merry xmas to all our readers
Last day of term. Last post of the year. So, that was 2006. How did we do against those objectives we recklessly posted publicly at the start of the year?
Achieve the standard of our best work across all our clients.
As previously noted, it’s impossible by definition for all our work to be our best, so this was a dumb objective that we had to change to ‘across more of our clients’. Possibly a mealy-mouthed cop-out.
In order to evaluate this, we have to start with industry awards to get some kind of ‘objective’ perspective. According to the Gunn Report, W+K London moved one place up from last year in the world’s rankings of most creatively awarded agencies, from number 7 to number 6. We won Best Commercial of the Year at the British TV Awards and the Grand Prix at the Clios (both for the third year in a row). And we won two golds at Cannes. And that Grand Crystal thing at Meribel last week that I promised not to mention again. (Oops.) Brilliant. But all of that was for Honda. What about our other clients?
We won Best Poster of the Year at Campaign Poster Awards for our ‘Saint Wayne’ poster for Nike, we had another good Run London campaign and we did loads of small bits and pieces for Nike to a high standard. We’re very proud of our first work for Space.NK. The Visit Wales campaign triumphed at the Travel Industry Awards. Our latest Pizza Hut work is the best we’ve done for them yet and we’ve also done some innovative and fun Pizza Hut digital stuff. We’ve done some very nice work for Orange Romania. We finished the year with another big Honda campaign.
Have we really achieved world class quality across all our clients in the last twelve months? Maybe not. But we’ve definitely done more great work across more clients than ever before.
Make 2006 our healthiest year ever in terms of revenue and profit
Like everyone else in the industry, we were conscious that this was going to be a year in which we would have to fight for success. We worked our butts off and achieved this objective, despite a highly competitive market.
Win two like-minded, profitable UK Clients
In the first quarter of 2006 we picked up the launch of a soap opera you watch on your mobile phone, won an assignment from SBE Entertainmnet and we pitched for Film 4. (The pitch was successful but they decided not to award the business to any agency.) None of these turned into a profitable retained account. Then we pitched unsuccessfully for Yell. Not a great start. And we turned down quite a few opportunities that we didn’t think met the ‘like-minded’ criterion. But then we had a string of successes, picking up The Guardian, Lurpak and Cravendale. So, we achieved this target. Plus we have one more UK win to announce early in 2007.
Successfully run a large global project
In November we pitched for two global projects. At time of writing we had heard we’d definitely won one of these. The outcome of the other is still undecided. So, we may achieve this one a year late.
And in 2006 we did win a client outside the UK in the shape of Orange Romania.
Learn and profit from new communication channels
We’ve done podcasts for Honda, and the world’s first ad downloadable from iTunes, we built web content for Visit Wales and Honda and we created the first advertiser channel on YouTube for a UK Advertiser (Pizza Hut.). But we need to continue to do more. This is a key area of development for next year.
Continue to build our reputation beyond conventional ads
Though we’ve done this to a certain extent, with some innovative work on Nike and Honda in particular, we’re still best known for our TV work. We want to become more than just an ‘advertising agency’. In 2005 we set up WK Fat to help us do this. In 2006 we put some of this into practice with the things mentioned above. But we need to continue to do more.
Enhance and develop our working space
We secured planning permission for the roof extension on our building. Work will begin in January 2007.
Become the most enjoyable place in the industry to work
In a survey in Campaign in 2005 we were rated second most desirable place to work (after BBH). We wanted to improve on that, and to ensure that we’re not just highly rated by those people who aspire to work here but, more importantly, have the people who are already here rate W+K as the best. Our annual staff survey suggested that people here are generally very happy, that they understand where the agency is going, what we’re trying to do and what their role is in achieving it. We were reaccredited by Investors in People and got a glowing report, which said:
“There is a culture of professional pride, hard work, development and growth. People feel valued and recognised… There is a strategy in place for improving performance and this is clearly communicated and understood by everyone.
“There is a culture of working with people and including them. There is a strong culture of equality within the company, recognising the different strengths and abilities of its people.
“There is clearly a strong culture of recognition and thanks, which motivates and encourages people.
“There is no question that people are learning and developing effectively and the learning is shared with colleagues.”
So, that seemed encouraging. Not a 10/10 performance but one we can be proud of. And certainly our best year yet.
Enough nostalgia – bring on 2007 and another year of continued development in the ongoing experiment that is W+K London. More forwards please!
Joint Creative Director of W+K London, Kim Papworth, with his little friend.
