How do you chip away at Cannes Lions & the Webbys?

Very well, thank you!

As regular travellers down that fine line that separates genius from madness, we’ve had a very interesting trip in the last week crossing between pride and humility.

In our own back yard (the North West of England), Matmi broke its own records and the Big Chip Awards’ records too by carrying off 5 gongs in a single evening! That included New Media Agency of the Year and the judges’ Grand Prix for United Airlines and the Optathlon campaign with our US partner, Barrie D’Rozario Murphy.

Still stunned, 3 days later we started another new trend by picking up a nomination on the worldwide stage at Cannes Lions – only 2 months after becoming an Official Honoree of The Webby Awards. Cannes Lions is the Oscars of the global advertising/marketing industry and The Webbys is its equivalent in digital marketing. 2011 marked our first ever entries on the worldwide stage – and we did the North West (and the UK) proud!

It’s quite a dilemma though.

On the one hand, the recognition is amazing (hats off to the marvellous Matmians) and on the other hand, we’ve just set expectations out there pretty high. That’s a large responsibility for a relatively small agency, so we’ll have to trust that our reverse Tardis tactics (being bigger on the outside) will hold fast in a larger universe.

I know it’s been said before – what’s the point of dreaming if you don’t dream big? We do – and we’re going to have to dream up some pretty amazing concepts, campaigns, characters, craft and karma to top our tenth year (and it’s only halfway through!)

With humble thanks to the Big Chip Awards, Cannes Lions, The Webbys and the How Do Awards too, we believe it’s possible.

Dream on,

Jeff.

June 2011