Gunn Report 2012: Taproot tops India tally

Taproot India is also the only Indian agency to have ranked amongst the 50 most awarded agencies in the world in the current report.

As per an official press note from the agency, Taproot India (part of the Dentsu India Group) has been declared the No. 1 creative agency in India in the 2012 Gunn Report. The agency has a total score of 10 points with a score break up showing seven points in the Film category and three in the AGB (All Gunns Blazing) category, a miscellaneous category. The agency has no points in Print and Digital.

Apart from this, Taproot India is also the only Indian agency to have been ranked amongst the top 50 in the world, as per the report. In other words, Taproot was among the 50 most awarded agencies in the world, last year.

Taproot is one of 12 new inductees in the winners list on creative excellence in advertising worldwide for the year 2012.

As far as the India tally goes, this time, Ogilvy is at the No. 2 position with a total of nine points and Leo Burnett is at the No. 3 position with seven points. Creativeland Asia is at No. 4 (five points) and both Contract Advertising and McCann Worldgroup follow at No. 5 (with four points each).

In 2010, Taproot was at the No. 3 position with a total of seven points; that year, Ogilvy (Mumbai and Delhi) led the India tally with nine points and JWT was second with eight points.

Again in 2011 Gunn Report, Ogilvy topped the India tally, followed by JWT (No. 2), and Creativeland Asia and McCann Worldgroup (both at No. 3). Leo Burnett topped in 2009; in 2008, it was Ogilvy; and McCann Erickson headed the list in 2007.

Interestingly, most of the time, it's the winning agencies' Mumbai branches that have pulled in these points in the Gunn Report, barring a few exceptions (say, A Advertising in New Delhi in 2007 and Ogilvy Delhi, along with Ogilvy Mumbai, in 2008-11).

Agnello Dias (aka Aggie), co-founder and chief creative officer, Taproot India, is humbled by the current inclusion. "The amount of parameters The Gunn Report takes into account to arrive at the results is vast and wide-ranging. Therefore, something like this is always going to be unexpected," says Aggie.

Is topping Gunn's country-specific ranking more challenging or is winning a D&AD Pencil more difficult? afaqs! asks Santosh Padhi, co-founder and chief creative officer of Taproot India.

"Both," Paddy answers, "D&AD is a high end award about pure creative craft, where you compete with global agencies, while topping Gunn is about the creative part as well as the business angle, market impact, effectiveness of your work and some other aspects. Also, Gunn is within the context of your own country. So, both are equally important."

This year's Gunn Report was edited by Prasoon Joshi, chairman and chief creative officer, McCann Worldgroup India and president, South Asia.

As far as The Gunn Report for Media goes, India has moved up the ladder ranking No. 3 in the 'Country of the Year' tally and with 181 points this year, preceded by the United States and the United Kingdom. Last year, India was ranked at No. 5.

Founded by Donald Gunn, the Gunn Report provides an authoritative analysis of advertising campaigns done around the world. It does so by combining the winners lists from all of the world's most important award contests (global, regional as well as national), to establish what it calls 'annual worldwide league tables' for the advertising industry. In 2012, this collation encompassed 46 shows in all.

The first edition of the Gunn Report was published in 1999.

For details on the methodology of the Gunn Report visit http://www.gunnreport.com/about/methodology.