High Five: UK

When partnering creative talent with a brand for an ad spot, livestream or digital-meets-physical experience – drawing inspiration from the iconic to the eccentric can lift your work above the rest.

The North Face and Gucci "Francis Bourgeois"

Agency: Highsnobiety

There’s something genius to be found in a totally mind-blowing moment or collaboration. And The North Face and Gucci collaboration - which taps TikTok star and trainspotter Francis Bourgeois to showcase the brand’s outdoor wear range, in a segment created by Highsnobiety - is a prime example. His pure eccentricity paired with genuine adoration for the outdoors resulted in what has to be one of 2022’s most talked about pieces of branded content to date. It’s a great demonstration of the impact achievable when brands take bold, unexpected creative risks and execute them correctly.

“Kindness, the greatest gift” | Amazon Christmas ad

Agency: Lucky Generals

While the US has the Superbowl as its big celeb show-off moment, the UK has Christmas. And this time around, Amazon bet big for its festive spot “Kindness, the greatest gift” by teaming up with Adele. By integrating a worldwide preview of her single ‘Hold On’ into its spot, it brought to life the idea of kindness in strangers. Partnering a talent of Adele’s stardom is no easy feat, particularly as this was during the early phase of her monumental return to music and pop culture after  break. But the bet paid off, allowing Amazon to drive fame and global news at a time when any news or insight into Adele’s album was considered gold dust while adding emotion, depth and optimism into the ad.

Instagram: “Yours to Make: Fluid Imaginarium”

Agency: Exposure London

Instagram’s campaign “Yours to Make: Fluid Imaginarium” was an A-class celebration of British youth culture in 2021 inspired by and made from Instagram Reels posted by 50 exciting emerging British Gen Z creators. Running digitally as an aggregated content platform as well as a physical experience in London at the Saatchi Gallery, this work from Instagram shows how a social platform can truly tap its own audience to build something that not only rewards its community and highlights its creativity but, also, speaks back to a moment in culture and time across various formats and expressions. 

Westfield – Lady Gaga ‘Love For Sale’

Agency: Attachment + Amplify

As the world gears back to a new normality - and hybrid live-stream/physical experiences bank on rewired consumer expectations - Westfield’s work with 12-time Grammy-nominated and Academy Award-winning artist Lady Gaga took the best digital and physical components and put them into one. 

With ‘Love For Sale’, a worldwide preview of Gaga’s new jazz album with Tony Bennett was propelled through a global livestream, custom content platform, partnership with Instagram and 20 physical fan zones in global cities, including London. The activation fused the best of physical and digital while breaking some of Instagram’s own records for its Live function.

Barclaycard | There's more to Barclaycard

Agency: Droga5 London

Barclaycard partners with one of the most iconic singers and actresses of all time. Sorry, what? This Grace Jones spot for the British bank poked fun at its fintech rivals questioning why everything has to be cool these days in a piece of perfectly cast creative by Droga5 London. It uses Jones’ fame and longstanding cultural credibility to dismiss aggressive competition from the likes of Klarna, ClearPay and Revolut while focusing on all the protection and rewards a more ‘classic’ banking solution provides,