Monday, March 17, 2008

Top Ten Creatives, Directors and Agencies

I love charts and graphs; maybe I should have been a planner.

Anyway, there's some interesting tables on David Reviews, which is a site (subscription required) run by Jason Stone - he's an interesting bloke and a real ad enthusiast, who's created a tidy business taping all the ads off TV, and selling them back to agencies when they ring up asking for all the latest car ads, soup ads, or whatever.

Visitors can also vote - here are the stats for the last 12 months:

Top 10 Directors


Top 10 Agencies


Top 10 Creatives


Agree? Disagree? Remember, it's just for fun.

104 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its like being back at school, don’t like it.

Anonymous said...

Well, it's obviously a load of crap. Look at those agencies VVCP? BDH Manchester? RBR's a bit of a stretch. And the creatives. Three out of Fallon and a bunch of no marks. There are lies, damned lies and these statistics.

Great site in general, tho'. Thanks Jonathan.

Anonymous said...

I know what Juan Cabral earns.

Anonymous said...

carter

why are you not on the list then?

what you done?

Anonymous said...

re annon 12.21.

So do I

Odd list, not sure how accurate is!

Anonymous said...

I heard he gets £50 a day cash in hand

Anonymous said...

I'm not on the list, but looks like a good bunch to me.

Anonymous said...

Anon 12.21 here are some people not on the list...Tony McTear, Paul Silburn, Matt Doman, Ian Heartfield, Shish and Sam, Adam Tucker, Anyone from Mother, Vince Squibb, Scamp, Nick Gill...I could go on.

They're better than the non Fallons on that list.

I'm not on the list because I'm a planner.

Anonymous said...

Which one of the no marks took ofence and put 'What you done?'
Good English no mark.

Anonymous said...

Yes yes, good work 'Jonathan'.

I'm well pleased with the list, as the production company I work for have been working with 6 of the top 10 creatives within the last 12 months.

Carter1 - I agree - a lot of names missing, but the list is compiled by votes on the site, so it can't be argued with. While I'm a huge fan of Tony McTear and the like, he hasn't really done anything in the last 12 months, except depart from TBWA and join Fallon.

Shouldn't Noam Murro be on the list of directors? I expect Harmony Korine to be there soon too. What about animation directors like Smith & Foulkes?

Anonymous said...

Can anyone name an ad that the non Fallon guys have done. i'm quite geeky when it comes to who did what, and i'm drawing a blank. is it me?

Anonymous said...

Nick Gill ?
180?
Fallon?
Juan Cabral?
where are all these guys??

Anonymous said...

I know that Rob and Adam are at JWT and did smirnoff sea

George said...

Anon 1:07. Stanley CHeung did the recent Carlberg announcement viral (shame his partner didn't make the list - Jonathan Benson) Tom and Dave at SHOP did Thorntons and Vince and Simon were involved in the TfL mega controversial awareness test ad.

Anonymous said...

"The list can't be argued with"? Well of course it can. All the people involved in an ad must routinely give themselves a 'brilliant' and DR only goes on percentages, so a few corrupt brilliants gets the no-mark agencies and creatives on the list.

"I expect Harmony Korine to be there soon too"?
Why on earth do you expect that? He's not exactly a regular director of good stuff, is he?

George said...

Oh yes - and Rob and Adam did Smirnoff

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 1.29 - no he's not yet - that was my point.

Anonymous said...

And he's crap. That was mine.

Anonymous said...

Anon 1.02 would that be the Noam Murro who directed ford focus orchestra, PS3 poodle acrobat nonsense and singing fucking dog? Or would it be the Noam Murro who directed that ad written by Dylan Thomas?

Anonymous said...

I was thinking of Night Drive. Forgot about Orchestra - point taken.

Anonymous said...

So i guess Mr 'I'm well pleased with the list',
'It can't be argued with', 'Expect Harmony Korine to shoot up the list',Is either Tom or Dave at Shop who did the Harmony Korine Bendicks ad?

Why else anonymously talk about how great it is for your 'production company'?

Anonymous said...

It was Thorntons, and yes, you've rumbled me.

Anonymous said...

I said

I KNOW WHAT JUAN CABRAL EARNS. I mean I KNOW.

Anonymous said...

Then why are you still writing as anonymous?

We all know you're a bit sad. Don't make it worse.

Anonymous said...

Go on then - tell us.
Nobody will believe you anyway.

Anonymous said...

£1 miillion a year

Anonymous said...

Your right. I am a bit of a sad tit.
Can I just say sorry to everyone I've tried to mislead.
I'm just a bit insecure.

Anonymous said...

who gives a fuck what he earns.

a lot more than any of us.

Anonymous said...

do you know how big his dick is too? nosey parker.

Anonymous said...

re annon 1.50pm

A lot more than most of us!

Anonymous said...

re 1.57

are you saying you earn 1 million pounds a year?

Anonymous said...

Re annon 2.05pm

Not right now, have to keep costs down but after the earn out, possibly.

Anonymous said...

what a shit thread

Anonymous said...

It's a good popular vote appraisal of ads (somewhere between creatives and the public).

I'd like to see an advote from a blog that gets a lot of public readers so we can see what John Q. Citizen really cares about.

David used to put up actual numbers of voters. That stopped when he went subscription.

Mad Men was shit yesterday.

Anonymous said...

Do the Red Brick Road make the ads that go on the tv's in Ashes To Ashes?

Anonymous said...

wait a min. mad men was great last night, enjoyed it a lot!

uh, the thorntons ad was great indeed, one of my favorites from the whole last year. yeah, way better than juan playing the drums in that monkey costume.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Is that you again Tom or Dave?

Anonymous said...

I think posting on another blog 'in disguise' to big up your own work is about as dismal as it gets. Especially if the work's already got a couple of BTAA arrows. I mean how lame is that? It's not enough to win a couple of arrows (hardly any ads do that) but to still be all defensive and lie to everyone, well, I'm sorry but I'm not going to apply to work there. If they ever hire again.

Anonymous said...

Tom or Dave.

You shouldn't be posing as Waldemar here, you should be posing as anonymous again and voting for your ad on David Reviews.Again.

Anonymous said...

apparently fallon do those great asda ads...

Anonymous said...

I work for a production company that had the number 1 director until late last year...Admittedly off the back of one specific ad (in top voted ads ever). He dropped out altogether when that was over 12 months old.
Hell, I'm not complaining! But the results can be influenced by various factors fairly simply.
Tom Tagholm...Best director?? No, that's the result of consistently good creative. But since he's only ever worked on C4 work, he hasn't been tested in the real World.
It doesn't seem to be number of votes, rather proportion of positive votes. So if you keep your head down, you can do well. Yawn.
If you're one of the real (rightful?) directing stars, then you put your balls on the line to make, occasionally, tat, and that hurts you. There's no way Ledwidge shouldn't be in there, for instance. But he's dragged down for his naff Orange ads.
Excellent work isn't rewarded in these tables. Not doing bad work is...

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Oh, and Mad Men WAS shit last night. "Ooo, I'm all in a quandry, what has happened in my life, I'm so rich, charming and gorgeous and yet empty, unfulfilled and pained, a husk of my potential true humanity."
The plot twist: He didn't bring his kid's cake home.
Who gives a flying fuck about the dull self-absorbed Gillette mook.

Anonymous said...

JC, you can't speak Spanish...

"Che stupid, are gone all to the crap and they lose not but the time with me."

Come again?

Anonymous said...

Excellent explanation 3.41.

It (a) explains how all these unknown names appear in the creative league table- no history,
and (b) makes you realise how well Juan has done, given the volume of work he's done and the volume of votes he must get on that work.

Presumably 3 out of 3 would put that ad above a 3980 out of 4000 in percentage terms? If true it's worthless.

Anonymous said...

I've just seen the new Flake ad with Joss Stone and puked all over my layout pad. Shit.

Anonymous said...

Yes, correct 3.56. I presume.
Though I think this sails a little too close to statistical analysis though.
And that means research.
And research is the bain of our lives (well, my life).
So let's not go that way.
Let's be fluffy and artsy fartsy and pretend our ads are 'films' not propoganda to sell shit to idiots.

Man I'm cynical today.

Anonymous said...

Juan IS THE MAN

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Are you at all surprised that Juan gets £1m per year - and do you think he deserves it?
(If that is figure is correct)

I'm not surprised, and I think he does deserve it.

Anonymous said...

I'd be amazed if Cabral gets a mil. It's too round a figure and has little comparison to major, company-running figures in advertising.
Stef Calcraft is deeply scarred by his leaving Mother. Didn't Juan do well? Bless his mullety socks.

Oh, and that Thorntons ad is nice enough. But doubt it sold a shit's worth of choccy. Effectiveness Awards anyone? No? Thought not.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Thank you for all those anti-Tom and Dave comments. They were pretty mean.

What's funny is how their treatment chimes with the first comment on here. It's like school exam time, finding out one of the class got was cheating, then all the crap that follows.

Or is that what the dothetest post was like? Can't we all get along...?

Anonymous said...

I meant thanks for removing them, Scamp. Soz.

Anonymous said...

Are people working in advertising more pretentious than Premiership footballer's?

Anonymous said...

Even though you misuse the apostrophe (is this stupid, deliberate or sardonic grammerisation, pisspoorenglish?), I can bring myself to reply to your post.

Footballers are too stupid to be fully aware of their surroundings. They lack cynicism and therefore merely lack taste.

Ad 'folk' are by definition, pretentious. They are fully aware of what is thought of them, and what is expected of them, deny that they are selling stuff but are instead making art, and all wear a standardised art-wank uniform. They also like Sketch.

Anonymous said...

I worked with the aforementioned Tom And Dave whilst a grad trainee and found them to be delightful.
So come on chaps, give them a break.

Anonymous said...

Jolly well right, Rupes.

I thought they were top-hole, old bean.

Come on, chaps and chapesses, there's no need to give them such a ragging.

Anonymous said...

Tom & Dave? I don't know them, but they make ads that stand out. So cool.
As for you lot.....
Professional jealousy. The young male creative's driving force.

Had your spoilt tantrum yet today?

Anonymous said...

>>>Even though you misuse the apostrophe (is this stupid, deliberate or sardonic grammerisation, pisspoorenglish?),>>>

grammERisation?

Mr. Kettle, there's a Mr. Pot to see you in reception.

Anonymous said...

Juuuaaaaaan Cabraaaaalll (rolls tongue) is pretty good, he get's the bucks back for the companies he works for, so eh, 1 million why not.

Anonymous said...

5:33 anon

Ah, ok, just want to check. 'Cos the amount of posts on these leading ad blogs that are just about money and names is disgusting.

I've met plenty of friendly people and hope to meet more as I try to join an ad agency. But the prospect of entering a world seemingly filled with such wankery makes you question yourself sometimes.

I'll put it down to the protective shield that is the internet.

Feels better now.

And the apostrophe was merely a sardonic typo.

And I don't know what Skecth is. Will that go against me?

Anonymous said...

jjjuuuuaaaaan caaaabraaalll... I like "(rolls tongue)"

apparently cadbury sales were up 9% after the gorilla ad. I didn't really get it. but his job was to improve sales.

Tarker (the otter)

Anonymous said...

scamp sounds like scampi - non

Anonymous said...

Anon 6.35.

Have you read this blog today? All the anonymous comments that back up t&D now look unfortunately like they are posted by one of them.
If you do want to back them up it may be best just to step away from today's Scamp and wait for a different oppportunity. I personally don't really care for them one way or the other but today may have been an inadvertent misfire that I'm sure they have learned from.

Anonymous said...

"I've met plenty of friendly people and hope to meet more as I try to join an ad agency. But the prospect of entering a world seemingly filled with such wankery makes you question yourself sometimes."
I've found that advertising is half full of lovely talented sweet people and half full of back-stabbing, coke-snorting bastards, just like the cliches. Have cynicism, but try and stay nice. It helps. When's there's egos and money, there's wankery.

"And the apostrophe was merely a sardonic typo." Forgiven.

"grammERisation?" (6.37) Surely to God your not telling me you took that seriously, you mook!

"And I don't know what Skecth is. Will that go against me?"
Yes.

Love you all. I am a nice person. I don't have daily thoughts of suicide and burning self-doubt. xx

Anonymous said...

"grammERisation?" (6.37) Surely to God your not telling me you took that seriously, you mook!

i would never take you seriously.

Anonymous said...

Why have all you creatives got into advertising? Why not film, TV or game design? The pay's no good anymore...you all obviously think you've got the talent...if you're all aiming to be Cabral and no ones even sure he's earning that much..everyone seems to be so fucked off with the industry (having to produce shit work for clients). I don't get it. Why do you do it when there seems to be heaps better channels for creativity these days?

Anonymous said...

funny no one said a thing about the chart it self, quite boarding one.

Anonymous said...

re 9.05

I love advertising, coming up with great ideas for shit, unappreciative, cuntish clients has to beat working for a living.

Anonymous said...

Stop your putrid whining. It's a job. Anyone who gets creative fulfillment from advertising isn't creative.

Anonymous said...

Re 11.00pm

It’s not our fault you work in a shit agency.

Anonymous said...

Oh come on. Have you ever seen an ad that you would happily hold up as your life's work, the thing that you're most proud of when the choir eternal are singing? Yes advertising is a creative job but it doesn't matter what agency you work at we all secretly want to get out and do something we can be genuinely proud of. Nicking a youtube clip or making a 9% improvement in chocolate bar sales just isn't it.

Anonymous said...

let's get back to the point here... and get back to talking about Juan.

Anonymous said...

That's the misconception of planners, especially at most agencies, and why most planners really suck. It's not supposed to be about charts. It's supposed to be about insight.

Oh, and there is no way a CD in advertising makes 1 mil pounds. Most I've ever heard for an ECD is 500.

Anonymous said...

Flintham's also on a mil a year, by the way.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11.16 you make me very sad.
I understand there are a lot of people in the business who don't really like it.
My advice to all of them is to go and do something else.
It's a naive view coloured by your own prejudice that creative people can't find this job rewarding.
If you genuinely get a kick out of creating ideas that have effect, that sell things, that change opinion - it can be a great job.
If not, you're in the wrong job buddy, you probably just stick around for the money.
Quite sad really.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Juan.
Great advice.

Anonymous said...

you mean he's on juan million.

Anonymous said...

I thought this blog was about work, not people?

Anonymous said...

Seconded.

You all sound like gossiping old women. I thought creatives were supposed to be smart and engaged in ideas, not a pack of whining bitches?

Anonymous said...

Advertising IS still well paid (if you're good) and is a fantastic career (until your 40).

It's just fun to be cynical. Anonymously.

Cowardice rules.

Anonymous said...

Tarquin.

Oh how terribly witty.

Your surname isn't Wilde is it?

I was merely trying to add a touch of positivity to offset the guttersnipes.

I'm sorry I don't have a name you are more comfortable with,
what would you prefer-Baz? Smiffy? Kev?

Anonymous said...

Some of the anonymous responses to this post are quite frankly embarassing to the ad industry, not to mention Scamp. His posts are now being constantly filled up with people talking bollocks; and not in a good enjoyable way.

Anonymous said...

Dear Rupes,

what made you think I was joking?

To balance it out, I judged with Tom at D&AD and found him to be um...how can I put this?... not delightful.

toodle pip!

Anonymous said...

TV 2004?

A complete...non delight.

Anonymous said...

I am the juan and only..

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Haha!

Anonymous said...

Give me Juan moment in time...

Anonymous said...

Since Dave Dye left, SH**'s output has been quite poor. Discuss.
(Exhibit a: the name SH**. Exhibit b: the latest Adnams ads. Exhibit c: 'Waiting. Boring. Green Flag". Exhibit d: that Nurofen ad masquerading as a Mercedes ad...the beginning of Budgen's low patch. And why has Walt decided it's no longer worth his time?)

DeBontjas said...

if you like good stats, check out this:

http://www.werkvanthijsenmarco.nl/index8.html

Anonymous said...

see what you did there debontjas...

you subtly advertised your work,

Juan would be proud. Now let us pray to the great Argentine.

Anonymous said...

Hey, doesn't juan have a creative partner? Does anyone actually know who that is....

Anonymous said...

I'd give him 'Juan'.

(I'd fuck him).

Anonymous said...

I

Anonymous said...

Love

Anonymous said...

Round

Anonymous said...

Numbers

Anonymous said...

I don't.

Anonymous said...

Juan are you reading this, you're something of a star!

Anonymous said...

scamp, belated congrats on your campaign pick of the week for levis. That cheerleader shot is iconic. Got the LA gang book. Good stuff. Love all that bloods and crips shizzle

Anonymous said...

My god excuse me whilst I vomit out my brains, why on earth did I read all of that!