Creative Circle


The Creative Circle 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. 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 and G.R. Pope.
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 contribute to raising the status of advertising as a profession".

The First Council

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. 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

YearWinner
1986---
1987Watford College
1988Central Office of Information
1989Tony Cox
1990Tony Kaye
1991Tim Delaney
1992Roger Woodburn
1993Barbara Nokes
1994Chris Palmer and Mark Denton
1995---
1996Tom Carty and Walter Campbell
1997Paul Weinburger
1998Richard Flintham and Andy Mcleod
1999The men and women of the Creative Services Departments
2000Paddy Easton and The Computer Film Company
2001Dave Waters
2002Roger Kennedy
2003Paul Silburn
2004Steve Henry
2005Daniel Kleinman
2006---
2007Ed Morris
2008Juan Cabral
2009No Award Given
2010Malcolm Gaskin
2011Graham Fink
2012Nick Gill
2013Matt Gooden & Ben Walker

List of Gold of Gold Award winners

Established in 1989 as 'The Big One', and known from 1996-2011 as 'the Platinum Award', the currently named Gold of Golds is given to the single best advertising creative idea of the year.
YearWinning WorkClientAgency
1989 RelaxBritish RailSaatchi & Saatchi
1990 Into the Valley/IsraelitesMaxellHutchins Film Company / Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury
1991 Club/BarRed Rock CiderGGT
1992 Shoes In ActionReebokLowe Howard Spink
1993 Reg on...Regal, Imperial TobaccoLowe Howard Spink
1994 UnexpectedDunlopAMV BBDO / Tony Kaye Films
1995---------
1996 TwisterVolvoAMV BBDO
1997 St GeorgeBlackcurrant TangoHHCL & Partners
1998 Hiccups/Dentist/Chair/Guard/Tennis/LamppostVolkswagen UKBMP DDB
1999---------
2000---------
2001 BearJohn West SalmonLeo Burnett
2002 SofaReebokLowe
2003 Ball Skills/Mum/Diving/Babies/Monsters John SmithsTBWA\London
2004 CogHondaPartizan / Wieden + Kennedy
2005 GrrrHondaWieden + Kennedy
2006 BallsSonyFallon
2007 No Award Given N/AN/A
2008 FallonFallonFallon
2009 Wallace & GromitHarvey NicholsDDB
2010 Knife CrimeMetropolitan PoliceAMV BBDO
2011 Straight/Catch MagnersRed Brick Road
2012 The Long Wait John Lewis PartnershipAdam & Eve
2013 Don't Cover It Up RefugeBBH London

Role Reversal Seminar

The Creative Circle Role Reversal Seminar was created in 1968 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. 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 marketers are grouped into "Agency" teams and made to pitch against each other for a piece of business. 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.
Each "Agency" is assisted by a professional Creative Director, to keep them on track, and an Art Director 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. 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's - 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.