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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's Creativity Editor Ann-Christine Diaz and Creativity Associate Editor I-Hsien Sherwood come together live from L.A. and New York, respectively, to talk about the standout work of the past couple weeks, why it deserves the spotlight and what lessons it offers for the industry.

The discussion includes standout ideas from Chipotle, Apple, Nike and more.

5. Small Agency Awards: Ode to the Dung Beetle
Agency: Alto

Ad Age this week celebrated its 11th annual Small Agency Award. It’s tradition for the outgoing big winner to create a congratulatory film for the new Small Agency of the Year honoree. Previous winner Terri & Sandy, for example shared how its staffers spent time with the trophy, while BSSP spoofed Nike’s classic “Jogger" ad. A toast to this year’s winner Highdive, was this delightful film that likened small shops to the dung beetle and its Sisyphean task of rolling its orb of poop up a hill. The piece, created out of New York agency Alto, founded by Hannes Ciatti, the former co-leader of 2019 Small Agency of the Year JohnxHannes, is a fine example of COVID-era craft. It was created with stock footage, but clever editing and post via Exile gave it an otherworldly, almost stop-motion feel, while the charming, folksy music from We Are Walker completed the package.

The film preceded another humorous shout out from John McKelvey, the other JohnxHannes co-founder who went on to open L.A.-based Mirimar, and then finally, a star-studded acceptance video from Highdive, starring Bill Murray, Jason Momoa and many more. 

4. Chipotle: Avocado Pit Dye Merch

It’s always pretty entertaining when a fast food brand comes out with merch—who wouldn’t delight at McDonald's French fry socks or a KFC Zinger sandwich meteorite? But Chipotle did the other brands one better with its new line of goods. Each year, the brand has nearly 300 million avocado pits left over after its meals are made and now, it’s found a way to upcycle them into—wait for it—fabric dye. Its new collection of clothing and bags feature the pit dye’s pleasant beige-pink hue. 

3. Aimee La Joie: The Film Crew

The fate of TikTok might be up in the air with President Trump announcing he was planning to ban the app in the U.S., and reports of Microsoft looking to purchase part of the Chinese company from owner ByteDance. But here’s one very good reason the platform should stick around. This hilarious video from actor and filmmaker Aimee La Joie hops on a trend of creators capturing the familiar “characters” you’d see in specific situations, like a ladies’ night out or an Indian wedding. La Joie turned her sights to the film community and her characterizations of everyone from the director, to the make-up artist, to the child actor and even the stage mom will keep you in stitches. If this is creative that thrives in the world of TikTok, it must go on. 

2. Nike: You Can't Stop Us
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy, Portland

While at the outset of the pandemic, restrictions on production led to a lot of ads looking like every other COVID ad. But as we’ve settled into quarantine mode, some, like Alto and the dung beetle earlier, have leveraged the limited resources to make work that truly stands apart from the rest. Nike and Wieden+Kennedy delivered arguably one of the finest examples yet of crisis ingenuity with this ad that underscores the thread of persistence common to all great athletes. The film is likely to score big craft plaudit in ad festivals to come. The agency and production team sifted through 4,000 pieces of footage in order to find scenes of athletes across disparate sports that could seamlessly merge together.  It was directed by Oscar Hudson of Pulse Films, with editing out of JOINT and VFX from A52.

1. Apple: Vertical Cinema
Agency: TBWA/Media Arts Lab

Each time Apple and TBWA/Media Arts Lab come out with a new “Shot on iPhone” ad, it’s hard to imagine how they will ever top it, given spots like “Snowbrawl” or this Earth Day stunner. But they scored once again with this cinematic marvel from Damen Chazelle, the Oscar-winning director behind "La La Land." What’s remarkable about this one is that it’s shot vertically—a format many have long complained doesn’t lend itself to great storytelling. Chazelle proves the naysayers wrong with this genre-spanning masterpiece centered on a grizzled, under-celebrated stunt man that turns out to be a thriller, action flick and love story rolled into one. (Best to watch this one on your phone.)

That's it for the Top 5. Make sure to check out more of the best in brand creativity at Adage.com/Creativity.