It's a big thumbs up from W+K's Freddie Powell and Helen Foulder at the news that our Cravendale 'Cats with Thumbs' spot was voted number one best TV ad of 2011 by viewers of ITV, the UK's biggest commercial TV channel. ITV's top 20 ads of the year were featured on TV a couple of nights ago in a show called Ad of the Year. It has to be admitted that Freddie and Helen, who were interviewed for the show as representatives of the Cravendale team, do look slightly sheepish about being made to appear on prime time TV wearing giant furry cat gauntlets. But for the rest of us that moment above is TELLY GOLD!

Here's the extract from the show featuring the top of the poppermost Cravendale spot.

Some people find the Cravendale ad a bit scary, but I have to say I personally don't find the prospect of world domination by polydactyl cats nearly as unnerving as the luminous teeth of the man below. I couldn't pay any attention to what he was saying in the clip because I was distracted by his fluorescent chompers.

Also in the top twenty ads of the year were two more Wieden + Kennedy spots. At number 13, from W+K Portland, Old Spice's 'The man your man could smell like'. Apparently, according to the celebrity lady interviewed below, this causes 'an actual physical reaction when you watch it'. Mind-boggling.

And at number 11, from W+K Amsterdam, Heineken's 'The entrance'. Fantastic suggestion from the actress interviewed that a follow-up ad should be set in Coronation Street's Rover's Return pub.

Well done to all involved in making these ads and big congrats to our clients. And many thanks for your votes, ITV viewers.

To support the launch of the 2012 Honda Civic, Wieden + Kennedy London has created a unique 360º video experience that lets viewers venture into the unknown. Inspired by the Street View experience, ‘Off the Grid’ is an interactive film that explores incredible environments.

The Civic design team threw out what they knew and started afresh, exploring every path. Off the Grid reflects how rewarding a journey into the unknown can be.The experience takes users to places they’d never get a chance to see otherwise, or lets them experience familiar locations in an entirely new way. From a previously unexplored Alaskan ice cave to an underwater art museum where growing reef means the sculptures won’t be visible in a few months’ time.

From the afternoon of December 19^th, Off the Grid will be live at www.youtube.com/hondacivicUK 

Find out more about the locations and filming at http://hondaoffthegriduk.posterous.com/

W+K worked with Partizan and film director Michael Geoghegan to capture the stunning imagery, TTX for the filming and yellowBird for the 360º player.

Off the Grid is the final of three interactive experiences Wieden + Kennedy London have created to support ‘The Great Unknown’ pan-European marketing campaign. Like this latest experience, the web film ‘Happy Dog’ and HTML5 game ‘The Experiment’ each relayed part of the journey the Honda engineers undertook- how they got to the final design of the Civic and the lessons learned along the way.

The first phase broke online with the launch of a destination hub on YouTube www.youtube.com/hondacivicUK.This phase introduced the campaign idea and was car-specific: the content relates to the various improvements and enhancements of the Civic. The Civic launch television spots will air in January 2012.