“Fortune favours the brave”

Someone said to me around this time last year: “Well it would be a brave man who’d bet against WPP now.” I think he was referring to our potential performance at Cannes 2013.

I can’t say whether anyone actually lost money, but his words were prophetic. After back-to-back Holding Company of the Year Awards in 2011 and 2012, this year we completed the historic hat-trick.

It did, though, make me think about that word, “bravery”. The ongoing economic woes of many markets are hardly conducive to bravery in advertising, yet still we continue to bring world-class ideas to our clients’ tables. And, time and again, the equally brave marketers who buy them are rewarded as they deliver where it really counts. It is more than mere coincidence that our agencies have made WPP not only the most creative but, according to The Effie Index 2012 and 2013, also the most effective holding company in the world.

All of which I suppose goes to prove that old saying: “Fortune favours the brave.”

I hope as many of our clients as possible get a chance to look through these pages and to see what amazing results can be had if, in spite of everything, they go with the most creative solutions.

Congratulations to all who have made this year’s WPPED Cream as inspiring as ever.

‘Hang on a minute, lads...
I’ve got a great idea’

Ideas... the world is full of them – whether it’s Michael Caine trying to save a haul of gold from falling off the edge off a cliff, or even which tattoo to get next – some ideas are good, others not so great.

We will never know what happened to the lads on the cliff edge in The Italian Job, but this scene is etched in our minds, as is the case whenever you come across something that is simply a brilliant idea. You can’t stop thinking about it. Our category this year was full of brilliant ideas, and we had to negotiate the delicate balance between this and the excellent craftsmanship and visual execution of world-class design.

I want to thank Peter Knapp (Landor), Greg Quinton (The Partners), Sue Daun (The Brand Union), Stephen Bell (Coley Porter Bell), John Comitis (VBAT), Howard Smiedt (Ogilvy Action), David Villiers (G2), Peter Chodel (Addison),

Adrian Burton (Lambie-Nairn), and Alasdair Lennox (FITCH), who had the challenge of reviewing nearly twice the number of entries, but stuck to the task with good humour, a critical eye and great generosity of comment and discussion.

Finally, well done to Landor who scooped the Crème de la Crème for a second year. Citroën is a tour de force of elegant and thoughtful design across many touchpoints held together by a simple, strong idea.

Hopefully this work will blow your bloody doors off.

“ When every spot, post,
tweet or stunt generates response
in the form of likes and views,
shares and blog posts,
what distinguishes a Direct idea?”

It’s a common debate, these days. When every spot, post, tweet or stunt generates response in the form of likes and views, shares and blog posts, what distinguishes a Direct idea?

This year, our WPPED Cream Jury has been rather more precise than juries in some recent major Award Shows in defining “Direct”.
We have insisted on three characteristics:

• A pre-determined target audience
• A clear call to action
• A measurable response to that call to action

Our purist approach has excluded or marked down some well-known campaigns. We don’t doubt for a second that these ideas deserve to be celebrated – just not in a Direct category.

On the plus side, we have promoted and recognised some excellent Direct campaigns from around the WPP world. The absolute standout is our Crème de la Crème winner. This powerful idea combines insight into the sports fan, great direct thinking and a huge imaginative leap. It did well and it did good.

I’d like to thank my Jury and my Creative Department for working so hard to arrive at our stellar top 10. This year we received a record-breaking number of entries from 36 countries – and that is on top of the many superb campaigns that had already been recognised in the world’s most prestigious award competitions.

And if I could, I’d give a special award to my assistant, Kari Adams, for cheerfully managing the arduous process of co-ordinating entries, questions, judging and results.

"The diversity of the entries was remarkable; it was exciting to discover work from countries that rarely, if ever, get a look in at the awards shows.”

Seeing great examples of fresh thinking is always an enriching experience, and this is greatly amplified when the source is not from somewhere you’d expect. The diversity of the entries was remarkable; it was exciting to discover work from countries that rarely, if ever, get a look in at the awards shows.

And whilst the executional quality of this work might not be quite up to the standard exhibited by stronger markets, it is nevertheless noteworthy for its imaginative and effective use of technology to bring forth solutions that not only enhance a client’s business, but also have a tangible and positive impact on the lives of their audience.

AKQA has been in partnership with WPP for a little over a year now, and so this is the first time we have been given the honour of taking part in these awards. What is immediately striking is that so many talented and forward-thinking companies are members of the same family; it is truly inspiring, and we are enormously proud to be a part of it. So that said, all that remains is to say congratulations to the winners, and a huge thank you to all who submitted work. I hope you all enjoy our selections – even if you don’t agree with them!

“Our ability to grow depends
on our ability to adapt”

The best of this year’s WPPED Cream combined the wisdom of both Darwin with the Spice Girls; the adaptive process of evolution and a real time understanding of what customers really really want.

What inspired the jury of Stephen Ward from Mindshare, Stuart Butler from Maxus, Matthew Mee from MediaCom and Verra Budimlija from MEC in this year’s work, were the new ways of understanding human nature, together with the new ways of answering human needs, almost none of which were possible less than three years ago.

Each and every one of our winners, and the Crème de la Crème in particular, used responsive data to bring the brands and customers closer together than ever before, delivering outstanding business results along the way.

These winners include a 33,000 mile photograph of the Olympic Torch Relay, a week-long broadcast live from a warzone showing just how real part-time soldiering is, a user-driven game that lets customers control the advertising using television as its platform and in our Crème de la Crème a brilliant and brutally simple use of search that responded and adapted to each and every customer journey. An inspiring lesson for us all in how our ability to grow depends on our ability to adapt.

Congratulations to all of our Highly Commended entries, our Winners and our Kleenex Crème de la Crème.

“ This year’s entries for public relations and public affairs showcased campaigns that tapped into new technologies with strategic thinking and creative ideas that led to effective business results.”

As the communications industry continues to change at a rapid pace, with disruptive shifts in the rise of digital and social communications channels, fragmentation of news markets and new ownable content creation, it is wonderful to see how WPP companies are harnessing these changes as new opportunities for clients. This year’s entries for public relations and public affairs showcased campaigns that tapped into new technologies with strategic thinking and creative ideas that led to effective business results.

We received dozens of entries from all around the world and across disciplines and my fellow judges, Don Baer from Burson-Marsteller, Jack Martin and Josh Hendler from Hill+Knowlton Strategies, all enjoyed the challenge and found inspiration from our global colleagues.

After careful consideration, I am happy to announce that the PR Crème de la Crème winner for 2013 has been awarded to Burson-Marsteller, Latin America. Its consumer marketing campaign for the launch of a new product, Ford’s EcoSport, positioned the vehicle as an international symbol of innovation and Brazil’s own automotive ambassador to the world. The campaign succeeded in selling thousands of cars to Brazilian consumers and became one of the most talked about brands in traditional and social media.

Congratulations to our winners. Thank you to everyone who entered and keep up the great work.

“ Our winners this year vividly demonstrate our rapidly improving abilities in simpler, innovative survey and research design, often involving the creation of automated tools and processes.”

Mies van der Rohe famously said, “Less is more”. This year, in the Consumer Insight category, it has to be said that “More is more”: more entries from more people containing more and more creative ideas.

It’s encouraging to see those ideas connecting so clearly with our widespread creative ambition to produce inspiring work quickly, cost-effectively and to a consistently high standard, everywhere.

Our winners this year vividly demonstrate our rapidly improving abilities in simpler, innovative survey and research design, often involving the creation of automated tools and processes.

There are also some lovely examples of how we continue to make great strides in the presentation and impact of our work using data visualization, interactive technology, story-telling and animation skills.

Best of all is our increasing ability to connect across Kantar and WPP in order to provide better, broader and more integrated solutions for our clients.

Our Crème de la Crème winner is a worthy champion from TNS London. A witty and intelligent research programme delivered via a compelling and charming video.

All our winners this year came from within Kantar despite a large number of submissions from across WPP (many of these coming from advertising agencies). In this category we are judging the use of creativity to create, discover or sell a fresh piece of research, insight or idea. And not an eventual advertising execution. Those can be enjoyed elsewhere in WPPED Cream! But we are keen to learn and be inspired from other talents within WPP, so do keep submitting your appropriate entries.

To all those who won this year - many congratulations! To those that entered but didn’t win – commiserations and please try again next year.

“ You really won’t get anywhere
unless you start with a Big Idea.”

It will probably come as no surprise that Ogilvy São Paulo’s “Sketches” campaign for Dove is not only our Integrated Crème de la Crème, but pretty well everyone else’s as well.

What can we learn from this, or indeed any of the fantastic campaigns in the following pages?

Perhaps I should say re-learn, because they all remind us of a universal truth:

That you really won’t get anywhere unless you start with a BIG IDEA.

We all know when we’ve got one: when everyone in the agency wants to work on it, and the rest of the world waits eagerly to see what we’ll do next.

All of which is a pretty good description of this now well-established campaign. Based on the huge emotional territory of women’s self-esteem, it seems to produce outstanding work every year, going back to the seminal “Campaign for Real Beauty.”

“Sketches” is just the latest instalment, and a worthy winner here.

But there’s a lot of other work in this section that really impresses. We often refer to our main agency groups as “The Big Four”. There’s a reason for their size. It’s because they have produced Big Ideas for hundreds of clients over many many years. No surprise then that you will find work from them all here.

I hope they will inspire you – whether you’re on the client or agency side – never to settle for less than a “Dove” which, it seems to me, is a very apt way to describe those ideas we know are really going to fly.

Congratulations to them all.