29.05.2009 |
Wieden + Kennedy London is launching a brand new initiative on 9th September 2009, a fully-fledged creative talent hub: ‘Platform’.
Platform will draw out the best and as yet undiscovered, creative minds from the worlds of arts, sciences and technology around the globe that W+K will search for and recruit throughout the summer of 2009. We are looking to find people from diverse backgrounds and skill sets, who possess inspirational and curious minds. The successful applicants will work as a collective to solve live business problems, as well as working in isolation on specialist projects awarded for their particular skills. In addition to Platform working in conjunction with W+K on live client briefs, they will also work in isolation on research, creative and product development projects and with local communities around the world to do more good.
Platform is the evolution of W+K’s talent scheme ‘W+Kside’ that ran for the last three years. We invited four people from outside the advertising industry to come into the heart of our business and work alongside us to help solve our client’s business problems. We discovered that because these people came from broader creative disciplines, they did not start with the traditional advertising solutions, to great effect. Their surprising, inspirational approach invigorated the agency and our clients alike and because of this success, our bolder new talent venture evolved.
Platform will be situated in a dedicated space in Wieden + Kennedy’s offices on Hanbury Street, East London and will function alongside the agency itself. We have expanded in to The Black Eagle Brewery building where Platform will sit, surrounded by a number of other environments situated around it, including a research lab, product development unit, auditorium, flexible gallery space, workshop and additional Wieden + Kennedy work areas.
At Wieden + Kennedy, we believe that inspiration is the key to learning. With this in mind we have invited the most talented and prominent figures from the arts, sciences, technology and education communities to become patrons for Platform. They will offer lectures, workshops, debates, work swaps and will participate in many different areas of our programme across the coming months. Patrons include Dean Linda Drew from University of Arts London; Jeremy Ettinghausen, Head of Digital Publishing at Penguin; Sarah Featherstone, Architect; Russell Davies, Global Strategist; Deep Kailey Fashion Editor Vogue India; and Joel Gethin Lewis, Interaction Designer and Artist.
Applicants should visit platform.wk.com for more information. Here they will find a prospectus explaining everything they’ll need to know about Platform, together with a brief to enter. We would like candidates to answer the creative brief as well as create a personal video profile. We will go through all creative submissions then invite a selected group into the agency for an open day where there will be a number of other challenges. This will take place at Wieden + Kennedy London. Platform recruitment works on a rolling basis so if you miss out on the first round, there will be further opportunities to apply in the future.
Sam Brookes, Managing Director Platform said, ‘Having a diverse mix of talented people with different skills, fresh approaches and boundless energy will not only provide surprising creative solutions for business problems but it will invigorate everyone at W+K into working in new ways and thinking beyond advertising.’
21.05.2009 | New business
Wieden + Kennedy London has been appointed as lead creative agency by The Fairtrade Foundation following a 3-way pitch against Arthur and Baby Creative. The agency will be responsible for the creation and development of all national campaigns.
Communications will roll out later this year – including advertising, DM, digital and supporter strategy, B2B communications.
The Fairtrade Foundation is the independent non-profit organisation that licenses use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products in the UK in accordance with internationally agreed Fairtrade standards. Their vision is of a world in which justice and sustainable development are at the heart of trade structures and practices so that everyone, through their work, can maintain a decent and dignified livelihood and develop their full potential.
In 2008, the Fairtrade Foundation set out an ambitious strategy for the next five years (2008-12), Tipping the Balance – our vision for further growth. It aims to take the successful model and scale up the reach and impact of Fairtrade so that it can begin to truly transform trade in favour of the poor and disadvantaged. Its five goals include:
- Twice as many producers benefit from selling Fairtrade goods in the UK, while those already supplying the UK market are able to double the proportion of the crop they sell via the Fairtrade system.
- Three quarters of people in Britain recognise the FAIRTRADE Mark and what it stands for, and people from all parts of society to feel part of a vibrant people’s movement for change.
- Huge diversity of companies in Britain producing and selling Fairtrade goods in all areas of the market – including thriving new and established companies dedicated to Fairtrade and a growing group of household brands converting to Fairtrade.
- The UK market for Fairtrade products has reached £2 billion a year – four times the current level.
- The global Fairtrade system is known as a beacon of good practice in trade and development, enabling the voice of the poorest to be heard at the highest level.
Cheryl Sloan, Director of Marketing at The Fairtrade Foundation said, ‘Our appointment of Wieden + Kennedy reflects The Fairtrade Foundation’s ambitions to take the movement and the brand to the next level of development. We need an ambitious and innovative lead agency if we are to meet our aims of bringing Fairtrade further into the mainstream and building the engagement necessary to generate £2bn in sales by 2012. We are very confident that W+K can take us there.’
Neil Christie, Managing Director Wieden + Kennedy London said, ‘At W+K we believe that companies should try to do good so we're delighted to have the chance of working with Fairtrade to help make business fairer.'
15.05.2009 | New business
Wieden + Kennedy London has been appointed by Selfridges & Co. to create an installation in the Oxford Street store’s Wonder Room Windows. The new installation is part of the iconic department store’s 100 Year Anniversary celebrations this year and will be unveiled in July 2009.
In celebration of 100 years of trading, Selfridges & Co. decided to celebrate the future rather than looking to the past, so the pitch for the design of the windows was to devise ‘an ad-hoc vision of domestic design utopia in 2109’.
The Wonder Windows link the outside of the store to the Selfridges Concept store and Wonder Room which is undoubtedly the most high profile area of the store. They have a reputation for showcasing bespoke artworks by both up-and-coming and more established artists in these windows. They are treated as installation spaces and are regarded by the press and art world as such.
Sarah McCullough, Concept Manager, Selfridges & Co. said ‘Working with Wieden + Kennedy has really given us the opportunity to push the spaces in a new direction, by working in tandem with the Selfridges creative brief of 2109. The W+K proposal was at once accessible and inventive and has been hugely well received by all parts of the business. We predict that the tongue in cheek wit and whimsical but dark inventions will be a great crowd pleaser.’
Tony Davidson, Executive Creative Director, Wieden + Kennedy said ‘I hate being pigeon-holed and confined to traditional advertising, so its nice when you find yourself winning pitches against product designers and artists, not advertising agencies’.
Tom Seymour, Creative, Wieden + Kennedy said, ‘Both Selfridges and Wieden + Kennedy have a similar way of thinking in terms of playfulness and witty humour. This is a fantastic opportunity to be working with a like minded brand and to be seen doing alternative projects beyond traditional advertising.”
14.05.2009 | Awards
Wieden + Kennedy London triumphed at the One Show Interactive Awards on Friday 8th May. The agency picked up a Gold Pencil for the Nokia Music Almighty, a global, interactive campaign that included the ‘What Headphones Are You’ website http://europe.nokia.com/musicalmighty.
W+K also won a Silver Pencil in conjunction with AKQA for ‘Paula Chasing’ a tactical campaign for Nike Running which focused on last year’s New York marathon that Paula Radcliffe ran, and won.
One Show Interactive was first launched more than a decade ago, and has since grown from a competition awarding the simple banners and Web sites of the time to the most prestigious award in the industry today, each year recognizing the monumental shifts and revolutionary changes that occur in the interactive landscape.
One Show Interactive gathers a jury of the most respected and sought-after creatives: individuals who are leaders, movers, and visionaries in the industry. The works they select represent something more than just a good advertisement placed online or a traditional concept gone digital—they represent the creative risks people take with emerging media, they acknowledge the deeper levels of connection made in the way we communicate, and—in essence—they tell the stories that make us human.
