12 days of Christmas: Top five ECDs of 2010

The ranking of ECDs is based on Campaign Asia-Pacific's The Creative Rankings, which launched in September this year, complete with the updated data from major international and regional award shows, including Cannes, D&AD, Clio, One Show, AdFest, Spikes Asia and the Asian Marketing Effectiveness awards.

Leading the charge for China and coming in at number five is Leo Burnett Hong Kong's Connie Lo. The sole female on the list, Lo pulled in six Cannes Lions across three of her campaigns in 2010. Four of those belong to her 'Hidden sound' campaign for Zoo Records which saw animal shapes compiled of QR Codes posted across the streets and underground of Hong Kong. 

Lo's award-winning career also includes stint at JWT, DMB&B and Publicis. She has been with Leo Burnett Hong Kong for more than 10 years.

Saatchis ECD Steve Back takes the number four spot. Back made headlines in November this year when he announced his departure from Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney to join Ogilvy & Mather in Singapore. He joined Saatchis in 2007 after David Nobay left to start up Droga5. Previous agencies include George Patterson, Leo Burnett and DDB in Sydney, and Colenso BBDO in New Zealand. 

Back won a whopping five Cannes Lions for his hilarious 'Nothing soft gets in' campaign for Toyota in Australia.

He takes charge of the creative department at O&M Singapore in January.

At number three is Nick Worthington from Colenso BBDO Aim Proximity, based in New Zealand. Worthington started his career at BBH in London working under John Hegarty. After 10 years with the agency, he left to join AMV BBDO under David Abbott, followed by a stint at Publicis alongside David Droga before he returned to BBDO to help run Colenso in Auckland. 

Worthington managed the almost impossible task of following-up the multi-award winning 'Yellow treehouse' campaign for Yellow Pages in 2009 with yet another highly awarded campaign 'Yellow chocolate' for the same client in 2010.

Along with Yellow Pages, other happy customers under Worthington's creative leadership include New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation, Amnesty International and TVNZ, all of which were awarded at Cannes this year.

Leo Burnett's Jay Benjamin comes in at number two. Benjamin is currently the executive creative director at Leo Burnett North America. Prior to his move back to the States, Benjamin was part of the team at Leo Burnett that won multiple regional and international awards for clients Canon and WWF. 

Benjamin has been honoured at every major award show, including an impressive haul of 16 Cannes Lions. Prior to joining Leo Burnett, Benjamin also worked at JWT, Saatchi & Saatchi and Bozell in the States. 

And finally at number one... Originally from the US, Andy LiLallo at 31 is the youngest and the most highly awarded ECD in Asia-Pacific. Currently based at Leo Burnett in Australia, DiLallo started his career Bozell in New York before making his way to Australia.

Alongside our number two Jay Benjamin, he launched the world’s first global election campaign on behalf of their client WWF Earth Hour. It went on to become the world’s largest mass-participation event in history, with over one billion voters taking part.

He made waves at both regional and international award shows with his 'EOS Photochains' campaign for Canon that won a Grand Prix in the Media category at Cannes.

DiLallo joined Leo Burnett Sydney along with Benjamin in 2008. Both came from JWT as executive creative directors.

Coming up on 12 Days of Christmas:

• Top five promotions
• Top five agency/ client break-ups
• Top five employee/ employer break-ups
• Top five make-ups
• Top five pitches
• Top five viral campaigns
• Top five look-a-likes
• Top five gadgets
• Top five campaigns
• Top five most read articles
• Top five christmas ads