The beautiful and exclusive Hurlingham Club in London was swapped for a “virtual” Awards Presentation streamed exclusively on YouTube in honour of the Finalists and Winners of The 25th FAB Awards! FAB extended an open invitation to the entire Marketing Communications Industry globally to view the show.

Claire Robertshaw, Jury Chair – Packaging Design & Branding at The 25th FAB Awards

Successful design, creative and effective work was showcased to the viewers at the show, and winning projects were announced – be it a Grand Prix (FABulous), a Gold (FAB) or a Silver Award.

Richard Denney, Jury Chair – Advertising & Innovations at The 25th FAB Awards

The recipients of the best in show ( FABulous Award ) at The 25th FAB Awards, were as follows:

FABulous Award across all Design categories:

Swee Kombucha – 100% Natural by Bedow, Stockholm

As one with the olive by Design Bridge and Partners

FABulous Award across all Advertising & Innovation categories:

Malnutrition Labels: Nutritional Ink by St. Luke’s, London

BBDO New York wins Agency of The Year Award 

BBDO New York took home The Agency of The Year Award. BBDO New York were the winners in 2021 and have now taken the crown back from AMV BBDO who were last year’s winners. The Omnicom Agency won a FAB ( GOLD ) and number of Silver Awards and closely edged out their closest competitor who were St. Luke’s London this year.

MARS, Incorporated Win The FAB Brand/Marketer of the Year Award

Much of MARS‘ success came from their Pet Food and Snickers & M&M’s Projects by BBDO New York  and MARS Petcare and won them a FAB Gold Award and several FAB Sliver Awards. 

The food giant have now won the accolade for the fifth time.

Shenzhen Tigerpan Design Co., Ltd. Wins FAB Design Agency of the Year Award

Branding & Design expert Shenzhen Tigerpan Design Co., Ltd., was named the FAB Design Agency of the Year, taking home Silvers and a FAB ( GOLD ) at The Awards.

FAB GOLD Winners were:

Packaging Design:

Swee Kombucha – 100% Natural by Bedow, Stockholm

As one with the olive by Design Bridge and Partners

Nikasi or other beer by Shenzhen Tigerpan Design Co., Ltd.

Johnnie Walker Blue Label – Cities of the Future 2220 by Butterfly Cannon, London

On the Fringe by Denomination

Dada Chapel by Stranger & Stranger

Interior Design & Retail Environment

Gaucho, Liverpool by DesignLSM, Brighton

Advertising & Innovation FAB GOLDS

Here for #WagathaChristie by St. Luke’s, London for Butterkist ( Press & Print )

Malnutrition Labels: Nutritional Ink by St. Luke’s, London for Dole Sunshine Company (Poster / Outdoor / OOH )

Placeb’eau for SPA by Happiness, Brussels ( Direct Marketing )

Pre-Hated Marmite by OLIVER London for Marmite ( Guerrilla Marketing & Online Advertising )

The MilkmAId by Ogilvy Paris for La Laitière ( Best Use Of Technology )

Pedigree – Rescue Doodles by BBDO New York for Pedigree ( Mobile )

The FAB Awards Trophies are made out of recycled packaging materials.

A full list of the Winners of The 25th FAB Awards can be seen here.

Source: The FAB Awards

The Awards, which each year attract entries from all over the world, recognises the critical contribution that outstanding creative work makes towards building brands. It identifies and rewards the leading practitioners globally and acknowledges their contribution to their Clients and their Agencies.

All Finalists of The 25th FAB Awards are already assured to win a silver, and The FAB (gold) and FABulous (grand prix) Awards will be announced via an “Online Awards Presentation” in June.

For The Agency of the Year Crown, BBDO New York, is once again a strong contender in the Advertising and Innovations categories, but faces stiff competition from the likes of St. Luke’s London amongst others.

Denomination and Design Bridge and Partners  are the defending Design Agencies of the Year but face stiff competition this year from, DesignLSM, Butterfly Cannon, Shenzhen Tigerpan Design Co., Ltd. Bedow Sweden, EVERLAND Copenhagen, Stranger & Stranger amongst others.

Brands including:  Diageo, Bacardi, Bombay Sapphire, Pepsi, Butterkist, Marmite , Dole Sunshine etc., will challenge Mars, Incorporated  for their Brand / Marketer of the Year crown this year.

The Branding and Design Jury was chaired by Claire Robertshaw, Executive Creative Director of Design Bridge and Partners in London and The Advertising and Innovation Jury was chaired by Richard Denney, Jt. Chief Creative Officer of St. Luke’s London,

The full list of fab finalists can be seen here.

We, at MarComm News are delighted to support the Advertising and Innovations Categories at The FAB Awards once again!

Source: The FAB Awards

The FAB Awards – International Food and Beverage Creative and Effectiveness Awards – announce the Jury Chairs for the 25th edition of the awards.

The Awards Programme recognises the critical contribution that outstanding creative work makes to build brands, it identifies and rewards the leading practitioners from over 60 countries, and it acknowledges their contribution to their Clients and their Agencies.

Now in its 25th year, The FAB Awards has taken entries from many Clients, every leading Agency Network, and many important Challenger Agencies, several Major and Challenger Brands from over 60 countries around the world. Winners of The International awards programme that is focused entirely on work done for Food and Beverage brands, will be announced in June 2023.

Packaging Design & Branding

The Packaging Design and Branding Jury is being led by Claire Robertshaw who is Executive Creative Director at Design Bridge and Partners in London.

Having worked in the industry for over 20 years, Claire is responsible for the creative excellence and management of the London Studio, overseeing and leading key relationships with Design Bridge’s broad portfolio of clients. 

Claire is passionate about nurturing the next generation of creative talent, coaching and mentoring with D&AD’s New Blood Academy, as well as leading Design Bridge’s annual junior competition, The Start.

A fierce advocate for creative freedom and empowerment, Claire regularly contributes to industry discussion on this topic, and is a mentor for Kerning the Gap, an organisation dedicated to achieving gender equality in the design industry with a focus on women in leadership roles.

With many industry awards to her name from the likes of The FAB Awards, DBA and Pentawards, Claire is also a regular judge sitting on jury panels for numerous awards bodies, including most recently FAB, D&AD and Clios.

How does she feel about chairing The 25th FAB Awards Panel?

The FAB Awards have been a constant in the design calendar throughout my career. Standing as an industry benchmark of great work & recognition, there is always an anticipation around entering, the hope of being nominated and to get your hands on an award. To chair the 25^th Packaging & Design Jury is a real honour – especially as we emerge from the confines of remote judging – I am really looking forward to hearing the opinions of the panel as we debate the winners.

What is she looking for in terms of entries?

Design has the potential to not only inspire, but to drive positive change & shape the future through technology & sustainability. There is so much great work around, but how much do we see that is truly exceptional, with a unique viewpoint on our changing world of culture & commerce?

The rest of the Judging Panel are from noted Design Studios and Consultancies: Mark Nichols, Creative Director at WMH&I; Paul Marsh, Design Director at Butterfly Cannon; Antonia Skaraki, Founder & CEO at A.S Strategy Branding & Communications; Katie Alger, Designer at Design Bridge and Partners and Poppy Stedman, Co-Founder & Creative Director at POPP Studio.

Round One of Packaging Design and Branding Judging has concluded. The Design Jury meets for Final Deliberations on Monday, 15th May at Brighton Beach House ( Soho House ).

Advertising & Innovations

St. Luke’s London’s Jt. Chief Creative Officer, Richard Denney is Chair of The Advertising & Innovations Panel.

Rich began his career in 1996 as an Art Director at Y&R, picking up a Gold Lion for his St Mungo’s interactive cinema commercial in his first year. From there he moved to Saatchi & Saatchi creating notable work for Visa and the NSPCC, including the multi-award-winning Carlsberg ‘Old Lions’ campaign. After this, he moved to DDB as Creative Director and created award-winning work for Volkswagen, Budweiser, Harvey Nichols, The Economist, Kwik-Fit, Tropicana and Virgin Media. In 2011 he joined MullenLowe London as joint ECD and quickly turned the agency around creating campaigns for Halfords, Morrisons, Unilever and MicroLoan. In 2016 MullenLowe London was named ‘Most Effective Agency of the Year’ at the inaugural UK Effie awards for work on MicroLoan and the Electoral Commission and followed it up by retaining the title in 2017 with work for RedrawTheBalance, which also won EuroEffie gold.

In August Rich 2017 moved to St Luke’s London as Executive Creative Director and works across the agency’s accounts including KP Snacks, South Western Railway, Heathrow and Which? In 2020 at the height of the pandemic he created the UK’s biggest behaviour change initiative #stayhomenow and has most recently worked on the multi-award-winning #GoGrabTheButterkist campaign. Rich has been named among Campaign Magazine’s top twenty Creative Directors.

Some of the very best and most memorable work in recent times has come from the food and beverage category. Work that has told us a particular pint is worth waiting for, as well as work that has really raised our arches. Work that builds the brand with such distinctiveness and memorability that if you gave a simple prompt to AI, it would tell you it’s favourite Ketchup. So what better way to honor all this stellar strategic and creative thinking than with its own unique award? That really is FAB. 

I’m always on the lookout for work that not only is brilliant in its strategy and execution, but genuinely inspires me enough to try harder and be better with the work I am creating. And as I’ve said before, whatever picks up a FAB Award should also be a beacon of excellence for the next generation of talent coming through both agency and client side. – Richard Denney, Advertising & Innovations Jury Chair at The 25th FAB Awards

The rest of The Jury Panel with Richard are Zane Radcliffe, Executive Creative Director at McCann Bristol; Suzanne Barker, Strategy Partner at AMV BBDO London and Paul Turner, Creative Director at Oliver.

Round One of Advertising & Innovations Judging has concluded. The Advertising & Innovations Jury meets for Final Deliberations on Wednesday, 17th May at Brighton Beach House ( Soho House ).

The FAB Awards will announce the Finalists after all Judging including Interiors and Retail Design and all the Effectiveness Categories has concluded. Entrants who have achieved the Finalist status are guaranteed a Silver Award. Finalists will be contacted by the end of May and the lists will be released on The FAB Awards website and via Social Channels.

Source: The FAB Awards

In previous years, FAB received 3,600 entries from over 50 countries globally.

The Awards are the only International Awards programme in the world which focus solely on work done for Food and Beverage brands, and includes categories for Integrated Campaigns, Advertising, Packaging Design, Direct, Sales Promotion, Brand Identity, Brand Redesign, Interiors and Retail Environment, Mobile Marketing & Advertising, Digital Projects, Social Media, Influencer Marketing and Branded Content.

The FAB Awards provided a bit of much needed cheer in June 2022 with the 24th Edition of their Awards streamed “online” on YouTube due to the Covid situation. YouTube being a major Sponsor of The FAB Awards.

The beautiful and exclusive Hurlingham Club in London was swapped for a “virtual” Awards Presentation streamed exclusively on YouTube in honour of the Finalists and Winners of The 24th FAB Awards! FAB extended an open invitation to the entire Marketing Communications Industry globally to view the show.

Successful design, creative and effective work was showcased to the viewers at the show, and winning projects were announced – be it a Grand Prix (FABulous), a Gold (FAB) or a Silver Award.

The recipients of the best in show ( FABulous Award ) at The 24th FAB Awards, were as follows:

FABulous Award across all Design categories:

ZhiHou for YangYangLa by Shenzhen Lingyun Creative Packaging Design China

Greene King by Design Bridge

FABulous Award across all Advertising & Innovation categories:

4am Adzzz for Sheba by AMV BBDO, London

FABulous Award across all Advertising & Innovation categories:

Creativity Is Essential for Bombay Sapphire by AMV BBDO, London

AMV BBDO London wins Agency of The Year Award Sponsored by YouTube

AMV BBDO London took home The Agency of The Year Award sponsored by YouTube. BBDO New York were the winners in 2021 and have now handed the crown back to AMV who have won it on six previous occasions. The Omnicom Agency won the only two FABulous Awards ( Best In Show ) from the Advertising & Innovations Categories and a number of FAB Gold’s and Silvers and finished comfortable at the Top of the Points Table.

MARS, Incorporated Win YouTube Sponsored FAB Brand/Marketer of the Year Award

Much of MARS‘ success came from their Pet Food, Snickers and Extra Gum Projects by AMV BBDO London, BBDO New York and Energy BBDO Chicago and won them multiple FAB Gold Awards and a FABulous ( Best in Show ) which won them The YouTube FAB Brand/Marketer of the Year honour. 

The food giant have now won the accolade for the fourth time.

Kerry Cavanaugh, Head Of Marketing at MARS Wrigley UK on receiving the Award:

“We are thrilled that FAB has chosen Mars as Marketer of the Year for 2022.  It is an honour to receive this recognition for the fourth time and we are proud to have several Finalists this year.  All of this would not be possible without the incredible Agency partners we work, including those behind this year’s Finalists – AMV BBDO, BBDO New York and Energy BBDO.  Thank you FAB for this recognition.”

Denomination and Design Bridge JOINTLY Win FAB Design Agency of the Year Award

Branding & Design experts Design Bridge and Denomination, were JOINTLY named the FAB Design Agencies of the Year, taking home Silvers, FAB Gold Awards and a FABulous ( Best in Show ) at The Awards.

FAB GOLD Winners were:

Packaging Design:

Satine Organic Pure Milk by Inner Mongolia Yili Group China

Pott’s Sauces In A Can by This Way Up, London

Assembly Gin Brand Creation by Midday

ZhiHou byShenZhen Lingyun Creative China

Wild Folk by Denomination

Greene King by Design Bridge

Brand Identity:

From Plants With Love by Everland, Copenhagen

Maker’s Mark Visual Identity System by Turner Duckworth: London, San Francisco and New York

Brand Redesign:

Crif Dogs for Crif Dogs/PDT by Design Bridge

Interior Design & Retail Environment

Pop Golf by Zachary Pulman Design Studio

Meraki Riyadh by CADA Design, London

Design Effectiveness

Tread Softly Range by Denomination

Advertising & Innovation FAB GOLDS

Creativity Is Essential by AMV BBDO, London for Bombay Sapphire (Ambient / Experiential)

Creativity Is Essential by AMV BBDO, London for Bombay Sapphire (Guerrilla Marketing/ Best Use of Media)

Welcome Back for Guinness by AMV BBDO, London ( TV & Cinema Commercials )

4am Adzzz by AMV BBDO, London ( Direct Marketing / Mobile Marketing )

Foodweiser for Budweiser by Mullen Lowe Delta, Ecuador ( Direct Marketing/ Best Use Of Media )

Ecolate by LIFULL ( Ethical & Sustainable)

The 3D Printed Meatballs by INGO Stockholm for IKEA ( Direct Marketing/ Best Use Of Technology )

Put More Cat in your Cat by BBDO New York ( Online Advertising )

Fleets by BBDO New York for Snickers ( Best Use Of Media )

For When It’s Time: Extra Gum’s Pandemic Comeback by Energy BBDO Chicago ( Ad. Effectiveness )

The FAB Awards Trophies are made out of recycled packaging materials.

A full list of the Winners of The 24th FAB Awards can be seen here.

The deadline for entry submission for The 25th Awards is March 7th 2023.

Source: The FAB Awards

The beautiful and exclusive Hurlingham Club in London was swapped for a “virtual” Awards Presentation streamed exclusively on YouTube in honour of the Finalists and Winners of The 24th FAB Awards! FAB extended an open invitation to the entire Marketing Communications Industry globally to view the show.

“During judging of this years FAB Advertising & Innovation categories, we got to ponder and debate an impressive collection of entries, across many different channels. Amongst those were some standout ideas that really grabbed the attention of the judges, for their originality and great creative thinking, eventually becoming the jury’s unanimous choices for this year’s FAB Award winners”. – Garry Munns, Executive Creative Director and Chair of The Advertising & Innovations Jury Panel.

“The FAB entries this year were highly creative and beautifully executed. We the Jury had a FABulous time debating the finer points of the shortlisted entries with the diverse winners thoroughly deserving their awards.” – Emily Fox, Creative Director, Lewis Moberly and Chair of The Branding & Packaging Design Jury Panel

Successful design, creative and effective work was showcased to the viewers at the show, and winning projects were announced – be it a Grand Prix (FABulous), a Gold (FAB) or a Silver Award.

The recipients of the best in show ( FABulous Award ) at The 24th FAB Awards, were as follows:

FABulous Award across all Design categories:

ZhiHou for YangYangLa by Shenzhen Lingyun Creative Packaging Design China

Greene King by Design Bridge

FABulous Award across all Advertising & Innovation categories:

4am Adzzz for Sheba by AMV BBDO, London

FABulous Award across all Advertising & Innovation categories:

Creativity Is Essential for Bombay Sapphire by AMV BBDO, London

AMV BBDO London wins Agency of The Year Award Sponsored by YouTube

AMV BBDO London took home The Agency of The Year Award sponsored by YouTube. BBDO New York were the winners in 2021 and have now handed the crown back to AMV who have won it on six previous occasions. The Omnicom Agency won the only two FABulous Awards ( Best In Show ) from the Advertising & Innovations Categories and a number of FAB Gold’s and Silvers and finished comfortable at the Top of the Points Table.

MARS, Incorporated Win YouTube Sponsored FAB Brand/Marketer of the Year Award

Much of MARS‘ success came from their Pet Food, Snickers and Extra Gum Projects by AMV BBDO London, BBDO New York and Energy BBDO Chicago and won them multiple FAB Gold Awards and a FABulous ( Best in Show ) which won them The YouTube FAB Brand/Marketer of the Year honour. 

The food giant have now won the accolade for the fourth time.

Kerry Cavanaugh, Head Of Marketing at MARS Wrigley UK on receiving the Award:

“We are thrilled that FAB has chosen Mars as Marketer of the Year for 2022.  It is an honour to receive this recognition for the fourth time and we are proud to have several Finalists this year.  All of this would not be possible without the incredible Agency partners we work, including those behind this year’s Finalists – AMV BBDO, BBDO New York and Energy BBDO.   Thank you FAB for this recognition.”

Denomination and Design Bridge JOINTLY Win FAB Design Agency of the Year Award

Branding & Design experts Design Bridge and Denomination, were JOINTLY named the FAB Design Agencies of the Year, taking home Silvers, FAB Gold Awards and a FABulous ( Best in Show ) at The Awards.

FAB GOLD Winners were:

Packaging Design:

Satine Organic Pure Milk by Inner Mongolia Yili Group China

Pott’s Sauces In A Can by This Way Up, London

Assembly Gin Brand Creation by Midday

ZhiHou by ShenZhen Lingyun Creative China

Wild Folk by Denomination

Greene King by Design Bridge

Brand Identity:

From Plants With Love by Everland, Copenhagen

Maker’s Mark Visual Identity System by Turner Duckworth: London, San Francisco and New York

Brand Redesign:

Crif Dogs for Crif Dogs/PDT by Design Bridge

Interior Design & Retail Environment

Pop Golf by Zachary Pulman Design Studio

Meraki Riyadh by CADA Design, London

Design Effectiveness

Tread Softly Range by Denomination

Advertising & Innovation FAB GOLDS

Creativity Is Essential by AMV BBDO, London for Bombay Sapphire (Ambient / Experiential)

Creativity Is Essential by AMV BBDO, London for Bombay Sapphire (Guerrilla Marketing/ Best Use of Media)

Welcome Back for Guinness by AMV BBDO, London ( TV & Cinema Commercials )

4am Adzzz by AMV BBDO, London ( Direct Marketing / Mobile Marketing )

Foodweiser for Budweiser by Mullen Lowe Delta, Ecuador ( Direct Marketing/ Best Use Of Media )

Ecolate by LIFULL ( Ethical & Sustainable)

The 3D Printed Meatballs by INGO Stockholm for IKEA ( Direct Marketing/ Best Use Of Technology )

Put More Cat in your Cat by BBDO New York ( Online Advertising )

Fleets by BBDO New York for Snickers ( Best Use Of Media )

For When It’s Time: Extra Gum’s Pandemic Comeback by Energy BBDO Chicago ( Ad. Effectiveness )

The FAB Awards Trophies are made out of recycled packaging materials.

A full list of the Winners of The 24th FAB Awards can be seen here.

Source: The FAB Awards

The Awards, which each year attract entries from all over the world, recognises the critical contribution that outstanding creative work makes to build brands. It identifies and rewards the leading practitioners globally and acknowledges their contribution to their Clients and their Agencies.

All Finalists of The 24th FAB Awards are already assured to win a silver, and The FAB (gold) and FABulous (grand prix) Awards will be announced via an “Online Awards Presentation”. Traditionally, The FAB Awards Ceremony is held at the quintessentially British and exclusive, The Hurlingham Club in London. However, we have decided to be cautious on Social Contact and avoid in-person large scale events for another year and The Awards will be announced for the third year running on YouTube. The Awards Presentation will on Thursday, 16th June.

“We are acutely aware that these are unprecedented and extremely challenging times for so many around the world and our thoughts and heart are with all those affected. It is perhaps even more important to recognise, applaud and celebrate the incredible efforts of our Industry Teams and all involved in the Creative Process” A huge thanks to our entrants who have submitted projects of the highest standard once again and our fantastic judges for selecting the very best as worthy FAB Finalists. says N. Nayar, Awards President at The FAB Awards, whilst releasing The Finalist List.

The FAB Awards had revealed a Brand New Identity in 2020 following a complete Brand Redesign by renowned Brand Consultancy – Williams Murray Hamm. 

The actual Physical Trophies have been redesigned too and made from Recycled Packaging.

The FAB Awards Jury Chairs

Interior Design & Retail Environment: Holly Hallam, Managing Director, DesignLSM. Packaging Design & Branding: Emily Fox, Creative Director, Lewis Moberly. Advertising & Innovations: Garry Munns, Executive Creative Director.

Judges voted online over a period of 10 days and then “met” via Zoom calls to deliberate over the Shortlist and choose the Finalists for this year.

For The Agency of the Year Crown, BBDO New York, is once again a strong contender in the Advertising and Innovations categories, but faces stiff competition from the likes of AMV BBDO London, BBDO Minneapolis, Zulu Alpha Kilo Canada, Energy BBDO Chicago amongst others.

Jones Knowles Ritchie is the defending Design Agency of the Year but faces stiff competition this year from Denomination, B&B Studio, Design Bridge, DesignLSM,,  This Way Up,  Turner Duckworth,  Midday Studio,  amongst others.

Brands including: Mars, Incorporated ,  Diageo, Bacardi, Bombay Sapphire, Pepsi, etc., will challenge Burger King for their Brand / Marketer of the Year crown this year.

The full list of fab finalists can be seen here.

The 24th FAB Awards are once again sponsored by Google UK Ltd, with YouTube acting as the sponsor of both The Agency of the Year and The Brand of the Year Awards. Other FAB supporters are MarComm News, FAB News and Contagious.

Creative & Design Credits for The FAB Awards Rebrand

Williams Murray Hamm

Jane Catchpole – Designer, Director.Jason Budgen – CGI animation, editor.Photography – Oliver Beamish @ Studio 4.Account Handlers – Wybe Magermans, Emmanuelle Hilson & Simi  Sehra. 
Garrick Hamm – Creative Director – Director. 

Source: The FAB Awards

Interactive brand solutions are creative units that look to extend beyond the traditional lean back watch/view approach to advertising and harness the power of active user engagement, to provide more meaningful understanding about how a user interacts with the brand.  

All units are fully trackable across all elements of the creative. This allows brands to understand the deeper attention thresholds of user interaction going beyond the question of ‘has my ad been seen’. As well as, demonstrating ‘how long  it has been seen for and how it has been interacted with’. 

Interactive features are completely sculpted around the brand objectives to make the experience personable and informative.  

For our clients, we use interactive digital ad experiences or ad units which expand the opportunities to track digital ad engagement across a variety of metrics. These include how long the creative was seen on screen, carousel interaction, and 3D object interaction, which shows us how long a user was both viewing and interacting with an ad campaign. Often, we’ve designed the web-based environment too, which enables us to have significant insight across the entire user journey from start to finish. 

2: How are brands tapping into AR and VR? What results are they seeing? 

Brands are using mixed reality opportunities to provide both entertainment and/or purpose to their ad campaigns. These experiences allow brands to take their product into the user’s personal environment building intimate connections through try-ons, immersive visualisations, product engagement and much more. 

Campaigns are bought on an augmented reality (AR) Cost Per Engagement (CPE), which is counted once the user gives camera access and opens their camera stream, ensuring brands only pay for what matters. Crucially brands are able to measure active attention across the entire experience with average session dwell times of more than 75 seconds. 

A recent campaign for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Squares drove sustained brand engagement via our WebAR ad experience with interactive face accessory filters and model placements. The results included 105 seconds average dwell time, 9.5k hours spent with the experience, almost 1M user interactions and 3x filters used per session.

3: What is a playable ad – and do they really help with sales? 

Playable ads are much more than just games, they are interactive ad experiences that look to leverage popular play mechanics, for familiarity and immerse the brand materials for hands-on learning and interaction.  

This means that advertisers are able to understand what aspects of the brand users are engaging with through active interaction, leaving no questions over what aspects of the campaign users were paying attention to.  

They can be bought on a Cost Per Play (or click to play with a minimum of five seconds of active play) to ensure only actively engaged users are charged for. Units see over 60 seconds average dwell times and can be used as a reward feature allowing users to obtain greater equity for their interaction time. For example, claim rewards, samples, competition entries or simply speed up their exposure to the ad. 

A recent mobile app based interactive (Q&A and data collect) sampling campaign for Cadbury Brunch Bar generated 12k verified marketing opt-ins, 93% had never tried the product previously, 53% recommended it to a friend and 28% have purchased the product since sampling.

4: What is a rich media format and what value do they deliver to advertisers? 

Rich Media offer a range of creative opportunities across video and display allowing for versatility of assets with fast build times. Hoopla Rich Media units for example, look to focus on impact and awareness serving to maximise the precious time in view, putting key messaging front and centre.  

Units include Rich Media Player (Interactive Pre-Roll) and Page Frame (Cross device skin unit that offers constant branding on page). Key to both of these units is the ability to reinforce core messaging across large creative canvases ensuring that users will always get that key takeaway even if they are not focussed on the ad for its full duration. Interactive features can be layered on to provide better attention trackability and understand where/how users are interacting with the brand. 

5: What does good look like for attention analytics and digital ad measurement? 

This is all subjective to the unit and the creative features as there is no one size fits all, each unit is built to meet individual brand objectives. While lines of comparison/benchmark can be established through points of similarity, this is done on more of a feature basis than a broad format outlook.

A good creative would typically see high active dwell time and active interaction measurability. For example, upto two to three separate interactions across the creative unit.  This can also be enhanced with other aspects like sound on, video completions, clicks and if available inflight brand uplift measures using survey tools. 

All elements of a digital campaign can be reported on and tracked. This helps brands to curate niche targeting strategies that reach the core audiences and review campaign effectiveness and inform future campaigns. 

6: What are your three top tips for an impactful digital advertising campaign?

Every format plays a part in tracking consumer attention, it doesn’t need to be gimmicky. Taking digital ads a step further via interactive digital ad experiences can add value, purpose and structure to an ad campaign, while delivering improved attention and engagement.

My top tips include: 

1. Purpose

Too often creatives are spun out with an idea that doesn’t have the consumer journey or interest in mind.  Key to any successful interactive campaign should be the questions: ‘why should someone engage with my ad?’, ‘Would I engage with this ad?’. Once you have an engaging hook and clear messaging, you’re past the biggest hurdle of simply getting your target audience to acknowledge your ad and see its value. 

2. Keep content simple and relatable

Familiarity and simplicity are key when trying to engage. If a user can’t understand or relate you’ve lost them. Digital ad content should be short, simple, snappy, and effective. If it’s for a long-term ad campaign, it should give consumers reasons to click through and revisit the digital experience, offering value and reward. If it’s interactive, look to leverage existing popular play mechanics that your target audience is already engaging with. 

3. Measure 

Measuring users across the end-to-end journey is invaluable, giving insights on where they originally clicked an ad, to dwell time and engagement. It can show where the ad is working well as a clear measure of success. A lot of initial digital interactions are accidental, so being able to qualify where it’s working beyond that initial interaction point is important.

4. Encourage return visits

Using a digital ad with a hook can encourage consumers to click through and keep them coming back to an interactive digital ad experience. Frequency and sequential targeting can deliver a stranded message, or phasing across two- or three-months with different messaging can lean into the same digital ad experience. 

John Macbeth is Sales Director at Hoopla Digital

Q) Give us a brief insight into your career so far?

I have worked at creative marketing agencies, specialising in entertainment and gaming, for the last 16 years.

Having studied interactive media at Bournemouth University, I began my career as a web designer, responsible for updating and maintaining all of the Paramount Pictures UK and IE websites. At the same time, I dabbled in a bit of flash animation and actionscript. 

After a few years of doing that, I realised I was more suited to a role that involved people and client management, so transitioned into project management at Waste Creative, focusing on gaming, with SEGA as my main client.

After three years, I moved from Waste and had a two year stint at Mediacom as a senior PM leading their biggest account for EA games. As they say, the grass isn’t always greener and as much as I LOVED working with EA, and I’m a genuine fan of pretty much all of their games, I decided to return to Waste to plant my roots.

In the first six months back. I was part of a team that won a huge pitch to take over Supercell’s global digital advertising account for Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, and Clash Royale. That was six years ago, and from then till now I’ve helped grow the account and relationship to become Waste’s biggest client. We now work across Supercell’s full game portfolio, both Global and Beta (with the exception of the game Hay Day). Waste grew quickly and during this time I also moved from being a Senior Project Manager, to Account Director, and now to Business Director. 

Right now, I oversee a team of two Account Directors and four Account Managers, and together we’ve ridden the Covid wave and all the challenges that have come with it. We’ve delivered some cracking work across my two main accounts (Supercell and Riot), and the team morale and camaraderie couldn’t be better. 

Q) What according to you is the strongest tool in your skill set?

I’m a good “people person”. This has allowed me to grow and retain strong client services teams as well as great long-term friendships and relationships with clients at all levels.

I pride myself in my ability to identify and convert opportunities that align closely with client objectives that subsequently help grow accounts.

Q) What is your favourite piece of work that you have created? Or a favourite project that you were a part of?

There are loads, however the global launch of Supercell’s Brawl Stars is the one I’m most proud of.

It was an 18-month long journey where we helped foster and grow an entirely new game community from the ground up. This culminated in a launch campaign where we deleted all of the social channels and pretended the game was being killed, only for us to then globally launch the game. High risk, high reward, and it paid off.

Most of the hype we generated was organic, with very little paid support. The campaign picked up multiple awards.

Brawlstars – Global Launch Case Study from Waste Creative on Vimeo.

We also recently delivered Supercell’s most ambitious developer update for Clash of Clans, which tied in with one of their biggest updates ever. Pretty epic. It was soon #1 Trending for Gaming, #31 Trending on YouTube, and has garnered 5.5 million views to date.

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Q) What is your favourite piece of work you wish you had done?

I would have loved to work on the FIFA global campaigns, especially the TV ads. There was a really epic one for FIFA 14, where all of the players are driving through the desert. I chose this mainly because I’m a massive FIFA and football fan… and I want to meet Messi.

Q) Who (if anyone) has been the greatest influence in your career?

Throughout my career I’ve been mainly self taught, but in the early stages I received the most fruitful guidance that helped lay the foundations for my career.

I’d like to mention Felix Middleton, who gave me my first opportunity to work in the industry and taught me how to code!

Also Simon Coppleston (sadly no longer with us) who taught me the fundamentals of project management, some of which I still use to this day.

Q) What would you change about the industry, if you could?

The pace. The gaming industry can move at incredible speed, and you can’t really drop the ball most of the time. I’ve always been intrigued to understand what it would be like to slow down a little and see how that would affect output.

Q) Tell us something that people wouldn’t necessarily know about you?

I used to be a magician and child actor. I once auditioned to be Jim the Cabin Boy in Muppet Treasure Island.

Q) Where would you ideally like to be in your career in the next five-years?

I absolutely want to stay within gaming. I’m lucky enough to work in an industry that I live and breathe, and I’d never want that to change. In terms of progression, I’d like to get myself to Managing Director level within five years.

Harry Fairfax-Jones is Business Director at Waste Creative 

It’s funny, don’t you think? That when we look back on the things that once annoyed us or caused angst, we realise that the solution was sat under our noses the whole time: upside-down Fairy liquid… obviously. 

That’s the power of great innovation, it makes us feel stupid that we didn’t think of it before; it’s a smile in the mind that we can’t hide. It’s the light bulb moment that brings us marketing folk back down to reality – innovation is possible and no matter how small or simple, it moves the world forward. So, thank you Fairy, for making me feel like an idiot. I want this feeling more often, please. 

It got us thinking – is simplicity the answer to today’s innovation roadblock? Or, if not, what is it about great innovation that is so hard to crack yet blindingly obvious? At StormBrands, we dive deeper, work closer and ask better questions to get to core challenges to create clarity for growth.  Through our BRANDSTORM process we capture truths that release genuine potential. 

Here’s our thought process… 

Intent versus impact.

With huge R&D departments, technology wizards and leaders in consumer insight, FMCG businesses should be melting pots for innovation. But when our value as stakeholders lies in specialist expertise and problem solving, we can be guilty of complicating to prove our worth or falling back on prior experience to get to the solution quickly. The heuristics we each rely on daily don’t apply when the first job to be done is to get everyone on the same page in order to make the greatest impact. 

Many perspectives, one tension. 

Innovation comes from recognising what you don’t know, as much as leveraging what you do. The magic of innovation happens when we focus on the one perspective that matters most, that of the consumer, and by thinking about everyday experiences through the demands, challenges and needs of those that live them. Consumers don’t think about a product or pack solution, where they are going to buy it or how much it weighs; they think about their experiences and look for solutions that alleviate specific unresolved challenges. 

Outcome not output 

The above internal monologue is an honest insight into the world of a struggling domestic goddess, resolved by an outcome that alleviates some of the frustration, irrespective of the complex and highly skilled anti-leak technology, 100% PCR material and improved formulation that went into the output. Yes, the product itself is important, but it won’t be noticed unless the solution plays a bigger role. Be the voice of the consumer” is the old phrase in strategy – let’s take it one step further: BE the consumer; create the internal monologue; find the friction; create the outcome.  

Mindsets, markets, culture. 

There is so much pressure on businesses to keep innovating, we become blinkered looking for the one killer concept that is going to revolutionise everything we know today. But there is more than one way to grow. 

The bulk of innovation that goes through businesses assumes a technical solution (i.e. pack, product, ingredient) to an existing repertoire that will eventually change a mindset.

In reality, a large number of innovations today are the result of behavioural shifts creating new opportunities (i.e. habits, channels, values), establishing a change in market. 

A third way to grow, which often slips under the net of innovation, is creating new value from existing products and brands (i.e through purpose, communication and storytelling), changing the way people connect, navigate and exchange – ultimately influencing a change in culture. 

All three result from the whole organisation thinking about the world through the lens of the people that live it, innovating with the consumer tension front of mind and focusing on the desired outcome, not output. 

At Stormbrands, we help businesses start innovation journeys on the same page by empowering stakeholders to forget what they know and mine everyday experiences in the hunt for discord, through the lens of people that matter. Our BRANDSTORM approach is fast, intuitive and brimming with a breadth of internal monologues that help businesses realise there are more ways to grow… if you change your perspective.  

By Katie Spencer who is Strategy Director at StormBrands

We’re all interested in compelling and engaging stories – and long form branded content or branded entertainment – hits that sweet spot where storytelling and entertainment meet brand loyalty and affection. 

From documentaries to talk shows, long form video content addresses the bigger issue of why a consumer should support, buy from, and ultimately advocate for a brand. Think Patagonia campaigns that have nothing to do with shifting products but focus on documentary-style storytelling to raise awareness of an issue or a cause. It’s content that touches people emotionally, tells a story and builds preference through conversation at the dinner table and between friends. 

We’re finding that it’s particularly popular with younger consumers who are motivated by brands that share their values and beliefs, rather than price-point or convenience. The power of long form branded video content is that, if it’s done well, it can convert an entire target group into a genuine audience – and ultimately create customers which actively seek out the brand.

• What results are you seeing? 

We specialise in long form branded content which delivers an interruption-free, brand safe, and 100% viewable marketing platform to advertisers, for global and localised branded video content. Our entire ethos is to drive actions and conversions based on the engagement data from the long form videos, which has been proving very popular with consumers and advertisers alike. 

We’re seeing an industry leading average viewing time of 5.5 mins per play on the Biites platform across all countries and content. Even though only 1% of all the content on Biites is actually 30 minutes or more, these videos generate 41% of total engagement measured in minutes. 

Only a few brands are currently brave enough to produce true long form video content. To some brands everything above 30 seconds is long form, but we also see brands who are producing real programs which are 20-60 minutes long. On Biites we require content to be at least 90 seconds, and the majority of the videos are around 90-120 seconds (38%). But these videos only generate 5% of the total engagement, measured in minutes. So we’re seeing it definitely pays off to create longer content. 

For a recent Jaguar documentary which gave an exclusive look behind the curtain of the brand for both clients and future employees, the results included 6min average viewing time, 125k plays, and 730k engagement minutes.

Another example delivered for GSK brand Nicotinell, was a branded reality series, where members of a biker club aimed to quit smoking over four episodes. The result included 50% VTR on all episodes, 77k plays, 43% play through rate, and 270k engagement minutes. 

• Why do you think there is an increasing trend for brands to create long form content? 

Brands are increasingly fighting for crumbs – a recent Dentsu report shows that even adverts that are only seen peripherally can be effective. They’re realising it’s time for a step-change, not only in how we measure and plan for attention, but also in how brands create strategies with attention at the heart.

We know customer behaviour is changing, with increased consideration, particularly around more expensive products such as luxury and automotive. The conversation is shifting from how and where do I buy, to why should I buy? The vital part of the relationship the customer requires with the brand is the why – why that brand, that product, or that service over one of the many others readily available? 

A few seconds isn’t enough to communicate this, and as consumers connect further with a brand drivingconsideration and purchase, brands need to move from entertaining to informing the consumer. In fact, we’d argue the entire marketing funnel needs a new section added – the ‘why’. Brand strategies need to consider this to better support building brand advocates from their target audience. Particularly when it comes to younger consumers who are more driven by values and beliefs, rather than traditional metrics like price and convenience. 

While marketers are familiar with the three main funnel stages, awareness (top), consideration (middle), and conversion (bottom), there is arguably a fourth ‘upper top funnel’ (engagement) for long form branded video content. As an additional level at the very top of the funnel above awareness, it’s the very first step in the consumer journey where evergreen stories should live. This level encourages engagement – it’s the place where you ‘suddenly’ find yourself spending time with a brand and its content – without even necessarily knowing the brand beforehand. This step is an engaging storytelling discipline that leads consumers into the awareness stage.

• Who is long form content competing with – TV advertising, social media, or digital advertising? 

Brands have a multitude of platforms competing for consumer attention – social, online, TV, radio, billboard, VOD – with competitors fighting to utilise each and every platform more effectively. 

Long form content presents a double opportunity in that brands can produce shorter versions for channels like Instagram and TikTok and create a mix of content to appeal to as wide an audience as possible – and capture as much of their attention as possible. 

Ultimately to be successful long form content needs to be relevant. Brands need to emotionally connect with audiences and take them into a universe that reflects their interests, passions, and lifestyle choices, in an entertaining manner.

Long form videos do not compete with TV advertising, social media, or digital advertising. It is a whole new discipline that can serve and strengthen marketing campaigns, if it is presented, distributed, and measured in the right ways. 

We talk about an ‘upper’ funnel in the marketing funnel, which is where this type of evergreen content can live for a long time. It often generates a lot of engagement and awareness of a brand, and advertisers can use these insights in the lower levels of the funnel. 

• Do you think this trend towards long form branded content will disrupt traditional TV / digital / social media advertising at all? 

In my opinion, the biggest entertainment shows will be brand funded within the next ten years. It’s going to be the main type of content we all watch and enjoy. So, to get the attention you’re looking for from consumers, now is the time to make some brave choices. This is also where you can turn your target groups into ‘an audience’, who voluntarily choose to watch, follow, and engage with a branded series, documentary, or talk show etc.

Rather than disruption it’s likely to create a symbiotic relationship. Long form content will be used to fuel traditional TV and social media channels, with broadcasters and OTT platforms buying the branded entertainment TV series to distribute through their own platforms, and shorter versions produced as ads and for social media. 

• What are the barriers to brands making long form content? 

Well, it’s expensive. High quality, longer-form video content needs investment from planning and production to post-production and distribution, which is arguably the biggest challenge. While brands could ultimately solve the problem of ring-fencing budget to create branded content, there’s little point in doing so if there’s nowhere to put it.

Instead, what we see is brands creating long form video content and then slicing it into snippets. 30 seconds here, 15 seconds there, and then distributing this edited content to deliver performance metrics. When asked why they didn’t just share the full, say, 15-minute documentary, they simply responded they had nowhere to post it.

Most platforms don’t allow for video over 60 or 90 seconds, which leaves YouTube as the only option which is often full of distractions, or the brand’s own website. But let’s face it, not many of us visit a brand’s website to watch a 15- or 30-minute documentary.

What we’re talking about here is the need to allocate budget into ‘paid content’, and as things stand, it’s an element of distribution that’s missing from the overall marketing mix. Platforms like ours, at Biites, are beginning to address this gap, but there is a need for the wider advertising industry to adopt and normalise a new distribution model and new commercial models that benefits longform content.

• Where does it sit – within a company – the advertising or PR team? 

One of the challenges that we’re finding is that ownership and responsibility for long form branded content can sit across numerous different teams. From content, media, marketing, social media, procurement, PR, corporate communications or social teams – and often these teams don’t coordinate with each other, so the long form content is used standalone rather than as part of the wider ad and marketing campaign. Which, in my view, is wasteful. 

There are huge opportunities for brands who prioritise long form content as their main starting point from which to roll out wider advertising and social media campaigns, with spin off content from the longer versions. 

Once brands are working in the field of branded programming and entertainment, it is our belief that brands will begin moving away from being advertisers and move towards becoming entertainers. Long form video content helps them do this because it allows them to tell a story and use pictures, sounds, and emotions in the same piece of content. But it requires a paradigm shift from marketers who need to step away from the temptation to create 30 second adverts, and instead concentrate on storytelling and using producers and creators with that specific skill set. 

• How are brands using the data collected from long form content? 

Long form video content is arguably the antidote to our age of distraction. The data out there around its use is compelling, with viewers retaining 95% of a message they’ve watched on a video. Compare this to just 10% of written content. And 72% would rather learn about a product or service from video. In fact, 85% of consumers want to see more video from brands. They’ll reward them with their attention. 

Data collected from these attentive viewers can help inform future ad campaigns and areas for improvement across both the product and marketing. It also includes topic preferences – making it easy to direct more relevant and personalised content to them. They’re more likely to share content – and additional extras such as discount vouchers with friends – making it a very compelling personal recommendation. 

We believe that branded entertainment will become ‘the base’ of future advertising, delivering more value, transparency, and relevance. Especially to younger target groups. New consumer journeys will start with entertainment and engaging the audience in a much more relevant and positive way. And from there drive them further down the funnel. We are definitely moving into a new consumer era, where it is much more ‘why to buy’ (a product) rather than ‘how and where to buy’ (a product) helping to build strong brand preferences. 

• What do you think the future looks like for long form branded video content?

Brands will start putting more thought into how to distribute their content. Far too much quality long formcontent is being cut into smaller pieces for social media. With the full-length version ending up hidden on a staff intranet, YouTube channel, or website that is never really utilised to its full potential. 

Better platforms will become available to display content in an engaging way, make it easy for consumers to find it, and make it valuable for brands by demonstrating the value of the data and insight it captures. As I mentioned, the average duration per view of a branded video on Biites is more than five and a half minutes, and there aren’t many brands that wouldn’t be interested in that high level of attention and engagement. Also, it’s likely broadcasters and OTT platforms will start using branded entertainment as a source of content for their channels. 

Brands will invest more in quality long form content becoming ‘entertainers’ – and this spend will ultimately be higher than traditional or digital ad budgets. Content that appears on Biites from brands like Jaguar Land Rover, Booking.com and Carlsberg works. It gets high viewing rates because it’s fundamentally really good content. There are no shortcuts to producing content of this level, and brands need to be brave to do so. It also leaves them with a piece of ‘evergreen’ content that serves the brand over a much longer period of time, so the investment keeps delivering far longer than a traditional three-month ad campaign.  

Brands have so much to tell – and they must see themselves as true ‘entertainment partners’ to win their audiences. Within the next five years, I’m certain that brands will become the main way our video, film, and TV entertainment is created and funded.  

Helle Jabiri Falck is Chief Operating Officer & Founder at Biites.

For more information visit: business.biites.com