Rexona/Unilever wins the Advertisers Watching Ads ‘Ad of the Year’ award

Most awards are given to agencies/brands who pay to enter awards. Makes sense.

But this doesn’t mean the ads that are entered are the best ads out there. Far from it.

The Advertisers Watching Ads ‘Ad of the Year’ award is a different beast.

How do we pick the Winner?

Our partners Contagious scour the world for engaging, unique case studies. They then share them with Automated Creative. Next, we run a poll on Linkedin to pick the ad that gets reviewed on Advertisers Watching Ads each week.

Each week guest brands and industry experts discuss the ad’s merits and give it a score out of five.

This score goes into the Advertisers Watching Ads league table.

This year we had three ads with a 5 out of 5 score (well done ad industry!).
So we asked the Advertisers Watching Ads Alumni Whatsapp group which ad should win and here were the results:

  • Rexona Pitvertising 62%

  • Tesco Voice of Checkout 19%

  • Wingstop Thightstop 19%

The Winner is Rexona/Unilever for their Pitvertising campaign.

Here’s the talented bunch behind the creative:

Client: Unilever

Marketing Director – Deodorant ANZ: Scott Mingl

Brand Lead Rexona ANZ: Oliver Penn

Creative Agency: Clemenger BBDO Sydney

Executive Creative Director: Brendan Willenberg, Darren Wright

Creatives: Smaran Jworchan, Rowan Foxcroft, Ian Broekhuizen, Malcolm Caldwell

Senior Account Director: Smaran Jworchan

Planner: Vince Usher

It’s been a big year for sports advertising, with brands getting involved in sponsoring women’s leagues and changing traditional gender stereotypes about football fans. We even saw a tennis time machine.

Pitvertising was created by Clemenger BBDO Sydney. It showcased the brand’s logo being placed on cricket umpires’ armpits. After all, that’s where the deodorant would go, right? 

It’s a clever way to maximise ROI for sponsorship money and Jasper Martens, CMO of PensionBee, could relate: “We’ve had a similar issue where you’re trying to maximise reach and there are so many sponsorship around that the market is saturated and there are logos everywhere… so they’ve brilliantly combined their quest for reach with a crucial moment in the game when the arms are raised.”

Rexona Australia / Unilever got an amazing response from the press, which hailed their ad as having “won summer.” 

honourable mentions

The second ad to score 5 out of 5 on our show was the super quick brand reinvention of Wingstop… turning into Thighstop! US chicken wings delivery company Wingstop didn’t let the fact that the country was running low on chicken during the pandemic deter them. They rebranded themselves in record time and found themselves on the global stage thanks to this impressive move.

The turn into Thighstop was a unanimous success with our guests Harshil Karia (Founder of Schbang) and Johann Evanno (Global Marketing Director, Streamers & Creators, at Logitech). They applauded the gutsy move and scored it 5 out of 5, too.

And there was even a 3rd ad to score 5 points this year - a TikTok stunt pulled by Tesco in the UK, the Voice of Checkout. Tesco auditioned for a new voice for its checkout machines on a viral video that tapped into new consumers’ preferred media. Guests Pollyanna Ward (Director at PHD Media) and David Brewerton (Head of Growth Marketing at Metro Bank UK) were won over by this activation, thanks to the brand bringing some personality to the advertising game and making the most of platforms that attract attention.

As Pollyanna put it, “TikTok as a platform has democratised creativity for brands and creators… it also gives you the sort of ammunition to then be able to add spend to it.” Well done to Tesco for seizing this opportunity. 

The 2022 Advertisers Watching Ads League

You can watch all our episodes on the Advertising Watching Ads channel. Here are the ads from this year with their respective scores:

Thanks to Contagious for being our long term partner for Advertisers Watching Ads and for supplying an unending stream of innovative ads to fuel the discussion.

And thanks to all our amazing guests this year:

  • Cordelia Linacre-Brown (European Brand Director - Maltesers at Mars Wrigley UK)

  • Ian Crocombe (Founder of Deft)

  • Justin Carbonella (Director, Human Insights, at The Coca-Cola Company)

  • Emma Roffey (VP Marketing EMEAR at Cisco)

  • Julia Linehan (Founder and Managing Director of The Digital Voice)

  • Jerry Daykin (Head of Global Media at Beam Suntory)

  • Michael Birtwistle (now the Sports Marketing Manager at Greene King)

  • Pollyanna Ward (Director of PHD)

  • Rameez Maher (Brand Partnerships, QSR and Travel Lead at TikTok)

  • Michael Lee (Creative Director at Oatly)

  • Hamish Goulding (Group Head of Brand Strategy at HSBC)

  • Laura Chase (Chief Commercial Officer at WeAre8)

  • David Brewerton (Head of Growth Marketing at Metro Bank UK)

  • Pete Markey (Chief Marketing Officer at Boots UK)

  • Tim Hole (Innovation Coach at Sky UK)

  • Lee-Ann Johnstone (CEO and Founder of AffiliateINSIDER)

  • Cicero Hennemann (Head of Digital Hub in Western Europe for Reckitt)

  • Emer Mc Carthy (now Leading the Brand at Wayflyer)

  • Scheila Barboza (Global Media Director for Sanofi Consumer Brands)

  • Chloe Chevalier (Digital Marketer at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Brands for Asia Pacific) 

  • Sunny Bhurji (Marketing Director at Sky)

  • Livia Dixon (Founder of DXN Consulting and Director, Digital Strategy at Novartis)

  • Michael Gold (now Manager Data Partnerships & Acquisitions at PepsiCo)

  • Samantha Reader (now President and Chief Executive at Mark Anthony International)

  • Laura Bull (Digital Marketing Manager at Gousto)

  • Vicki DeBlasi (Founder of Innovate Comms)

  • Maeedah Chishti (Comms Manager for Reckitt Health Australia New Zealand)

  • Anna Cussell (Global Senior Social Media Manager at FARFETCH)

  • Fiona Benmayor (Marketing Innovation Manager, Digital Labs at PepsiCo)

  • Adrian O’Brien (Global Lead for St. Ives and Mele at Unilever Skincare)

  • James Channon (Brand Manager for Magnum UK at Unilever)

  • Donata Peksa (Head of Brand Experience at HSBC)

  • Norman Kuo (Head of Marketing & Strategy, Singapore Ecosystem Development & Operations, at Huawei)

  • Catherine Chappell (Head of Biddable Performance at Mediahub)

  • Patrick Williamson (Global Head of Media at MPB)

  • Jasper Martens (Chief Marketing Officer at PensionBee)

  • Aanandita Datta (Global Brand Director for Unilever)

  • Elizabeth Windram (Global Head of Mobility Marketing for Uber)

  • Tobi Shonibare (Lead Creative Strategist for TikTok)

  • Seb Bardin (Head of Ecommerce Marketing for Unilever)

  • Caitlin Partridge (Global Marketing Director at AB InBev)

  • Johann Evanno (Global Marketing Director, Streamers & Creators, Logitech)

  • Carmen Bryant (now VP of Marketing at WizeHire)

  • Tori Carter (Senior Brand Marketing Manager at KFC)

  • Ritu Lakhanpal (Managing Partner at Mediabrands)

  • Mark Rose (Head of Brand & Paid Media at BP)

  • Adam Cowlishaw (Head of Marketing and Connected Commerce at Johnson & Johnson)

  • Falak Jalil (Marketing Manager for Al Ain Water)

  • Melissa Palleschi (Head of Partnerships and Marketing at The PIE)

  • David Byrne (Brand Marketing Lead at Aviva)

  • Feranmi Ogundipe (ex Content Strategist at L’Oréal)

  • Roman Vorobiev (Director - Design and Artwork Management at Mars Petcare)

  • Jim Coleman (Regional Lead UK & North America at We Are Social)

  • Theresa Van Rooyen (Marketing Director at L’Oréal)

  • Henrik Gaida (Director Digital Media and Data Strategy DACH at P&G)

  • Matthew S. Gosselin (now Associate Vice President, Marketing at Persistent Systems)

  • Ayeza Sumsam Mohiuddin (Regional Senior Brand Manager at Reckitt)

  • Sara Belardi (Marketing Manager at Vodafone)

  • Teresa Kulupka (now Marketing Director at Watson Marketing & Communications)

  • William Galimberti (Head of Sport Marketing at Red Bull)

  • Pedro Bojikian (Director of Product Marketing at Microsoft)

  • Ausura Eccleston (Strategist at Dark Horses)

  • Sam Dolan (Head of Marketing at Goodfella’s Pizza)

  • Adam Boita (CMO at Ecologi)

  • Jon Williams (Founder and CEO at the Liberty Guild)

  • Victor Reznik (Vice President of Marketing at Universal Music Group)

  • James Chandler (CMO at IAB UK)

  • Lee Ping (Marketing Lead, KSA & Levant, at Oppo)

  • Chiara Fracassi (Senior Marketing Director Italy at Amplifon)

  • Nanki Singh (Senior Brand Manager at Mast-Jägermeister SE)

  • Mary Beth Sisti (now Director, Product Management, at Lowe’s Companies Inc.)

  • Justin Pearse (Editor of NewDigitalAge and Co-Founder of Bluestripe Group)

  • Emily Shelley (Managing Director at Alamy)

  • Parisa Parmar (Campaign Manager at Attachment)

  • Leah Rogers (Vice President of Select Advisor Group & Affluent Strategy Marketing at JPMorgan Chase)

  • Lucy Shelley (Reporter at Performance Marketing World and host of the Attention Seekers podcast)

  • Larry Smith (Senior Director, Patient Marketing, GI Business Unit at Takeda Pharmaceuticals)

  • Gareth Turner (Founder of Big Black Door)

  • Robert Webster (Global VP for Strategy at CvE)

  • Richard Brett (Founder of Rich Brett FinOps Ltd)

  • Sarah Dossett (Marketing VP UK & Ireland at Danone)

  • Abeed Janmohamed (Founder & Director at Volando)

  • Kristof Neirynck (Global CMO at Avon Cosmetics)

  • Zoë Chowney (CEO and Founder of bacano)

  • Bronwen Foster-Butler (now Chief Marketing Officer at Finisterre)

  • James Douglas (SVP, Performance Marketing at Publicis Groupe)

  • Akash Pathak (Associate Vice President, Marketing, at Humana)

  • Sean Martin (Digital Marketing Manager at The Gym Group)

  • Johnny Winn (Head of Advertising at O2, Virgin Mobile & Virgin Media O2)

  • Liam Dawson (Partner at MediaCom)

  • Andrea Katsivelis (Director Global GTM Lead - Nuance Business Unit at Microsoft)

  • Wayne Blodwell (Founder and CEO of TPA Digital) 

  • Harshil Karia (Founder of Schbang)

  • Elliot Parkus (Managing Partner at Wavemaker UK)

  • Beatrice Boue (Global Head of Media at De Beers Group)

  • Michael Klein (Global Director of Industry Strategy and Marketing for Retail, Travel and Consumer Goods Industries at Adobe)

  • Andy Oakes (CEO and Founder of the Bluestripe Group)

  • Nikki Vadera (Marketing & Digital (Consumer Brands) Director at Henkel)

  • Evangeline Elder (Founder of All Angles Agency)

  • Michael Codd (Global Martech Director Experiential Marketing at AB InBev) 

  • Virginia Barnes (former Brand Director at Nuffield Health)

  • Noushir Jagmag (Associate Vice President for Marketing at Infosys)

  • Scott Grenz (President & Founder of Genco Pura Media)

  • Pablo J. López (former VP of Marketing for Mexico at Netflix) 

  • Henry Brown (former Head of Marketing for JUBEL Beer)

  • Ela Osterberger (VP of Data at WeTransfer)

  • Nick Dodd (Head of Social and Content at One Green Bean (Havas))

  • Surya Kant Trivedi (Digital Lead at Mars)

  • Richard Mashiter (UK Media & Content Director at Mars)

 
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