Andrew Tindall’s H.O.T. S.H.I.T. list: 2024’s 11 most effective ads so far

But I believe they can co-exist.

Like it or not, creative awards are the beating heart of advertising. They give teams a purpose, a common goal to reach, recognition, inspiration and a benchmark. Some are even paid based on awards. But all stakeholders need to be aligned for advertising to be a sustainable business. If teams are chasing awards that don’t lead to business results, eventually, those commissioning the ads will give up and resort to discounting and following people around the internet screaming for sales.

Anyone who has observed first-hand or studied how advertising has changed over the past 30 years normally concludes that this has already happened.

But the methodology of having creatives as awards judges wasn’t just born out of an ego trip. I’ve never seen anyone bother to share this before but there’s loads of peer-reviewed academic research showing you can predict the outcomes of advertising by judging its creativity as a group.

It reassuringly follows the principles any trained marketer has in their gut. Advertising that feels unique, authentic to a brand’s positioning, and meaningful while involving and connecting with the viewer leads to better ad outcomes, including better ad recall and ad liking, more favorable feelings towards a brand, and sales performance.

It’s not beyond the realms of reality that creative judges are awarding campaigns on exactly these aspects but sadly, there’s plenty of evidence that some awards are moving further away from these measures, and thus further away from giving consumers what they need to create business effects.

You can blame this on short-termism, purpose, lack of industry talent or an obsession with new media channels. But what we can agree on is aligning all of this – how consumers feel and what we give creative awards – is a crucial task to complete for a truly sustainable advertising industry that grows economies.

So to fairly represent creative awards, we should aggregate all the results from the top awards bodies around the world. A task that would take a very long time.

Oh look, The Drum has already done that, collecting the results from 22 global creative awards to create The World Creative Rankings. No AI bullshit in sight. This is the outcome of hundreds of thousands of award entries that go through judging at awards like Cannes Lions, D&AD, Clios and The Drum Awards distilled into a leaderboard split by people, campaigns, agencies and companies.

The Drum released the half-year leaderboards for agencies and companies last week. It’s powerful stuff. I then dipped into System1’s 165,000+ strong database of ads tested with over 25 million consumers for brand and emotional appeal, all proven to predict in-market effects, to find the best-performing ads from these companies.

What we end up with is a collection of 11 of the most impressive campaigns in 2024 so far that are winning awards and are loved by consumers. A list Highlighting Outstanding Transformative Successes Honouring Impressive Teams. [Editor’s note: I can’t control this guy, it’s best to just let him do it.]

Anyone who’s been involved in these campaigns is a creative effectiveness legend. They are literally hot shit. Pay them more. Buy them a beer. Spend a night looking after their kids so they can catch up on some much-needed sleep.

These creatives and marketers have worked together to master the art of playing the game, creating emotional work that works, all while delivering the kinds of creativity that the industry craves and awards.

Without further ado, and in no particular order, here’s the H.O.T. S.H.I.T. list.

Nothing Satisfies like Pot Noodle

This by Adam&Eve/DDB for Unilever, according to System1’s creative effectiveness report, doesn’t do too well on our long-term predictor of effectiveness (the Star Rating), but that’s not the objective here. It was to drive sales. A key lesson from pre-testing or any research is to understand the objectives and metrics you want to smash before kicking it off.

• Pot Noodle: why our slurp doesn’t suck

This Bombay badboy drove a 10% increase in sales and a 3% jump in market share in the weeks following its release. Pot Noodle proves that negative emotions can be useful.

Old School Delivery

A new American classic from FCB New York for AB InBev. I had the pleasure of strapping myself into a gaming chair in a New York basement with about 20 of System1’s research team over the Super Bowl to analyze all the results as they go live with thousands of American consumers plugged in online. This, reassuringly like a few from this list, is from that super-set of ads.

In our testing, we see it smashing our long-term and short-term metrics by creating lots of intense, well-branded, positive emotions. I’ll admit this ad makes it look easy but it really ain’t. Bud taps into a cultural moment with ‘fluent devices’ (the dog and the horses) it has spent years building. It’s an emotional right-brained story that will attract and sustain the attention of the broad audience that tunes into the Super Bowl.

New Foster’s Proper Shandy

Back to the UK with a new product release ad. Blasphemy! This from Heinken group masters the effectiveness super-power of creative consistency. The positioning has been the same for years, and so has the brand platform. It just has a new SKU (FMCG-wanker language for product and/or package).

We see our recognizable Aussie characters cracking into something refreshing in the heat. I can see some creative types now scoffing at this making the list but they are also the people that would have tried selling in a totally new brand platform for this new product. Screw ‘em. This is what effective advertising tapping into something funny looks like. And you can see from our report that normal people LOVE IT.

OREO Twist

Mondelez made The Drum’s mega-brand list, and I immediately dipped into some of the strong stuff from Cadbury UK, but everyone on LinkedIn has already told you how amazing Cadbury’s work is, so here is The Martin Agency. It created effectiveness magic with Oreo in the States.

We are witnessing something rare today: the creation of a fluent device, a brand-owned creative concept that will be distinctively recognizable as Oreo while introducing drama in any ad that it’s included in. It will grow in power every time it’s used. System1 has shown that the use of these fluent devices (just like ‘You’re Not You When You’re Hungry’) boosts long-term business effects.

You’ve Got a Friend in Philly

Screw it, Mondelez is making the list twice. But this time with work from Ogilvy in the UK. Anyone that makes cream cheese interesting should be considered a marketing god.

This ad for Philidelphia scores greens across the board. It is an emotional story, that is simple but full of character. This is solid stuff that will spread a lot of cheese.

It’s Magic When the World Comes Together

Hello again Ogilvy UK. It is Coca-Cola this time. Admittedly the Olympics seems to be a bit of a polarizing subject for people, which you can see in the test results somewhat. But this really does show the power of sports sponsorship. The brand has stuck to its global positioning guns of “togetherness” while tapping into the way the Olympics globally unites us. It gets on the podium.

Amazing Taste

Kraft Heinz also topped The Drum’s WCR. I reached for some of my favorite baked-beanz ads but again stopped being lazy. The highest-scoring Kraft Heinz ad released over the past six months was actually... wait for it... for Capri Sun by Goodby Silverstein & Partners. The creative testing scores are impressive.

This starts strong with product at the center, the relationship between father and daughter works. There are grand day out vibes too. Then it gets exceptional. ‘Something Out The Ordinary’ is a brilliant way to engage a broad audience, mix that with a cultural reference, and you get... well I won’t spoil the ad.

Dove Will Never Use AI to Create or Distort Women’s Images

Yes, this is Unilever again, and yes, this campaign was first launched in 2023. But the brand has been re-editing it and putting it back on air with media dollars over the past six months. So it’s making the list. From the agency SOKO, it’s the best AI ad you’ve seen. The testing research results are proof that a long-running purpose can pay back for a brand. A modern interpretation of what Dove has stood for over many years.

Hey Jude, You Got This

The peak-end effect is a cognitive bias that impacts how people remember past events. Intense positive or negative moments (and the final moments) of an experience are better remembered. Here, Hill & Knowlton provide a masterclass for Adidas. Again, it uses sport, but this time, the Euros, for an English audience. There are plenty of celebs, but it’s one of the most distinctive campaigns we’ve tested in a while. Tense sadness turns into team spirit.

Shame it never “came home” in the end, but the lasting effects of this brand campaign will still be with consumers - even if they don’t realize it.

Run This Town

Back in the States, Apple used the Super Bowl this year to supercharge its brand equity. Again, it was one of the strongest-performing ads from this year’s game. We even tested it with its target audience, and it scored maximum marks for long-term predicted effects. It shows the simple power of music. Well done, TBWAMedia Arts Lab.

Mayo Cat

And finally, my personal favorite to wrap up the list. Here we have VML’s Mayo Cat for Unilever’s Hellmanns. Another Super Bowl spot with greens across the board. It’s strategically brilliant. Not only is the brand sticking to its ‘Hellmans Goes With Everything So You Can Make the Most of Food' positioning, but it’s a clear category entry point that will make you reach for the mayo - leftovers.

It’s also great to see humor being breathed back into the brand. A snappy idea that’s transformed into an enjoyable story with the product at its very heart. And great to see a celebrity being used to enhance the storyline, not dwarf the brand, unlike so many Super Bowl ads.

That’s it. That’s 2024’s half-year H.O.T. S.H.I.T. list. Message me on LinkedIn with your favorite, or send this to your mate who worked on one of these campaigns. This truly is the list to be on. Consumer and creative award winners. We’ll check in at the end of 2024 to see if there’s any hotter shit out there.

Further reading:

• The Drum’s best ads of 2024 so far, including CeraVe, Heinz and Visit Oslo

• World Creative Rankings

• Andrew’s last piece: Don’t make gay ads for the gays, make gay ads for profit