Donald Gunn, the founder of The Gunn Report,
has spent three decades at Leo Burnett, and
has latterly dedicated his career to analysing
creativity and tracking the best-regarded advertising
agencies and countries that produce it. At Leo
Burnett, he founded two institutions that still
set creative benchmarks today: the Great Commercials
Library, started in 1986, and the Global Product
committee in which every three months, 20 of
Leo Burnett’s top creative staff from
around the world meet to view the network’s
output. Ads are scored and feedback is given.
To compile the report, Gunn combines the winner
lists from 52 national, regional and global
award schemes. He has never revealed which ones
they are, to avoid harming the contests that
are not included. After data crunching, the
league tables emerge – including top TVC’s,
top agencies, top production companies and top
countries – as well as Showreel of the
Year featuring the 100 most-awarded campaigns
in the world.
