Each year, the strategy editorial staff take the opportunity around the holidays to single out work they saw during the year that they felt was deserving of a little bit of extra recognition. This year, we extended an invitation to professionals in the industry to give us their take on a particular campaign or trend that they felt might not have gotten the praise it deserves. For further Nice List content, check out part one.
Peter Ignazi, Global CCO at Cossette: Made Good makes good on a serious subject
Every brand is looking for their purpose these days. The challenge is, people are wise to this. If it’s just tacked on, they’ll call bullshit on it on seven different social platforms.
That’s why when you have a brand with actual purpose at its core there’s a huge obligation to not let the side down.
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What I love about Canadian company Made Good’s first global campaign [created by Broken Heart Love Affair] is that it took the responsibility seriously and handled serious subjects deftly. The series of poignant and touching spots (they feel more like a series of short films rather than ads) directed by my old friend Michael Clowater follows a group of young tweens as they deal with their anxieties over such issues as food insecurity and climate change.
Treading the tightrope of talking to kids and their parents at the same time, this work is entertaining, thought provoking and, in the end, will make you think twice about the choices you make in the snack aisle.
Trent Fulton, Chief Collaborator, Yes&: A first-class gravy plane
I love work that you respond to first and foremost as a consumer, not as an insider of the ad biz.
I must be an Air Miles OG, having had a gradually fading card in my wallet since I arrived in Canada, 25+ long years ago. That card gradually went from making me feel smart – hey I’m getting free shit, from the shit I’d buy anyway – to feeling like an antiquated loser, for holding on to an antiquated card, that seem to have zero relevance anymore.
Hello Aventura. Then bang, along came BHLA and made me love what I loved about Air Miles in the first place – It’s All Gravy.
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Not only was it so on strategy, it was so off brand creatively – because there was no brand left! They had to jumpstart the brand all over again, in the most fun-over-the top, ‘hey remember me’ way possible. And they’ve followed that all the way through to in-store and CRM.
Will it work? Who knows – but it’s making me keep my Air Miles card in my wallet (or on my phone, I’m not that antiquated) a little bit longer.
