Creativity showed signs of emerging from a dark period during 2024’s first half as marketers shook off the hangover from a pair of years that pummeled budgets. A resurgence in brand constructing might be a response to the perceived overcorrection toward performance marketing because the pandemic. Marketers are also vying to prove their value as many corporations mull adopting generative artificial intelligence, a technology that has already spurred some businesses to trim their human talent, to much consternation.
Signaling the vibe shift, 2024 began with people still buzzing over a headline-grabbing stunt from the vacations, when Pop-Tarts introduced a pastry mascot to its college bowl game that was willfully sacrificed as a meal for the winning team. A mix of grotesque and funny, “The First Edible Mascot” ploy created with Weber Shandwick helped set the tone for the months ahead and went on to say the Brand Experience and Activation Grand Prix at Cannes Lions in June.
Marketers didn’t at all times land on confident footing in H1. Tone-deaf ads — including several produced in-house — ignited the fallacious form of PR while occasions just like the Super Bowl delivered few water-cooler conversation starters. Risk-taking remained rare as marketers felt torn between wanting to maintain pace with culture and avoid landing in the social media hot seat.
“There’s a lot promoting on the market that it’s easy to turn into wallpaper,” said Chris Bellinger, chief creative officer at PepsiCo Foods U.S., who was behind one in all the 12 months’s best campaigns up to now this 12 months. “Putting something on the market that nobody feels anything [about] or reacts to it’s just not value it.”
Below, Marketing Dive has assembled essentially the most impactful marketing from the 12 months’s first half that showed brands mastering media strategy, recent technology and other bets that resonated with consumers.
Stephen Tobolowsky stars in a Lay’s ad that nods to his role because the infernally annoying Ned Ryerson in the film “Groundhog Day.”
Courtesy of Frito-Lay North America
Lay’s provocative media buy channels ‘Groundhog Day’
Seeing the identical ad multiple times during a single broadcast (and even ad break) is a familiar frustration. On Groundhog Day, Lay’s leaned into ad frequency madness by running eight spots a total of 75 times on ABC, a media buy representing one-third of the Disney network’s industrial inventory. Maximum Effort, Kimmelot and OMD assisted on “Groundhog Lay’s,” which received 1.4 billion earned media impressions.
To hammer home the repetitiveness, creative paid homage to “Groundhog Day,” with Stephen Tobolowsky (who played Ned Ryerson in the film) visiting the checkout counter multiple times and reliving the identical anodyne conversation. Each of the ads shows a different Lay’s chip, constructing on the storyline as Tobolowsky realizes he’s trapped in a time loop.
“Groundhog Lay’s” got here together in just two weeks based on a Maximum Effort pitch while the commercials were filmed in a single day, breaking the standard approach to holiday marketing campaigns that are often months in the making. With little room to check, the PepsiCo snack brand was in a position to take larger risks.
“I feel that actually gave us a lot more freedom and leeway to take some swings and have some fun,” said PepsiCo’s Bellinger.
“Groundhog Lay’s” represented the rare modern media buy in 2024, a 12 months that has seen linear TV ad spending decline further. And while some viewers — particularly those of “General Hospital ” — griped concerning the blitz, overall sentiment was 93% positive.
“You can’t buy that type of conversation,” said Bellinger. “Live TV was the explanation this was in a position to work, because [the spots] were in sequence … It was appointment TV, which was great.”
CeraVe scores a Super Bowl win with Michael Cera
Amid a sea of play-it-safe ads at this 12 months’s Super Bowl, few were as well-received as CeraVe’s gloriously weird activation with Michael Cera. The ad, which positioned the actor because the wannabe mastermind behind the L’Oréal skincare brand, was also an outlier for its reliance on earned media. The final spot served because the culmination of a weekslong hype-building play spanning Instagram videos, paparazzi photos, influencer unboxings and podcast appearances.
“We didn’t have a Super Bowl TV ad with an influencer 360 extension, we had a guerrilla influencer campaign that had a TV ad,” said Adam Kornblum, global chief creative at L’Oréal.
The effort, which teased CeraVe’s first-ever big game ad by leaving consumers wondering what its ties to Cera were, climaxed days before the sport with the launch of iamcerave.com and a video spot. The game day industrial — where Cera asks consumers to “let my cream hydrate you” — ended with the brand asserting it is definitely dermatologist developed.
I feel this campaign probably modified the way in which individuals are going to approach the Super Bowl next 12 months.
Adam Kornblum
Global chief creative, L’Oréal
The campaign was developed and executed with WPP, led by Ogilvy PR North America, and was strategized to align with the brand’s social-first strategy, which has helped it win over Gen Z, while also meeting CeraVe’s commitment to “edutainment,” said Charlie Tansill, Ogilvy North America’s president of PR, influence and social.
In total, the campaign achieved over 32 billion earned impressions and was ranked essentially the most effective Super Bowl campaign on TikTok by ad research company Daivid. The effort, which won the Social and Influencer Grand Prix on the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, also skyrocketed sales for the brand in the weeks following the sport, Tansill said.
“I feel this campaign probably modified the way in which individuals are going to approach the Super Bowl next 12 months,” said Kornblum.
E.l.f. Beauty’s “So Many Dicks” campaign centers around edgy out-of-home visuals in New York’s Financial District that call for more diversity in U.S. corporate boardrooms.
Courtesy of E.l.f. Beauty
E.l.f. centers on purpose with ‘So Many Dicks’ campaign
Purpose-driven marketing plays have been few and much between in 2024 as brands proceed to drag away out of fear of backlash, making E.l.f. Beauty something of a trailblazer for its “So Many Dicks” campaign calling for more diversity in corporate boardrooms.
“So Many Dicks” launched in May and takes its name from the finding that there are nearly as many men named Richard, Rick or Dick as women from diverse groups on U.S. corporate boards. E.l.f. is an outlier, because the firm is one in all only 4 U.S. publicly traded corporations with a board that’s two-thirds women and one-third diverse.
The most significant time to get a message like this out is when the message is being drowned out.
Lisa Topol
Managing partner and executive creative director, Oberland
Attention-grabbing visuals calling out the preponderance of “Dicks” were placed around New York’s Financial District and stretched to the brand’s social channels. The diversity marketing effort, created with agency Oberland, notably arrives at a time when others have scaled back their DE&I efforts.
“The most significant time to get a message like this out is when the message is being drowned out,” said Lisa Topol, managing partner and executive creative director for Oberland. “E.l.f. is a purpose-driven brand, and they really represent that board diversity.”
The campaign is themed similarly to other efforts from E.l.f. and in addition arrives amid a period of explosive sales growth. The move garnered an overwhelmingly positive response, including calls from others desirous to become involved themselves, said E.l.f. Chief Brand Officer Laurie Lam.
“This campaign definitely achieved each one in all our goals and it lives true to our mission,” Lam said.
Heineken’s limited-edition “dumb phone” lacks web access and is inspired by brand-commissioned research that indicates a desire by younger generations to unplug.
Courtesy of Heineken
Heineken unplugs with ‘The Boring Phone’
Despite the world growing increasingly digital, younger generations have indicated a desire to unplug, a trend that Heineken tapped into with the discharge of a limited-edition “dumb phone,” entitled “The Boring Phone,” that lacks web access. The device was inspired by a brand-commissioned survey of Gen Z and millennial smartphone users, 37% of whom said they check their phones more often than they need to while out.
The Boring Phone has one week of standby time and 20 hours of talk time. Though a novelty item, the device is supported by several ads, created in partnership with LePub, that center on individuals putting down their smartphones during nights out to live in the moment.
“We got here to the conclusion that smartphones are only too interesting for social life. And so the Boring Phone idea was born,” said Sol Ghafoor, chief strategy officer at LePub, in emailed comments.
The phone debuted in April at Milan Design Week in collaboration with streetwear retailer Bodega, a move that sees Heineken joining the trend of forming non-endemic partnerships to achieve recent audiences.
Within an hour of launch, over 24,000 individuals had signed as much as attempt to secure the device, said Nabil Nasser, global head of Heineken, in emailed comments. The move arrived amid a period of sales growth for the brand, and up to date recognition at Cannes Lions for other creative swings.
“The campaign has been one in all our most successful so far and it’s been great to see the correlation between strong PR results and consumer engagement,” said Nasser.
Starburst’s recent brand platform uses generative AI as an example the multitude of how its candies might be eaten.
Courtesy of Starburst
Starburst vividly illustrates flavor variety with generative AI
Backlash against generative AI in marketing is boiling up as platforms produce suboptimal results while ethical and legal concerns mount. Some brands are still threading the needle in their experiments by applying the emergent tech toward a clear creative purpose.
Starburst hit the sweet spot with “Different Every Time,” a campaign that leverages generative AI to boost over 300 bespoke assets and highlight the multitude of how consumers enjoy flavors of the Mars candy together. Developed with Omnicom’s Team OMC, the trouble marks the introduction of Starburst’s first recent brand platform and repositioning in over a decade. Snapchat and Spotify integrations round out a Gen Z-friendly media plan.
In video ads, generative AI helps visualize a diversity of implausible scenarios with different aesthetics, from origami-inspired animation to a walk through of a neon-lit futuristic city. Starburst relied on Getty’s licensed ethical AI models for the execution and enlisted real actors and talent behind the camera, addressing concerns that AI might destroy the human touch.
“It was shot with real talent and supported with a large production team, in accordance with our policy on responsible use of AI,” said Heather Stuckey, vice chairman of brands and content, North America, at Mars, in an email. “The result’s a campaign not only reflective of the Starburst brand, but an example of what might be achieved when human creativity is augmented by responsible use of AI.”
NBA icons Grant Hill (left) and Anthony Edwards bring back an “Obey Your Thirst” campaign for Sprite that first bowed 30 years ago. Hill featured in the unique ads from 1994.
Courtesy of The Coca-Cola Company
Sprite reinvents an iconic ad for Gen Z
Dipping into an old well might be dangerous territory for a brand. In a culture beset by remakes, the prospect of coming off as stale or failing to live as much as past glories is high. Sprite avoided the lazy nostalgia trap with the return of “Obey Your Thirst,” an iconic tagline first introduced 30 years ago that has been updated for Gen Z.
Sprite established itself as a true challenger brand with the unique ‘Obey Your Thirst.’
A.P. Chaney
Senior creative director, Sprite North America
For the modernization, the lemon-lime soft drink enlisted NBA Hall of Famer Grant Hill for ads that reinvent his original spots from 1994 while passing the baton to Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, fresh off an on-court hot streak, and sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, expected to be a star at this summer’s Olympics.
“Sprite established itself as a true challenger brand with the unique ‘Obey Your Thirst.’ As we proceed to push boundaries and have fun counterculture, we’re deeply connected to the evolving desires and receptiveness of today’s audiences — which implies understanding that what it means to ‘obey your thirst’ could also be interpreted in a different way in 2024 than it was in 1994,” said A.P. Chaney, senior creative director for Sprite North America, in an email.
Chaney called out a standalone spot with Richardson that strikes a defiant tone, celebrating resilience and following “the sprinter as she rejects societal expectations and stays true to herself in the face of adversity.”
Agencies Majority and WPP OpenX aided in the trouble that speaks to the importance of selling to Gen Z and features “Obey Days,” digital experiences consumers can access by scanning QR codes on packaging.
A reminder of a deep cultural connection to basketball and sport comes as Coca-Cola-owned Sprite goes toe-to-toe with Starry, a newer offering from rival PepsiCo that signed as an official NBA sponsor last 12 months. While Starry continues to be attempting to make its mark, “Obey Your Thirst” provides a breezy reminder of Sprite’s legacy in addition to a look toward the longer term.
The Pop-Tarts edible mascot eagerly anticipates its demise at a college bowl game sponsored by the brand.
Courtesy of Pop-Tarts
Honorable mentions:
‘The First Edible Mascot’ from Pop-Tarts with Weber Shandwick
The Pop-Tarts edible mascot grabbed headlines by balancing the humorous with the disturbing as a brand character was gleefully devoured by hungry collegiate athletes. Its absence from the list is usually the results of a timing technicality: The stunt happened on Dec. 28.
Samsung’s ‘Creativity Cannot be Crushed’ with BBH USA
This video responding to rival Apple’s “Crush!” creative misfire — one in all the 12 months’s most controversial ads — represented a return to the form of tit-for-tat marketing that has helped drive innovation. But it could’ve been kicked up a notch further with a stronger paid media plan.
Dove’s ‘The Code’ with Soko and Media.Monks
Dove made a daring proclamation about not using generative AI in lieu of real models in its promoting, but an accompanying campaign sent mixed messages about image generators. Is the technology an existential threat to “Real Beauty” or a potential empowerment tool for girls? Can it’s each?
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