Interesting to see that the post below on ‘pitch disappointment’ has generated some positive and flattering feedback.

PSFK cites this as an example of a great corporate blog (cheers) because we know how the W+K brand ‘feels’ and aren’t afraid to present it, warts and all.

Polka Dot Holes says ‘I love agencies with the confidence to be honest.’

I think we’re pretty comfortable with admitting that we’re not perfect. We make mistakes. We lose pitches. We make bad decisions.

We have the words ’embrace failure’ written on a big illuminated sign in one of our meeting rooms. (Aptly, the illumination doesn’t work.) We recognise that if you’re going to test the boundaries then sometimes you’ll fail. But that’s OK. It’s not trying that’s not OK. You don’t achieve extraordinary results through ordinary efforts.

In the case of this story it wasn’t such a big admission because we knew it was going to be reported in the trade press.

And here are some other W+K failures:

– Today it feels like aircon in the offices might have been a worthwhile investment.

– We didn’t manage to get a single decent ad out in the year we worked with Sky One.

– We’re lousy at making the time to do the non-client related projects that we always talk about doing.

BTW, you can buy Wieden + Kennedy ‘Embrace Failure’ T shirts in the shop section of our main site here.