For the third year running we’ve been recognised in the Gramias, the nation’s specialist awards for the grocery and hospitality sectors. This time we’ve won not one but two awards – one for Tragus and one for Whitbread. We’ll find out if we’ve secured the Diamond Award again in October at the Savoy.

We enjoyed a close-fought night at the CIPDs, where our work for Gift Fundraising narrowly missed out on Campaign Of The Year, as did our Audit Commission work for Best Recruitment Website. In perhaps the toughest two categories, both were pipped at the post by the £ multi-million work produced for The Army by international giants, Publicis Skive. If only we’d had their budget!

Still, we’re proud of our long-standing creative pedigree and the way we find ingenious cost-effective solutions for our clients. At the end of the day it’s about work that works, not how much silverware’s on the mantelpiece.

Getting to grips with a field as complex as Diversity is important for a number of our clients. This is why we’ve teamed up with Dr Waqar Azmi OBE, the UK Government’s former Chief Diversity Adviser at the Cabinet Office. His expertise can steer you through the maze, and give you access to a national database of senior diverse networks, professional associations and community and employee contacts. Find out more.

We’ve just launched an all-singing, all-dancing site for the Audit Commission. Have a look at acwisejobs.com and wise up to what’s creatively possible in the wonderful world of public sector finance.
See case study.

We’ve just done some brave creative work for Gift, the ethical fundraising people. It’s all about battling apathy. It’s plastered with ‘Anti Apathy’ stamps and lines like ‘Give a damn’, ‘Win hearts and minds’ and ‘Do something important’. It’s irreverent, it’s lively, it’s passionate and it looks great. giftjobs.com is Gift through and through.
See case study.

We’re doing some interesting awareness work for Deacon Search, the London-based legal recruitment boutique. It may not be a CIPD Grand Prix winner but it’s racy for Legal Business. Our campaign uses Fran, the cartoonist known for his witty insights into the minds of top lawyers and their legal recruitment consultants. These certainly chime with our target audience. Hope we don’t get sued! See case study.

Philip Clarke has joined WDAD as Head of Creative.

Philip is a straight talking, deep thinking Creative with over twenty years’ recruitment advertising agency experience in London. He puts effectiveness first, which gets clients the results they need. It also wins them awards. Philip’s achievements for clients include a World Gold Medal for Best Writing at the New York Festivals, the first time a global accolade has ever been bestowed on the UK employee communications and marketing industry.

We’re confident that our clients will benefit greatly from working with Philip. This appointment is exciting news, reflecting our commitment to give clients direct access to some of the most proven talent in the industry.

Sadly the difficult economic climate means there are an increasing number of people from the recruitment advertising industry who’ve been ‘let go’ in the past few months.

As a small gesture, WDAD have been offering free desk space at our Farringdon offices to industry job hunters who want somewhere other than their front rooms to tidy up their CV, work on their portfolio or even check their fantasy football scores!

Desks have been made available on a first come first served basis in both the client service team and studio.

Contact Mike Jefferies for more details on 020 7025 3562 or email him on mikej@wdad.co.uk

Gift Street Fundraising and WDAD continue their award-winning partnership after hearing that the recruitment marketing campaign to recruit Street Fundraisers has received two nominations at the recruitment Marketing Industry’s Oscars, The RAD Awards.

The fully integrated campaign has been nominated in Best Campaign and the videos that feature the fundraisers telling stories about their on-street experiences have been nominated in Best Audio Visual/ Broadcast.

The agency was delighted with the news because the campaign was such a fun project to work on for all concerned. Gift were involved in the creative process from beginning to end, and all of the Fundraisers really got into the spirit of producing a campaign that truly represented who they are as people.

To receive two nominations for the same campaign is a true testament to the quality of the work - which you can judge for yourself on the accompanying PDF (PDF 24KB).

Please check out their site and in particular our videos, out-takes and all: giftjobs.com/video.asp

OR view them here:

GIFT - The Nicest Things 
GIFT - The Weirdest Things 

The Awards themselves take place on January 28th – we’ll keep you posted.

For the second year running, Whitbread have won a Gramia (The Grocery Advertising and Marketing Industry Awards).

The Eatsleepdrink&work recruitment branding work went through to the final at The London Landmark Hotel on the 29th October, but just failed to pick up the industry’s premier award; the Diamond Gramia, as we had achieved in 2008.

Discover more about the work by reading our specially prepared PDF (490 Kb) or by visiting our Case Studies.

We have just launched a brand new and, dare we say, really rather cool and funky employment website for Gift Street Fundraisers. Following the success of the previous site, GIFT wanted to bring their online presence in line with their latest recruitment campaign.

The fun, fresh design and feel of the site is perfectly reflective of the colourful characters within GIFT, and gives any prospective fundraiser a really accurate insight into what life at GIFT would be like. Which, of course, is the whole point!

View the accompanying PDF (PDF 24KB) for full account.

But whatever you do, please check out their site and in particular our videos. Out-takes and all: giftjobs.com