join Lowe Thailand, following his success alongside Pipat Uraporn at Leo Burnett Thailand. Moving down the ranking, over half the creatives in this year’s list have either moved agencies or been given a promotion since picking up their awards, proving once again that medal counts can go a long way when it comes to negotiating new contracts.