We're The Drum’s Agency of the Year

joe.weston

Screen Shot 2015-05-19 at 11.49.23

Earlier this month, some of the We Are Social team dusted off our suits and headed over to London’s Marriott Grosvenor Hotel for The Drum Marketing Awards.

We were nominated for Social Media Strategy of the Year for our work with adidas at the 2014 World Cup, as well as the biggest award of the night – Agency of The Year.

We found ourselves sharing a table with some interesting characters, including The Drum’s editor, Stephen Lepitak. We also appeared to be within a pretty lucky crowd, with group after group travelling up to the stage to collect their silverware.

Drinks were flowing and spirits were high, given the success of the table. However, we started to get a little nervous when we realised there were only a couple of awards left and, so far, we were empty handed.

This year’s chair of judges, Hootsuite’s Merinda Peppard, came up to the stage to announce the Chairman’s Award. We were delighted when we heard our name being called, selecting adidas: #allin or nothing, as this year’s stand-out marketing campaign at the awards. Merinda had some good things to say about the work, too:

The sheer focus Adidas put towards social media, proves the channel is now playing with the big boys in terms of both creativity and media planning. Social is now the new front door for brands. First impressions are now on social, overtaking search for a lot of companies.

Next up, the evening’s big prize – Marketing Agency of the Year. We Are Social was up against strong competition, including the likes of Carat, PHD and OMD UK. Then, after a tense few seconds we heard… “and it goes to… We Are Social”. What more can you say but… Boom.

The Drum Marketing Awards celebrate the best campaigns and marketers from all over the UK, so gaining such huge recognition from the judges is a massive result for We Are Social. It also comes off the back of a number of a recent great run of award wins in the last few months alone.

Earlier this year, @brazuca, adidas and We Are Social’s campaign to bring the 2014 World Cup ball to life on Twitter, picked up a Silver in Best Digital-Led Campaign at the prestigious Creative Circle Awards. The campaign also won at the international Shorty Awards, picking up the top award for Best in Sports. Our broader World Cup work for adidas picked up Highly Commended in Real-Time Response, and our Paris team’s campaign Hello Play! for Hello Bank! was Highly Commended in Financial Services.

At the 2015 Webby Awards, two of our campaigns received recognition, with adidas: @brazuca an Official Honouree in both the Social: Celebrity/Fan and Social: Humour categories. Our work for YouTube, #DontPanicButton, was also an Official Honouree in Social: Celebrity/Fan.

All in all, it’s been an incredibly successful start to 2015 and a great effort from the whole agency.