Our Logbook

Congratulations to AKQA who deservedly won Campaign’s Digital Agency of the Year for 2010. But we’re really chuffed to be mentioned in their write-up, and really chuffed with what they said about us. Thanks to all the team at Albion, and all  of our clients for a brilliant 2010.

We were at the Marketing Society annual dinner last night, where they announced their ‘brand of the year’ award.

Brands were nominated by anybody, long-listed by a panel of experts, and then online voting decided the shortlist. The final award was decided by an audience vote (by ARS) on the night. Brands on the long-list included Facebook, Twitter and Apple.

Our big news is that giffgaff made the top 5! Seriously, a brand we launched in beta just under a year ago, and that publicly declares ‘we don’t do big glossy ad campaigns’ was a top 5 contender for the Marketing Society’s brand of the year.

Here’s the film we made to show at the event:

On the night we were up against British Gas, Aviva, Innocent and John Lewis. In a room full of 1000 senior and mostly traditional marketers, many of whom had never heard of giffgaff until that night, we never stood a chance. (We considered stealing handsets from other tables to cheat the vote. They would have gone well with our smuggled-in bottles of Cuervo.)

John Lewis took the prize. We’re glad – they’re a genuinely different and interesting business. It would be a pity if Aviva or British Gas won just for spending a lot of money on advertising. (* See note below.)

But we’re incredibly proud that giffgaff got that far, and had that platform to get in front of that audience, who we’re sure will now sit up and take notice.

And this on the same day giffgaff won a Forrester Groundswell award.

* Update: We made this comment about Aviva back when they seemed mainly to be to be doing very consistent yellow advertising that was unmissable but, you know, not unmissable. However since they’ve made this TV spot featuring Paul Whitehouse as (spoiler alert) a dead dad, which is really quite brave, so we might have to take our words back.

We are pleased to announce that our promo for Five’s Don’t Stop Believing won a Promax award for Best Use of Music at a glittering awards ceremony held last Friday. If we’d have been there our acceptance speech would have gone something a little like this…

“Firstly I’d like to thank Academy, Soundtree and everyone at Albion for all their hard work and dedication, secondly I’d like to thank my mum, dad, brother, cat, iguana, next door neigbour’s cousin’s aunt who’s been like a sister to me….”

Last night was Albion’s 8th Birthday party, which was celebrated with the “Demolition of Disco”: drinking, disco dancing and cavorting at the aptly named 26 Smithfield (26 Smithfield st, Smithfield).

Nick Darken was there dressed as a piece of disco hi-fi equipment whose exact significance was lost on anyone born after 1975, a costume which, in his words, was “testament to the power of a so-so idea executed with unblinking conviction and commitment” .

Andrew Edelston could have just wondered off the set of a Wes Anderson film set.

Jack Gallon was resplendent in a gold lame dress.

Even Matt Roskill was there.

The evening started with prizes.

Winner of the ” Award to the person who gets off their bum most in order to make verbal communication thereby avoiding sending another bloody email” was the very deserving Sasha.

Stevo scooped the ” Award to the person who has done most under their own initiative to make Albion a culturally richer, more inspiring, surprising and altogether less dull place to work”, and celebrated with a sailor’s jig to match his sailor’s outfit.

Petrina pocketed award for the “the person who goes above and beyond the call of duty in order to deliver team success with their happiness, their faithfullness and their gallantness as inscribed in neon on our right honourable reception wall”.

Duncan trousered – literally – ” The gutter trash award to the person most able to end up in a gutter or stranger/collegue’s bed through sheer irresponsibility and utter disregard to self or others thereby earning the term in general discussion of “disgrace”.”

After that a Frank Zappa-meets-David Bedford costumed Glyn showcased his enclycopaedic disco-inspired early 90s house music record collection which got the dancing going.

The shapes were illegal. Nick Darken’s costume, which was never the going to be the most practical of get-ups, was coming off so fast that there was some concern about whether he would stop taking off articles of clothing at all. At times the behaviour frankly scored a zero in terms of appropriateness.

And then Sonny took to the decks.

In his snazzy blazer, shirt and tie combo looking like a man with a PhD in Advanced Disco Studies, Sonny’s set tipped the leg-shaking over into an 11, and that’s out of 10.

The sheer quantity of Jose Cuervo Tradicional meant that memories thereafter are cloudy. There was a very funny drag artist. There was an even funnier moment when we made Nick Curnow think that the drag artist’s chair was a prop for him to use to perform. There were more Cuervos. There was just more. Much much more for some. To quote MJ “don’t stop till you get enough.”

Charles: Starting at a new school is always scary no matter what but changing industry slightly brings a whole new level of terror. The uniform is different. The culture is different. And you don’t speak the same language. So imagine my joy when on my first day Albion partnered me with a German foreign exchange student! w00t. And imagine my disappointment when on our first outing as the Coffee Twins she starts talking to me about Brand Molecule theory. This was no foreign exchange student but a small, precision engineered (it’s ok – I asked) planning mastermind.

We’ve reached a good balance now – essentially, as a Londoner, I show Corinna where the best lunch and coffee spots are.  Where to take your parents to dinner and the best way to cycle from Shoreditch to London Fields without having to go up Hackney Rd. In return she teaches me about the importance of PowerPoint, propositions and purpose ideas.

Corinna and I are not the only people starting at new schools. Dan Hon’s recent move to W&K and Jeremy Ettinghausen’s move to BBH perhaps show that advertising is really willing to play properly with the internet. Or perhaps these types of recruits will help ad agencies evolve into something new. Either way it’s pretty exciting times. And so I find myself, a community manager amongst the admen and women of Shoreditch. Alone. And cold. So cold. But seriously, one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Albion was the fact that they get digital and are naturally social and entrepreneurial. The other main pull was the promise of some good old fashioned intellectual rigor. As much as Albion is about doing stuff it’s just as much about great business ideas, and those, my friends do not grow on trees. They grow on the vines of mind grapes.

Corinna: Starting at a new school is always scary no matter what but changing countries slightly brings a whole new level of terror. The uniform is different. The culture is different. And you don’t speak the same language. So imagine my joy when on my first day Albion partnered me with an English bow tie wearing school teacher! w00t. And imagine my disappointment when on our first outing as the Coffee Twins he starts talking to me about sewing. This was no English bow tie wearing school teacher but a small dictionary full of interestingness and awesomeness.

Actually, I knew a lot about Charles before I even got to London. I knew he had quit alcohol in favour of tea. And I knew about the beard and the bowtie obsession (ask him about his pinnie trauma!). The interwebs in action. His passion for it in action. So now, when he asks me about supposedly smart planning stuff, I ask him why bus drivers never stop on me. When he asks me about how things work around agencies, I ask him for coffee places that might do unicorn milk foam figures for me.

I left Berlin with little luggage and arrived in London with great hope for two things: a new and interesting culture to explore. And to get to do awesome, interesting and useful work beyond what most people in Germany call advertising. So I am excited to have joined Albion as they are a bunch of smart thinkers and doers with a compelling vision and the passion to make stuff happen. Always thinking in solutions, not ads.
Let the fun begin.

Chorus: So despite our different backgrounds and the many miles we’ve travelled to get here we share a view which is perhaps why we’ve arrived at the same corner of Shoreditch High Street and Bethnal Green Road at the place in time. And that is a belief that, in this day and age it is the companies with the strongest notion of who they are, why they exist and what their purpose is, that are able to create the most exciting work.