The idea behind The Gunn Report is to combine the winners’ lists from all the most important advertising award contests, everywhere in the world.  Some of these are global contests, some regional, some national.  For the year 2016 Report, we looked at 45 of the world’s top shows and their winners’ lists in Film, Print, Digital and All Gunns Blazing.

All Gunns Blazing is our collective term for what the award shows variously call Innovative, Avant Garde, Titanium et al.  It also encompasses the top winners in the top shows in Branded Content & Entertainment, Promo & Activation, Direct, PR and- importantly- ambient Outdoor. We allocate TGR points between Film, Print/OOH, Digital (includes Mobile) and All Gunns Blazing in proportion to global split of adspend across media.

We have continued to be secretive about what these shows are.  For a few good reasons, the most important being not to upset (or harm the businesses of) any friends - award contest entrepreneurs around the world - whose shows might be among those not included.

Regarding the national shows, what we can say is that these are included for the 21 most important creative advertising markets - the ones where any aspiring creative network has to aim to be a player.  We include the main national show(s) in the USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Brazil, Spain, Australia (the show includes New Zealand), Greater China, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and Thailand. 

The level of award that counts for a given show is “Cannes Bronze Lion Equivalent”.  The application of this is a bit judgmental but the decisions are usually pretty obvious, and the level of prize can vary from year to year for the same show, if a jury has been mega-generous or mega-stingy. 

Winner points, which apply for Tables Five to Ten (Countries, Advertisers, Production Companies, Directors, Agencies and Agency Networks), are different from Ad Points, which apply for Tables One, Two, Three and Four (Film, Print, Digital and All Gunns Blazing).

“Winner Points” are awarded as 1 point for each win at the qualifying level at a qualifying show.  And 2 points for a Best of Show.  In the case of multiple winners at the same show for a single ad or campaign, the maximum points that can be awarded is two (or three if one is a Best of Show).

“Ad Points”, in order to achieve more separation and spread, are basically double.  2 for a winner.  3 points for a Cannes Gold, a One Show Gold or a D&AD Yellow Pencil. 4 for a Best of Show (Grand Prix or D&AD Black Pencil).  1 extra point for a second winner for the same ad at the same show. 

As detailed directly above, we already legislate strongly against over-awarding at any one show.  Specifically, whether an ad/campaign wins twice, or 4 times, or 6 times, or 8 times in the same competition at the same show, it gets 2 Winner Points for Tables 5-10 and 3 Ad Points for Tables 1-4.

Our new reform, started in 2014, applies to Winner Points and Tables 5-10 and puts a “cap” on the total points a single ad/campaign is allowed to contribute across all the shows per year, per discipline, in the Countries, Advertisers, Production Companies, Directors, Agencies and Agency Network tables.  This “cap” will be 15 points in Film and All Gunns Blazing and 10 points in Print and Digital.  TGR continues to believe that the brilliance (+ luck) that gives birth to a “Blockbuster” should contribute hugely to an Agency or Agency Network’s success.  But our new reform prevents this from occasionally becoming disproportionate. 

Finally, in the case of Tables One, Two, Three and Four (Film, Print, Digital and All Gunns Blazing), we’ve applied a tie-break when points scored are equal.  This is based on a combination of wins in depth (difficulty shows/level awards) and wins in breadth (# of shows and regions).  We don’t do tie-breakers in the top 10 in these Tables or in Tables 5 to 10, where the number of points is larger and both (or more) parties deserve to share the higher ranking.