Clients choose top performing ad agencies in 2005

The results are based on the quantified perceptions of the agencies' clients in the Top Performing Advertising Agencies perception study conducted by Objectivity, a perception measurement and management company.

This is the second year that Objectivity has released the results of the annual study it has conducted for more than two decades. Previously the findings were shared only with the agency concerned or used to aid clients of the company's advertising agency selection service.

"We took the decision to release the results in the interests of furthering Objectivity's corporate vision, which is to 'make marketing, and other forms of communication, a quantifiable discipline'," said Clive Webster, Senior Partner of Objectivity.

"By publicising the achievements and efforts of those agencies that are fulfilling the real needs and wants of their clients, we hope to encourage the pursuit of quality, creative advertising that yields a quantifiable return on clients' investments, over the pursuit of creativity for its own sake."

The 2005 study revealed that advertisers ranked professionalism and reliability above creativity for the third year in a row, while their desired standards of performance declined for the second consecutive year.

Objectivity awarded certificates to the top 10 agencies in each criterion and introduced trophies for the two overall 'Best Performing Agencies'.

Webster concludes: "The creatives have spoken; the analysts, critics and judges have spoken; and now at last the advertisers, whose money is being spent, have the final word."

Here are the names and scores of the top agencies in six categories that reflect advertisers' most important criteria when selecting and using an advertising agency...