Australia is the third most creative country in the world, according to the 2012 Gunn Report.

The global evaluation of media creativity, which combines winners lists from the world’s biggest award contests, named Australia third on the list of most awarded countries behind the US and UK.

It was the best result in the report’s nine-year history for Australian agencies, helped by DDB Sydney’s Volkswagen Park Assist ‘Nightmare Spots’ campaign and Clemenger BBDO/Proximity Melbourne ‘Break Up’ for National Australia Bank which won category awards.

OMD was named the most creative agency network of the year maintaining its unbroken reign as ‘Agency Network of the Year’. MindShare placed second while Starcom ranked third. GroupM, owned by WPP, took out ‘Holding Company of the Year’, followed by Omnicom Media Group and Publicis Groupe.

Coca-Cola was named ‘Advertiser of the Year’ followed by McDonald’s and Ikea.

Editor of the report, Isabelle Musnik, says innovation and creativity are the future of the industry. “The context in which marketing is taking place has changed dramatically these past years,” Musnik explains.

“At a time of increasing difficult economic climate in the world, and in a world where consumers are increasingly unpredictable and exert more control over the messages they receive, media innovation and creativity are keys to brand success.”

The report also ranked campaigns which won awards in four or more regional or global festivals, naming no outright winner but mentioning the following campaigns for their creativity, innovation and results.

• Daimler AG – ‘Smart Eball’
• Engagement Citoyen – ‘The Return of Dictator Ben Ali’
• Google – ‘Google Voice Search’
• McDonald’s – ‘Coin Hunting’
• Pepsi – ‘Bottle Light’
• URA.ru – ‘Make the Politicians Work’

Launched in 2004 The Gunn Report of Media is the only global ‘league table’ for the communications industry.