Johannes Leonardo celebrated a big win late in 2020 when it scored major pieces of business Kraft Heinz. But that meant 2021 was the year the agency had to prove its ideas were as golden as Velveeta.

See all of Ad Age's A-List 2022 winners here.

Over six months, the agency launched four campaigns to revitalize iconic Kraft Heinz brands looking to sustain the sales boosts granted by the pandemic’s packaged food spike in demand. Work from JL for Oscar Mayer, Kraft Mac and Cheese, Velveeta and Kraft Singles all contributed to landing the parent company on Ad Age’s 2021 Marketers of the Year list.

The agency reworked Velveeta as a lifestyle brand with “La Dolce Velveeta,” featuring a new logo and packaging. The campaign recruited “Spring Breakers” director Harmony Korine for a hero spot highlighting the brand’s indulgent nature and landed a spread in Vogue magazine. In the rebrand’s first month, sales spiked 13% and Velveeta reached 500,000 new customers.

For Oscar Mayer, JL sought to tap into the brand’s history of culture-defining moments with unexpected activations. “Keep it Oscar” included bite-sized short films from diverse directors that acted as a break from commercials. The sharable spots imagined sleeping in a sandwich bed, a hot dog choir and weiner-roasting superpowers, resulting in increases across metrics like brand affinity and ad awareness.

See all of Ad Age's A-List 2022 winners here.

During the year JL also revamped its internal leadership. Co-Founders Jan Jacobs and Leo Premutico graduated from chief creative positions to creative chairmen, replaced by Julia Neumann as the agency's first-ever appointed chief creative officer. The agency shuffled its chief strategy officer, chief talent officer, managing director and creative directors to reinvigorate its talent-first focus.

Although the agency’s 2021 revenue trailed behind its all-time high from 2019, the agency reports rejecting 18 pitch opportunities and winning additional accounts for When We All Vote and Instagram, which got the Kraft treatment with a 360° rebrand.