Skittles, Nike and Lad Bible feature in The Drum's most-awarded ad campaigns of last year

Europe’s biggest marketing website, The Drum, has today (5 February) published the first of a new set of insights into 2018’s most highly-regarded creative work in the world of advertising.

The Big Won — a study which analyses data captured by “the world’s major industry competitions” — is based on research extracted from “3,607 pieces of work from 1,721 agencies and involved 647 chief creative officers, 841 executive creative directors and 2,543 creative directors.” Which, we’re sure you’ll agree, is a suitably exhaustive sample set.

Campaigns featured in the top 20 revealed today include Wieden + Kennedy London’s absolutely massive Nothing Beats a Londoner work for Nike, Lad Bible’s stupendous AMV BBDO-backed, UN-supported Trash Isles project, and Grabarz & Partners super-spooky, It, hijacking the spot for Andy Warhol’s favourite fast food chain, Burger King.

The Big Won’s 2019 first place campaign winner for work released in 2018 is DDB Chicago’s cable news spoofing Exclusive the Rainbow ad, aimed at shifting packets of Skittles. The all-important top three was rounded off by an environmentally-minded campaign for the Pacific island of Palau orchestrated by Australian agency Host/Havas, and a trio of finger-lickin’-good pieces of work by Ogilvy Hong Kong for KFC.