We’re just simple people, doing complex work for clients.
"The retail industry is a tough and competitive one. Singaporeans are spoilt for choice and fatigued by the onslaught of retail options.” Thus began the pitch submission for Marketing’s PR Awards 2018.
What we were actually thinking was: “Industry trade awards are a tough and competitive scene. Judges in the region will be spoilt for choice and would probably gloss over our entry.” A self-doubting voice by any measure, but let us explain. While we were confident about our work, we couldn’t exactly translate these sentiments into confidence to score a win.
Read about the campaign's case study here:
Giant Singapore - Kiasu Town Campaign
It just didn’t seem like...us.
We weren't people who dressed in fancy suits and dresses, spoke in posh accents, or rocked the latest fashion in the office. We’re a bunch of simple, sensible people—blessed with good skills, armed with passion for all things digital. We were just people who made things work.
Yet here we were, triumphant with a Bronze for “Best in PR - Consumer” for our Campaign with Giant Singapore. (Actually, this isn't our first major award. Our first was an Effie in 2014 for the work we did with energy drink, Dark Dog.)
Back then, the submission for award consideration was done on the client's end—as was this. Reaping accolades for ourselves had never been our priority. Client happiness always came first, and was satisfaction enough for us.
The surprise of winning our second major award sparked something in us and made us wonder - was there room to do both?
Staying focused doesn’t mean we must ignore other things.
There is a saying, lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. The fact that it did for us—with us just being our usual selves—showed us that certain opportunities were presenting themselves.
In this context, it's no use avoiding the lightning. Might as well harness it. We began asking ourselves, what could we do to keep attracting the lightning above us and consciously get struck again... and again and again?
This laid the groundwork for a concerted effort to build the elements that would enable us to harness the electricity above us—and like Thor, harness it such that it may be channeled to create an impact in other avenues of our work and our people.
Realising our capacity for an additional focus.
With this in mind, a pivot was set in motion.
We recognised that we had the capacity and capability to actively pursue award submissions... without compromising any of our steady processes proven to result in quality work.
We realised that quality and glory need not be mutually exclusive, and we did not need move away from where we are and race to another destination.
Both goal-posts are actually one and the same.
"Become a beacon for others
to recognise and follow
Charan, Construct founder, quips, “Construct is off to a good start this year. We’ve made sure the value of being steady problem solvers is inculcated and reiterated amongst the team. We’ve begun to explore how we can better communicate the same values we've always held through the work that we do, to become a beacon for others to recognise and follow.”
Our advice: work hard, do good things, and above all, be yourselves. The rest will follow.
While other agencies look at awards as immediate, obvious things to go for, we did it differently—in a uniquely Construct way. By this we mean, simply prioritising the client’s glory over that of our egos. Today, we arrive at an awakening that there is enough talent doing good work, enough success for everyone to bask in.
All we can say is—watch out world, we've arrived.
See you at the next award ceremony.
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