Sell! Sell! Is Four

A quick glance at the calendar tells me that it was four years ago yesterday that we excitedly walked into our first office. We had no clients, no promise of clients, and just enough cash to last a few weeks.

But we did have a clear idea of what Sell! Sell! was all about - doing the best work of our careers in a no-bullshit, creative and friendly way for clients who want to get things done.

With that in the front of our minds, we opened up our doors. I say opened our doors, in fact the first day was spent painting the floor of that first studio space over on Clerkenwell Road, and working out what we were going to do for desks.

I really can't believe that it has been four years, it's passed so quickly. One thing's for sure, it has never been dull, here's a few high(and low)lights...

Andy literally painting himself into a corner when painting the floor of our first office.

Getting our first proper clients, the text service 82ASK - thanks a bunch Sarah and Thomas.

Helping Krispy Kreme to launch over here with some really fun work, including making their 160 page employee handbook in a three-day design and writing marathon.

Having good friends and colleagues join us for our 'Six Months And Not Gone Out Of Business Party'.

Flying out the next morning to shoot the first part of a £10m global ad campaign for PokerStars, which went on to help the Moneymaker Millionaire the most successful ever freeroll.

Coming back from said shoot a week later to find the smelly remnants of the 'Six Months And Not Gone Out Of BusinessParty' untouched.

Teaming up with the smashing folks at Nuffield Health for the first time, and helping them to do the best work they've ever done - including Inaction Man, a small, fat guy that was 500% more effective than any piece of direct mail they'd ever done.

Having to defend ourselves legally when a big company tried to pilfer some of our ideas.

Winning the pitch for The Industry Trust for IP Awareness against some proper agencies, and taking them from being the people who did those embarrassing 'you wouldn't steal a car' trailers to produce a campaign that is actually working.

Moving into the new Sell! Towers out here in fashionable Whoreditch in the week before Christmas, because we thought it would be quiet.

Hooking up with Fentimans, a fantastic company who were on our wish list when we started out, and building a great relationship working with them.

Sadly losing our good mate and co-conspirator Matt, when he decided that the trials and tribulations of running your own creative company were not for him. His contribution to Sell! Sell! will not be forgotten. Cheers Matt.

Coming up with Freeday Friday, a campaign to get everyone a free day off on February 29th 2008.

Being told we hadn't won a pitch for a big client, even though they liked us and our work the most, because we weren't big enough.

Making what was probably O2s weirdest campaign of the year, FoneGloo.

Getting broken into and having a laptop nicked that contained secret MI5 data (that last bit isn't true).

Hiring our first full-time Sell! Sell! employee, Ryan - an extremely talented designer/creative, and watching him slowly grow ever more hairy.

The confident yet scary feeling of turning down two potentially lucrative pitches because the opportunity wasn't right.

Hiring our second full-time Sell! Sell! employee, the smashing Emma 'Golden' Graham, and thus becoming possibly the only London ad agency (I use the term loosely) to double in size in the last year.

Writing and shooting our first Straight8 film, extremely good fun and scary at the same time.

The folly of making our directorial debut on the Madness commercial.

Having a good long think about the recession, and deciding not to take part.

Being on the brink of winning what would be our biggest ever client, with creative work that we're excited about making. . .

Over these last four years, we've produced lots of different and interesting work for lots of different and interesting clients, and we're proud to say that we've never done any of that 'below stairs' stuff - you know, the smelly work that agencies do for the money that they never talk about. We like to think that we're proud of everything we've done, here's a selection...

CSI for Momentum Pictures

Krispy Kreme


Moneymaker Millionaire for PokerStars


Inaction Man for Nuffield Health


Knock-Off Nigel for The Industry Trust


Job Survey Viral for HotOnLine


FoneGloo for O2


'Wallchart' house project.


Every Little Helps for Friends of the Earth


'Freeday Friday' house project


S&M Cafe


Screenthing


Zazz for Madness


fish4


Fentimans


Smart Health Guides for Nuffield Health

Phew, well I'll stop there, for everyone's sake. Suffice it to say that we've done loads of work that we're proud of, and for that a big thanks must go out to all of the clients who have been kind enough to exchange their money for our creative thinking and doing: 82ASK, Krispy Kreme, Momentum Pictures, Disney Channel, Beefeater, PokerStars, HotOnLine, The Industry Trust, Friends of the Earth, Crisis, S&M Cafe, Madness, fish4, O2, Nuffield Health, Fentimans, Ladbrokes and Associated Newspapers. Without you it's fair to say that Sell! Sell! would just be a bunch of very broke idealistic creative people in a room, playing pinball.

And to everyone else whose support has helped us to get this far: Janesy, Hearn, Hunt, Qua, Debs, Judith, Kristian, Badger, Roy and Stanleys, Stanners, Dave and Ben at Karmarama, Patrick, Byrney, Jonathan, Liz, Eliza, Kate N, Tess, Colin and the Therapy peoples, John and Lee at Splash, Steve and Tim at Another, Tom at Gas & Electric, and the rest - a very humble but heartfelt thank you!