The True Top 50 of 2022

Plus: The True Top Marketer, True Top Producer & True Top Brand

Mar 03, 2023

New platform, new year — new True Top 50! Fun fact: This is my 13th year publishing my annual “True Top” chart, and the seventh year it has been powered by DRMetrix (now a part of the unicorn known as iSpot.tv).

So, are you ready? Here are the top campaigns of 2022…

True Top Marketers

The biggest surprise this year isn’t No. 1 — it’s No. 4. But first, let’s give credit where credit is due. Your True Top Marketer for 2022 is 🥁…

This is E. Mishan & Sons’ fifth year taking the top spot. As many other industry players are slowing down, Emson only seems to be gaining steam.

Here are the top five along with the number of hits each marketer had on the list:

Congratulations to the IdeaVillage team for having the No. 1 campaign of the year and two of the most successful brands of the year (more on this in a moment).

As for No. 4: Special kudos to Top Dog for its most impressive year yet — including the No. 2 campaign of the year. Stunning!

True Top Producers

Once again, the undisputed True Top Producer of our industry is 🥁…

What I continue to find most impressive about the Hutton Miller creative powerhouse is how they deliver success to so many different marketers. Consider this: HM had ranking hits with six different marketers this time around, including two-thirds of the companies on the True Top Marketers list above.

Here are the top five along with the number of hits each producer had on the list:

Congratulations to all the other producers who placed this year. Both Cole Media and KERRmercials deserve special mentions for increasing their number of ‘true top’ winners since last year. Brad Cole’s group is up two, and Tim Kerr’s team doubled its hit count. Well done!

True Top Brands

Since so much of the True Top 50 is dominated by brands, I’ve decided to create a new awards category. And the inaugural prize goes to 🥁…

Not only did Copper Fit take the top spot, it’s the brand that shows up the most on the chart — by far. Here’s a breakdown of brands, ranked by number of appearances:

Copper Fit (9) 🏆
GraniteStone (4)
MicroTouch (4)
Bionic (4)
Gotham Steel (4)

As you can see, determining which marketer has had the most brand success is a more difficult task. IdeaVillage has 13 branded campaigns between Copper Fit and MicroTouch. Emson has 12 if you add up GraniteStone, Bionic and Gotham Steel. However, if you include the umbrella brand Bell+Howell, Emson has 13 as well.

Any which way you count it, more than half of the top campaigns in 2022 were for IdeaVillage or Emson brands, so it’s clear which marketers are leading our industry’s marketing revolution.

What if the 2022 True Top 50 was a DR-only hits chart? Would the True Top Marketer & True Top Producer be any different? Find out below. 👇