Thinkbox Chief Executive Tess Alps and Media Week Editor Steve Barrett doff their hats to the biggest and boldest TV planning from the last twelve months at the 2009 .

We were thrilled to get so many excellent entries for the second Thinkbox TV Planning Awards. Both the volume and the overall quality had gone up this year. Thank you.

We appreciate entries take time to write well, but explaining your objectives, strategy and execution and pulling together all the evidence of their effectiveness is a great discipline, whether you end up entering the paper at all, let alone winning an award.

Big thanks too to the array of media and marketing gurus who were our judges. What a line-up. It's a chunky task to read, absorb and critique 18 complex papers - all our judges were masters of the task. Today's dynamic TV landscape demands that the very best brains in the business get involved in how TV is used and how it is integrated into total communications strategies, and we certainly had the very best brains as judges.

Thinkbox believes TV is the most effective advertising medium, but we would never advocate its solus use. Integration with other media or marketing techniques is crucial. The internet is helping TV's value become better appreciated, either because it catches the effect of TV more immediately and transparently than in the past, including instant purchase, or because it can extend and deepen the talkability that TV starts.

But the internet is also helping people understand TV's multitude of opportunities in a new context. Brands rightly devote energy to and get excited about 20,000 YouTube views or 5,000 Twitter followers or Facebook friends.

So why wouldn't planners also value and devote more time to getting the best out of TV formats that have been undervalued in the past? Red-button interaction, online TV, "smaller" TV sponsorships or advertiser-funded programming can generate deeper relationships with millions of people.

The burden of proof for the value of media investment is on all our shoulders as never before. We should never be ashamed of recommending that advertisers spend money if we know their business will reach its objectives as a result. Return minus investment should be our mantra, not return divided by investment.

Big brands use more TV because TV makes brands bigger

Chairman of the judges
Tess Alps

The commercial television landscape is changing faster than ever before and it is set for even more revolution over the next 12 months as the UK's TV companies investigate all possible market formations to ensure their businesses remain lean and fit for future years.

That is likely to lead to, among other things, consolidation and fewer buying points. However, whatever the future TV landscape looks like, there is no doubt television retains its unique power and remains the only medium through which advertisers can reach genuinely mass-market audiences in one hit and make their brands famous.

Indeed, at Media Week's recent Media 360 conference, it was significant to hear high-profile clients such as Unilever's chief marketing officer, Simon Clift, and Procter & Gamble's marketing director, Roisin Donnelly, reaffirm their commitment to TV's "fantastic power", as Clift put it.

But he also cautioned that "top down" thinking that places TV first and everything else as a "decoration to the main dish" is fundamentally wrong, and media agency planners would do well to heed that advice.

The Thinkbox TV Planning Awards, in conjunction with Media Week and Campaign, highlight the best of the biggest, boldest TV planning over the past 12 months, as well as the smart integrated work that will increasingly characterise the future of television campaigns.

From MEC's big-ticket work for Morrisons through to Universal McCann redirecting Autoglass' marketing strategy from radio to TV and PHD's Yoobot work for British Heart Foundation, this year's entries showcased the best in TV planning of all types.

Thank you to Thinkbox for its continuing support of these important awards and to the high-profile panel of judges for giving up their time to make sure we came to the right decisions - and congratulations to all the winners and short-listed entries.

Editor of Media Week
Steve Barrett