The Drum’s Chip Shop awards are like no other. It’s an award scheme with no rules – the work doesn’t have to have ran, a client doesn’t have to have signed the work off…in fact you don’t even have to have the brand as a client in the first place.

No, it’s simply an opportunity to show the world what great, unadulterated creativity looks like.

Music to the ears of creatives, then. And one that has always held a special place in the heart of MSQ’s agencies (in fact, Stein IAS were even chosen to launch the very first Chip Shop Awards in New York).

So you can imagine the excitement when this year’s Chips and Vinegar (see what they did there?) were handed out – via Zoom, of course – on Friday. And you can imagine the even greater excitement when not one, but two of them were handed to MSQ outfits.

The first of those came for a topical idea for the NHS, using ambient media at its finest to showcasing the importance of social distancing.

Created by Stephen Plaster and Dan Smith at Stack, the work won ‘Best Shop Window Post Card’ and was also chosen as a standout entry by The Drum’s Head of Content.

The second MSQ agency to triumph on the night was Stein IAS, in the Best Leisure category. The work for Spotify gave a mischievous nod to the only audience Glastonbury will have this year, with a poster that the jury called “A smart tongue-in-cheek response”.

Congratulations to both agencies! Check out all the Chip Shop award winners here.