The idea behind The Gunn Report is to combine the winners’ lists from all the most important award shows, everywhere in the world.  Some of these are global contests, some regional, some national.  For the year 2012 Report, we are including the top 45 shows in the world encompassing the sections for TV & Cinema, for Print, for Digital and for All Gunns Blazing.

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 business 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 18 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, Canada, India, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, 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 judgemental 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 Eleven (Countries, Advertisers, Production Companies, Directors, Agencies, Digital Agencies and Agency Networks), are different from
Ad Points, which apply for Tables One, Two, Three and Four (Commercials, Print Ads, 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. 4 for Best of Show (or Grand Prix or D&AD Black Pencil). 1 extra point for a second winner for the same ad at the same show.  And 3 points for a Cannes Gold, a One Show Gold or a D&AD Yellow Pencil.

Finally, in the case of Tables One, Two, Three and Four (Commercials, Print Ads, 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 5 in these Tables or in Tables 5 to 11, where the number of points is larger and both (or more) parties deserve to share the higher ranking.