Attended the 'Big Awards' at the Grosvenor House last night, at kind invitation of Campaign, the organisers of the event. Inevitably, any criticism of the winning work will be seen as carping, as W+K didn't win much, but I felt that there wasn't very much there in the way of genuinely fresh and exciting stuff. There were a few exceptions, like Fiat eco:Drive and the Queensland Tourism 'best job in the world' campaign, but some of the big winners, like The Natural Confectionery Company 'bring on the trumpets' and the Harvey Nichols Wallace and Gromit ads, while very nice, just seem a bit, well, small. 'Bring on the Trumpets' picked up a gold for 'innovative or ground-breaking thinking in commercial communication'. They're funny ads, but to my mind they're hardly ground-breaking. Feels like we should all be aiming a bit higher, especially in these tough times.

Gold for integrated campaign went to the Stella 'nouvelle smooth' campaign. Surprising choice. For me Compare the Market / Meerkat – which did win gold for TV and digital – was the obvious winner in this category. I'm not a fan of the Stella work and the campaign doesn't even seem particularly well 'integrated'. Aleksandr the meerkat was the only thing we saw last night that is mad enough and engaging enough to have really entered the culture in a truly 'Big' and popular way. But I guess Aleksandr will have his night of glory at the effectiveness awards.

W+K's Darren and Ben, last night, with an award. (For Nike in press.)