We all debate 
the true value of industry awards. We consider the cost. We lament the politics. We ponder the return. One consistent benefit that everyone seems to understand is the effect on employee morale. Winning an award is the ultimate satisfaction–justifying the greatness of your ideas, your abilities and your effort. That boost can solidify the bonds of a team and motivate them in their future work. But most importantly, that designation acts as a public celebration.
At Critical Mass, we love to celebrate. We celebrate our appreciation of one another through peer-nominated spot bonuses every month. We celebrate our appreciation of Fridays with bagels in the morning and beers in the afternoon. We celebrate our appreciation of our clients through crazy breakdancing videos sent as Christmas cards. Hell, we even celebrate our appreciation of bacon. But more than any of those, we know how important it is to celebrate our work. We even have our own award competition. We call them the CMMYs and we’re giving you a peek into the CMMY events of the past two weeks.
Here’s how it works:
Throughout the year, our executives are constantly evaluating our work. We hold ourselves to a standard of “extraordinary” and we don’t let ourselves slack. Then in March, our execs: Di, Chris, Neil, Lee, Darren, Scott, Antonio, Cam and John regroup and consider those pieces of work from the past year in accordance with our CMMY categories and select the winners–secretly. Each office proceeds to plan a kick-ass party, each aligned with the unique cultures of their location. All remote CMers far and wide are shipped into their “home” offices; this is not an optional event and no one is left out.
These parties are always epic and–with the help of the open bar–the anticipation rises to a fever pitch before our winners are announced. Each office has their own special way of delivering the news and celebrating, but there are a few common threads:
Beer
Shenanigans
Excitement
Pride
Team Bonding
…and, oh yes, more beer.
That excitement, pride and bonding is what makes it all so worthwhile. We boost each other up, celebrating the time we’ve spent and goals we’ve accomplished together. We’re so proud, we’d actually like to share our winning work with you too. So without further ado, here they are.
Best Brand Experience: Infiniti Global
Best Product Launch: Nissan Leaf
Best Site Redesign: Moen.com
Best Campaign: Rolex Reference Watches Media Campaign
Best New Biz Pitch: Harley Davidson eCommerce (a pitch we won, I might add!)
Best Distributed Experience: Vegas Bound Campaign
Best Mobile Experience: Gucci iPhone application
Best Return on Insight: Budweiser American Ale, Get Offline Campaign
Best Thought Leadership: i5 Summit for at&t
Best Internal Project: Chicago’s Prom (on a budget)
Best Community Building: Ella Nutella
Best Innovation: Nissan Leaf and Twitter Integration
Best in Show: Nissan Leaf
And very importantly, there are also two honors awarded to people.
The Rich Wilkins Award honors the late Rich Wilkins who truly embodies the spirit of Critical Mass. As the award outlines, “Richard had just the right combination of professionalism and lunacy to be a highly respected and greatly cherished leader, team member and friend.” For 2009, the CMer selected to receive this award was our universally liked, respected and appreciated…
Rebecca Bloom Geddes, Human Resources Director.
Secondly, the CMVP of the Year (we select one of these rock stars each month) was…
Shaina Boone, Group Marketing Science Director.
We have a whole post to share about how amazing Shaina is next week.
For now, we hope you enjoy the work we’ve shared as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it. There are some incredible products, services and even movements behind each and every one of these pieces of work and we are all humbled by the opportunity our clients give us everyday. With that, we’ll close because we are already off and running in 2010, motivated by the celebrations of last week to continue creating Extraordinary Experiences that make us all proud to be a part of Critical Mass.
Here are a few pictures we can share from these celebrations in Calgary, Chicago, Toronto and London. More will be coming soon!
