Every year Fast Company magazine publishes a list of what they believe to be the most innovative companies in the world. This year W+K was on the list at number 25 – the number one advertising / marketing company.

They said:

The 50 companies on our 2011 list have chosen a unique path. Today's business landscape is littered with heritage companies whose CEOs battle their industry's broken model with inertia, layoffs, lawsuits — anything that squeezes pennies and delays the inevitable. How many of these companies will be dominant in 2025? Few.

That world will be ruled by the kinds of companies on this list. They're non-dogmatic, willing to scrap conventional ideas. (A mere 30-second TV ad? Let's do 200 online videos in two days, say the creatives at Wieden+Kennedy.)

It's a real honour to be included to be on this list, which mentions no other ad agencies and includes the likes of Apple, Google, Nike, ESPN and Amazon.

A creative person writes:

I get very irritated by the increasing number of promotional emails I get from food photographers, stock shot companies, agents etc. Genuinely irritated. A___ and I have been on a furious unsubscribing mission.
It's futile.

We noticed that an email address kept appearing in our enquiries. It's www.b2bmailer.co.uk

They are the people that seem to have some sort of list with all our names on. Obviously they don't have a website. In fact they are hidden very well on the internet.

I managed to find out who the domain name is registered to.It's a man in Glasgow called Mike Gibbs.
No phone number, but it did have an address. In fact this is a photo of his house, found using Google Street view.

As you can see, he's clearly doing well enough out of selling our addresses to buy himself a Vauxhall Nova and build himself a red shed, complete with guttering.

Some gentle yet determined stalking turned up a phone-number for a company "hilariously" called Bikini Lists. They provide UK mailing lists of commissioners to photographers, illustrators, stock libraries and industry directories. They seem heavily affiliated with Mr Gibbs. It's not actually Mike Gibb's personal number but they are able to connect you directly to Mike Gibbs, or somebody that definitely knows him.

Anyway if you ask, they HAVE to take you off the list. I got A___ and me removed from the mailing list. Quite a moment.

He said we will notice a "dramatic decrease in junk mail". So if you commission creative work, and you want less junk mail, this is the number to call: 0141 636 3901