Matt Edwards Calls for Originality in the New Year

How would you describe and reflect on 2015 for the industry, creatively speaking?

The Christmas Super Bowl, started by John Lewis and joined by many others in recent years, is increasingly the place to look for great work and it's been a very strong Christmas. The industry owes John Lewis a lot for showing in a very public way how commercially successful you can be on the back of ambitious, famous work.

What about your company’s creative performance; how much do you think you’ve grown this year?

It's been a big year for WCRS. At the start of the year we challenged ourselves to push more of our creative work from very good to world-class great. The agency responded to the challenge and we had a stellar creative year including NHS Blood Missing Type, Warburtons The Giant Crumpet Show, Women’s Aid Look At Me, Sky Movies Step into the Adventure and Made in the Royal Navy.

What has your own best personal achievement been in the past 12 months and why? 

WCRS being named Agency of the Year by a panel of 40 clients at the Festival of Marketing. It's far from a personal achievement as the entire agency has achieved this. However, on my first day as CEO I said to the agency that together we would build a creative company worthy of the title Agency of the Year so I'm thrilled that we've done it.

And looking ahead to 2016, what are you most excited about in terms of the industry and advertising?

I feel there are more clients out there with the ambition to do great work as anything mediocre just sinks without trace in today's media environment. It’s a big opportunity for the best creative agencies as there are still so many agencies that seem content to produce ordinary work. A lot of money is being wasted on work that nobody notices or cares about.

Give us an example of a strategy/approach from a brand you’d like to see more of in 2016…

Most work produced can be described as being a bit like something else. I'd like to see more work that's truly original - work that just springs straight from the creator's mind and not from a YouTube technique or a derivation of a digital idea that won at Cannes the previous year. Jonathan Glazer's strangely beautiful Channel 4 idents felt most original to me in 2015.

Which campaign, piece of work or moment will you remember this year for and for what reason?

It has to be The Giant Crumpet Show - it's the most joyful piece of work I've been involved with in 20 years of doing this and the public reaction has been incredible.