🏆 The Creative Floor Awards – Second Deadline This Friday: 20 March
📅 Full dates and entry details: https://thecreativefloor.com/ 
Best of luck to everyone entering, and thank you for supporting work that changes careers and lives through our Talent & Diversity Fund.

🗳️ New for 2026: Public Vote Categories
Anyone can judge. Literally anyone. The real question is whether our award-winning jury knows better than the internet. We’re about to find out.

📩 Contact: [email protected]
📢 Hiring or promoting something useful? Open roles, services, or opportunities are welcome. Same email. Same ears.

💡 Mentorship
The Creative Floor Awards Mentorship program offers discreet, expert support for creatives at every level, from Junior Creatives to Chief Creative Officers (and everyone in between). Get support by email or video, when you need it: https://thecreativefloor.com/mentorship

📘 Agency Tales: The Book
Available here: https://thecreativefloor.com/agency-tales 

WIN a limited edition signed screen print of the book cover with every purchase. 🎁 Details: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUshGDSjNNh/?

📚 Brand New Masterclass: ‘The Common Sense Guide to Advertising’ by Steve Hudson Founder of The Power of Advertising. To book an in-person/virtual session or pre-order the online film visit: https://thecreativefloor.com/masterclass

🎙️ This Episode: Dear Deidre 2026, Part 1

What happens when you ask the advertising industry to anonymously confess their biggest career problems… and then put three senior agency leaders on the spot to answer them? 😬

To celebrate our brand new mentorship platform, we’re back in London with a brutally honest live panel tackling the real issues people in agencies are facing right now.

Joining the hot seat:

👩‍💼 Raakhee Thompson — Executive Client Director, The Bloc
🎨 Jon Chapman — Executive Creative Director, BBH
🧠 Kieran Delaney — Executive Creative Director, Cherry Thinking

Before the recording we asked the industry a simple question on social: what’s the hardest thing about working in advertising today? The responses were… revealing. Those questions became the backbone of this episode.

The result is a candid, unfiltered conversation about the stuff people usually whisper about in corridors but rarely say out loud.

💡 In this episode:

🔥 Burnout in an always on industry
 🎭 Tokenism and being the only one in the room
 🧠 What to do when someone steals your idea
 ✨ The uncomfortable truth about what actually makes a creative genius

Expect honest stories, practical advice and a few moments where the panel probably wonders why they agreed to do this.

⚠️ Warning: this episode contains strong language and tackles a few uncomfortable topics. Because sometimes the truth about agency life isn’t polite… and definitely isn’t PG 😬

Not all awards are created equal.