Mightysmall and CWU Scoop best campaign at TUC Awards

We’ve just helped one of Scotland’s finest copywriters leave the country.

A mightysmall film that brought a tear to HRH Prince Charles’ eye.

Mightysmall smile for the Scottish safety camera partnership.

mightysmall delivers.

Our first facebook app.

And the contenders for poster of the year are….

Obviously you’ve seen the Conservative party’s first advertising of the election campaign but do you know the results it’s generating? Sadly for the Tories it’s not the results they were hoping for. Granted running a 96 sheet in Scotland with a big airbrushed photo of any English Tory politician is unlikely to end well and so it proved. The political graffiti artists were out in force but wouldn’t really have got great grades at the Watford Copywriting School. Their best effort being FUCK OFF BACK TO ETON, in red paint naturally. But please, please check out mydavidcameron.com and see just how creative people can really get with their graffiti.
Who's behind this site? MyDavidCameron.com was built by Clifford Singer, creative director at Sparkloop graphic design agency and creator of the Other TaxPayer's Alliance website. His website is voluntary and unfunded, and not linked to any political party – nor is Clifford a member of any. So just go and enjoy the funny posters. Better still you can download the poster and be creative yourself. We read about the site in Saturday’s Guardian in an article by Zoe Williams. So thanks for that Zoe. One small thing, when you say “ You see, here’s the thing with the Tories, their ad campaigns are always rubbish” we have to stop you there. Double whammy? Labour’s tax bombshell? And what about the poster consistently voted best ever “Labour isn’t working” ring any bells Zoe?
Pity their first effort of the 2010 campaign hasn’t reached those dizzying heights.

Nice new client. Nice old office.

Our favourite award ceremony (It comes with a cash prize).

I wonder who did the ad campaign for this launch?

Look what’s landed in Edinburgh

A new film club is born.

A grand night out.

Mightysmall and 39steps wade in with waterfront enterprises win.

A is for Andy. P for production.

Seven up.

The Scottish ad awards, judged this year by the advertising legend Dave Trott, have announced the work that has been nominated for 2009. And we were delighted to discover that mightysmall has been nominated in seven categories. (Every one we entered, actually). And what good categories they are too. Best press campaign; Best press ad; Best ad in the professional sector. Best poster campaign; Best poster; Best poster on a mobile medium and best use of media. We’re especially pleased because this is only mightysmall’s second year in business

Before you press"print..."

A mightysmall presence at T in the park.

Out of the blue we found a new place to meet friends.

Mightysmall campaign helps Communication Workers Union force a government climb-down over Royal Mail privatisation plans.

A mightysmall trip to London

We've been nominated for a national newspaper advertising award.

Our first piece of work for the Communication Workers Union has been nominated for an ANNA or Award for National Newspaper Advertising.

"Crown" was shortlisted by Russell Ramsey Executive Creative Director at JWT London. As the competition organisers say " We believe in creative excellence." So do we and so obviously, does our client,so it's well done all round.

The ad goes forward to the ceremony held in London in December where it will be judged again, this time in various categories such as copy; art direction; topicality etc. And the winners receive between £5k and £25k in cash.

We're not done yet either, we're about to run three more hard hitting full page ads for the Union in its fight against Government privatisation of Royal Mail, so fingers' crossed.

Aberdeen Cwu poster.

More of our work for the communication workers union.

Sorry, but we beat The London Standard and M&S to saying “sorry”.

“Taxi for mightysmall”

mightysmall take offices in Leith, Edinburgh and London.

Mightysmall helps the Communication Workers Union save the Royal Mail from privatisation.

mightysmall flying high with Museum Of Flight pitch win.

mightysmall is on the move.

Nothing new.

Say it with flowers

cow hide.

Rutland hotel checks in to mightysmall.

Two million quid for a white horse?

Ethical sells, 2009.

Ethical sells, 1994.

She wasn't the only one handing out New Year Honours.

In the glorious Drum magazine's New Year Honours' list, guess which agency was awarded "Launch of the Year (Scotland)".

And all Chris Hoy got was a knighthood. Hah.

mightybitbigger.

Mightysmall in good health with Spire Murrayfield hospital win.

The guest blogger returns...

A brief encounter with some fantastic films.

I went down to Bristol on Friday 21st November to attend the Encounters Short Film Festival. It’s now in its 14th year, and it still feels as fresh as the first time I went.
I went down with Adrian from mightysmall, and we crammed a huge amount of films into the two days we were there. At a conservative estimate I reckon we saw somewhere in the region of 90 films. They varied in length from 90 seconds up to 30 minutes, and they varied in quality too. There were some absolute gems, a lot of very good films and a small number that I’m going to be kind about and say I didn’t get.
You can visit the Encounters site here and see some of the films through their website. You can also see some great films that are all 90 seconds or less at the DepicT! site.
There were a high number of great films. Some of them will appear on YouTube, given time, and others will appear on sites on sites like Babelgum, 4mations, BBC Film Network.
I’ll give you a quick name check of my highlights of the festival, plus a brief synopsis of the stories.
Stand Up, directed by Joseph Pierce, UK. 2008:
A comedian who seems to love booze more than his act is seen to unravel in front of the audience whilst he’s on stage. It’s a tragic comic performance that leaves the audience unsure how to react.
See it here:

Skhizeik, directed by Jeremy Clapin, France, 2008:
A surreal little film about a man who is struck by a meteorite and ends up inhabiting a space that is actually 91cm from his body. Weird and beautiful.
See a clip from it here: (click on Bande-Annonce to view the trailer)
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Next Floor, directed by Denis Villeneuve, Canada, 2008:
A superb film. Watch out for this one worrying them at the Oscars -0 that’s how good this is. It has a great, simple idea that cracks along and keeps you right on the edge of your seat. The cast is excellent and leaves the audience in no doubt as to the desired outcome for the table of glutinous horrors. The technique used is great and builds towards an earth-shattering finale.
See a clip here:

The Contract, directed by Konstantinos Fragkopoulos, UK, 2008:
A lovely little twist that is hugely unexpected. We open on a little old man sitting on abench in a park. He seems almost invisible as he feeds the pigeons. Then he stands and starts to walk. As he moves we see him become slightly less fragile and a little more bold. We then see him carry out a hit on a bloke, where he stabs him and then places him down on the bench, as if he is sleeping. He then gently wanders off on his way. Brilliant.
This Way Up, Directed Smith and Foulkes, UK, 2008:
Another great film, this time a claymation animation that sees a father and son undertakers attempting to lay a coffin to rest with a bit of dignity. Fat chance. We see all manner of catastrophes as they finally manage to lay the deceased to rest. This was commissioned by the BBC, so watch out for it on a TV near you. These are the two geniuses who crested the “Hate something/Love something” Honda ad. Pretty talented blokes, I guess.
See it here:

There is also a competition within the competition in the form of a micro film competition, where the only rule is that it must be under 90 seconds in length. Which, for those of us with an advertising background, seems like quite a long time.
Each year there are a mix of great films and some truly strange films that make the final shortlist in the DepicT! competition.
My favourite three this year were:
In the Name of God, directed by Hamed Knobari, Iran, 2007
We see a young boy sitting an exam. We see him keep stealing furtive glances at the palm of his hand. This is intercut with the teacher walking round the room. We assume that the kid is cheating. But what is actually written on his hand is “God is Great’ in Arabic. This was a great little film that left me with a warm smile on my face.
What’s Virgin Mean, directed by Michael Davies, UK, 2008
A mum and her young daughter are in the kitchen. The young girl doodles as her mum makes the tea. Suddenly the daughter asks her mum: “What does virgin mean?” We then see the mum squirm a but and then rise to the task of explaining this mystery term to her daughter. The rug-pull is then that the daughter asks: “So what’s extra virgin?” and it turns out that she’s been reading from the label of an olive oil bottle. Nice, but I guessed the pay off after about 5 seconds.
Enough, directed by Tor Kristofferson, UK, 2008
Another film with a great reveal. We see an elderly man sitting in his house as youths bully a kid on the street. We see the elderly man sink a tumbler of whisky, before grabbing a truncheon and heading out to confront the youths. We see him approach the youths, and them scatter. He grabs one of them and asks him what he thinks he’s doing. The kid shouts at him to get off. One of the other kids then stabs the elderly man. At which point the youth he’s holding cries out: “Dad!” Like I say, an amazing reveal. And a seriously powerful piece of film making.
You can view all of the DepicT! shortlisted films for 2008 by clicking here

All in all it was a brilliant 2 days. Bristol itself is a beautiful city with lots of shops for a self-confessed book and record addict to enjoy. There are some great restaurants and bars, and the harbourside where the film festival is held is a great spot for soaking up the atmosphere.
So if you love film, then spend a few days in Bristol at the end of November. You just might catch an early film by the next big thing.

Guest blogger: Mr Chris Muir

Room with a phew.

A paint range is born.

The pet shop boy.

mike, mightysmall and a new mate.

What a special first birthday.

Full marks for the Fettes film.

chocolatey ideas

Bank of Scotland a mightysmall friend for life.

We've just won a pitch to create a new ad campaign for Bank of Scotland's sponsorship activities. We'll be working closely with our old friends Material and we're hoping to make new friends with Redpath who do all the design work on the business. We're excited about working on such a prestigious bit of business and I'm sure our bank manager will be just as chuffed.

Young talent.

The wet summer continues.

Now available from mightysmall. Toilet rolls.

Our new job titles?

Don't know if you read Dave Dye's private view in Campaign last week but he put his title down as 'commissioning editor.' The thought behind it, he explains is that " with so many media channels available nowadays, I'm as likely to be commissioning a 3d designer or web builder as I am to be directing creative work." Now we thought this was quite a nice little joke. And we absolutely understand what he means. Because we believe the future lies in specialising not generalising. Which for us means teaming up with other specialists to make the big idea come to life across all channels (rather than saying we can do it all ourselves). So actually we do our fair share of commissioning already. However we've just checked out Dye, Holloway, Murray's website and Dave really does call himself 'commissioning editor.' Now that is a bit worrying, because as he himself says " Sounds a bit pretentious, doesn't it." However you've got to say this for Dave, even if he has got a title more fancy than plain old ' creative director,' the work is consistently good. Check out their website.

Meet the neighbours.

The sheep with a bellyful of pig’s ears.

And the winner is....hmm

An excellent post (and not a word of it written by us).

Advertising's a gas.

mightysmall makes its first million

Three new wins (it's been a busy month).

we lost a pitch but won a friend.

Congratulations to an agency with Audacity.

We read on the Brand Republic website that famous ad man Bruce Crouch is launching a start up agency in London. Nothing unusual there. What was interesting was his strategy for Audacity the new company, and we quote "The agency's offering will focus on advertising solutions,but it plans to select external direct,digital,PR and media partners to handle the delivery of integrated campaigns."
And the thinking behind it? Crouch said "Rather than pretending to clients that we have the best resources in London,as so many agencies do these days,we'll be creating a bespoke team for them".
Which is of course the mightysmall philosophy.
Glad to have you on board Bruce.

Campaign magazine. Right as usual.

Mightysmall gets a knighthood.

recycling the recycled.

Les joins mightysmall...

new blood

Who owns your work, you or your agency?

getting the show on the road

Not the headlines we'd have signed off.

A mightysmall tale about a long legged lady and a Cerberus

Man is mightier than the machine.

21 years of Scottish Advertising Awards. Our nominations.

Raphael painted our new office.