1) The push to :15s as being the new norm for many brands. As brands try to achieve reach in a fragmented media environment – seeing more and more a desire to only do :15s. This forces everyone; clients, agency and production, to really prioritize the messaging. Less real estate. Less messaging. The challenge is this often isn’t easy. It worked well for our Diet Dr Pepper Lil Sweet campaign – because in the 5th year of the campaign, we have a finely tuned strategy and have built enough equity in the character. But launching new campaigns with limited real estate is a challenge. The opportunity is that when you only have 15 seconds to state your case, you ought to stand out, which could open the doors to more creatively dynamic work.
2) Obviously, the new AirPods spot was beautifully done. I love what AT&T has been doing mixing genres in their “More For Your Thing” campaign. The Skittles Broadway Play was super entertaining. Personally, I loved Robo-Cop as Colonel Sanders for KFC. And more recently Bud Light’s Area 54 can. Very topical.
3) Trying to think modular and “use every part of the Buffalo” when it comes to production. Besides a shift to :15s – there is such an appetite from clients to feed the content beast, ie: :06s, bumpers, different social channels, etc… We work with production and business affairs to make sure we are being efficient, but still allow us to create more content from almost every set up on our already tight shoot days. In our newest campaign, “The Adventures of Dr Pepper” we worked with our director, Taika Wahtiti, to devise a modular :30 second launch spot. The first :15 seconds acts as an intro to the campaign. The second half is more of a traditional :15 second spot. This allowed us the option in edit to easily create our :15 second lift. It worked out great and gave us more real estate to introduce our new campaign and character.
4) I think heading into an election year the social conversation will continue to take a turn into some very divisive and serious areas. And how brands decide to either engage or not will be interesting. I think many will choose, rightly, to stay out of the fray. This political landscape will be heated. But if I had to predict the immediate future, everyone will be talking about the return of “Fansville,” Dr Pepper’s Clio-Award winning College Football Campaign.
5) One recurring theme I notice is that Apple wins lots of awards. But seriously, I think the bigger brand work, and cause marketing, from brands like Apple and Nike are always going to garner more of the prestige awards. It’s just the nature of things. Similar to how certain movies attract awards as well.
6) It starts with asking to see more reels from filmmakers with diverse backgrounds. And digging a little deeper than the usual sources. I know it’s on everyone’s mind, but I think as an industry everyone could be doing a better job.
