Three has announced the appointment of Wieden + Kennedy as its new creative agency following a competitive pitch.

The firm will now take the lead in developing brand communications and delivering creative work for the mobile operator.

W+K will conceive and oversee the implementation of integrated campaigns and delivery of TV, Radio, press, outdoor and digital advertising work for Three as the company continues its push for growth in the UK market.

With several campaigns likely this year alone, W+K will work with a core team at Three to deliver a communications strategy to articulate Three’s brand story over the coming 12-18 months.

No firm date for the first campaign has yet been set, but it is expected to appear in the first half of this year.

Margaret Burke, Director of Brand and Integrated Communications at Three, said: “W+K is a great match for Three, both in terms of their creative thinking and the way in which they can integrate a company’s brand story into their work.

“The mobile world is changing, as more and more people realise just what they can do on the move with their smartphones and other devices like tablets or laptops.

“Three is leading the way with this step change, and with W+K we will create compelling campaigns that tell this story and show just why Three is the network of choice for anyone who needs speed and reliability alongside competitive pricing.”

Neil Christie, Managing Director of Wieden + Kennedy said: “Three has shaken up the market with the way it has built its network, priced its products and led the way in promoting the mobile internet to consumers across the UK. With more and more people choosing smartphones, now is Three’s time. We aim to build strong and provocative relationships between good companies and their customers, so we’re delighted to have the opportunity to work with Three at this exciting time.”

We had the pleasure of hosting The Royal Opera house, Culture Hack Day here at W+K London over weekend.

Over 65 people took part in the culture hacking sessions in our basement and The Cole was packed out for the Lightning talks.

A few W+K folk joined in the weekend events and here's what they had to say.

Oscar Powell writes:

We were in the basement, the morning's introductions were drawing to an end and all around us devices were powering up. One intrepid hacker at the back raised his hand: "It's already warm down here," he growled, "but it's about to get a whole lot warmer."

Welcome to Culture Hack Weekend.

Various cultural organisations — the UK Film Council, Royal Opera House, Culture Grid and more — had just made reams of data available to a room full of information-hungry developers. It was up to them, over the course of the next two days, and working through the night if necessary, to repurpose this data — 'hack' it — into unexpected new forms.

The coders split up into teams and set up camp in various parts of the basement. I mucked in and tried to make myself as useful as possible — which wasn't very useful at all. "Does anyone know any quantise algorithms?" someone asked. I made the tea.

In truth, it was exciting just to be a part of it. I met some brilliant people, heard about some extraordinary ideas and got swept along on a tide of digital optimism. Just when I thought I couldn't have any more fun, lunch arrived — to much fist pumping and whooping from the hacker teams. There was little time to spare, though, and the coders quickly plugged themselves back into the mainframe as the rest of us headed over the road for the Lightning Talks.

A Lightning Talk, I soon discovered, is a presentation with a strict time limit. Brilliantly chaired by Simon Hopkins, metadata champion of the Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network, we had three of them at the top of each hour, followed by 45 minutes of audience discussion. It was the perfect format, as luminaries from all manner of cultural and technological spheres took turns navigating our course into an increasingly data-driven future.

We came back to earth with a bump — not to mention tea and cakes — and, as we shuffled out, I thought of something Nick Harkaway, author and blogger for FutureBook, had said (with a little help from Gandhi): "Code for the change you want in the world." It seemed a fitting summing up to the first day's events. With all this data, with technology changing as it is, think what can be done — and do it.

Big thanks to the Culture Hack team and, of course, our very own Donna, Dan Tron (sorry, Hon), Pete and Gav for making it such a memorable day out.

Check out some more write ups below. 

http://rooreynolds.com/2011/01/15/culture-hack-day-2011-lightning-talks/

http://culturehackday.org.uk/

http://openobjects.blogspot.com/2011/01/notes-from-culture-hack-day-chd11.html

http://meshedmedia.com/the-lightning-talks-at-culture-hack-day/