Last Friday we gathered over Teams to celebrate and commemorate the last 12 months’ worth of work with our annual internal Wild Card Awards Ceremony. We had planned to get together in person to mark the occasion but made the responsible decision to switch to screens instead due to Covid.
The circumstances did little to dampen the mood and certainly didn’t detract from the truly amazing work we had got together to celebrate. In fact, it only made me feel more grateful and proud of the incredible resilience and positivity the whole team at Wild Card has shown during yet another challenging year.
In 2021, we welcomed several new clients to the Wild Card family: Re: Nourish – the UK’s fastest growing soup brand; Carex & Original Source – category leading brands within the PZ Cussons washing and bathing portfolio; Allinson’s – the rebel bakery brand. These brands sit brilliantly alongside clients we’ve worked proudly with for several years and with whom our relationship goes from strength to strength – Yeo Valley, Ginsters, Tilda & New York Bakery Co. to name but a few.
In the last 12 months, we’ve had the opportunity to work on some incredible campaigns and projects for our clients, including our stand-out work for Tetley, inspiring nationwide debate around how we like to enjoy our brew and delivering unprecedented interest in Tetley’s Tea Buyer Grad Scheme. Special mention also goes to our stunt for Carex which saw us pull off a Guinness World Record for the most ever high fives on a freefall sky dive, owning the ‘freedom day’ moment and reminding Brits to ‘Always Carry Carex’ on the go.
We welcomed back ‘In Real Life’ events, but also demonstrated that we can make digital events work brilliantly too, picking up a prestigious award for our work in launching The Nare Hotel’s new Whittington Suites via an interactive Zoom event hosted by Dame Judy Dench.
We’ve partnered our clients’ brands with more incredible talent – from teaming former footballer Wayne Bridges up with Miracle-Gro to start an important conversation around the positive benefits of gardening during Mental Health Awareness Week, to working with online influencer DJ BBQ to help foodservice operators trade up to a more premium burger bun from Lantmannen. We even sent Tess Daly off on a Beach Retreats break, delivering over 5,000 new social media followers for the brand after she posted about her amazing stay, and 4,000 website hits to the new penthouse property.
We’ve bolstered our digital team with three new members, allowing us to deliver impactful online paid advertising campaigns for Ginsters #gottabeginsters, as well as a whole host of influencer campaigns for clients across platforms including Instagram and Tik Tok.
Last but not least, we celebrated the people who made all this happen, with company awards going to our Leisure & Lifestyle Account Manager, Claire Butler, for her tenacious approach to media relations, our FMCG Account Manager, Saffy Hadley-Rendle, for going over and beyond in everything she does, and Account Executive, Chloe Tomasin, for being an incredibly supportive team player. Well done to them, and also to everyone else for being so utterly brilliant that picking three individual winners was a very tough call indeed.
We’re now looking forward to a well-deserved festive break with friends and family.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Georgie ♣️