Campaign School Report
Today sees publication of Campaign magazine's annual survey of the UK's top agencies. Commonly known as the 'school report'. For the second year in a row we scored an 'excellent' 8 out of 9 marks.
Here's what they wrote about us:
"W+K's reputation for creativity is well-earned but has in the past been based on work for a handful of accounts. Not before time the agency started to extend its canvas last year, bringing in significant new business including The Guardian and Lurpak butter. Add to those Cravendale milk, the Oraneg account in Romania and the launch of Brick-It (the first mobile phone soap series) and W+K begins to look like a more balanced operation.
Its creativity was widely recognised with awards. Its 'St Wayne' ad for Nike took the top honours at Campaign Posters. Meanwhile, its 2005 'Impossible Dream' film for Honda won Best Commercial at the British Television advertising awards, the third consecutive year a W+K spot for the carmaker has won the prize. The spot was also won of the most highly awarded in the world in 2006, according to the Gunn Report. All very satisfying. But in many ways the agency is a victim of its own success, since anything less than a Cannes Grand Prix looks like failure.
Sustaining this creative potency will be among the major challenges for W+K during the coming year, as will leveraging this strength with more international assignments.
Another will be to draft in more digital exprtise. While W+K should be commended for the investment, most of the growth in staff last year came as a result of a general beefing up of its creative department. The agency may be spoken of in the same breath as US hotshops such as Goodby Silverstein and Crispin Porter, but it has a way to travel if it is to match them below the line as well as above it."
