"Mercurial" is the impression you get of Daniel Bergmann, the larger-than-life EP of London-based Stink, when first meeting him. But on closer inspection his charming and impetuous persona masks an entrepreneurial acumen and creative sensibility driven by an unwavering belief in his own intuition. In others, that faith might be seen as hubris, but in his case it has helped build one of the world's top creative production companies. "Our expansions are not driven by any global strategy," he says over the phone from Buenos Aires. "It's based on our irrational enthusiasms to do really good, varied work and interact with talent and people."

Stink earns Boards' Production Company of the Year for two reasons. The first is the deep and varied body of work (plenty more on that later) underpinned by an unbending commitment to creative. The second is for its brave set of expansions, innovations and entrepreneurialism in a time of recession. But you have to wonder sometimes... Launching Stink Digital, led by a former journalist with no production experience? Setting up in China and Paris, and now Skunk, a US office of new animation and live-action talents? It's unprecedented, ambitious and steered by instinct, something that might seem counterintuitive in the midst of the worst financial climate in modern memory. A case of fools rushing in?

"From a business standpoint Daniel is incredibly intuitive," says Mark Pytlik, head of Stink Digital (and former associate editor at Boards). "He's very good at reading the market and he doesn't wait until somebody else is doing something in order to deem it the right thing to do. He definitely has the conviction of his beliefs."

With digital yet to prove itself as a reliable ROI, and most prodcos feeling out how to tap into the space, Stink Digital represents one of the most ambitious examples of Bergmann's convictions. This year it found its purpose, becoming a fully-fledged interactive production company. The New Year will see its three-month-old team, comprising former Flash developers, e-commerce, social media and digital agency producers, move to bigger premises in the East End. Pytlik sees a digital arm of traditional prodcos, focusing solely on filmed content online, as a strategic misstep. "We can still do films; we've signed directors who can do more interactive films but above and beyond that we can create microsites, Flash banners, environments for pay-per-vision, iPhone applications or widgets and desktop applications," he affirms. Plugged into a prodco, it offers a genuine one-stop solution for agencies to produce 360 campaigns. "We have our creative people and designers on shoots with cameras so they're getting everything they need for the sites," says Pytlik. "There is just less of a possibility for things to fall down and I think agencies appreciate not having multiple specialists."

If Stink Digital shows farsighted ambition, the film side of Stink bore creative fruits aplenty in 2008. Some of its stars had other commitments: Ivan Zacharias was low-key, hunkered down working on his feature film (developed by Stink); collective Stylewar had babies (plural), as did promising talents Ne-O. All nonetheless contributed gems. Zacharias ended the year with "Engineer" for Volkswagen, a thoroughly German take on kung-fu. Stylewar's neat in-camera spot for newspaper The Sun ("Big Paper") was a classic example of the collective's style. Ne-O's "Game Time" brought understated, beautiful charm to adidas' monster Olympics campaign.

While the big name draws had solid years, it was the next generation who really stepped up. Ben Dawkins flourished, helming impressive VFX work for 361 "Cube", the affecting Metropolitan Police "Box" and the laugh-out-loud Royal Mail "Cat". Bagging one of the biggest launches from adidas this year, Martin Krejci tried his hand at stop-motion, creating the three-minute "Adi Dassler" film for the Originals launch.

"It's not a big roster, they only take on directors they know they can sell," says Dawkins, buoyed from six busy months that have hugely broadened his reel. "They know I want to do a bit of everything. They're extremely professional: they back you up 100%, they get great work in and they know how to sell you."

Elsewhere, the roster shone. Neil Harris added to DDB, London's stellar year with animal antics for VW ("Poodle", "Snail") and lensed an improbable canine neighborhood pin-up in "Afghan" for Philips hair straighteners. Lionel Goldstein contributed verité-style online films for Nissan's Qashqai Car Games campaign that eclipsed the lackluster TV work.

Meanwhile promising new talents such as Gaëlle Denis, Arno Salters and Darkfibre all contributed to an output that spanned the creative spectrum in style and genre.

And then there was Psyop, now in its third year of partnership with the prodco. Initially an unlikely-seeming fit with live-

action specialists Stink, the pairing has since proved inspired. A planned merger between the two was scuppered by market turbulence, but they still remain firm partners. Psyop in 2008 has, by virtue of Stink's new outposts and its talents, pried open new markets with massive campaigns for adidas and Coca-Cola in China, Audi in Germany and jobs for Baileys in the UK and Fernet Branca in Italy. "The critical point for why we work so well is that we have similar philosophies: creative comes first," says Psyop EP Justin Booth-Clibborn. He cites their adidas China work as arguably its creative highlight of the year. It's also seen a stylistic evolution into more live action that mirrors Stink's remit to expand the repertoires of its directors.

While the commercial work has been hugely important, a highlight this year for Bergmann has been the branded entertainment projects that reflect an increasingly collaborative relationship with agencies. The adidas Originals campaign illustrates that; the two worked in partnership throughout the creative process. "No more borders between an agency and a production company," says Bergmann. "[This was] outlined, written and created with the agency, a complete collaboration, which I think is the direction things are moving."