The Creative Circle (also known as The Advertising Creative Circle or The Advertising Creative Circle of Great Britain) is an educational awards body dedicated to creativity in British advertising, and the oldest advertising and marketing awards body in Europe. Advertiser's Weekly, "Advertising Creative Circle Will Raise Status of Profession", 18 October 1945 Their mission is to help promote creative excellence in advertising, while sharing knowledge and experience through educational programs and supporting young creative people. About Us The annual Creative Circle awards are judged by the British advertising creative community. Their main offices are in Covent Garden, London.

Origins

The Advertising Creative Circle of Great Britain was founded on 8 October 1945, at a luncheon at The Trocadero Hotel, London. The concept can be traced back to, H.F. Crowther (Director of Advertising Agency Rumble, Crowther & Nicholas) and G.R. Pope (Advertising Manager of The Times).

At the time, Crowther and Pope felt there was no other advertising organisation concerned exclusively with the craft of visualising, writing and designing advertising, The Newspaper World, "ADVERTISING REVIEW: Formation of an Advertising Creative Circle", 20 October 1945 and so decided to create an Advertising Creative Circle that could "not only provide a forum for such creative men, but [also] contribute to raising the status of advertising as a profession".

The First Council Title Name Position; Company President Mr. G. O. Nickalls Director; Alfred Pemberton, Ltd Vice-president Mr H. F. Crowther Director; Rumble, Crowther & Nicholas Ltd Hon. secretary Mr Ernest Briggs Director; London Press Exchange Ltd Hon. treasurer Mr S. J. G. Chipperfield Masius and Fergusson Ltd Council member Mr G. Butler Art Director; J. Walter Thompson Co. Ltd Council member Mr G. H. Saxon Mills Director; W. S. Crawford Ltd Council member Mr G. J. Redgrove Director; C. Vernon and Sons Ltd Council member Mr G. Worledge S. H. Benson Ltd

This first council was responsible for determining subscriptions, membership control, copy vigilance, press relations and a programme of art exhibitions, publications and functions. In addition, they were tasked with selecting 10 more honorary members and a further 50 ordinary members, to be made up of noteworthy people wholly engaged in creative work – copywriters, copy chiefs, artists, art directors, layout men, visualisers and more.

Within its press relations functions, the Creative Circle hoped not only to keep the press informed about advertising matters generally, but also "take up the cudgels" whenever it was publicly attacked.

Honours (awards)

The Creative Circle has been awarded the best of British advertising creativity since 1986.The Annual of the Advertising Creative Circle, The Advertising Creative Circle, 1986 There are several levels of awards presented on the Honours Evening. From commendations, through to Bronze, Silver, and Gold, and ultimately, the Gold of Gold award for the single best piece of work that year. The President also presents a personal award to the person or organisation that has had the greatest impact on advertising that year.

List of President's Award winners

Year Winner 1986 John Gillard (Principal of The School of Communication Arts) 1987 Watford College (College)The Second Annual of the Advertising Creative Circle, The Advertising Creative Circle, 1987 1988 Central Office of Information (Client)The Third Annual of the Advertising Creative Circle, The Advertising Creative Circle, 1988 1989 Tony Cox (Creative)The Fourth Annual of the Advertising Creative Circle, The Advertising Creative Circle, 1989 1990 Tony Kaye (Director)The Fifth Annual of the Advertising Creative Circle, Trigon Press, 1990. 1991 Tim Delaney (Creative)The Sixth Awards Annual of the Advertising Creative Circle, Trigon Press, 1991. 1992 Roger Woodburn (Director)The 7th Creative Circle Annual, Trigon Press, 1992. 1993 Barbara Nokes (creative)Volume 8 of the Creative Circle Honours, Trigon Press, 1993. 1994 Chris Palmer and Mark Denton (Creatives)Volume 9 of the Creative Circle Honours, Trigon Press, 1994. 1995 --- 1996 Tom Carty and Walter Campbell (Creatives)Campaign Magazine, "Twister dominates awards", 8 March 1996 1997 Paul Weinburger (Creative)Volume 13 of the Creative Circle Honours, Trigon Press, 1992. 1998 Richard Flintham and Andy Mcleod (Creatives)The 1998 Creative Circle Honours, Trigon Press, 1992. 1999 The men and women of the Creative Services DepartmentsThe Creative Circle Honours 1999, The Advertising Creative Circle, 2000 2000 Paddy Easton and The Computer Film Company (Production Company)The Creative Circle Honours 2000, The Advertising Creative Circle, 2001 2001 Dave Waters (Creative)The Creative Circle Honours 2001, The Advertising Creative Circle, 2002 2002 Roger Kennedy (Typographer)The Creative Circle Honours Winners 2002, The Advertising Creative Circle, 2003 2003 Paul Silburn (Creative)The Creative Circle Honours 2003, The Advertising Creative Circle, 2004 2004 Steve Henry (Creative) 2005 Daniel Kleinman (Director)The Creative Circle Honours 2005, The Advertising Creative Circle, 2006 2006 --- 2007 Ed Morris (Creative)Creative Circle Annual 2007, The Creative Circle Ltd, 2007. 2008 Juan Cabral (Creative)The Bumper Book Of British Advertising – Creative Circle Annual 2008, The Creative Circle Ltd, 2008. 2009 No Award GivenAdland – Creative Circle Annual 2009, The Creative Circle Ltd, 2010. 2010 Malcolm Gaskin (Creative)Nautical But Nice – Creative Circle Annual 2010, The Creative Circle Ltd, 2011 2011 Graham Fink (Creative) 2012 Nick Gill (Creative)Circle Magazine, 2 July 2012 2013 Matt Gooden & Ben Walker (Creatives)Circle Magazine, 23 July 2013

List of Gold of Gold Award winners

Established in 1989 as 'The Big One', and known from 1996 to 2011 as 'the Platinum Award', the currently named Gold of Golds is given to the single best advertising creative idea of the year (the only exception being 2008, when it was felt advertising agency Fallon deserved the award, having produced both the Cadbury Gorilla commercial and the Skoda Fabia Cake commercial in the same year ).

Year Winning Work Client Agency 1989 (The Big One) Relax British Rail Saatchi & Saatchi 1990 (The Big One) Into the Valley/Israelites Maxell Hutchins Film Company / Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury 1991 (The Big One) Club/Bar Red Rock Cider GGT 1992 (The Big One) Shoes In Action Reebok Lowe Howard Spink 1993 (The Big One) Reg on... Regal, Imperial Tobacco Lowe Howard Spink 1994 (The Big One) Unexpected Dunlop AMV BBDO / Tony Kaye Films 1995 --- --- --- 1996 (Platinum Award) Twister Volvo AMV BBDO 1997 (Platinum Award) St George Blackcurrant Tango HHCL & Partners 1998 (Platinum Award) Hiccups/Dentist/Chair/Guard/Tennis/Lamppost Volkswagen UK BMP DDB 1999 --- --- --- 2000 --- --- --- 2001 (Platinum Award) Bear John West Salmon Leo Burnett 2002 (Platinum Award) Sofa Reebok Lowe 2003 (Platinum Award) Ball Skills/Mum/Diving/Babies/Monsters John Smiths TBWA\London 2004 (Platinum Award) Cog Honda Partizan / Wieden + Kennedy 2005 (Platinum Award) Grrr Honda Wieden + Kennedy 2006 (Platinum Award) Balls Sony Fallon 2007 (Platinum Award) No Award Given N/A N/A 2008 (Platinum Award) Fallon Fallon Fallon 2009 (Platinum Award) Wallace & Gromit Harvey Nichols DDB 2010 (Platinum Award) Knife Crime Metropolitan Police AMV BBDO 2011 (Platinum Award) Straight/Catch Magners Red Brick Road 2012 (Gold of Golds) The Long Wait John Lewis Partnership Adam & Eve 2013 (Gold of Golds) Don't Cover It Up Refuge BBH London

Role Reversal Seminar

The Creative Circle Role Reversal Seminar was created in 1968Marketing Magazine, "Trading places: clients and creatives don’t always see eye to eye", 15 October 1998 by Sam Rothenstein – a copywriter who believed that creative standards don't just depend on advertising agencies but on clients too.

The concept of the course is simple: one of the best ways to understand someone is to put yourself in their shoes.A blob of ink or a fish juggling cantaloupes?, Creative Circle, 11 September 2008 So, a group of middleweight marketers take on the role of an advertising agency creative department. While agency Creative Directors take on the role of the clients.The Financial Times, "Brain Storming in Oxford", 17 September 1981

The marketers are grouped into "Agency" teams and made to pitch against each other for a piece of business (as happens in the real world). The "Agencies" are given a creative brief from a fictional client simultaneously. They then have 72 hours to conceive and produce a pitch-winning idea. This includes deciding upon a strategy and slogan, then creating and designing ad executions, across all media – they're then expected to film, edit, and present a television commercial in that time.Brand Strategy (Newspaper), "Trading places teaches clients a lesson", 1 October 2000

Each "Agency" is assisted by a professional Creative Director, to keep them on track, and an Art Director (known as a "Tutor" or a "Wrist") to help them turn their ideas into visuals and storyboards. A film crew and production team are also on hand to help with the filming and editing of the commercial.

After the 72 hours are up, the "Agency" teams pitch their ideas to the fictional clients – a consortium of real Creative Directors – who then select a winner.

The course is designed to give marketers the opportunity to see things from the point of view of their agency – learning through doing – which often gives them a completely new perspective on that relationship. It's also renowned throughout the industry for late nights and much drunken bonding, giving clients and agencies an insight into each other's worlds.Marketing Week, "How a Circle got its roles in a twist", 12 September 1980 It's even been known to influence real-world client/agency relationships, with one story speculating that many years ago, Guinness switched its multimillion-pound advertising account to J. Walter Thompson as a result of one such seminar.

The Role Reversal Seminar ran unbroken for precisely 40 years, always taking place in one of the UK's top universities – including Cambridge and St Andrew'sCreative Review, "The Client is Always Right", Autumn 1980 – before settling for the last 20 years at Trinity College, Oxford. Over those 40 years, the course attracted thousands of marketers, but was closed in 2008 due to financial constraints.

References

External links

Winners Archive 2003–2011