Leo Burnett Beirut has been ranked the sixth most creative agency in the world, according The Big Won 2012 Rankings.

The internationally recognised annual report published in London by Directory magazine tracks the global creative awards performance of all communication agencies across every media category and discipline, spanning 39 important awards shows around the world.

Leo Burnett Beirut was also ranked first in the world as the most creative agency in PR, first in the world as the most creative agency in media and third in the world as the most creative agency in the Integrated category.

Leo Burnett Mena chief creative officer Bechara Mouzannar, who is ranked the 4th best CCO in the world in the same report, said: “It may be hard to believe that a Lebanese agency could ever become the sixth most creative agency in the world.”

“Yet the creativity of Leo Burnett Beirut has been recognized throughout the years as one of the best in the region. And In 2012, the agency won the highest regional distinctions at the regional awards shows. It also won big at the Cannes Lions and was named Agency of the Year for Mena by Campaign ME and Communicate/Ad Age magazines,” Mouzannar added.

"The presence of the agency in the top 10 comes as international recognition for years of hard work in creative innovation, integration and human engagement around strong insightful ideas, for the sake of inspiring commercial brands, institutions, and engaging causes, which helped change the way people think, feel, and live in our society.”

The Big Won Rankings 2012 have listed 1,595 winning agencies as well as 4,459 winning campaigns from all over the world.

“To be in the top 10 in the Big Won Rankings, an agency has to do more than have a couple of global successes. It has to produce work to a consistently superlative standard across most of its portfolio of clients” said Patrick Collister, founder and editor-in-chief of the Big Won.

“Leo Burnett Beirut has done spectacularly well for a relatively small agency in a relatively small country, punching way above its weight in global and regional awards shows.”

Leo Burnett Beirut has been climbing up the ladder for a number of years, coming 39th in 2009, and 26th in 2011, in the Big Won rankings, he pointed out.

Nada Abi Saleh, deputy managing director of Leo Burnett Beirut, said: “Today each one of the 120 people working at Leo Burnett Beirut can go home with a smile. The smile that comes from the satisfaction of knowing hard work pays off with big achievements.

“The smile that arises from the challenges we have conquered and the challenges we await, and today we are celebrating this win with each and every passionate Burnetter in Beirut because this win is theirs.”

In 2012, Leo Burnett Beirut won 64 awards (including 6 grand prix and 20 golds) for 16 pieces of work on behalf of nine clients. These awards came in two regional awards shows and six major international awards shows, he added.

Kamil Kuran, managing director of Leo Burnett Levant, said: "This is truly an achievement for our agency and for Lebanon; it reaffirms the exceptional capabilities of the local creative talent we have in Leo Burnett Beirut and in Lebanon as a whole, by placing a local Lebanese agency so high on the global map.”

“It also confirms that with great engaging ideas and hard work, the dream to become one of the best in the world can come true. After all, winning is an attitude," Kuran concluded. – TradeArabia News Service