Colenso BBDO named agency of the decade for producing world's most talented young creatives

Auckland based agency beats some of the world’s biggest agencies to the title.

Auckland advertising agency Colenso BBDO has been named the YoungGuns Agency of the Decade by YoungGuns International, beating some of the world’s biggest and most well known advertising agencies in the world to this prestigious title.

As number one on the Top 10 Agencies of the Decade chart, Colenso BBDO surpasses TBWA\CHIAT\DAY, New York in second place, USA-wide Crispin Porter + Bogusky in third place and DDB, London and Saatchi & Saatchi, London in eighth and ninth places. Saatchi & Saatchi, Australia came in at 10th place (full list follows).

The YoungGuns Award is unique as it focuses only on young and emerging talent – those under 30 years who are the creative leaders and influencers of tomorrow. Now in its tenth year, it is the premier global platform for defining creative talent.

Co-Founder of YoungGuns, Michael Kean, says winning the YoungGuns Agency of the Decade title is a great and well deserved achievement for the team at Colenso BBDO.

“YoungGuns was founded in 2001 and over the last nine years, Colenso BBDO has consistently set the global benchmark for young creative talent; competing and winning against the world’s most reputable agencies and young creatives spanning 50+ countries annually.

“As an agency, Colenso BBDO has long been a top performer on the global stage, so this latest recognition is a true credit to Colenso BBDO’s leadership in their clear desire to foster and develop the next generation of world class creative leaders,” says Michael Kean.

Colenso BBDO Executive Creative Director Nick Worthington says, “These guys are the future of our industry and the contribution they have made to our agency over the last ten years has been massive. To be recognised as the best in the world for nurturing young talent is awesome and will reinforce New Zealand’s reputation as a breeding ground for some of the world’s hottest creative talent.”

Colenso BBDO has been the only advertising agency to win YoungGuns Agency of the Year twice in both 2001 and 2008. Some of the campaigns that picked up Gold Bullets by Colenso BBDO include the exploding billboard on Nelson Street to promote Deadline Couriers and Yellow Treehouse – where an everyday Kiwi was challenged to build a restaurant up a tree using only businesses found in the Yellow Pages directory to get the job done.

The agency has further cause to celebrate its success as this award follows the recent crowning of BBDO as Network of the Decade by YoungGuns, having also won Network of the Year in 2001, 2004 and 2008.

YoungGuns Top 10 Agency Rankings for the last ten years:

1 ColensoBBDO New Zealand
2 TBWA\CHIAT\Day, New York USA
3 Crispin Porter +Bogusky USA
4 Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi Argentina
5 Mother London UK
6 Leo Burnett, Chicago USA
7 Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai India
8 DDB, London UK
9 Saatchi & Saatchi, London UK
10 Saatchi & Saatchi, Australia Australia