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Pretty darned well, thank you! Matmi carried off a gong for Best Commercial App & Game at last night’s How Do Awards event at Old Trafford Cricket ground.

It was mentioned by the judges and funnily enough, we’d only been talking about it in the office. How is it that a specialist agency in a small market town in Cheshire is working with the likes of United Airlines (the Optathlon campaign we created for them with our US partner, BD’M, won last night’s award), MAC Cosmetics, Gorillaz and other global brands – soon to add a well-known skin care label (watch this space)?

Answer: the word world in www.

10 years ago, our first release went global because people liked it and passed it on, so Matmi’s always considered the world to be its stage. Sure, we can get to continents and even discreet countries – we can even create digital marketing materials that self-select the client’s desired demographic.

Could you put your hand on your heart and say you knew that? Don’t worry – not many people do. But now you know who to call, just like United Airlines’ agency BD’M, the guys at EMI Music, Comic Relief (another ‘watch this space’… ) and more.

It was a sweet moment to win on home turf last night in North West England though, because we’re a grassroots kind of outfit. We didn’t make Matmi successful; you did and we won’t forget it.

Another thing I won’t forget is being the most under-dressed guest at the awards ceremony last night. I’m not going to bore you with the details, but if there was a ‘Scruffy’ category, I’d have won by a mile. And don’t ask me what’s going on in this pic – it’s a corker! (Me – left, Mark from Peach – the category sponsor, and Stewart, right).

Big thanks to Nick, Ben, Dunstan, Rachel and all the team at How Do for our 1st How Do win last night – and thank you for all your support over the years. You’re a grassroots organisation too – which is probably why we get on .

Great event and we’re delighted with our award. Enjoy (the Bank Hol), Jeff

The UK’s games industry trade body, TIGA, launched a new Casual Games Committee on 13th May (and it was a Friday too…) and I just wanted to say a belated “Thank you!” and “Congratulations”.

Our mate Mike Hawkyard (4T2) is chair of the new committee, and he and the team put together a great launch event involving potential buyers from the Beeb, Disney and Channel 4 – not to be sniffed at. Our competitors were all there – but seeing as we all know each other (and get on) anyway, that turned into friendly ribbing and critiquing each others games! And when the inventor of Tomb Raider is there too, you can imagine how that went…… Anyway!

I have a confession to make.

Stewart & I saw the Blackberry’s new tablet – the Playbook – and we liked it. A lot. It’s quick, especially multi-tasking, and we’re going to take a serious look at developing for it. Thanks for the demo, you guys at Blackberry, we’re impressed (and if you are too, put 16th June in your diaries for the UK intro).

As you’ve probably spotted, TIGA’s Casual Games committee is a hot melting pot of creativity and business potential, with some colourful characters thrown in for good measure. We gave a couple of the speakers a hard time, but all in the spirit of getting a better deal for our discipline.

Let’s face it, as one of the few fast-growing industries, casual games could add an awful lot to Britain’s broken bottom line. And if Cameron or Clegg wake up to the fact that a tax break would generate more money for the economy not less, we’d all be better off (and we employ 9,000+ people, so come on!) TIGA has been on the case for a while, so the casual game committee has got itself !

Hats off to you, Mike, nice work! Enjoy, Jeff