You know that feeling when you admire someone else’s work, but you also feel a little envious? Creatives are familiar with this feeling what with so much stellar work constantly being lauded on the global stage throughout the year.
We invited creative leaders, strategists, and designers to reveal campaigns from last year that they wish they worked on. Their picks range from interactive audience engagement and humour to social commentary and clever design, demonstrating the many ways creatives get inspired.
Matt Stoddart
Executive creative director, TBWA Melbourne and Eleven
Campaign: Door Dash – ‘Door Dash All The Ads’
The Super Bowl has long been famous for beautifully crafted films. Going right back to when Macintosh launched with the infamous '1984'. So much so that a lot of people watch the Super Bowl now just for the ads. But there has been a shift in the last few years to engage that active audience beyond just entertaining them, which is incredibly smart.
‘Door Dash All The Ads’ is a campaign I’m super jealous of. I’m a sucker for a cracking direct response campaign. Especially one that disrupts an audience who are surprisingly strapping in to watch some ads. I know hijacking the Super Bowl isn’t new; Volvo, Tide and other big brands have done it very well in the past. But what really sets this campaign apart from the rest was the consumer journey. They teased the campaign prior using earned media, they engaged the audience throughout the game via social, and then finally they built in a direct response mechanism to let people interact via the website. Every part of the campaign journey was meticulously planned and considered to leverage this active audience, resulting in a masterclass of audience engagement.
Andres Aguilar
Creative director, UltraSuperNew Tokyo
Campaign: Pop-Tarts - The Edible Mascot by Weber Shandwick, Chicago
As someone living in Japan—the land of mascots, where everything from brands to municipal governments boasts its own cute anthropomorphised character—and having spent way too much time working closely with a famous mascot myself (Duo, the unhinged Duolingo owl), I loved Pop-Tarts’ 'The Edible Mascot' by Weber Shandwick, Chicago. The idea is simple yet deliciously macabre: a feeble, pathetic mascot designed to be eaten by its audience. It’s not just a clever showcase for the product but also perfect fodder for those endless nights of doomscrolling. At some point, while watching the videos, you’re caught between laughing and genuinely worrying for everyone involved. I guess it’s a pitch-perfect reflection of the year.
Paolo Agulto
Executive creative director, Iris
Campaign: Penny Price Packaging
Our industry is in its most innovative—and in my opinion—most thrilling era. New boundaries and technologies are constantly being explored. But every once in a while, something comes that reminds you how powerful existing platforms can still be.
This year, that something is Penny Price Packaging—product packs that are designed to showcase the price. Everyone knows that mass packaging requires many months to produce. By printing the price directly on the packaging, the brand is making an irrevocable public commitment to keeping its prices low.
This is the kind of work that only happens when clever problem-solving, brilliant design, and client commitment coalesce. It’s a masterclass on how powerful creativity can be, when it’s deployed by brands that are willing to walk their talk. Above all, it’s proof that innovation isn’t always about creating what doesn’t exist. Sometimes, it’s about rethinking what does. Absolutely brilliant. I’m almost angry that I’m not a part of it.
Simon Friedlander
Creative director, Howatson+Company
Campaign: Coors Lights Out
For me, the work that got away was ‘Coors Lights Out.’ After Shohei Ohtani, the biggest player in baseball, hit a ball directly into a Coors Light ad leaving a black square of broken pixels on the can, the brand turned what could have been an embarrassing moment into a cultural phenomenon.
Brands often talk about how they want to move at the speed of culture, but few rarely do. Within 48 hours, Coors created a commemorative series of cans with the same black pixel knocked out in the logo and they broke every one of their other ads too.
It blew up on social and tied the brand to Ohtani in what became an unofficial sponsorship that would have been worth millions. Being able to pull this off for a giant beer company that quickly couldn’t have been easy. I can just imagine the creative team furiously making a deck to sell up the chain to embrace this random baseball-sized gift.
The act went viral, baseball fans lapped it up and praised the brand all over social media, which proves that with a great client-agency relationship and a strong brand, you truly can become part of culture.
Alice Chou
CCO, Dentsu Creative Taiwan
Campaign: WoMen’s Football / Orange / MARCEL, Paris
I envy Orange’s ‘Women’s Football’—not just for working with top football stars but for delivering a shockingly real viewing experience that exposes biases against women’s football. With AI, they highlighted humanity—bold, moving, and unforgettable. The message hits hard and stays.
Christophe Willocx
Senior creative director, BBDO
Campaign: Pedigree - Adoptable
A really smart usage of AI technology and knowledge of how media buying works. As a creative, we often forget we're part of a whole marketing ecosystem, and finding the right media for your idea is just as important as the idea itself. I love how they managed to solve a problem (low adoption rate of pets) through real-time digital billboards & banners, which makes it even smarter. It's all just so smooth.
Instead of relying on the 'model dogs' from casting agencies, they actually show you the "reality" of dogs that need your help. And that truly fits their purpose to end dog homeless. This make the campaign way more ownable for Pedigree. It offers a great lesson to rethink the way everything "is meant to be", and say, "hang on, why don't we...". That sort of bravery is what makes people notice you.
Yuchien Wang
Copywriter
Campaign: Google Pixel - Javier in Frame
This Google Pixel campaign, titled Javier in Frame, uses AI to help people with low vision capture moments in their lives through their phone cameras. I'm always drawn to campaigns that address real-life issues and make a positive impact by solving them. Brands can not only sell products but also improve lives—and it's great when they can do both. By focusing on a commonly overlooked group, Google identified a meaningful pain point and solved it beautifully with existing technology, making a real difference in people's daily experiences.
Kentaro Kimura
International chief creative officer, Hakuhodo
Campaign: Pedigree - Adoptable
About 20 years ago, when I visited Cannes Lions for the first time, I was fascinated by a film 'Dog's Rule' by Pedigree which begins with the statement 'We’re for dogs'. I believe it was one of the first cases of a company declaring its corporate purpose at a time when the term 'brand purpose' did not exist. Pedigree’s 'Think from the dog's perspective and serving the dog' spirit has, 20 years later, become an evolved platform through centrally controlled OOH and AI technology. Transforming all petfood ads into foster parents’ ads is a social good platform for dogs, disguised as marketing aimed at humans. I felt I witnessed the true power of purpose-driven marketing, which is not just a fleeting marketing trend.
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