Our favourite campaigns of 2021
It’s been a busy year for the industry, as well as difficult. The effects of the pandemic are still affecting everything around us, but as an industry, we’ve shown resilience and that’s shone through in the campaigns this year. In no particular order, we’re taking a look at some of our favourites.
1. Dubai Tourism
In the latter half of the year, we worked with Dubai Tourism to get their latest tourism campaign out across the whole of the UK. It was first featured on TV and Digital Out of Home, and was then shown in cinemas. The creative includes stars Jessica Alba and Zac Efron, and the advert is a spoof of a spy film, in which the American actors Zac Efron and Jessica Alba show off Dubai’s tourist hotspots, in the guise of the action film genre. The other creatives were designed in the style of action movie posters, showing the two stars in iconic locations in Dubai, but they’re also bright and bold- a twist on the typical tourism campaign, instead planting the idea of action & adventure in potential tourist’s minds.
2. Pets at home
Pets at Home launched their first fully integrated campaign this year, under its new brand communication platform, We're better with pets.
Working with The&Partnership, the campaign was shot by award-winning director Nicolas Jack Davies through Sweetshop. It champions the realisms that come with pet ownership and the extra mile we’ll go for our pets, positioning Pets at Home’s vets, groomers and pet care advisors as always present to help through all the ups and downs of owning a pet.
We’re better with pets presents itself as a celebration of how pets enrich our lives as humans, but it is also an authority claim for Pets at Home, who, with their family of services, offer the expertise and knowledge for pet owners so they can be the best they can be.
This particular campaign is the first in a new & long-term creative approach for Pets at Home; this is to establish its unique offer as a full-service pet care business, in which it provides a wealth of support for pet owners, including health plans, grooming, veterinary care, subscriptions and the Pets at Home VIP Club.
3. Dominos ‘DOMIN-OH-HOO-HOO’
The UK’ s favourite pizza company, Domino’ s, launched a bold campaign which welcomes the nation back to enjoy the group get-togethers after restrictions lifted in the summer. The ad Introduces a Group Ordering app feature, and the integrated campaign aims to re-engage customers, encouraging the nation to connect with friends, family and colleagues through a shared love of the country’ s best-loved pizza. DOMIN-OH-HOO-HOO is playful, fun and does a great job at encapsulating what it’s like to order pizza with and for your best mates, in an uplifting and unexpected attention-grabbing way.
4. Marketing Liverpool- Get Away to it All
We worked with Marketing Liverpool on their major summer campaign this year. It was aimed at tourism recovery to bring back footfall, and spend to the city as the nation slowly returned to normality.
We needed to help Marketing Liverpool showcase the offerings and attractions with the city and wider city areas; so we carefully planned the campaign with the most engaging creatives to reach their key audiences. The campaign is titled Get Away To It All, and the creatives appeared on video on demand and digital advertising across Manchester, Yorkshire, North Wales and the Midlands. The creatives also featured short films and photography; showcasing the best of the area.
5. Pret brings back Christmas in July
The sandwich shop franchise brought Christmas forward by 6 months by releasing its beloved Christmas sandwich in high summer.
Pret made the decision after being inundated with messages from customers who missed out on their Christmas range last December.
So, as an act of kindness, Pret brought back the seasonal sandwich for a limited time only.
It was on sale throughout July and only July, and the sandwich features turkey with a port and orange cranberry sauce, herby pork stuffing squashed into thick-cut bread with baby spinach, mayo and crispy onions.
Pret worked with Kode Media to launch it and they brought in Slade frontman Noddy Holder for the ad; featuring him dressed in summer get up as Slade plays in the background of a Pret store. Anything Christmas related would capture your attention in July, but the reasoning behind the seemingly odd ad is truly wholesome and feel-good. All in the Christmas spirit.
6. Channel 4 / Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games: Super. Human.
Channel 4 launched a major new advertising campaign for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games yesterday. It’s titled ‘Super. Human.’ And it’s made by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Bradford Young. Super. Human. explored the many sacrifices made by Paralympians to pursue their dreams of being crowned Paralympic champions.
Unlike previous iterations of the Superhumans campaigns, this focuses on the fragilities and day to day struggles facing elite athletes; putting the emphasis on human over super.
The ad opens with Paralympian Kadeena Cox in a dream sequence facing the pressure of repeating her gold medal performances from Rio 2016. But a starting pistol shakes her out of the dream, and reality bites. It was conceived by Channel 4's multi award-winning agency 4Creative.
7. Grab a Jab- NHS south east
We ran an integrated campaign with the NHS South East to dramatically improve the uptake of vaccinations in young adults in July, as part of the vaccination effort. The multi format campaign was strategically planned and executed within 8 days from receiving the brief, with the removal of restrictions. Eye-catching and bold creatives were showcased on Digital AdVans, a perfect format to capture the attention of a young audience who are on the move.
Other aspects of the campaign included going live on Spotify, busy spots like malls and bars, and across digital/social channels.
The campaign was underpinned by the phrase ‘grab a jab’.
8. The world’s first liquid billboard
To promote and launch its new inclusive, full-cover swimwear collection, Adidas revealed the world’s first-ever liquid billboard in Kite Beach; one of Dubai’s most popular public beaches.
Adidas and its agency Havas Creative Dubai unveiled the ground-breaking activation of a 5-meter high and three-meter deep swimming pool. Content from the liquid billboard was aired directly onto a digital screen above the renowned Dubai mall ice rink, next to the Adidas flagship store, allowing shoppers and mallgoers to enjoy the unique experience.
To reinforce the brand’s global attempt to ensure that sport is welcoming for all, women of Dubai were invited to participate by taking a dive ‘beyond the surface’.
The empowering women who took the public dive into the liquid billboard included Adidas’ ambassador and amputee triathlete Dareen Barbar who is also a Guinness world records title holder as well as Adidas ambassador Raha Moharrak, the first Saudi Arabian woman to climb Mount Everest. All in all, the liquid billboard is a dazzling dive for new forms of OOH advertising, and it shows a brand genuinely trying to ensure they stick to their mottos.
9. Campaigns: Create Not Hate / Shout 85258: Better Out
The racist abuse aimed at Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho after the Euro 2020 final isn’t just about missed penalties and it isn’t confined to elite footballers. Shout 85258 collaborated with Create Not Hate to create a campaign which addresses the fact that young black men face racism every day, on top of the same stresses that everyone else faces, yet too often they feel obliged to put on a brave face.
Shout’s research conducted by agency The Outsiders explored black youth culture and common barriers to mental health in the black community. Shout and The Outsiders concluded that, through their research, that this is a group in which many boys and men are struggling with mental health but don’t feel like services like Shout are for them. Often there is a reluctance to open up about anxieties because of pressure to maintain a persona that’s strong and not overly emotional.
The new campaign, “Better Out” encourages young black males to take their mental health seriously, to open up and share their emotions, and to use the Shout 85258 text service to seek help if they need it - however big or small their worries.
The campaign explored the insight around masking emotions through two different campaigns:
· The first is ‘Hide Your Unhappy’- a campaign which uses a provocative headline to grab the attention of a new demographic for the Shout helpline. The marketing campaign offers “Free Smile Masks” depicting the faces of smiling young men to help you “Hide Your Unhappy.” On the back of each mask is a message telling people that they don’t need to hide behind a smile, urging them to talk over their problems with Shout by texting BETTEROUT to 85258.
· The second execution is a video featuring a conversation between two young men that captures the superficial chat and the unspoken feelings behind it. This conveys the ‘Better Out’ message and shows how masking conversations can exacerbate negative emotions when feeling low. This is going to be shared across social media channels most popular with young people: Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube.
Shout 85258 is a free, confidential, 24/7 text messaging support service for anyone who is struggling to cope. They launched publicly in May 2019 and have had more than 750000 conversations with people who are anxious, stressed, depressed, suicidal or overwhelmed and who need immediate support. The campaign has been funded by Harry’s, a men’s care brand who have a social impact mission of giving to organisations that promote better mental health care for men.
10. Reddit- ‘Maybe Together We’ll’
We worked with Reddit on their campaign that celebrated the one-year anniversary of the opening of its U.K. office in the Holborn section of London. The campaign was aimed at spreading the word about the depth and breadth of communities on Reddit, including thousands that are focused on the U.K. High-profile OOH placements were deployed throughout London, including at Waterloo Station, Westfield London Shopping Centre, 26 tube stations around central London and on streets in suburbs. “Maybe Together We’ll” also incorporated addressable television, digital channels and over the top video. Reddit plans to boost its U.K. workforce by 50% by the end of 2022, with a focus on its community, engineering, marketing, media partnerships, product and sales teams. Additionally, the platform’s user base in the U.K. grew 48% year over year, with Redditors in that market spending an average of 31 minutes per day and country-specific communities seeing rapid growth, including r/askuk (up 97% year over year) and r/casualuk (36%). Our campaign hopes to boost this growth further.
11. Shift
Making waves across London, one of our most recent campaigns was for Shift, a London based moving company. The campaign was large scale for brand awareness in London across different OOH formats. The creatives are bright but simple; showcasing that Shift can move absolutely anything for you, in their distinct pink brand colouring. To make them stand out even further, the captions on the creatives use alliteration- making them memorable and rhythmic. One such caption is ‘Alex shifted his ancient armour all the way to Aberdeen.’ The taglines are also clever as they naturally tie in different locations across the UK.
12. Spotify Wrapped
Music streaming giant Spotify released Wrapped, its annual celebration of audio consumption. It’s added a slew of new personalised data stories and made the experience more shareable than ever.
The creative was designed in-house, with aid from external production agencies and those opening the app will receive a newly personalised experience. Since its launch in 2016, Spotify has found new ways to surface its data into compelling narratives. This includes 2021: The Movie, Your Audio Aura, Playing Cards, and 2021 Wrapped: Blend.
These cards are also now more shareable than ever, integrated with Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and now, TikTok where music is an essential component.
170 artists have also been invited into the process, users who have them among their favourites will receive a pre-recorded thank you, and from the creator side, artists will be able to explore the many ways they were listened to.