Brands Leading the Creative Conversation in 2022
This year we’ve been making strides to welcome marketers into the creative conversation - after all, great work starts with a great client. And what we’ve found is that marketing teams that are now experimenting with new ways of working, using creative thinking to tease out new business models and embracing imagination in a bid to entertain and grow.
The Big Picture: Reckitt Embraces Virtual Production at Scale
Reckitt proved itself to be a pioneer of marketing production with its virtual production experiment. Working with Havas, BETC Paris, OTO Film in Poland and Murphy Cobb Associates, they ran a pilot that proved to be so creatively impactful and financially efficient that they revealed their intention to produce over 80% of their content production using the innovative LED screen technology.
Specsavers Is Eyeing the Future as its Iconic Slogan Turns 20
If you’re not from the UK, it can be hard to comprehend just how embedded opticians brand Specsavers is into the local pop culture. The iconic endline ‘Should’ve gone to Specsavers’ is endlessly applicable to daily life. And so, as the slogan turned 20, we spoke to Nicola Wardell, MD of the brand’s trail-blazing in-house agency to find out how they’re keeping a comedy classic relevant with metaverse plays and elaborate special builds.
Why Ladbrokes Brought Rocky Balboa Out to Play
Rocky Balboa starred in a knockout campaign for an Entain-owned gaming and gambling brand, that combined brilliant craft with a sense of fun. It comes as part of a wider push for inclusive playfulness as the gaming and sports industry evolves in tastes, audiences and platform diversify. Entain’s UK brand marketing director, James Kennedy spoke about the heavy-hitting creativity mission.
IKEA and Accenture Song on Promoting Sustainability in Retail
2022 saw the impact of the climate crisis rage across the world, with extreme floods and forest fires hitting every continent. And so the race to find more sustainable, planet-friendly models is more intense than ever. With that in mind, we spoke to Anne Krogh, chief marketing officer of IKEA for Denmark and Adam Kerj, chief creative officer at Accenture Song in the Nordics, about their award-winning ‘CIRKULÄR’ retail project which saw preloved furniture come back to life.
How Chillys Became the King of Reusables Thanks to Creativity
When reusables brand Chilly's launched in 2010, it didn’t just face all of the usual challenges that come with starting a new business and bringing a new product to market. It also had to create and justify a whole new category - design-led lifestyle reusables - that had a right to exist. Fast forward 12 years and Chilly’s has become the byword for reusable bottles and coffee cups, and the business has blossomed, with sales of over £44 million in 2020. Director of creative and marketing Phil Jacobson reveals how storytelling, a strong point of view and clever collabs are supercharging the brand.
Brick by Brick: 90 Years of Lego Brand Building
This year Lego turns 90. The megabrand sells tens of billions of bricks every year. It has spawned its own movie franchise. It’s so famous that, according to YouGov, it’s a brand that is known by 99% of people - across gender, across age, across political bent. It’s the only toy brand to appear on the Interbrand top 100 ‘Best Global Brands’ list. So what better time to catch up with Alero Akuya, vice president of global brand development at the Lego Group?
National Geographic Is Using Immersive Tech to Expand Its Audience Horizons
Kaitlyn Mullin, deputy director of immersives at National Geographic, takes us to the frontiers of journalism. Jumping off from a new XR Stonehenge experience, Kaitlyn shares how technology can bring stories to life and help National Geographic’s readers truly explore the world. And this tech innovation is built into the brand’s DNA - back in 1905 it backed the burgeoning field of photojournalism and the rest is history.
Why an Ad Tech Company is Heading to the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is an annual jamboree for advertising and marketing folk, with hundreds of thousands around the globe glued not to the game but to the commercials. So where better for an ad tech brand to reach its audience? CMO Brendan McCarthy delves into the strategy and creativity behind their Floria Sigismondi-directed spot.
TikTok’s James Rothwell: Now Is a Golden Era to Seek and Nurture Creatives
From sponsoring the Euros and working on Ed Sheeran’s record-breaking live performance, 2021 saw social media app TikTok up its brand offering and become a staple in many peoples lives. To hear about how they achieved this, LBB sits down with Tiktok’s EMEA head of marketing who shares his thoughts on why nurturing teams is so key to becoming the most ‘relatable brand on the internet’ and what brands get right and wrong about talent and in-housing.
In a Divided World, Coca-Cola is Teaching the World to Sing Again
Music has always been at the heart of Coca-Cola – even before the brand taught the world to sing with its iconic 1971 Hilltop ad. As far back as the 1930s, the Coca-Cola Topnotchers was a 31-piece orchestra dedicated to performing on the brand’s very own radio shows. And in 2022, music is more strategically important for the brand than ever before. The global expansion of the Coke Studio platform puts music and experience at the heart of Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy following last year’s Real Magic launch and agency review, as Pratik Thakar and Joshua Burke explain.
Bram and Bruno: The Partnership at the Heart of Heineken’s Creative Hot Streak
Heineken is a brand that’s all about socialising, that idea that a beer can bring people together. So there’s a kind of poetry that the brand’s run of creative over the past few years is rooted in one of the tightest relationships in the industry. We caught up with Heineken’s global head of brand, Bram Westenbrink, and Bruno Bertelli, global CEO of Le Pub and CCO of Publicis Worldwide.
How Oatly’s Spirit of Jantelagen Conquered the World
To understand Oatly, you need to understand the Scandinavian ideal of ‘Jantelagen’ - the Law of Jante. Formalised by the satirical Norwegian-Danish author Aksel Sandermose, these social ‘laws’ go deep in Sweden, where the oat milk brand originated. Showing about oneself is verboten, and tall poppies will find themselves swiftly lopped down to a more egalitarian size. Michael Lee, who is a creative director at Oatly’s notorious Department of Mind Control, explains why humility and silliness are at the core of the brand.
Animal Adventures: Why Pet Friendly Travel Is Part of Mars Petcare’s Mission
The prolonged covid-19 pandemic has triggered two seemingly oppositional trends. On the one hand, years of intermittent lockdowns and international travel bans mean that in 2022, people are desperate to get out and travel. Indeed, according to a recent survey conducted for Mars Petcare, 70% of Americans are planning to travel this summer, with 68% planning to use a hotel. However, the coronavirus pandemic also led to a surge of pet ownership - all those adorable covid puppies - but travelling with your four-legged friend isn’t always the easiest.
Mars Petcare spotted an opportunity to solve a problem for animals and their human stewards, while also living up to its purpose: ‘A Better World for Pets’. Jam Stewart, vice president of corporate affairs at Mars Petcare, explains.
Purposeful Strides: The World Has Changed and Johnnie Walker Keeps Walking
Julie Bramham, global brand director of the iconic Diageo scotch whisky brand on the enduring power of ‘Keep Walking’ and how the team are ensuring the spirit of defiant optimism is kept fresh and relevant around the world.
Por La Cultura: How the NFL is Celebrating the Game’s Latino Community
At 31 million strong, the NFL has the largest Latino fan base of any sport in the United States, so this year they went large for Latino Heritage Month. However, as Marissa Solis, the NFL's SVP of global brand and consumer marketing explains, showcasing and highlighting the contributions of the Latino community is a key part of the league’s overall fan engagement strategy.
It’s Time to Lime: How the Micromobility Trailmlazer is Juicing Up Its Marketing
Since its launch in 2017, Lime has been turning our cities green - a bright, zesty green - with its dockless e-bikes and e-scooters. From the initial 125 bikes released at the University of North Carolina, its fleet now stretches across more than 200 cities, facilitating over 250 million rides. In 2021 it was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential companies. And now, with its new campaign, it’s hoping to join that rarefied group of brands whose name has become a verb. Google did it. Photoshop did it. In the UK, Hoover did it. And fellow transit disruptor Uber kinda has. But are you ready to Lime? Director of brand marketing, Christian Navarro, discusses a zippy campaign from the brand's in-house creative team and talks about the ambition to build a brand that's loved the world over.
