It has been a year of technological advancements and unexpectedly harmonious brand collaborations. Some of the buzziest products broke through without massive media spending, thanks to creative flourishes that consumers couldn’t ignore.

Below, some of the best product launch marketing of 2024, in alphabetical order.

E.l.f. and Liquid Death’s Corpse Paint

It’s a real challenge to pick one product launch from e.l.f. or Liquid Death, given how they gain widespread notice seemingly every time they announce something. Thankfully, the collaboration between both brands in March eases that burden. Both are known for their funky, sometimes out-of-left-field collaborations. This year alone, Liquid Death has partnered with Van Leeuwen on a hot fudge sundae flavored sparkling water, Yeti on a casket-shaped cooler, Dr. Squatch on a dirt-murdering bar of soap and Depends on a Pit Diaper for concertgoers, while e.l.f. released a Tinder-themed makeup kit in September. Many of these collaborations are worth their own spot on this list, but the limited-edition, five-piece makeup kit that e.l.f. and Liquid Death packaged in a little black coffin stands out.

The Corpse Paint kit came with all the makeup tools a tween girl or neck-breaking metalhead needs to make themselves in the visage of a rock god. By finding shared DNA in the makeup space and wrapping the idea in classic Liquid Death comedy, both brands were able to create a product so highly desired that the $34 kit sold out in 45 minutes.

Hims & Hers GLP injections

Telehealth service Hims & Hers’ launch of its compounded semaglutide GLP-1 weight loss injections in May didn’t require a robust marketing lift. A 30-second spot promoting the launch got more than 8 million views on YouTube and remains one of the brand’s most popular videos.

Due to shortages, consumers couldn’t get their hands on enough brand-name GLP-1 obesity drugs, which helped Hims & Hers generate sales.

To keep the momentum going, the marketer purchased full-page ads in the New York Times news section every Sunday from Oct. 6 through the end of the year—using the space to plug its GLP-1 treatments and contend that a shortage of name-brand drugs still exists. On Nov. 4, it reported a 77% increase in third-quarter revenue.

McDonald’s Chicken Big Mac

Long beloved (or at least available) in overseas markets such as the U.K. and Australia, McDonald’s Chicken Big Mac hit the U.S. for the first time on Oct. 10 with a marketing bonanza. Streamer Kai Cenat was joined by the likes of fellow streamer Fanum (the origin of Fanum tax) and John Cena for a series of streams clipped and viewed millions of times.

The Golden Arches also bought ads on the Las Vegas Sphere, made a custom video game on Zynga and pitted actors Randall Park and Hudson Yang against each other in a spot that had them debate which version of the Big Mac was superior.

McDonald’s also generated buzz with the launch of WcDonald’s sauce and WcNuggets—a nod to how anime commonly depicts the fast-food chain to avoid lawsuits—which otakus (anime fans) could enjoy while watching four short anime episodes about the restaurant.

Related news: The best brand-creator partnerships of 2024

OpenAI’s Sora

OpenAI isn’t in the business of marketing its products so much as releasing them with a blog post and a demo and letting the world respond with a combination of excitement, fear and anticipation. The AI company has released a variety of tools this year that have inspired all of those emotions and more, such as ChatGPT Search, but perhaps none have done so more intensely than its generative text-to-video tool Sora.

More news: The year’s best AI marketing activations

OpenAI launched Sora in February to a mixed reception from creatives. Advertisers were split over the tool’s ability to generate high-quality visuals with minimal resources at the cost of human labor and creativity. Emotions continued to run high as brands such as Toys R Us made ads using Sora.

At the time, Sora vastly outperformed other text-to-video models in the visual quality and length of its outputs. It was the first model to generate videos realistic enough that people mistook them for real footage (example below).

Competitors such as Pika have since caught up and gotten into advertisers’ hands, but it was Sora that set the stage for what AI-generated video could look like. No AI company has since made a comparably dramatic stride.

Oreo-inspired Coke and Coke-flavored Oreos

The collaboration between Oreo and Coca-Cola this past summer technically resulted in two separate products—the beverage behemoth’s Oreo-inspired zero-calorie soda and the cookie colossus’ Coke-flavored fizzy snack.

The brands marketed themselves as besties to promote the products. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and Oreo supported the launches with promotions designed for friends, such as a Spotify game where pals answer questions to see how their music taste compares and to generate a playlist based on their combined preferences. The collab extended to “bestie” branded merch including socks, tote bags, cosmetics bags, drinkware and a notebook set sold at Forever21.

Both the cookie and the cola became available in September, after social media users leaked images and shared their thoughts in July.