Hey it’s Thea here, reporting to you from London! Last night, I had the privilege of making the journey down from Glasgow for the RAR Awards.

For the benefit of anyone who doesn’t know, RAR – aka the Recommended Agency Register -  was set up to help companies source, select and engage marketing suppliers. The newly-established RAR Awards honor excellence in service for all things digital and design. (This was only its second year running).

What makes these awards especially gratifying, to all nominees, no doubt, is that they’re voted for by the clients. I wasn’t at last year’s inaugural event but I can tell you, this year the competition was  stiff – more than 620 companies had been rated.

NSDesign was rather blessed with seven nominations!

At NSDesign, we’re a decidedly-optimistic bunch, by nature, and thus suspected, (or at least hoped), we might win one. What I don’t think any of us were prepared for was the fact we scooped three,…plus a runner up (#3 out of 10) for the top price “The Grand Prix” – a Top Ten UK company.

That essentially made four, framed award certificates to lug back to the hotel (pic: right) after the festivities, but hey, I’m not complaining.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve met folks from a number of other web design firms – many who scoff at the idea of these awards ceremonies, but perhaps they ought to re-consider their stance.

As guest speaker, Chief Executive of Talk Talk, Paul Lawton said to the crowd “keep entering them” – because not only are they good for the PR angle, and lend a note of credibility to the firm, but they also entice potential employees as well. Salient points.

As the newest member to the NS team, (and as such feeling like the least qualified to accept the honours), what struck me most was how NSDesign won against companies who were often several times its size.

Honestly, we were just so proud to be nominated for one category let alone seven, and along side such an esteemed group of fellow contenders.  I’m telling you, this room simply oozed talent.

Over all, it was a great night with plenty of food going, the wine flowing, and tweets tweeting to make it a lively and entertaining evening.

I think it’s fair to say that a good time was had by all.

Incidentally, the awards we ended up walking away with were:

• Best in Client Service
• Best in Digital
• Best Value for Money

So finally, I think all of us at NSDesign would like  to thank our valued customers for these accolades, as we’d literally not been able to do it without you!

Thank you all! Here’s to 2012!

Today, just this once, we’re dusting off the NSDesign trumpet and giving it a nice long blast. The reason being, we’ve just won the “Best in Value for Money” award at last night’s RAR Awards!

The RAR, or Recommended Agency Register, recognises the best agencies for client service and the awards are distributed to agencies that have been highly rated by their clients. In order to be listed on the register in the first place, agencies must pass a client satisfaction test and the awards are only open to registered agencies.

As the winners of the “Best Value for Money” award, us lucky folk at NSDesign get to enjoy the following:

•    A fancy certificate for the wall
•    A special RAR award winners logo for use in marketing material
•    Promotion on the awards pages of RAR
•    Promotion in awards coverage in The Drum magazine
•    An RAR Awards tag attached to our listing on the RAR site

None of the above perks would be possible, of course, without our clients, who have been kind enough to take time out of their lives to say nice things about us to the good people of RAR. Thank you! I’m glad you enjoy working with us as much as we enjoy working with you.