Why BBH Bets on Risk—And Wins

Telling stories that are authentic and pose an element of risk make for some of the industry’s best work. Yet while that may seem an obvious feat on the surface, creativity is getting too complacent; Cannes Lions’ ‘State of Creativity 2025’ report reveals that only 13 per cent of companies are creative risk-friendly. 

BBH London, meanwhile, is an agency that embraces risk. Embodied by being the black sheep of the industry, being the zag to its zig, some of its most recent work provides prime example of doing exactly that. 

In order to make good work and get people talking, according to its executive creative director (ECD) Felipe Serradourada Guimaraes, telling stories authentically without fear is paramount. 

Last year BBH produced ‘Bundles of Joy’ for Burger King - a campaign that celebrated mothers having a burger as their first post-birth meal, based off Mumsnet's finding that a burger and fries are amongst the most wanted post-birth indulgences.

The campaign, Guimaraes believes shows one of many ways stories can be told authentically. 

“The director is a mother of two; the people that took part - all of the shots were taken by partners at the hospital. Us, as an agency, tried to take a step back, to let the people experiencing that to be part of telling that story,” he explains. 

“The work only landed how it should because we allowed the people that knew about it to tell it in their own kind of way.”

The campaign, quite quick to receive a heap of praise in breaking barriers on a topic not previously addressed, too faced backlash, with some people claiming the work was inappropriate - mainly men. 

“There were lots of strong opinions from men on what women should eat,” says Katie Evans, Burger King’s CMO, at Advertising Week Europe. “It was very visible and public on LinkedIn, and in some cases it came from the right place – but try telling a woman after 15 hours of labour that the right thing to do is have a green juice and wait for the response. That response started to play out in front of us.” 

For Karen Martin, CEO at BBH London, the response was anticipated, but one BBH and Burger King alike knew meant the work had done its job. 

“We had no idea it was going to be as big was it was,” she begins. “It was brilliant to see it happening because we didn’t force the conversation, women were coming forwards with a ‘hang on a minute’ attitude to anyone that had an issue. This was creative happening in real life.”

The work, despite the mixed response it garnered online, proved a hit for the brand which saw a sales boost during the period it ran. It also ranked in YouGov’s top five most popular dining brands in the UK in Q1 of 2025.

An avenue of authentic storytelling BBH has recently ventured down is gaming. Alongside Mentos, it came up with the ‘Fizzoka’ - a launcher inspired by the famed Coke and Mentos experiment that was brought to life in the online world of Fortnite. 

“The idea of introducing a brand into the gaming space: all of a sudden you reach a different demographic,” tells Guimaraes. “It’s interesting putting our work in places where people haven’t considered advertising because they don’t know what it is.”

In order to make such a piece of work, according to Guimaraes, having a team that is diverse in its talent and interests proved important. 

“Once we had the idea, we needed to think about who we bring in to be able to operate with gamers and that community - understand how does it land? What kind of gameplay do you need?” 

The Fizzooka gathered immediate discourse in the gaming community once live, and a minimum of 3000 people were using the launcher in their gameplay every day. In order to achieve this, developing the campaign with talent that understood the community was the main puzzle piece. 

“Everyone that was part of that community had an input. It was kind of built together with the people that get it.”

Attracting And Retaining Diverse Talent

In order to produce work that has a talking factor that isn’t an overwhelm of negativity, it’s important to encourage a culture of experimentation. And for BBH to continue standing out with its elbows wide, a key way of ensuring passionate, curious creatives can be onboard is through its Barn programme. 

Barn is the first and only ad school based in an agency that pays students the London living wage, removing barriers to entry into the industry. 

“Barn allows us to bring in young, different, diverse people into our business,” Martin explains. “We need a culture of openness, of curiosity. We need to listen to ideas. We need to listen to people if they’re extremely passionate about something. There isn’t too much hierarchy and that’s led to great work being made. Make creatives feel like we’re all here to make big work.” 

BBH’s work with Tesco, it believes, shows why attracting talent is so important: if you can make something as seemingly boring as a supermarket exciting, you can do anything. 

It’s out-of-home ‘ICONS’ campaign saw the removal of the Tesco logo in replacement for its produce; despite the removal of the famed red letters, many raved about the unique work.

The industry “thrives” on great insight, believes Guimaraes. “Brave insight comes from open mindedness and a safe space for people to throw their ideas into the mix.” 

However, finding a great insight isn’t as linear for all brands; Lions’ State of Creativity report too finds that 51 per cent of brands claim their insights are too weak to develop bold creativity. 

Tesco’s ICONS, he says, shows how BBH have created an environment that “encourages and tolerates” risk. 

Martin agrees, believing that when you get a “very beige insight” and fail to think outside of the box, execution can feel too “familiar”. 

“That’s the trouble at the moment,” she continues. “Everything is always free, sanitised. You've got to do the right things. But some things will go wrong - and that's grand because at least it’s being talked about.” 

The only way to overcome static work, according to Guimaraes, is investing in diverse talent, and, in turn, the industry as a whole will become a lot more attractive.

“The big mission for the industry is to push back into that space of being seen as rockstars. There was a moment where film, music, fashion and advertising were in the same realm. I want that same level of 'yeah, I want to be someone making great work in advertising’ as ‘I want to be a movie star’.