Agency of the Year

The Agency of the Year is a gala ceremony where the best advertising agencies as well as the best media agencies for the past calendar year are announced. Strategie magazine, Mladá fronta publishing, and Gordica Communication work together with the AKA to organize the ceremony and assess the agencies’ performance.

The assessment looks at the agencies’ total achievements in three areas:

1. Awards received in domestic and international competitions.
2. Client evaluations—by means of a survey of marketing managers.
3. Performance in terms of media bought, newly won or lost clients and brands.

Advertising Agency of the Year

An agency qualifies for the competition if it has entered at least one project in the Effie or Euro Effie competitions and in at least one of the creative competitions listed in the “List of Competitions and Point Values of Awards” (see Point Value of Awards).

1. AWARDS

The “List of Competitions and Point Values of Awards” sets out all the domestic and foreign competitions included in the evaluation as well as the point values for each award. It is updated and approved by the AKA’s Executive Board every year.

2. ADVERTISERS’ CHOICE

The Advertiser’s Choice involves the marketing managers of the top 300 companies in the Czech market. They are asked to submit a shortlist of the five agencies they would ideally like to invite to pitch. “Ideal” means regardless of conflict of interest (e.g. an agency works for a competing brand, etc.).

Respondents may list the agencies in any order because all the rankings have the same weight. Results are determined by the number of times an agency is named.

3. PERFORMANCE

An agency’s performance is measured by the amount, as expressed in CZK, of media bought for the clients / brands the agency handles. The media purchases are calculated based on official price lists published by the media.

In order to compensate for the very high spending in certain market categories, the total volume of media bought for a particular brand is “softened” by factoring in its ranking in the official list of Top Advertising Spenders. The volume itself has a weight of 40%, the ranking has a weight of 60%. The result is the first preliminary score.

The second preliminary score is based on subtracting lost business (clients, brands) from newly acquired business in terms of media spent during a calendar year.

In cases where an incumbent agency wins a pitch defending a brand, media bought for this brand will be considered as for an existing client, not a new one.

In cases where a client/brand switched agencies during the year, the media expenditures are divided proportionally by the number of months that the client worked with the respective agencies.

In cases where two agencies work on the same brand, media expenditures will be split 75:25, 50:50 or 25:75, after consulting with the client and upon the agreement of the agencies involved.

The final Performance score is the sum of the agency’s scores from the first and second preliminary scores.

FINAL CALCULATION FORMULA

An agency’s score for each criteria are weighted and combined. They are weighted as follows: Awards 40%, Advertiser’s Choice 30%, Performance 30%.

Media Agency of the Year

The ranking of agencies for this award follows a similar pattern, with few exceptions.

The ranking list for the Media Agency of the Year derives from three types of data:

1/ The Awards are assessed throught the agency’s achievements in specialized media competitions as well as at the agency’s contribution to the campaigns awarded in the Czech EFFIE and Euro EFFIE (see the “List of Competitions and Point Values of Awards )

2/ The Advertiser’s Choice involves the marketing managers of the top 300 companies in the Czech market. They are asked to submit a shortlist of the three agencies they would ideally like to invite to pitch. Respondents may list the agencies in any order because all the rankings have the same weight. Results are determined by the number of times an agency is named.

3/ A media agency’s performance is measured by the amount, as expressed in CZK, of media bought for the clients / brands the agency handles. The monitoring of the media purchases is done by TNS Media Intelligence and the calculation is based on official price lists published by the media.

FINAL CALCULATION FORMULA

A media buying agency’s score for each criterium are weighted and combined. They are weighted as follows: Awards 33.3%, Advertiser’s Choice 33.3%, Performance 33.3%.