Mondelez-owned Toblerone has unveiled its seasonal campaign, featuring its new diamond-shaped truffles. The ‘Whatever You Gift, Add a Diamond (Just in Case)’ campaign suggests that shoppers should add a Toblerone Truffle when out buying their festive gifts. As well as taking over various shop windows, Toblerone OOH digivans will be placed across London, serving content tailored to the nearest stores in locations such as Harrods, Oxford Circus, Westfield, and Covent Garden. Alongside the OOH, the campaign will feature influencers to drive the message further. To shape the campaign’s strategy, LePub and Publicis Media worked with Google to produce research analysing consumer insights and spending habits. Toblerone has also partnered with Selfridges to have a dedicated shop window and Toblerone-branded pop-up gift wrapping station in-score.
Ford has unveiled its new all-electric Puma Gen-E, with a social-first, creator-led campaign developed by Born Social, supported by Wieden+Kennedy and WPP. The ‘Big Cat Energy’ campaign stars a curated group of European creators and urban culture tastemakers, including Wretch 32, Topjaw, Dany Dann, and Marta Sierra. At the centre of the campaign is a 60-second hero film, which features a black cat prowling a studio, with its eyes catching a glimpse of the Puma Gen-E. This is supported by social assets in native formats and activity on the creators’ own channels. The campaign has gone live in 20 markets across Europe.
PepsiCo-owned snack brand PopCorners has launched a global brand campaign, introducing audiences to popped corn chips. The ‘Familiar, But Different’ brand platform targets millennial and gen Z audiences in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and The Netherlands. It features a series of six-second social-first assets, served sequentially, showing a couple experiencing things changing every time they bite into the snack. The campaign, created in partnership with VCCP, is running across social media, print, influencer channels, OOH, DOOH, and sampling.
According Dentsu’s ‘Read the Room’ report, millennials are standing out from other buyers, focusing more on independent, local and luxury brands. In fact, millennials are almost three times as likely (28%) to buy from independent, small businesses even if it costs more. This is compared with only 10% of boomers. Millennials are also most likely to do all their shopping online (28%), above gen Z (24%). And 42% of millennials are more likely to buy from brands that demonstrate purpose beyond profit, while 65% want to buy from brands that demonstrate emotional intelligence and understanding through their ads. Elsewhere, Dentsu’s latest Global Ad Spend Forecasts reveal a projected 6.8% growth in global advertising spend for 2024, reaching $772.4 billion.
Social impact agency Shape History has teamed up with Big Give, a match-funding charity, to launch the annual Christmas Challenge. From 3-10 December, every pound donated to over 1250 participating charities will be matched. To capture attention, Shape History’s digital and OOH campaign takes all the things that usually come in ones at Christmas time, and clones them to show the magic doubling impact of the Christmas Challenge. The goal is to engage a wide audience of UK donors through Meta, X, TikTok, and YouTube ads, as well as OOH displays across London. Celebrities involved in the campaign include former football manager Harry Redknapp, comedian Alan Carr, actress Adjoa Andoh, influencer Nikki Lilly, Coronation Street actor Kevin Kennedy, TV personality and former rugby player Giles Clarke, Challenge Anneka presenter Anneka Rice, and Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge.
Buy now, pay later provider Clearpay has appointed Bountiful Cow as its media planning and buying agency. Bountiful Cow is tasked with driving brand growth by maximising audience engagement, and implementing disruptive, cut-through communications.
To celebrate the 10th year of Wrapped, Spotify has launched a global marketing campaign across OOH, digital, social, and on-platform in 31 markets. This includes a takeover of The Outernet in London, where Spotify gave fans the chance to view their personal Wrapped results on the big screens, as well as providing Wrapped merch. The OOH part of the campaign is spotlighting some of the year’s cultural moments and trends, such as Charli xcx’s brat summer and the Oasis reunion. There’s also a range of Taylor Swift-specific activations. Spotify’s in-house creative team managed campaign design, while media is being handled by Publicis and content production by Curly Media.
Research by creator agency Billion Dollar Boy shows brand ambassadors are on the rise, with 61% of marketers across the US and UK having increased investment over the past 12 months. The rate of increase is set to accelerate into 2025, with the survey finding an extra 73% of marketers are planning to invest more in ambassador programs over the next 12 months. This upward trend is particularly prevalent among US marketers, with 85% planning spending increases over the next year compared to 61% of UK marketers.
Interpublic, Omnicom, and WPP have acquired a small minority interest in Mediaocean, as part of a Certified Service Partner (CSP) program. The trio of agency holding companies are the first partners of the program, which enables participants to integrate and offer Mediaocean’s adtech solutions.
To celebrate the launch of its festive Cuthbert chocolate treat, Aldi put on a Christmas choir outside of a competitor store. The ‘Merry Cuthmas’ choir remixed classic Christmas songs such as ‘Hark the Herald’ and ‘Joy to the World,’ while taking donations for Teenage Cancer Trust. McCann Manchester launched the campaign across social media.
The North Face has appointed Share Creative, part of SAMY Alliance, as its social media agency of record in Europe. Share Creative will help to develop The North Face’s consumer-centric brand proposition through always-on social media activations and campaigns. The agency has also been tasked with leading The North Face Europe TikTok, Instagram and Strava accounts.
Sport and entertainment agency Fuse, part of the Omnicom Media Group (OMG), has opened a new office in Mumbai, India. Led by Jigar Rambhia, OMG will look to use Fuse to capitalise on the sports marketing opportunity in India. nitial clients include Shriram Finance and Uni League Cricket. Rambhia previously held the position of Chief Operating Officer of Sporjo . Prior to this, he spent 16 years at Wavemaker and worked across agencies including TME (Rediffusion Y&R) and Madison Communications.
Janus Henderson Investors has appointed McCann Central as its agency of choice. McCann will focus on elevating the brand’s ethos, developing a multi-channel approach to position the asset management firm at the forefront of customers’ minds. The nwq platform will be supported by digital and static OOH, digital display, print advertising, social media content, and email marketing.
Data from performance agency Nest Commerce has revealed a record-breaking Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, with a significant increase in advertiser spend year-on-year, up 22% YoY. CPM was up 21% YoY on Black Friday itself, but fell in the following days. The UK market demonstrated strong efficiency throughout the weekend, with an average CPM that was 14% lower YoY. Meanwhile, the US market was more competitive, with average CPM up by 6% YoY. Brands participating in Black Friday experienced a significant increase in average click-through rate, up 36% YoY on Black Friday itself. However, engagement was notably lower for brands not running sales, down by 31% YoY.
Responsibly-sourced coffee brand San Francisco Bay Coffee – which is owned by the Rogers Family Company – along with its creative and media agency of record, Cutwater, have partnered together to launch a new brand platform and integrated campaign. The brand platform, entitled ‘One Small Sip For a Better Tomorrow,’ illustrates how positive change starts with small steps. The campaign, anchored by a series of animated films, will run across video, social, digital display, audio, OOH, ecommerce, and search.
Performance marketing agency Connective3 has announced that they’ve been appointed by health supplement brand BetterYou. Connective3 is tasked them with delivering a joint content, social, and paid media strategy intending to accelerate BetterYou’s brand awareness within the vitamins and supplements market.
