Warc Effective 100: Unilever and Ogilvy Top 2025 Rankings
The Warc Effective 100, a global benchmark of the most awarded campaigns and companies for effectiveness, has been released, marking the final ranking in this year’s Warc Rankings series.
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Compiled by Warc, the annual Effective 100 Rankings aggregate the results of the most important global and regional effectiveness awards of 2025. The shows tracked are determined in consultation with the Warc Rankings Advisory Board and by a yearly global panel survey.
Amy Rodgers, head of content, Warc Creative, said: "The Warc Effective 100 Rankings are the pinnacle of marketing excellence, showcasing the campaigns and companies that have truly moved the needle and delivered measurable impact. Setting new standards for effectiveness, they are an invaluable resource for the industry to learn from the very best, help embed a culture of effectiveness and drive future business growth."
Three themes stand out from this year’s Effective 100:
- Reach for good: The Effective 100 continues to highlight how big brands, such as Dove, Pedigree and Vaseline, with a large reach can both do good and create value for their businesses.
- Fans become central: Going further than speaking to customers in places where they spend time, brands in this year’s top 100, including Xbox, eos, and Whirlpool, brought fans into the centre of their campaigns, making authentic shareable content to boost attention and engagement.
- Effective AI use: The growth in use of AI in the marketing industry has been exponential in the last couple of years, and that is starting to come through in case studies for effectiveness, for such brands as O2, Volkswagen and An-Nahar.
#1 Campaign for effectiveness: Real Beauty: How a Soap Brand Created a Global Self-Esteem Movement by Ogilvy London and Mindshare New York for Dove
The most awarded campaign for effectiveness of 2025 was Real Beauty: How a Soap Brand Created a Global Self-Esteem Movement by Ogilvy London and Mindshare New York for Dove. Over 20 years, the personal care brand’s iconic Real Beauty campaign has consistently continued to reshape global perceptions of beauty, evolving into a holistic brand platform now purchased by 37% of the world’s population.
#1 creative agency for effectiveness: AlmapBBDO, São Paulo
#1 independent creative agency for effectiveness: Mischief, New York
Last year’s third-placed agency, AlmapBBDO São Paulo, tops the Effective creative agency ranking for the first time, with six campaigns in the top 100, including the Caramelo campaign for Pedigree.
Filipe Bartholomeu, President and CEO, AlmapBBDO, said: “Being recognised as the world’s most effective creative agency by Warc is an extremely proud achievement, that reflects our belief in creativity as the main driver of growth and results for our clients. This recognition aligns with our core mission: to impact the world through brands by generating consistent and lasting growth for them.”
After another strong year, Leo Mumbai is in 2nd place. Ogilvy London climbs three places to claim third place. Impact BBDO Dubai and Sancho BBDO Bogota not ranked last year have jumped into seventh and eighth places.
Top of the independents is Mischief @ No Fixed Address, New York, which has featured consistently in the top indie agencies for effectiveness in recent years. Its eos brand campaign is ranked seventh and 11 further campaigns across the full database contributed points.
#1 media agency for effectiveness: Starcom Chicago
#1 independent agency for effectiveness: Streetwise, São Paulo
#1 Network for effectiveness: Ogilvy
#1 Independent network for effectiveness: GUT
Ogilvy is the most awarded network for effectiveness for the fourth year in a row. The network has 13 campaigns in the top 100. The network is behind the #1 ranked campaign for Dove and has work for 12 different brands across the top 100 campaigns.
#1 Holding Company for effectiveness: Omnicom
The battle for top holding company for effectiveness continues this year with the pendulum swinging back in Omnicom Group’s favour.
With a margin of less than 200 points, the holdco was represented by nine different networks in the top 50, and a quarter of the top 100 campaigns.
WPP is in second place, followed by Interpublic, which remains in third.
#1 Brand for effectiveness: McDonald’s
McDonald’s has now been the most effective brand for seven years in a row, testament to its global reach and commitment to creative effectiveness transformation across its entire business. The fast food retailer has two campaigns in the top 100, but its success is driven by the depth of wins across shows globally, with a further 66 campaigns in the full effective 100 database, from an impressive 29 different countries across the world.
#1 Advertiser for effectiveness: Unilever
After a few years off the top spot, Unilever returns to first place in the Effective 100 this year, marking a hat-trick across the three rankings and the first advertiser to ever rank first for creativity, media and effectiveness in the same year. The FMCG giant is represented by five campaigns in the top 100, and 29 different brands in the full Effective 100 database.
The top ten most highly ranked campaigns and companies:
