World Creative Rankings 2023: the most-acclaimed art directors in the industry revealed
We reveal the most-awarded executive creative officers in the industry in the 2023 edition of The Drum’s World Creative Rankings.
Leo Burnett’s ADs led the rankings jointly – and its work for Wing Stop brought the agency a bucketload of acclaim / Leo Burnett
This week, we have examined which chief creative officers, creative directors and copywriters received the most critical acclaim via industry awards over the last year. Today, we’re ranking the industry’s best contemporary art directors.
The top spot in our 2023 rankings goes to Leo Burnett pair Katie DiNardo and Sophie Gahn, closely followed by two other partnerships – Alma’s Bruno Trad and Daniel Correa, and Manasi Sheth and Vaishakh Kolaprath of Dentsu Creative.
The rankings are compiled by exhaustively analyzing the performance of thousands of pieces of creative work across 19 major industry awards programs, including The Drum Awards, throughout 2022.
| 1= | Katie DiNardo | Leo Burnett |
| 1= | Sofia Gahn | Leo Burnett |
| 3= | Daniel Correa | Alma |
| 3= | Bruno Trad | Alma |
| 5 | Shreya Vivek Arora | Talented.Agency |
| 6= | Manasi Sheth | Dentsu Creative Bengaluru |
| 6= | Vaishakh Kolaprath | Dentsu Creative Bengaluru |
| 6= | Tanya Paul | The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation |
| 9= | Elvira Breit | Serviceplan Group |
| 9= | Rebecca Labiner | Serviceplan Campaign 3 GmbH |
| 11 | Jonathan Cruz | Horizon FCB |
| 12 | Carlos Karan | Leo Burnett |
| 13 | Rolando Cordova | L&C |
| 14= | Sakeena Amjad | Cherry |
| 14= | Flora Sagnes | McCann Paris |
| 14= | Sonia Presne | McCann Paris |
| 17 | Nopadol Srikieatikajohn | Ogilvy |
| 18 | Kai West Schlosser | Serviceplan.io |
| 19 | Fernando Rossini | Wunderman Thomson |
| 20= | Christine Smith | Butter Agency |
| 20= | Henrik Nielsen | Vice Media |
| 22 | Rohil Borole | Serviceplan Innovation |
| 23 | Julien Vergne | BETC |
| 24= | Matt Nankivell | Ogilvy |
| 24= | Liam Bushby | Ogilvy UK |
| 26= | Harry Brady | Burberry |
| 26= | Louis Gabriel | Burberry |
| 26= | Al Watts | Burberry |
| 29= | Zachary Bautista | Rethink |
| 29= | Andrea Lalanda | Leo Burnett |
| 29= | Alina Baumgardt | huth+wenzel |
| 29= | Fabio Has | DDB Germany |
Tal Shub and Carlos Pabon ranked jointly in this year’s league table; their agency, VMLY&R, was lauded for its ’I Will Always Be Me’ campaign.
| 33 | Sagar Jadhav | Ogilvy |
| 34 | Anna Cringle | Jung von Matt |
| 35 | Pedro Sattin | David Madrid |
| 36 | Justin Batten | FCB New York |
| 37 | Samantha Spellman | Saatchi & Saatchi |
| 38 | Tom Jacobs | Freelance |
| 39= | Andy Shrubsole | Apple |
| 39= | Scott Taylor | Failure Creative Ltd |
| 41 | McKenzie Moore | McDonald's |
| 42 | Rodrigo Nakaza | BBH USA |
| 43= | Tom McPhail | Howatson+Company |
| 43= | Giles Watson | DDB |
| 45 | Marijke Spain | Leo Burnett Australia |
| 46 | Joao Araujo | Publicis Italy |
| 47 | Edmond Leung | Cheil |
| 48= | Christoph Hofbauer | Freelance |
| 48= | Philip Maas | Nerdindustries |
| 48= | Waldemar Grunt | Freelance |
| 48= | Malte Preiss | Superunion |
| 48= | Alexander Moers | Freelance |
| 48= | Kim Ilausky | Scholz&Friends |
| 48= | Alexandre Levesque | Scholz&Friends |
| 55= | Julian Frener | Jung von Matt Donau |
| 55= | Denise Danninger | Jung von Matt Donau |
| 57 | Alex Eftimie | Freelance |
| 58 | Tudor Cucu | Serviceplan x Bubble |
| 59 | Vic Bath | Zulu Alpha Kilo |
| 60 | Luca Villa | Alkemy |
| 61= | Cinzia Caccia | Publicis Italy |
| 61= | Lorenzo Croci | VMLY&R Italy |
| 63= | Celeste Nessim | Marcel Worldwide |
| 63= | Hugo Wahledow | Marcel Worldwide |
| 63= | Vincent Boursaud | Marcel Worldwide |
| 66 | Joel Holtby | Courage |
| 67= | Helton Mattei | State Design |
| 67= | Ezell Brown | ATTN |
| 67= | Daniel Batista | Freelance |
| 70= | Deepanjali Singh | BBDO |
| 70= | Erin Conboy | BBDO |
| 72 | Camilo Jimenez | David Madrid |
| 73= | Jorg Petzold | Seven.One AdFactory |
| 73= | Anne Eitze | Freelance |
| 73= | Janine Koller | Seven.One AdFactory |
| 76 | Mollie Coyne | Anomoly |
| 77= | Ashwini Bhavsar | Mullenlowe Lintas Group |
| 77= | Harish Jadhav | VMLY&R India |
| 79 | Harry Bugden | Droga5 |
| 80= | Madeline Arch | Freelance |
| 80= | Irina Siraeva | Havas |
| 82 | Kimberly Scott | Special Group New Zealand |
| 83 | Hayde Porlan | Freelance |
| 84= | Bianca Pettinicchi | Chipotle Mexican Grill |
| 84= | Gordon Allen | Observatory |
| 84= | Melanie Climent | Nexus Studios |
| 84= | Luis Paulo Gatti | Jung Von Matt |
| 88 | Gumpon Laksanajinda | Ogilvy Bangkok |
| 89= | Juan Francisco Gutierrez | We Believers |
| 89= | Jerry Yang | FCB Canada |
| 91= | Diana Dahye Kim | Serviceplan Group |
| 91= | Silver Eunman Kim | Serviceplan Group |
| 91= | Henning Janzen | Freelance |
| 94= | Kunal Gagwani | Serviceplan Group Middle East |
| 94= | Nina Kurn | McCann Stockholm |
| 94= | Rikard Kohler | Media.Monks |
| 97= | David Dearlove | Blink |
| 97= | Ivan Montebello | Mother London |
| 99= | Marcelo Garcia | Zomebie Studio |
| 99= | Feppa Rodrigues | Consulado |
| 99= | Arthur Daraujo | MullenLowe Boston |
| 99= | Eduardo Tavares | Area 23 |
| 99= | Fabio Rodrigues | VMLY&R Health |
| 99= | Widerson Souza | Area 23 |
World Creative Rankings:
Explore the best-performing campaigns, agencies and brands in this year’s World Creative Rankings.