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Features . Archive

Hard man of digital joins The Pond.

Introducing senior writer Jerry, former Royal Marines officer.

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Looking for an award-winning creative director?

Glenn returns to The Pond after a sweet three year stint at Sugar.

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Man who designed Body Shop logo for £25 joins The Pond.

Say hello to direct and digital art director, Jeff.

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Multi-talented senior designer joins The Pond

Meet Scott a master rather than a jack-of-all-trades.

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Don't panic! The Pond is open from next Monday (the 9th).

Started the New Year with a bang?

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Prepare for go in 2012.

Five creative resourcing tips to help start 2012 on the right foot.

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Brand Corbett goes national.

Former Sugar ECD now available from Kaitaia to Bluff.

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Digital strategist joins The Pond.

Former Exceed partner adds method to digital madness.

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New media designer now represented by The Pond.

Introducing Ben, a man who loves CSS as much as CS5.

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Pond Creative Showcase: Movie written by Pond Writer out today!

‘Rest for the Wicked’ first screenplay from Pond senior copywriter Bob Moore!

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Talented intermediate designer returns to the fold.

Hannah Souter back with The Pond after year at Moochi Fashion.

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Seasoned business writer joins The Pond.

Cara Tipping-Smith fully focused on bottom line of SMEs.

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Award-winning digital ECD joins The Pond.

Hallelujah – it’s digital evangelist Andrew Berglund!

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Pond Creative Showcase: Inside the Business of Rugby World Cup 2011

Inside the business of RWC, brought to you by Saatchi Design and two writers from The Pond.

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Congrats to The Pond's 6 sweepstake winners!

A BIG pat on the back to Edward Gunn, Robin Powell, Chris Howden, Amanda Samuel, Nicki Stephens and Melissa Fenwick who all chose winning horses and also came out on top in our sweepstake draw.

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CD Tim Hall joins The Pond - now available in NZ.

Former Saatchi CD formidable ally in battle for market share.

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Expat digital designer returns from Singapore.

Meet Aditia: Fresh from Asia-Pacific's fastest growing digital hub.

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Pond Creative Showcase: Award-winning work for FujiXerox.

Fujikistan wins again for Republik and Pond head of art Musonda Katongo.

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Big art director Guy Johnson joins The Pond.

Introducing Guy, Big art director who’s big on brand and direct.

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Environmental design specialist joins The Pond.

Simplifying and shaping information key to Anthony's success.

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Need a doubled-edged designer?

Introducing intermediate Scott Simpson: part graphic, part digital designer.

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Ready to be your own boss?

So, you’re a creative thinking about going it alone eh? Congratulations. Kicking off an independent career is one of the most rewarding - and exciting - things you’ll ever do.

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Pond Creative Showcase: New TV Work for Problem Gambling.

Choice Not Chance: brought to you by GSL Wellington & a creative team from The Pond.

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Pond Creative Showcase: New radio ads for charity Big Buddy

Dr Evil, Darth Vader star in new campaign for  good cause - by Pond copywriter Sarah Walter.

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Pond gets behind design & sponsors We Can Create.

If you work anywhere in the creative industry, this is the event for you. We Can Create is an annual celebration of all things art and design - graphics, fashion, animation, illustration, motion graphics, typography and more.

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The Pond launches new weekend service

Here at The Pond we know clients are continually pushing agencies for more service and value. They don’t want jobs done tomorrow, they want them done yesterday. That’s why we’ve launched a new weekend service that makes the best freelance creatives more available to you on Saturdays or Sundays or both days.

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Attention Mac Ops: Be represented by The Pond.

Better visibility, better opportunities and better rates are all part of The Pond’s new Mac Operator representation package. Are you a sharp mac op looking to move your career forward?

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Get the right writer at the right rate, every time

If you’re not using The Pond, you’re probably paying the wrong rate for the wrong writers. In the last six months you will have hired somebody with the wrong skills for the job – and you’ve probably paid them too much as well.

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Why book through The Pond?

Pay true market rates. You could have the wrong person on the wrong rate structure - learn how to increase your margin. Connect with the best talent. We represent more than 125 creatives - learn who's out there & available.

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Creative department taken a DOUBLE hit?

With Easter Friday and Monday about to hit, chances are you’ll have staff taking extended leave to make the most of the short weeks. So it’s not just two public holidays – it’s two weeks you have to worry about!

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Pond client service dept DOUBLES in size

Meet Courtney Perrett, our new Customer Relationship Manager. Courtney will be working fulltime alongside original Pond hard man Clinton Ulyatt. In fact sheʼs already started.

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Summer staffing survival guide

(Or) How to start the New Year on the right foot, with the right resource.

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Other Services The Pond Offers

Get pre-packaged Pond teams, rebook the creative you like and even dial in help on the weekends.

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Get the writer with the right skills and specific experience for the job, every time

If you’ve got a writing job on your plate that needs the specialist touch of a writer who can work in the medium required, who has the industry-specific experience required – where do you go to find that writer?

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Best Design Awards sponsors launch design compeition

The sponsors of the Best Design Awards (GEON, MINI, The Pond, BJ Ball and ProDesign) are running a design competition because, well, they can. Design awards - design driven sponsors - design competition. It’s a perfect match!

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Parinto - New Zealand's first collaborative t-shirt design company

Similar to The Pond (proud sponsors of this year's Best Design Awards), new t-shirt company Parinto is also all about supporting the design community. The website features designs by a range of New Zealand and international artists, painters, photographers and designers. But it's more than just a place to buy t-shirts, it's a destination where you can keep up-to-date with your favourite contributors through news blogs and links to their own sites.

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Retoucher Daniel Evans ready to work his magic via The Pond

Daniel’s the first of a select group of independent retouchers we hope to add to our books (much in the same way that we’ve added niche specialists including storyboarders and animators).

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The Pond - Official Sponsors of Best Design Awards 2010

We thought what better way to support our fellow creatives than to get behind this year’s Best Design Awards. So we’ve collaborated with the team at Best and have already begun working hard to make sure this one will be a stunner.

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Master crafter Musonda Katongo returns home

You may remember him from his 3 years at Saatchi & Saatchi. Or his Four ‘N’ Twenty salad plate. Or his undying allegiance to Arsenal Football Club. In any case, senior designer Musonda Katongo is back and already doing top work for The Pond.

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Flamin’ Aussie ready to plug gap in Kiwi market

Jetsetting Australian creative Scott McClelland has joined The Pond, which is great news given the shortage of senior art directors contracting right now.

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Stacey Roper – The Pond’s link to a dying craft

As the world of DM turns more and more toward eDM it’s comforting to know you can now call on the experience of The Pond’s new senior art director, Stacey Roper, for some good old-fashioned ‘DM-in-the-hand’.

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Kiwi creativity steals top tourism award in Las Vegas

John Hancock Observatory, atop the fourth highest building in the world, has won ‘Best in Class Website’ at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions’ (IAAPA) annual awards – all thanks to a kiwi connection or two.

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Raymond McKay joins - boosting team options

Up and coming midweight art director Raymond McKay is now available via The Pond. And he couldn’t have arrived at a better time, given the void of talent contracting at this level.

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Kola Ogundipe: Have pen, will travel.

Digital creative director Kola Ogundine is now available for freelance / consultancy bookings via The Pond.

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Barney McDonald (ex-Pavement) joins The Pond

If you’ve got a story that needs telling look no further than the latest consultant creative/specialist writer to join our team, Barney McDonald.

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Tone of Voice 2.0 - The Big Conversation with Customers

Everyone’s buzzing about social media and Web 2.O. But hang on a minute - you can’t have 5,000 employees starting a conversation with customers without laying down some ground rules. Can you?

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Meet The Pond's first ever strategist - Lew Bentley

The Pond launches new strategic offering. Following huge demand from agencies, we’ve decided to add strategists to our growing list of consultancy services for you to tap into.

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Australian digital designer Alister Coyne joins The Pond

Create possibilities, not limitations says new digital designer. Senior digital designer, Alister Coyne, has arrived at The Pond with a refreshing ‘can do’ attitude that we kind of like.

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Jovial journalists wage war on mediocre marcomms.

Alliteration and titillation - just two of the weapons in penman's arsenal. Four jovial journalists have joined The Pond in a bid to banish mediocre marcomms from the view of consumers, it was reported today.

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The Pond's Idealog Article: Find Creative Independence

They have their own brand reputations. A bunch of international awards. And business brains to boot. Meet 50 creative consultants who have turned their backs on a regular paycheck to contract their services out through The Pond.

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Phil Parsonage 'Creative Genius' makes 2nd Admedia cover in 9 months

Working as a senior writer alongside CD James Blackwood at Blackwood King, Phil Parsonage's work has made the cover of Admedia for the second time in 9 months.

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Digital writers – saving the world one website at a time

We’ve introduced you to what a digital writer is and how he or she can make mincemeat of your toughest digital content problems. Now digital writer Donald Holder lifts the lid on three recent digital projects to, well, show off, really.

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The Pond launches social media and networking team

Wondering where your customers have gone? Chances are they aren’t in their living room reading the paper or watching TV; they’re out and about on Twitter, on Facebook, blogging or on their phones texting.

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dinz site launch caps year-long journey for The Pond

If creating a new website from scratch can be likened to climbing a mountain, then creating a new website for DINZ must feel more like climbing a mountain with 3000 designers on your back, waiting to point out where you’ve gone wrong.

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Pond member's 15 minutes of fame

Co-author and specialist writer, Mario McMillan's latest book caught the attention of TVNZ's breakfast show. Click here to find out more.

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Why web writers are the new rock stars

Now that everything is digital and the world is rushing to hell in a hand basket, every word counts more than ever. To give your clients the full noise, you need someone on your team who can kick the whole content thing up a notch.

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Featured Pond Member News

We’ve tweaked the website, did you notice? Cleaner design, improved functionality and an entire new copy-deck have helped us better represent our creatives virtually (until our new website arrives in 2012, that is).

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The Pond creates a clearer picture for AIPA members

Pond Director, Leighton Howl, was asked by the Advertising and Illustrative Photographers Association to help organise a panel style discussion on the current state of the photography industry in New Zealand.

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Writer 2.0: a hybrid professional for a digital age.

Writer 2.0 is here to take the struggle out of getting usable digital content from your clients, says Pond digital writer Donald Holder.

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Telecom XT project proves Pond appetite for deep websites

Last month we talked about solving your content conundrums, following the launch of our specialist writing service. Now here's proof! Read about how a Pond team of five delivered a large website that was layers deep - with a non-negotiable deadline.

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Where there's mystery there's margin: Specialisation

The recession is making communication companies re-evaluate their processes, resources and offer. They're now looking to retain clients, and increase loyalty, by widening their service offering. As a consequence, there's been a growth in demand for creatives with specialist skills. Sue Worthington talks more in-depth to Marketing Magazine about the changing marketing and advertising landscape.

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Exceed Online uses digital copywriters to make websites that sell, sell, sell

One of only 40 companies worldwide that has achieved Google Analytics certification, Exceed Online doesn’t just build websites – it specialises in ongoing strategic marketing for websites.

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Pond member email: news, tips, industry updates, latest work..

Following the earthquake, corporates scrambled around to support their South Island business partners/suppliers. Many marketing departments put work on hold or re-focused their efforts on the disaster. In a nutshell the ‘spend tap’ got turned off and the market went sluggish for 4-6 weeks, especially in agency land.

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Award winning writer and journalist joins The Pond

Well-known Wellington journalist Keri Welham has joined The Pond as a senior specialist writer with extensive experience in business, science and research, health, education, ethnic affairs and sport.

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BKA Interactive gets digital writers in early to achieve ‘bang-on’ results

At digital design company BKA Interactive, Senior Account Manager Leah Edwards believes in getting a digital writer engaged in most new projects from the get-go.

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Australian Creative Magazine Review

Hook, line & sinker. Only a few years old and this baby can swim. Kiwi creative collective The Pond has quickly grown in less than three years to represent more than 30 creative directors, art directors, copywriters, specialist writers, designers and digital creatives who work with agencies and design companies.

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The Pond launches unique ‘Specialist Writers’ service

Meet 15 writers who can transform a jungle of technical jargon into a garden of perfect prose, prune your word count to just the right length, and intuitively plant the correct terms to appeal to your industry.

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Quadruple Cannes Lion winner joins The Pond

What do you get when you combine award-winning ideas (4 Cannes Lions), business nouse (co-partner of Agency of the Year) and Amsterdam edge? Arjan van Woensel, CD/Art director and now Pond consultant.

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Sergio Guida joins The Pond

Max Fashion, Trelise Cooper, Bendon, Servilles, Overland, Les Mills, Mi Piaci – some of New Zealand’s top image brands bear the mark of Sergio Guida, creative director, art director and designer.

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Actually…it’s no joke

All good stories are based on a truism. A reliable source has, in fact, told us that all government briefings must now have a two-page executive summary preceding the full report.

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Winner of the Illinois Governor's Tourism Best of Show award

Congrats to Daniel Thomas (ex-kiwi Sky Tower GM) and Carey Randall for taking out Best of Show at the Illinois Governor's Tourism awards for their marketing campaign which transformed John Hancock Observatory top to bottom and upped sales significantly last year.

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Glenn Jameson helps put Generation Homes on the map

Glenn Jameson created the new TVC campaign for Tauranga based Generation Homes, late last year, which recently aired in regional centres. The ad features a dinner party, a port-a-loo and an angry possum – the rest, as they say, is ‘legend’.

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Now even more designers to choose from!

Three international designers join The Pond. In case you haven't met them they are: Vanessa-Gaye Schiff, Glenn Chapman and Stephen Richardson.

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Trades Make More

Did you know carpenters earn $100k after 3 years in the job? Neither did we until we got the brief for Unitec's latest integrated campaign for Applied Technology courses. It's a great story and one worth telling.

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Writer's Block picks up bronze at AWARD

Again, full credit to everyone who worked on this DM piece (you know... the one with the lacquered block and 12 different pens). Leighton actually went over to the event, catching up with Badger in the process. (He's all good and living in Sydney, if you're wondering.) In case you missed the results, Mojo won NZ's only Gold for Speight's Great Beer Delivery. Cool concept that.

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New Export Gold TVC long time in the brewing

The latest Export Gold TVC, created by Pond creatives Phil and Badger, launched earlier this summer and is now a regular on AdMedia's Top 10 commercials list. The guys were on contract at Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland at the time and got a look at the brief in between Telecom doodles...

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Writing for youth. What's uncouth

Lil Cameron, The Pond's youngest writer, shares her opinion on how to engage youth audiences. What better person to give you her top tips than Lil, who has 25 years experience in, well, growing up.

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Meet Auckland's most experienced freelancer

He's Richard Gourley, a new face to The Pond who has been out there and doing it for himself since 1995. Richard found his own brand of creative independence after quitting life as Creative Group Head of Mattingly at the age of 30…

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An American landmark uses Pond travel writers to talk to the world

Out of the ashes of fire, Chicago built a city with amazing architecture. The dreams were big and the architects enjoyed unrivalled freedom. Perhaps the most ambitious project was to build the world’s tallest building in 1970, John Hancock Center.

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National Party win marks end of sleepless nights

The National Party's election win marked the end of an intense ad campaign led by party campaign manager Steven Joyce and Pond creative consultant Glenn Jameson. Taking a long-term view to re-building the National Party brand…

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The Pond's Marketing Activity

We're a proactive team here at The Pond. When we're not updating your portfolios & profiles or booking you into jobs, we're coming up with strategies to drive more work your way. Check out the link below to see what we've been doing for you over the last few months.

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Who are The Pond? And why are they sponsoring our design awards?

Chances are you’ve kind of heard of them, or know someone they represent, but who exactly are The Pond? As director Leighton Howl explains, they are, among other things, advocates for top talent, hell bent on helping folk everywhere find creative independence.

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Headhunting in the U S of A

When we say we'll hunt high and low to find you the right creatives, we're not kidding! That's why we've sponsored the visa of native New Yorker, Amanda Gould, into New Zealand. Senior digital creatives from strong DM backgrounds...

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Guerilla specialist Hadleigh Averill joins The Pond

Guerilla specialist Hadleigh Averill – previously resident at creative hot shops BlueberryFrog and Cunning Stunts in Europe – has joined The Pond. Overseas, 'guerilla' has become much less 'scambient' and more strategically sound ambient media…

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DINZ pro bono work part of big design push

Here at The Pond we LOVE design. Which is why Leighton has put Sue's hand up to help DINZ on its re-branding journey. Right now, she's helping Grant Alexander, from Studio Alexander, to flesh out the new DINZ strategy document. Apparently, it's all about creating the right environment for New Zealanders to pursue design excellence (more on this in the months to come).

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Republikan leader moves to consulting role with The Pond

Former Republik creative director Glenn Jameson has joined The Pond. Most famous for his Budweiser 'Whassup Jersey Guys' campaign, which won 'Best of Show' at One Show, Glen is more excited about the first beer campaign to ever air during the Academy Awards (something to do with Kathy Bates wetting her pants).

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Writer's Block keeps on winning

Full credit to everyone involved in putting together the Writer's Block, which recently won Bronze at AWARD. This follows on from two medals at the BeST Design Awards: a Gold for Self-promotion and Silver in Visual Communication.

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