After entering the MPA Inspiration Awards for the first time, we were thrilled to be the first ever winners of the Best B2B Campaign trophy. On the back of two years’ hard work, connecting almost entirely through screens, being able to bring our team together and spend a fun-filled evening celebrating with one of our key clients, DHL, was a truly momentous occasion.
We’ve won multiple awards over the last 20 years but hearing our name and lifting this trophy felt extra special – something that was no doubt reflected in the joyous screams from our table as the winner of the B2B category was announced. No matter how well put together virtual award ceremonies have been over the past few years, nothing quite compares to the buzz you feel at a live awards gig, surrounded by your peers, celebrating your success.
The MPA Inspiration Awards provide a great regional platform for agencies to shout about the work they have been doing, helping to build profile, drive recruitment and support new business efforts. And we mustn’t forget that clients take just as much pride in the endorsement of winning awards as their agencies, which is great for relationship building and reinforcing a ‘winning partnership’.
Achieving external accolades can be invaluable in gaining internal recognition for their efforts and helps to reinforce the value of creating Industry-leading work that gets commercial results. We really felt that the awards night brought us together as one – agency and client – and gave us a platform to not only let loose and celebrate, but also discuss how we could build on our award-winning work over the next 12 months.
When we won the award, we e-shared the news with everyone in the team who wasn’t there to celebrate with us on the evening itself. This sparked a real buzz of celebratory messages and collective pride that everyone’s hard work had been recognised. I think as agency leaders you can sometimes forget how important it is to have these moments of shared celebration. The MPAs brought this buzz to our team of ‘Uppers’, and the trophy is displayed on our shelf as a constant reminder that we are winners!
An MPA Awards win stands credible in a sea of ever-increasing awards. The MPAs are now firmly established and recognised by peers as worthy of winning – a quality mark that many other awards simply don’t offer. We’re not an agency that enters every award going. We only enter the awards that mean something to our industry, our clients and our team. The MPAs fit this profile for us, and the inclusion of the B2B-specific category in 2021 was one that we immediately set our sights on. We’ve been doing some great work already this year and hope to retain this award in 2022.
Max Clark
Founder and Director, Upp B2B
