On 9 September the Russian Association of Communication Agencies (RACA) made public the 2009 half-year results of its regular creativiy rating.

RACA’s creativity rating is not a judgment based on personal taste or opinion; it provides the precise number of awards received by a contestant at festivals in the period under review.
According to the ranking or category, each company achieves a certain quantity of points, which when totaled up determines a company’s position in the composite rating.

The score per category is made up of points gained for participation in festivals that are most famous and popular in Russia. The list of festivals is annually compiled based on RACA’s expert judgments. In this respect, each festival receives a weight corresponding to the event’s scale, subject matter and significance for the related industry. This year the list includes the Moscow International Advertising and Marketing Festival Red Apple, Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Idea!, ADCR, Golden Hummer, Golden Drum, ADCE, and Epica, just to name a few.

The company that scores the highest number of points takes the Agency of the Year title. This time the title went to Leo Burnett Advertising Agency, a top-scorer with 189 points.

As in 2008, this year the rating includes Brand Design, Interactive, Marketing Services, Media, and Advertising categories. 2009 sees a new rating category entitled Russia’s Most Awarded Project in 2008.

The 2009 rating somewhat differs from those of the previous years. The global financial crisis that reached its peak at the end of 2008 caused some agencies not to take part in the festivals, but concentrate on more specific projects instead. As a result, those agencies, even despite their leading position in the field, did not appear in the final rating for lack of festival entries. This may have considerable consequences, as the objectivity of the rating can be thrown into doubt in that case. For instance, since neither Depot WPF, nor Mildberry took part in the festivals, none of the two were included in the rating list.

Mr Vadim Zhuravlev, Vice President of Mildberry Brand Building Solution, says that several years ago, after winning the first prize at various festivals, they chose to stop participating. What was the reason? Zhuravlev: We became no longer interested in taking part in national ‘get-together’ type festivals. At the same time we were not confident enough to compete at the international scale.

Yet this year, we decided to participate with our Organicescape in Red Dot Design Award, a most famous international competition, and we won. The list of competing entries included 6 112 projects from 42 countries. Organicescape by Mildberry was among the few award winners thoroughly selected by expert juries. Inspired by the success of our project, we chose to resume participating, but only in international events. Organicescape will be included in the International Yearbook Communication Design 2009/2010, exhibited in the red dot design museum and listed in the red dot design online exhibition at http://www.red-dot.de/.

Depot WPF, last year’s leader in the Brand-Design category, opted to skip the 2009 festival marathon. Mr Alexey Andreyev, President of Depot WPF Brand and Identity, Co-President of the Association of Russian Branding Companies, explains the reason, saying: we are very keen to stay in the lead. So before entering the race, we tried to figure out whether we could stay ahead of the pack. Winning the half of the race, but finishing as a runner-up wouldn’t suit us at all. In early 2009 we critically assessed our prospects and found our works not successful enough to compete. Unfortunately, we are working in a rigidly categorized market which limits the scope for creativity within a festival category.  So we chose not to participate, but wait until next year.

The list of winners remains unchanged. As in the previous year BBDO Moscow scores the top rating for the Advertising category. Leo Burnett continues to maintain the lead in the Media category. BrandStudio has occupied the leading position in the Interactive category previously topped by BBDO Interactive.  
Direct Design is rated first in the Brand Design category.

Eugenia Kuznetsova, Sostav.ru

Nominations of festivals according to market segments(doc)

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