New Year Honours

Pic of the year... ‘Wishful Thinking’ Ah, optimism and trying to kiss pretty girls. This pic, snapped at the 2005 Scottish Design Awards, pretty much says it all about awards ceremonies throughout the land. (See picture 18)

Media Independent... Eight years ago, Mediacom Scotland consisted of four desks and no accounts, since then managing director Euan Jarvie has built Mediacom Scotland into a £60 million agency.

Most disappointing client decision... When Carling announced it was to review its £7 million account, putting in jeopardy The Leith Agency’s hold on the lager brand, few people saw it as a good thing. With English agencies Beattie McGuinness Bungay, VCCP and Euro RSCG on the pitchlist alongside Leith, let’s hope they decide to keep the account up here.

Letter of the Year... The people you upset with your comments, as The Drum acting editor Mairi Clark found out when she compared agencies not being paid to pitch with plumbers coming round to quote for a job. ‘Sad as the following statement may be to you and your colleagues in the important world of marketing, but I can’t recall anyone ever losing their life though poor grammar on a billboard’, wrote Alan Wilson from SNIPEF. His full letter is published in Last Word.

Best company website... www.newhaven-agency.co.uk See it. You’ll agree. Probably.

Best use of outdoor... Gleneagles by 1576. Although the agency’s art director Brian McGregor got arrested while doing a reccie, 1576’s innovative ad scooped the only Scottish award at the Epicas this year.

Acquisition of the Year... 1576 realises the potential of sponsorship in a fragmenting media landscape, and proved it by acquiring Carnegie Worldwide.

Best advert... Bailie Nichol Jarvie (The Leith Agency)

When you win a batch of Gold awards and the Grand Prix at the Scottish Advertising Awards it’s a safe bet that your ad will be praised as one of the best of the year. Created by The Leith Agency’s Chris Watson and Rufus Wedderburn, the campaign deserved all the praise it received.

Below the line agency... Navigator

It’s a safe bet that any conversation about below the line agencies in Scotland will feature Navigator Responsive Advertising. Navigator has made its name synonymous with the industry in Scotland and last year retained the HBOS direct marketing business, opened a new media department, recruited staff and set up a subsidiary company; proving that it has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.

Young marketer... David Craik, S1Jobs

Craik has been with recruitment website S1Jobs since its launch in 2000, and was named Young Marketer of the Year at the 2005 Scottish Marketing Excellence Awards. After stepping into the role of head of marketing following the departure of former boss Ewan Colville last year, Craik is definitely one to watch in the Scottish industry.

Freebie of the year...

Citigate Smarts in Barcelona

The Drum’s news editor Dave Hunter protested that his trip to Barcelona with Citigate Smarts was in fact a tough, investigative, fly-on-the-wall assignment. Nobody believed him then and they still don’t now.

Most overused pic... Gorman’s cigar

Citigate Smarts chief exec Mark Gorman is a very, very good sport. (See picture 2)

The Best Of Times, Worst Of Times Award...

David Southern, Hearts FC

When David Southern, a director at Harrison Cowley in Edinburgh, left the agency to become communications director at Hearts FC it seemed like he’d hit the jackpot. With a raft of new signings – including a new owner – the club was poised to take on its rivals as never before. The dream job then took a turn for the worse when Hearts’ owner Vladimir Romanov made some headline-grabbing decisions. Firstly, team manager, George Burley, was sacked. Then marketing director Phil Anderton left. Soon afterwards, convicted sex offender Graeme Rix was appointed as Burley’s successor. Lastly Romanov appointed his son as acting chief executive. Southern told The Drum that he was looking forward to a challenge. He certainly found one.

Best Christmas card... Family

It could be said that the Best Christmas Card category was hotly-contested but, frankly, that would be a lie. Ever since the agency’s formation in 2002 the team at Family has pulled out all the stops to make its Christmas card the best of the bunch. (See picture 3)

Best advertising agency... Newhaven

After a storming success at the Ad Awards, there’s no need to explain.

Receptionist... Katie King, The Union

Anyone who’s phoned or paid a visit to The Union over the last three years will already be able to testify to how friendly and helpful receptionist Katie King is. During the course of 2005, The Drum has visited a lot of different agencies and met many a receptionist but Katie remains head and shoulders above the competition.

Best use of comedy... theonlytaxidermist.com by Framec (British School of Taxidermy) by Iain Nevill and Phil Sanderson. “And to think Tabby was never allowed on the mantlepiece?” (See picture 9)

Most awarded creative team...

Mark Harrison and Paul Mason of Newhaven visited the stage 17 times at last year’s Scottish Advertising Awards collecting nine awards and eight commendations for work created for Tennent’s and Scottish Executive. Need any more reasons?

Best corporate web agency... Realise: Winning accounts for Halifax and Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, Johnstons Cashmere and F&C, amongst others while servicing the likes of Scottish Enterprise, NTS, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Arab Banking Corporation, Japanese Extranet, Britannia, Kwik-Fit Financial Services, Royal Bank of Scotland, Schroders, Merrill Lynch, Standard Life, TSB Scotland, Arnold Clark, BBC Scotland, Glaxo Smithkline, Scottish & Newcastle, Telewest... Ok, you get the picture.

Best branding...

Radiance Glasgow Festival of Light (for DF Concerts and NVA) by D8. (See picture 15)

Design agency of the year... Stand’s consistency helped the agency fend off some serious advances from Third Eye Design and Navyblue who finished second and third respectively in The Robert Horne Scottish Design Agency Review.

PR team of the year... Platform PR fought off the intentions of Indigo PR and Weber Shandwick at Scotland’s CIPR awards to be crowned PR agency of the Year, while Visit Scotland was crowned with the in-house equivalent. So, honours shared.

Client of the Year... The Scottish Executive roster remains the Holy Grail for many of Scotland’s creative agencies and continues to provide the greatest challenges. Creating work that can make a difference. And it pays well. And The Executive keeps its business in Scotland.

The Long and Short of It Awards

Longest Review... Scottish Enterprise appointed a raft of new and retained agencies in August last year – after almost a year-long search.

Quickest staff appointment... That the thing about the Internet, it’s so damn quick. Not as quick as the turnaround of Craig Wilkie, the new media guru hired by Feather Brooksbank to head up its digital arm. After barely three weeks in the job: he was gone.

Shortest-lived Startup... The Scottish Standard. Launched in March with a fanfare – in the media at least – the new paper aimed at SNP supporters was the first launch in Scotland since the demise of Business AM. Staff criticised the lack of advertising for struggling sales, boss Derek Carstairs blamed the SNP for lack of support. By April.... You guessed it.

Shortest-lived appointment... Edinburgh Zoo to TBWA Sept 2005. TBWA shuts October 2005. One month.

MD (s) of the Year... Voted MD of the Year at The Robert Horne Design lunch in the spring, Mark Noe of Third Eye Design has since expanded to New York and – as well as running one of the swankiest offices in Glasgow – continues to produce some cracking work too. But the honours are split this year with ad man MD David Reid, who topped the Peer Poll as MD of the Year at the Scottish Advertising Awards.

Young Guns... Claudia Chase, design, (Young Designer of the Year at the Scottish Design Awards); Paul Mason and Mark Harrison in the advertising sector (see above) and David Connor, Holyrood Partnership in PR (winner of the CIPR Young Communicator of the Year Award).

Football Five’s team of the Year... It was as competitive as ever this year at The Creative Cup 5-a-sides... But beating last year’s winners GRP - as well as Laveron, Newhaven and Elmwood - was BD Network. The Champs now have the dubious honour of organising next season’s kick-off. Game on.

Campaign of the Year... Leith’s advertising campaign for Baillie Nicol Jarvie was judged to be the campaign of the year at last year’s Scottish Advertising Awards. If it’s good enough for them, then it’s good enough...

Most creative web Agency... With the likes of Chunk, Line, DogDigital, Laveron, Realise, DC Interact, Lightershade, Equator (and that’s just naming a few) all creating outstanding work, it was always going to be difficult to call. But Whitespace has consistently created strong work for its clients, both small and large, faring well in its Creative Reviews throughout the year.

Best Quote ... “Saying that the Scottish newspaper market is crowded is absolute rubbish. It’s bullshit. The only people that say that are those people currently working in newspapers.” Derek Carstairs – Scottish Standard. Who is now no longer working in Scottish newspapers.

Annual Report Prize... Contagious wins for The National Trust for Scotland Annual Report. (See picture 4)

Worst taste Ad of the Year... TBWA’s cinema/viral spot for Base London never made it to the screens in time to win an award at the Scottish Advertising Awards, but it was certainly controversial. And very funny.

Best Use of naked gay puppets... Equal’s advert – by GRP (Mark Williams and Martin Cross) encouraged gay men to be more open about HIV and to take more precautions against the disease. And used naked gay puppets to great effect. (See picture 13).

Job of the year... London 2012 Olympic bid by Navyblue was a “bi-lingual technical document that emerged around 600 pages long, bound in three volumes, covering 17 themes, using 90,000 words printed in both English and French, with a print run of 1000...” as well as a wealth of “supporting material” brochures, mailers, guidelines, folders, stationery. Six translators worked round the clock, seven days a week, while three printing presses worked 24 hours a day, five days a week. A job well done, it turned out.

The Victor Brierley award for wit, humour and all-round greatness... Victor Brierley

Designer of the year... Stuart Gilmour was named designer of the year for the third year running at The 2005 Robert Horne Scottish Design Consultancy of the Year and few would disagree.

Best Charity work... WWAV’s viral advert for the Scottish SPCA certainly (and literally) hit home the charity’s message over the Christmas period. http://www.hesbehindyou.com/

Best one-man-band... There is a wealth of highly qualified individuals working with clients in the design, advertising, PR and marketing disciplines – and some of the industries best known names operate in this way. There are too many to credit, but following a successful year in business, producing top quality work for a range of top quality clients, it is designer Ian McIlroy that receives The Drum’s honour.

Marketer of the Year... VisitScotland’s Malcolm Roughead. In staying loyal to his agencies, he has been responsible for a number of award-winning campaigns over the last year. In recognition to his services to the marketing industry in Scotland in 2004, The Drum honoured him with the Order of the Drum Empire last January. This year he did it for real, being awarded an OBE by the Queen.

Break-away of the year... Mike Kemsley announced his departure from Barkers in September after six years at the agency as advertising director. Since his announcement, he has completed his notice term at Barkers and now, with the dawn of a new year, he has launched Kemsley, his new agency. Many in the advertising industry north of the border are eagerly awaiting his first work, and waiting to see what business he can bring through the doors.