Winning Agency of the Year

Last week we won the MRS Global Agency of the Year 2019 award – who would have thought!

I keep telling everyone that we were really pleased to be shortlisted – didn’t think there was a chance we would win. That was true! And so, when Jigsaw’s name was read out it was all the more fabulous for being such a surprise.

It turned into a really special night – we clambered up and down from the stage without falling over, Sue and I gave an incoherent interview to the MRS, we drank a lot of champagne, we even danced (rare for me..). But what has been even more special has been the reaction since. We have had hundreds of messages from clients and suppliers, but also from ex colleagues, some of whom we haven’t heard from in years. People have sent balloons, flowers, cakes and (more) champagne and they are still arriving a week later.

But best of all has been seeing the impact on the rest of the Jigsaw team. They have been telling their long suffering partners, their parents and their children, posting it on Facebook and texting their friends. We sometimes comment on the fact that our friends and families (our partners even) don’t really know what we do. Now they are sending messages saying ‘So well deserved!’ as if they knew all along!

We all take great pride in what we do at Jigsaw and to have our work recognised in such a public way, and from outside the world of research as well as inside it, has been very special.

All credit to the MRS for making the submission process and the award criteria friendly to smaller agencies. In the past we felt we might have a ‘best agency’ story to tell, but we didn’t have the resources to compete with the larger agencies in preparing a submission. But the process has been simplified and allows agencies with a strong all round success story to stand out without having to commit thousands to the submission process. So having had our best ever year in 2019 (commercially, client and team wise and in terms of conference platforms) we thought we’d give it a go.  Hopefully our success will give other medium sized agencies the confidence to go for it too.

Ann Morgan, Dec 19