D&AD’s Jury Insights on Brand Experience
On a panel moderated by Hoxton Radio’s David Harris, creatives from across the industry shared the pieces of work which resonated with them within the 'Brand Experience' category of this year’s D&AD Awards. The criteria for this year are as follows:
‘Experience-led brand activations that target businesses and consumers. May take place in the physical world, the virtual world or a combination of both.’
The creative leaders from Ogilvy London, The Fitting Room, ADK Taiwan, Edelman and Zulu Alpha Kilo each chose a piece of work which they believed tied into this criteria successfully, and gave some context into why this was. With some of the overarching trends being a successfully conveyed brand tone of voice, driving talkability, solving a problem for a brand, inspiring engagement on platforms, or simply bringing a little joy to consumers, there were many reasons why these campaigns engaged viewers. What was most significant, however, was the opportunity that brands now have to be a part of culture by prioritising engagement and interactivity.
Keeping that in mind, here’s what each person chose:
André (Dede) Laurentino
Chief creative officer at Ogilvy London
Skinny - Phone It In
In a clever plan to avoid paying for expensive celebrity talent to voiceover its ad, New Zealand’s telco Skinny hatched a genius plan to create hundreds of ads without any voiceover spend. The ‘Phone It In’ campaign, chosen by André, perfectly captured the brand’s tone of voice, he said, while showcasing the craft behind the supporting copywriting and ensured that experience was integral to creating a successful campaign. A low-cost brand, creating a low-cost campaign and showing a bit of personality, what’s not to love?
Charlotte Mair
Founder and managing director at The Fitting Room
Colombia Journalism Review - Are You Press Worthy?
In this hard-hitting campaign, each person’s individual newsworthiness is called into question as the Colombia Journalism Review asks, ‘Are You Press Worthy?’. In what Charlotte described as perfect timing after both the covid pandemic and Black Lives Matter events, there was one underlying fact: “You couldn’t escape the data.” The Fitting Room’s founder and managing director enthused about how it drives talkability, holds journalists accountable and grabs an audience’s attention with the title. And by inputting your data and finding out just how many stories would pop up if a person went missing, news outlets were called out and forced to implement a real change.
Richard Yu
Chief creative officer at ADK Taiwan
Skittles - Apologize The Rainbow
When the sweets brand Skittles removed the lime flavour from its mix, it received quite a backlash. Boycotting the brand and calling it out on on social media, the brand perception from consumers took quite a negative turn, Skittles had some making up to do – and it did just that. Apologising to 130,880+ people for the decision, the ‘Apologize The Rainbow’ press conference made sure to relaunch the lime flavour with a vengeance. Tapping into the fun elements of the brand, rectifying what left many disgruntled and issuing a ridiculously long apology, Richard explained how he thinks Skittles changed the narrative on this one.
Judy John
Global chief creative officer at Edelman
Virgin Australia - Middle Seat Lottery
In a show of hands at the D&AD Festival Truman stage, it seemed that no one in the room was a fan of taking the middle seat on an aeroplane. This sentiment was something that airline Virgin Australia decided to flip the script on, as it made the middle seat the star of its campaign. Coining it the ‘Middle Seat Lottery’, Judy explained how the brand came back from covid fighting against the lack of flying by getting people to take even the most hated of seats. With the chance to win spa breaks, flights to Tokyo and a mountain of flying points, just by taking the middle seat, the campaign was so successful that it increased its app downloads by 36%. As Judy says, “No one downloads apps anymore!”. Using PR to drive commerce, the spot changed how Australians felt about taking the most hated of seats.
Jenny Glover
Chief creative officer at Zulu Alpha Kilo
Muskrat Magazine - Missing Matoaka
Taking on the powerhouse that is Disney, Muskrat Magazine pushed the boat out in a bid to rewrite the story of Pocahontas with the indigenous community in mind. Jenny explained how the magazine gave a voice to “a very quiet minority group” which exists and cleverly created an accompaniment to a preexisting piece of work. The campaign involves a voice recording, layered over Disney’s Pocahontas and dubbed to tell an accurate version of a story which is far removed from the original. To hear the real story, simply press play on the original movie and start the voice recording, you’ll soon see how the dubbing was created to match perfectly, and you’ll hear how the tale was supposed to be told.
