W+K London

September 14, 2009

APG awards judging

News

Spent today in swanky Shoreditch House with a top team of industry legends and luminaries judging the APG Awards. Obviously confidentiality prevents me from revealing any of the discussion amongst the judges but I can say, to tantalise you, that it was a very interesting process. The awards recognise excellence in strategic planning and each agency presents its case in a 20 minute slot, so as chairman of the judges Guy Murphy of JWT said, it's kind of like 'the X-Factor of planning'.

We saw thirteen presentations today and there are another twelve tomorrow. These have been whittled down from 150-odd submissions so I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying that the standard overall is very high indeed. There's been some genuinely interesting thinking presented and it's fascinating to observe the cultural body language each agency displays in the way it presents itself. Some went for low-tech flip-charts (one involuntarily, following a tech meltdown), some went to the other extreme, going to advanced levels of technical accomplishment in style of presentation. Some had shiny shoes, some had knitted their own trousers. Presenting agencies today were: BBH (for Lynx and Johnnie Walker), M&C Saatchi (PC World), AMV (Royal Mail, Dept for Transport and The Economist), Tribal DDB (VW), Grey (BHF – heart attack), W+K (Nokia), Mother (PG Tips and Orange), McCann (Skcin) and VCCP (Comparethemarket.com). You can read the shortlisted papers here.

It's also interesting to see just how much stuff you can fit into a 20 minute presentation. When it comes to presentations, shorter is ALWAYS better.

The panel of judges, who you can see above, arguing the toss, tucking into cake and ensuring that their caffeine intake is kept hot-wiringly high, is comprised of Guy Murphy (JWT), Derek Morris (Zenith), Claire Beale (Campaign), John Owen (Dare), Rory Sutherland (Ogilvy), Lucy Jameson (DDB), Matt Willifer (APG/nDreams), Simon Clift (Unilever), Axel Chaldecott (JWT), Bill Griffin (Rapier), Rob Forshaw (Grand Union) and me, Neil Christie (Wieden + Kennedy).

Below, W+K's own Andrew Stirk girds his strategy loins for what could be his Susan Boyle moment, presenting the Nokia Supernova case history. And just to make things more nerve-wracking for him, he had me taking photos of him.

Another twelve presentations tomorrow. Partly daunting. Partly quite exciting.

Personally, I found it inspiring to see the good work being done out there. As Tarantino says (referencing his own relationship with PT Anderson), it was the fact that Brando had to compete with Montgomery Clift that made Brando a better actor. And nothing makes QT happier than to see his friend and rival produce a masterpiece. So, W+K is kind of like the Brando in this analogy. Inspired to do better by our competition. And possibly about to get fat and lazy and go bonkers and rarely work again.

September 11, 2009

‘the johnny depp of ad agencies’?

Nice piece from Shots about wednesday night's launch of WK Platform.

A PLATFORM FOR THE FUTURE

Fresh
into the creative classroom, 13 of the best, brightest and as yet
undiscovered minds from the four corners of the world have been plucked
from obscurity to take part in Wieden and Kennedy London's fully-
fledged talent hub Platform.

The new enterprise is aimed at drawing out young, hip and innovative
minds from the worlds of art, science and technology in a bid to inject
life and vigour into an industry constantly on the hunt for the curious
and the cutting edge.

For
the next six to nine months the thirteen 'formers' chosen from a pool
of 40 will be put through their paces, delving into an array of
business problem solving, working in isolation on specialist projects
and working in conjunction with W+K on live client briefs.

With
no guaranteed job at the end of the stint, many of the13 have left
prospective career opportunities, friends and families behind to move
to London and take part in this new 'experiment'.

Nicole
Karalekas left a career as an art director in Oregon, in the United
States, to be a part of Platform. The 24 year old believes even if
there is no form of paid employment at the end of the course, working
for W+K means she's still got a golden ticket.

"It's kind of like dating the Johnny Depp of ad agencies, so you hope it's a good match but if it's not, you just keep going."

The Formers are occupying a newly renovated space next to the original W+K building in east London.

Starting
up such a training scheme with no set rules or outcomes in the midst of
a global recession might sound like an unorthodox approach for a
business but W+K London Executive Creative Directors Kim Papworth and
Tony Davidson say it's all part of breaking down traditional business
models.

"Most companies who undergo an initiative like this will
be able to tell you precisely why. However we look on this more as a
'Dial-Up the Crazy' beta test. More chaos please, as that and not
process is what leads to true creativity."

So far, so good. The
first brief the Formers were given was to design and build a shape from
the platform logo in just one day and "the finished pieces were of a
very high standard", says Platform managing director Sam Brookes.

The
brains behind the scheme will be hoping the good results continue and
the combination of chaos and creativity proves to be fertile ground,
before the 13 finish their training and are released into the jungle of
the advertising industry.