5 Reference Websites for Ad Research

Discover new sources of inspiration for your high-impact advertising campaigns

Whether you specialize in design, creativity, production or another area of ​​advertising, this list of sites we have put together for World Advertising Day could prove useful to you.

All of them will help you research your campaigns and find documentation of numerous other campaigns throughout history, with detailed archives organised by categories, countries and media. In addition to being excellent reference options, they offer instant inspiration, so bookmark them all!

Warc Rankings

The Gunn Report, a publication that lists the most awarded advertising campaigns in the world, launched in 1999. Over time it became the leading authority in campaign analysis around the world due to its comprehensive methodology. Its spiritual successor is Warc Rankings, which makes annual rankings of the most outstanding creative campaigns (by country, agency and category) and the best agencies.. It also has an archive with more than 5,000 pieces of advertising and television commercials starting from the sixties.

Ads of the World

This site is curated by the Clio network, creators of the well-known prize of the same name that recognizes the best in world advertising. In addition to thematic galleries that are constantly updated, the search engine can find campaigns by advertising medium, industry and country.

Road 2.0

This website hosts more than 30,000 images of outdoor advertising from the twentieth century, including billboards, murals and posters. It is part of Duke University's Historical Advertising Digital Collection and allows searches by brand, product type and range of years.
Other archives from Duke University are stored at Ad*Access, with printouts from 1911 to 1955, and AdViews, dedicated to old television commercials.

iSpot.tv

A collection of current TV commercials with featured sections of the most successful or most expensive campaigns. You can search by sectors and markets. The free access allows you to see the client's name, music and actors in the ad, as well as the brand’s social media pages . A subscription offers more detailed analysis, such as approximate ad cost and audience reached.

Awwwards

A site that provides resources and recognises outstanding digital design, Awwwards features a prominent website every day and also organizes best sites by month or year. You can also find sites that have been nominated for this distinction and the page also has a special selection of mobile focused websites. You can search by tags, categories, country, and technology used.

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