Attended the 'Big Awards' at the Grosvenor House last night, at kind invitation of Campaign, the organisers of the event. Inevitably, any criticism of the winning work will be seen as carping, as W+K didn't win much, but I felt that there wasn't very much there in the way of genuinely fresh and exciting stuff. There were a few exceptions, like Fiat eco:Drive and the Queensland Tourism 'best job in the world' campaign, but some of the big winners, like The Natural Confectionery Company 'bring on the trumpets' and the Harvey Nichols Wallace and Gromit ads, while very nice, just seem a bit, well, small. 'Bring on the Trumpets' picked up a gold for 'innovative or ground-breaking thinking in commercial communication'. They're funny ads, but to my mind they're hardly ground-breaking. Feels like we should all be aiming a bit higher, especially in these tough times.

Gold for integrated campaign went to the Stella 'nouvelle smooth' campaign. Surprising choice. For me Compare the Market / Meerkat – which did win gold for TV and digital – was the obvious winner in this category. I'm not a fan of the Stella work and the campaign doesn't even seem particularly well 'integrated'. Aleksandr the meerkat was the only thing we saw last night that is mad enough and engaging enough to have really entered the culture in a truly 'Big' and popular way. But I guess Aleksandr will have his night of glory at the effectiveness awards.

W+K's Darren and Ben, last night, with an award. (For Nike in press.)

This week’s issue of Campaign magazine is the ‘graduate
issue’. It focuses on young talent, at the time of year when the UK ad
industry traditionally recruits a fresh intake of new joiners who have just
finished college. The theme of this year’s coverage is pretty much summed up by
the front page headline, “Agencies cull grad intake in recession”. The article
predicts that the UK ad business will take on less than half the usual number
of college leavers. The editorial piece builds on this theme, suggesting that
the recent collapse of the financial sector will mean that young talents who might
in recent times have been attracted to a career in the city will now be
considering advertising. (Can this really be true? Are there many new graduates
out there thinking, ‘Hmmmm – not sure which I should apply to, HSBC hedge fund
management or Mother?” Maybe there are, but I would advise them against
choosing the advertising option as a quicker or easier way to get rich.  If money’s the main thing you’re
interested in, I reckon you’re still better of sticking with The City.)
Unfortunately, cut-backs on grad recruitment may mean that agencies miss their
chance to take on these future stars.

Campaign says, “There’s not much optimism out there, which
is a great pity because some of the best talent we’ve ever been able to hire is
available.”

Welcome to Optimism says, “There are still some great
opportunities in this business for fresh talent. And you don’t even have to be
a graduate.”

Wieden + Kennedy London
doesn’t have a ‘grad scheme’. Instead, we have Platform, a school/agency/
experiment  in creative learning
and working.  Platform exists to
find and nuture multiskilled talent from the arts, science and technology, who
work as a collective to solve business problems in innovative ways. We just
hired our first intake of 13 Platformers from all over the world – an eclectic
mix of talents and skills, diverse of trouser and varied in facial hair. We’ve
filled out first intake but we’ll continue to take on new Platformers at
regular intervals. So, if you’re a smart original thinker and problem solver
interested in learning what working in a creative company might be like, and if
you fancy taking part in an ongoing experiment about what such a company could
become, then you should maybe check out WK Platform.