Playing to win: unboxing the Hasbro, Kraft Heinz and Vanish winning advertising strategies

Deep insight, linked to product benefits

Zenith UK’s ‘Me, my autism and I’ film for Vanish took Gold not only in Advertising but also in the CPG/FMCG category. Why? The judges praised the campaign for the stain remover brand for its “incredibly strong insight, linked to a brand purpose”, that was also relevant to the product category, to drive growth.

That insight was based around the insight that the autistic community relies on Vanish’s key product benefit of making clothes brighter, stain free and last longer: a favorite jumper or t-shirt can mean the difference between feeling safe and peaceful or tense and frightened. The subsequent campaign film follows the life of Ash, a teenage autistic girl who cherishes her favorite hoodie. TV, social and cinema spots drove viewers to an information portal set up with the Ambitious About Autism charity and a high-impact video via Good-Loop, where user views translate directly to donations.

The campaign’s central truth emotionally resonated with its audience, resulting in a new community of teenage TikTok creators with autism sharing their relationship with their favorite clothing items, and, ultimately, Vanish’s highest search volume in ten years. 

Matching consumer paint points to creative solutions

Pretty Green’s ‘Restaurant of Imagination’ campaign for Hasbro’s Play-Doh grabbed Gold in the Creativity category because it “understood a pain point that resonates with parents and creatively solved that issue.”

The issue in question was the fact that pre-schoolers can be picky eaters, making mealtimes stressful for parents. As with the Vanish campaign, that deep insight was then matched to a big creative idea to help launch Play-Doh’s new Busy Chef’s Kitchen: a Restaurant of Imagination pop-up event that turned Play-Doh creations like blue spaghetti into real life meals. The strong visual aspect of the experiential campaign and its relevancy to buyers’ lives helped maximize engagement through multiple touchpoints, activated across PESO channels – leading to a brand share of voice uplift from 21% to 83% during the campaign period.

The campaign is a great example of how a strong creative idea and strategy works better when it’s anchored to a simple, powerful, relevant insight.

Tapping into brand love for creative effect

And that’s also true of Wonderland Communications and The Kitchen’s colorful campaign for Kraft Heinz, which scooped Gold in the AI Creative Effectiveness category.

The brand leveraged consumers’ irrational love for Heinz Tomato Ketchup in a disruptive, earned and owned campaign that provided a new way for fans to celebrate their love for the product. Partnering with Lick Paint, Kraft Heinz created ‘Red HTK 57’ - a paint in Heinz’s iconic shade of tomato red, resulting in millions of media and social shares and user-generated content, plus a sales boost. As one of the judges summed up: it’s “a really clever and creative campaign that tapped into brand love and fandom,” driving a purchase intent which would fuel long-term brand equity.

Kantar’s LINK AI was used to assess the ad’s in-market success. The platform cross referenced Kantars database of 250k+ tests, 10+ years of data, and 30m+ human interactions to conclude that the campaign would drive the most recall, purchase intent, awareness and emotional connection among a strong field of entries.   

For a behind the curtain look at more, successful brand strategies, visit The Drum Awards for Marketing EMEA page now.