Creativity: an intangible capital generating competitive quality in the Spanish advertising industry

Abstract

Advertising rankings have a high impact on the advertising industry, where creativity is one of the key variables of an advertising agency's success. The aim of this paper is to analyze the current position of Spanish advertising agencies in the UNIR (Universidad Internacional de la Rioja) Iberoamerican Advertising Ranking, which evaluates the competitiveness of agencies through the results of their products. In other words, this ranking assesses agencies' creative capacity in advertising and considers a thorough examination of the awards they have won and the festivals they have won them in. This paper studies tendencies according to positions, background and score in the ranking during the 2012-2016 period of all the agencies, Spanish or foreign working in Spain, in each one of the five years. The study will focus on the 25 most creative agencies of the ranking in Spain. The tendency of positioning of Spanish advertising agencies in the ranking show different behaviors and demonstrate strong competitiveness and a fight for being on the top of the list; which is led by international agencies.