Searching for fame on Park Lane

I have a very similar chandelier at home

It wouldn't be the first few months of the year without another awards ceremony to go to and last Thursday's was the CIM Marketing Excellence Awards. This one was particularly prestigious, with the absolute cream of the marketing world heading up to the Grosvenor on London's Park Lane for a truly glittering (and expensive!) ceremony. Again, we were up for our Digital Clearing Campaign 2012 but this time in the Education category.

Beverley (Deputy Director of Marketing), Hannah and myself all rendezvoused at Kings Cross before jumping in a taxi with plenty of time to spare. However, due to some horrific traffic around Marble Arch we were forced to watch the pre-arrival drinks via Twitter! Thankfully, we arrived just in time to take our seats for the meal and who should be standing next to our table but the evening's host... Hugh Dennis!

After polishing off the five course meal and someone else's wine (that's another story!) the ceremony began. This was extremely well produced, as you'd expect from a venue of this type and with over eighty tables of guests we knew our chance of treading the boards on stage was pretty slim. We were just happy to be picked as finalists and were only one of three universities at the event.

Scrabbling for the best wigs and hats between
photos became quite competitive...!

Our category was up third and we were also excited to see Hannah's nominees video she produced up there on the big screen. Unforunately, on this occassion we were not winners (breaking our two year silver category streak) and lost out to Kirklees College for their 'Get Real Results' campaign. This was outstanding work by them in sponsoring Huddersfield town football club and building a campaign around it.

Despite not getting a result on the night we really enjoyed ourselves (check out the pictures to the right!) and came away feeling that the work we're doing is definitely being recognised at a higher level than ever before. Maybe we'll be back next year and these aren't the last of the awards we've entered for 2013 either...