Stuart writes:

So I’ve just returned from a week in Shanghai, where some of the good and the great of W+K, and me, gathered to work together on a Nike Olympics project.

It was kind of an experiment.  Yes, we’ve done collaborative global projects before, but not really like this.  We had people from each of our six offices get together for three days, to workshop ideas and co-create a ‘book’.  Which, in Wiedens language, means a collection of ideas that combine and express strategic and creative stuff around a theme.  That makes it sound like marketing wank, sorry.  It wasn’t – it was a success.

We wanted to take the process of how we’ve been working in London for a while now, and see if it could work at a global level.  We brought together very different cultures, which made for a body of work that felt truly global, but without that lowest common denominator nightmare that ‘global’ often ends up being.  You know the sort of thing.  It always ends up being about ’empowerment’.  Or ‘passion’.  Or ‘passionate empowerement’.

And we ended up in a Christmas gay bar tanning salon.  Oh come on, we’ve all been there.

I’ve had a photo disaster, so I’ll try to get hold of some more and upload them tomorrow.  I know you can’t wait.