Effectiveness the key in tough times

Every agency, of every kind, puts 'creativity' at the heart of its business. Call it lateral thought, problem-solving, consumer insight - it's why brands need agencies.

Creativity is not merely pretty pictures and clever wordplay. Your ad gets seen on YouTube, but so what if you don't see the sales curve go up (Old Spice, anyone?).

Real creativity is synonymous with effectiveness.

The marketing director's inbox is overshadowed by the monthly reports of net promoter scores, market share, sales and profits. If the work isn't effective, it's worthless.

That's why Marketing's Agency of the Year now recognises effectiveness above all other criteria (see 'How we did it', below right). What's more, our judges looked for this quality across all aspects of an agency's operations, including people development and new-business wins.

Naturally, however, the judges rated only those agencies that impressed them with a consistent record of building their clients' brands.

For the first time, Marketing magazine journalists also picked their 'best of the best'. So in a year during which media agencies were resurgent, it is fitting that our first Grand Prix goes to PHD for its creativity across the board, including R&D and HR.

Considering the breadth of our criteria and our hard-to-please judges, it's a testament to UK agencies that choosing the winners was often such a close call.

As we pull up our collars against the chill winds of another downturn, we hope the performance of our winning agencies points the way to recession-busting effectiveness.

Noelle.McElhatton@haymarket.com.

Take a look at Marketing's Agencies of the Year below