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Welcome to a live episode of the top 5 creative brand ideas you need to know about right now.
Ad Age Creativity Editor Ann-Christine Diaz, Creativity Associate Editor Alexandra Jardine, Ad Age Senior Reporter Jessica Wohl and Creativity Reporter Parker Herren look back on the week's most inspiring and surprising ideas, from standout Pride moves to cereal takeovers.
This week saw the premiere of “Loki,” the latest addition to the Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe. To promote the new show, Marvel teamed with General Mills on a new cereal, or rather, a new version of a classic. The food brand debuted what appeared to be a new animated spot for Lucky Charms starring the brand’s mascot, Lucky the Leprechaun. But it ultimately ended with a surreal twist, with Loki porting in from another dimension—and taking Lucky’s place on the cereal box and transforming it into “Loki Charms.” General Mills actually created a limited 3,500-box run of the cereal, which went on sale earlier this week for $8. By the next day, they were all sold out.
Domino’s gained marketing fame for its technological innovations such as ordering via emoji and Twitter. In the U.K., it just added to those capabilities with the debut of group ordering, which allows multiple people to place an order together on the Domino’s app. A U.K. ad from VCCP takes creative license in promoting the idea with this hilarious yodeling-themed ad directed by Sam Hibbard of Somesuch.
This week a curiously spare ad appeared in the pages of the New York Times. It featured nothing but a jacket and a QR code. Those who snapped it discovered that it was promoting a jacket from Kanye West’s collaboration with the Gap, Yeezy Gap. The “Round Jacket,” as it’s called, is the first item to debut in the line, which was announced last June and is part of a 10-year deal between the retailer and the musician/entrepreneur. Along with the print ad, Yeezy Gap projected the jacket and code onto famous big city institutions, including New York’s Guggenheim Museum, the New York Public Library and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A.
Last August, LeBron James jumped in on the fun of a meme that likened his balding pate to a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup—one missing bits of its bottom, left behind on its wrapper. Reese’s and Anomaly Toronto leveraged insight from that cultural moment for the candy brand’s new campaign. Billboards feature not the candy itself but its wrapping, sparsely “adorned” with sticky scrapings.
“One if the funniest [memes] I’ve seen. Hated when my Reese cup would do that but guess what I still kept it and ate it so 🤷🏽♂️😁”
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) August 24, 2020
- LeBron/IG Story pic.twitter.com/oGWEElWxP6
We’ve seen brand after brand come out for Pride Month, and we’ve found this campaign, from e-commerce platform Mercado Libre and Gut Sao Paulo one of the most stunning so far. It begins with the simple insight, that most—arguably all—of the iconic kissing scenes from arts and entertainment feature heterosexual couples. So, Gut took those moments and recreated them with LGBTQIA+ couples in a blockbuster ad that ran on prime time TV in Brazil. They reference famous smooches from films such as “Titanic” and “Ghost” and popular TV shows including “Game of Thrones.” It even reimagines famous artworks (“The Kiss”) and a royal wedding. The campaign also includes outdoor and installations, and Mercado Libre is making the images free for download. The company will be donating $1 to an LGBTQIA+ NGO for each one downloaded.
That's it for the Top 5. Make sure to check out more of the best in brand creativity at AdAge.com/Creativity.
