Features

Best Of Brain Food 2024

From McCann's Harjot Singh to St Luke's Flora Proudlock, we take a look back at what's feulling the industry's finest strategists

Five Reasons Why… Accenture Song Is Beefing Up Its Leadership Team

The evolution of the creative business continues with the hiring of Rebecca Bezzina reporting to Sohel Aziz, Accenture Song’s managing director

Work Of The Week: Cornelius The Cockerel, EE's 'Meltdown Cooldown', The BFG Returns And More

The best creative, curated

Insights from 2024's most creative marketers

As the year comes to an end, Creative Salon rounds up some brand marketing insights from the most creative in the business.

Best Of My Creative Life 2024

From Leo Burnett's Andrew Long to Edelman's Emma De La Fosse, we take a look back at what's fueling the minds of the industry's exceptional creative leaders

A Magpie Mindset And Chopping Veg: Will Grundy On Creating Space For Inspiration

Adam&eveDDB’s head of planning reveals how to do good thinking when the shower’s not an option

Building Strong Partnerships: Execs on Cultivating Client-Agency Collaboration

Open communication, mutual understanding and shared accountability lay the foundation for collaboration that delivers lasting results

What Changes Do Industry Leaders Wish For 2025?

We ask adland's execs what they'd like to see happen in the coming year

Behind Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team's Tribute Campaign to Lewis Hamilton

Discussing the development of the work are AMV BBDO’s executive creative director Laura Rogers and Bradley Lord, chief communications officer at Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

Behind John Lewis and Richard Ashcroft's reveal of 'The Gifting Hour' cover star

Saatchi&Saatchi chief product officer Jess Ringshall discusses the work behind the special Christmas Day release featuring a new version of the track 'Sonnet'

2024: The Year in Review

We take a look at a few of the events that marked out 2024 in advertising

How Ikea UK and Mother made everyday briefs wonderful

When Ikea's global approach to TV changed, alongside agency Mother, it saw the opportunity to make the 'smaller' bolder

VML Health's Claire Gillis On Humanising Healthcare

The agency's global boss on how the network is shaping up into its mega-merger, and the power of science and creativity

Is it time to rethink pre-testing?

This year's crop of Christmas ads has got the industry talking about the efficacy of pre-testing

Why Omnicom Is Acquiring IPG

The mega-deal will create the largest ad agency network in the world

Most Creative Marketers: Jennifer English

Johnnie Walker's marketing chief on the merits of AI and sustaining creative excellence

From Rituals To Revenue: How Everyday Behaviours Can Fuel Brand Meaning

The Gate's Kit Altin and Freemavens' Eleanor Lloyd Malcolm on why brands that tap into real rituals are more likely to become part of daily life—not just another ad to swipe past

What Brands Should Expect From Shoppers This Christmas

An overview of the expected habits of consumers over the current festive period

From Heineken To Haribo: Suzy Socker on Shaping Brands And Breaking Boundaries At Edelman

The new MD of brand is driving Edelman’s creative evolution, blending data, AI and cultural insight to craft impactful campaigns

Unvarnished Truths: How Creativity Can Shift Perceptions of Dementia

Alzheimer’s Society and New Commercial Arts' campaigns are sparking conversations and raising awareness to drive change in the fight against this devastating condition

Thriving in the Coconut-Context: Brands Riding the Fast-Fading Waves of Culture and Community

As cultural moments come and go, Leo Burnett's Beth Manning demonstrates that brands can thrive by engaging with niche communities and embracing fleeting trends for genuine connection

Scaling Smarter, Not Harder: Huge's Global CEO on Creativity, Tech and Winning the Long Game

As businesses face mounting challenges in 2024, Lisa De Bonis shares insights on staying ahead of the curve

The pursuit of creative excellence in the AI era

From Virgin Media O2’s chatbot granny, to Coca-Cola’s new iteration of ‘Holidays Are Coming’, AI is flexing its muscle – but could the rise of machine-produced work impact quality?

Work Of The Week: Whodunnit revealed; Musical Scratchcards; Out of The Maze and More...

The best creative, curated

How Heineken Turned the Tables on Football's Gender Bias with a Social Swap

The campaign challenged online prejudices, swapping Jill Scott MBE and Gary Neville X accounts to highlight the unequal treatment faced by female voices in sport

The Art Of Never Being Done: A Tribute To Frank Auerbach

Matt Waksman, head of strategy at Ogilvy UK, reflects on Auerbach's legacy and the raw, truthful creativity it continues to inspire

Finding Inspiration: Monty Verdi on Art, Authenticity, and the Creative Path

Grey London’s group creative director draws creative inspiration from The Fountainhead, classic cinema and the simple act of walking—blending authenticity with the demands of modern advertising

How slobbery dogs can inspire the antidote to boring B2B marketing

Why the Gate's chief strategy officer believes that some marketers need a move Pavlovian focused strategy

The Strategic & Creative Power of Earned Media: Lessons from Weber Shandwick Playbook

The agency's management team chats ambitions, AI and awards

Reasons to be optimistic about advertising in 2025

From a legacy of creative growth after tough times, to stability after this election year, ad execs offer up a dose of positivity for the New Year

Headphones, Inspiration Tabs and Cooking: Mental Nourishment For Weber Shandwick's Head of Strategy

Andrew Lopez shares his personal intellectual inspirations

From points to passion: breaking free from the loyalty program treadmill

The future of loyalty belongs to the brands that recognise transactions are no longer the currency of lasting customer relationships.

Toby Allen, Shula Sinclair and their '&-shaped people'

Eight months since the launch of the new fully-integrated agency T&Pm, we catch up with two of its principals to find out how it's panning out

From jeans to burgers: how BBH invented and reinvented ‘zagging’

The agency's Zig Index translates the art of creativity into a data-backed language brands can understand

The Marketers Who Make Christmas

It's the time for tinsel. Meet the marketers selling us Christmas spirit and brightening the media and our mood

Five things we learned about… surviving a global 'crisis hangover'

Just 100 days after the UK election, Leo Burnett shared its PopPulse report, which analyses the current mood of the nation

What Makes A Great Christmas Campaign?

Marketers and creatives share the key ingredients for success over the festive period

Imagination Without Boundaries: Edelman's CCO On Creativity in Everyday Moments

Emma De La Fosse draws on how her inspiration comes from everywhere

Celebrating Four Decades Of McDonald’s and Leo Burnett

McDonald's CMO Michelle Graham-Clare and Leo Burnett's ECDs reflect on how their deep-rooted relationship continues to shape the brand's creative legacy

Don Julio Brings Day of the Dead to the World, One Ofrenda at a Time

Diageo marketer Sophie Kelly discusses how artist-led installations have brought Mexico’s vibrant celebration to the world

John Lewis' Charlotte Lock Is Building The Home of Gifting

John Lewis’s customer director talks about the power of creativity, Christmas ads, and why Never Knowingly Undersold is the key to the department store’s future

Three Reasons Why WPP Has Acquired The Rest of T&Pm

A look at the potential strategy behind WPP taking over the agency it previously owned 70 per cent of, in full

Meet the pablo creative council

The agency's creative leadership explain the thinking behind the council's inception

Authenticity Under Fire: Gen AI's Potential Impact On Brand Trust

Could the growing use of machine-produced ads harm long-term consumer faith in a business' communications?

Inspiration Unplugged: Ben Shaw on How Comics, Comedy, and Kids Shape His Thinking

MullenLowe's CSO shares three sources of inspiration that feed his strategic thinking

A Christmas Whodunnit: Why Waitrose is solving its mystery in stages

The retailer's latest Christmas ad has turned us all into Sherlock Holmes, but why has the supermarket chosen to leave us hanging?

How Boots Will Make Magic Ahead Of A Wicked Christmas

Boots' chief marketing officer Pete Markey and VML UK's chief creative officer Ryan McManus discuss the strategy behind their latest campaign

Why Coca-Cola Has Committed To AI This Christmas

The brand's iconic 'Holidays Are Coming' ad for 2024 has been remade entirely with artificial intelligence

Keep Walking: 25 Years of Johnnie Walker's Iconic Brand Platform

The BBH-devised brand platform reaches a quarter of a century and continues to push the global whisky brand forward

What's Keeping Marketers Up At Night

Digitas UK CEO Jen Berry outlines some of the issues the agency has found that are impacting businesses just now

Humanising HMRC: How Pablo And Unlimited Group Developed "You're On It"

The campaign aims to draw awareness to the tax authority's online tools, especially its app, while initially targeting digital natives through its humour-led campaign

Acceptable in the 80s: The Creative Allure of Looking Back

From Levis turning back the clock with Beyoncé to Fanta celebrating Beetlejuice, nostalgia is here. But could a retrospective focus prevent new creativity from flourishing?

Winter Wonderland: The Christmas Ad Campaigns of 2024

A ongoing round-up of work celebrating the brand campaigns released for this year's festive season.

Three Reasons Why Pablo Has Opened Its Doors In New York

The agency's new US office will be led day-to-day by chief creative officer Scott Vitrone alongside managing director Hannah Hewitt

The Algorithm, The Tube and The Guardian: Tom Drew's Creative Life

VML's ECD shares his rather surprising creative inspirations

How Haribo and Edelman's Partnership is Helping Kids and Parents at Halloween

Edelman began working with the confectionary brand in 2023

Balance as Inspiration: Four-Day Weeks, Honest Conversations, and Kids' Books

St Luke's Flora Proudlock selects three sources that feed her strategic thinking

The Marketer Making An Iconic Move : Tesco's Becky Brock

Tesco's customer director and BBH signal fearless creativity in the latest ad campaign called 'Icons'

Spooky Season is An Annual Event More Marketers Could Tap Into

Brits have a growing enthusiasm for Halloween, making it a more attractive platform for brands to jump on board. The industry reflects on the possibility

Accelerating Change with a Smile: The AA and The Gate’s Joyride to Success

In two years this partnership has shown that effective campaigns thrive on a shared mission and bold ideas