We’ve had a busy few days here. At the start of last week, after a pitch against CHI, DDB and Y&R, we picked up the account for Sky One, the UK’s main satellite TV channel. Two days later we pitched for the Pizza Hut business and we heard on Friday night that we had beaten CHI (again), BBH and WCRS to win that one. These are both significant accounts for us, with a combined billing of over £20 million. The whole agency worked terrifically hard and we’re knackered but delighted. There were some tired and emotional scenes on Friday night, as you can imagine.

As if that wasn’t enough, yesterday we were named ‘Creative Agency of the Year (small/medium)’ in the IPA  Best of the Best Awards. These awards are designed to recognise outstanding creativity and commercial effectiveness for clients.

With a start to the year like that it’s bound to be all downhill from here.

This is an extract from an article in today’s Marketing Week:

‘It had been a tough, typically acrimonious battle selecting the print winner for this year’s Epica, the European creative awards that – uniquely – are judged by journalists rather than creatives…Then we moved on to the the film Epica D’Or – which most would argue is the biggest trophy of all – and something unprecedented happened. For the first time in the 18 years the awards have ben running, a spontaneous decision was reached about the film winner without the need for a discussion of the merits of any other shortlisted candidates. Such was the ad’s brilliance that judges from a clear majority of 23 countries had no hesitation in acclaiming it.

And the winner was…one of the most startlingly creative ads we have seen for a very long time. Grrr (Honda Diesel), the commercial in question, created by Wieden + Kennedy London, is really corporate advertising disguised as a product execution. In this lies the power of imaginative transformation.’

Sean Thompson, one of the writers of the ad, commented:

‘We went to pick up the award on Friday in Budapest. All I can say is I got a glimpse of how Jude Law must feel with all the flash bulbs going off and the TV cameras and microphones shoved in my face. The main difference was I had Richard Russell on my arm and not Sienna Miller and it was Slovakian television but it felt good just the same.’