Sir Martin Sorrell

CEO: WPP

There is a certain contrariness in producing a book such as this.

The contents have been chosen because they’re outstanding. But because every single page features an outstanding image or an outstanding achievement, the perverse effect is to make it seem easy.

It’s only when the exceptional is surrounded by the merely average that we’re reminded just how unusual the exceptional is and how difficult it is to achieve. The exceptional stands out from the crowd; draws attention to itself and the promise it contains. And by doing so, the exceptional - and this, of course, is its fundamental commercial purpose - makes the client’s proposition more desirable and the client’s money go a little further.

Every year, WPP companies succeed in producing the exceptional with greater and greater consistency: and that, to me, is the real test of professional excellence. The one-off masterpiece is to be welcomed and rewarded - but permanently high standards deserve our highest praise.

I hope you find this year’s book as impressive as I do. And please try to imagine each page, not, as here, surrounded by work of equal merit but out there in the real world of its competitors. To do so is to realise the true scale of each achievement.