I’ve just emerged from two and a half days in the Bullmore Room at JWT London having seen and judged 1,100 pieces of work in the Q2 Global Creative Challenge. Phew! With almost 30 people involved it was starting to smell like a football locker in there. Happily there’s some very good stuff coming through on DTC, Cadburys Stride gum, Nestle Extreme Ice Cream, KC’s Huggies, Band Aid and more.
One thing in particular has my mind still racing - JWT Puerto Rico have started making tote bags, each one an individual fashion statement, from the vinyl used in Heineken’s outdoor posters….great thinking, very cool and more on this in a separate post later. The results and the Q2 Showcase will be finalised and sent to you by the end of next week.But hold on, there are a few other things to say about this. These meetings between the creative leaders of the company, some of the planners from Guy’s Planning Council and, on this occasion Alison (CEO London) and Toby (European CEO) are invaluable. They help to put JWT’s creative product at the centre of our culture and conversation. And the results that emerge from these meetings and the work that rises to the top are vital business assets for JWT. Our philosophy of creating “ideas worth spending time with”, our time-sensitive 1-10 scorecards and the competitive spirit of the Global Creative Challenge are working wonders for our creative product. We now have an impressive body of work to show for it. So let’s show it often, to ourselves, to our clients, to prospects, the media and to people we want working with us. JWT is a far more formidable creative force than many people know. But don’t take my word for it. Take a look at our track record at Cannes from 2000 to 2008 in the three charts that follow. What you’ll see is the impact of “time” and the GCC from the moment it was introduced in 2005. There’s great momentum here, let’s keep going.
