Media Plan of the Year Awards 2024

For over 20 years, ADWEEK has been honoring the most dynamic media plans and executions from around the world. This year, our Media Plan of the Year awards recognize honorees across 27 categories, ranging from Best Use of AI to Best Use of Streaming Media. Whether it was a campaign to counter an auto sales slump, build cross-generational love for a brand, or promote inclusiveness in the workplace, these media plans showed impressive results. Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation | 'Find Your Best Self on the Water' Media Agency: Colle McVoy Honored in: Total Campaign $5 million-$10 million Fishing may be one of America’s oldest pastimes, but women have long felt excluded from the sport. Yet, research found that women who fish have greater confidence, and they’re happier and healthier than women who don’t. To hook women’s interest in fishing, the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation’s Take Me Fishing brand turned to media agency Colle McVoy. The “Find Your Best Self on the Water” campaign juxtaposed young women and girls fishing with being their best in their everyday lives. Media partners multiplied the campaign's reach, with partnerships extending across social media, Disney’s linear TV and streaming video platforms, and women’s magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Essence. Publishers including Forbes and Hypebae worked with influencers to show how they found their best selves while fishing, while Vanity Fair asked actress Ellie Kemper to document her very first fishing trip. The campaign garnered nearly 2 million social engagements and succeeded in increasing female fishing participation by 3%, bringing 1.7 million more female anglers to the sport. Dove | Dove Crown x LinkedIn: '#BlackHairIsProfessional' Media Agency: Mindshare Honored in: Best Cause Marketing Campaign Spending $1 Million+, Best Use of Social Four years after Dove began its crusade to end race-based hair discrimination for Black women and girls through the Crown Act, it recognized the need to empower consumers to take action in their communities. A Crown study found that Black women’s hair is 2.5 times more likely to be viewed as unprofessional, so Dove took to LinkedIn. The "#BlackHairIsProfessional" campaign aimed to help Black professionals celebrate their “crown,” encourage ally support of the Crown Act, and redefine professional hair standards. Supported by a paid media, TikTok, and Meta campaign, Dove also secured digital out-of-home placements in 25 New York office buildings to reach hair discrimination at its source. The campaign educated more than 1 million hiring managers and workplace professionals on how to create a more inclusive workplace. L'Enfant Bleu | The Hidden Story Media Agency: Havas Play France Honored in: Best Cause Marketing Campaign Spending Less Than $1 Million For years, L’Enfant Bleu has been fighting child abuse and raising awareness in France, but the age of social media has made it even easier for strangers to gain access to children. Often, parents themselves are inadvertently the worst culprits, with 50% of photos posted on child pornography forums being pictures taken by parents and publicly shared. In response, L’Enfant Bleu created The Hidden Story, a children’s book that secretly alerts parents to the risks of “sharenting.” Parents read a wholesome story about a mom who simply must share a photo of her daughter's adorable teddy bear online. But after the teddy bear photos travel around the world and fall into the hands of “teddy bear enthusiasts,” parents are asked to imagine the teddy bear is their child. L’Enfant Bleu released the powerful story during summer break, when parents share the most images of their children online. While the digital version of The Hidden Story was shared online, physical copies were sold in French retail chain Fnac and sent to journalists, influencers, French senators, and members of parliament. More than 800,000 parents have read the story, former French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne joined the conversation, and France became the first country to pass a law protecting the image rights of children. Who Gives a Crap | 'Uncrap the World' Media Agency: PMG Honored in: Best International Campaign (Non-U.S.) Spending $1 Million+ A decade after its founding, Who Gives a Crap turned to PMG to grow its global brand awareness, expanding to the U.K. and Australia. The eco-friendly toilet paper brand, which contributes 50% of its profits to creating access to adequate water and sanitation facilities around the world, wanted to help consumers understand that even small decisions like choosing the right paper products can have an impact. PMG supported the brand’s retail expansion with WGAC’s first global brand campaign to inspire change. Their efforts drove double-digit increases in awareness and ad recall in the U.K. and Australia, while linear TV placements exceeded ratings targets by 74%. Through influencer and paid social amplification, WGAC saw 54.2 million video views on TikTok alone and more than 609,000 engagements in the regions. Volkswagen | 'Sans Émission' Media Agency: Touché! Honored in: Best International Campaign (non-U.S.) Spending Less Than $1 Million, Best Use of Branded Content/Entertainment in Campaigns Spending Less Than $500,000 Every night, the Quebec market observes a “sans émission” period where many television networks cease broadcasting between 2 and 6 a.m. Montreal-based agency Touché! chose a different translation—zero emissions—for the period and seized the opportunity to highlight Volkswagen’s electric vehicles. Strategy centered on VW spokesperson Pier-Luc Funk, a local comedian who appeared to be launching a new TV show during the time slot. Timed to coincide with the actual television launch schedule for fall, Touché! orchestrated a pre-promotion campaign that drew from traditional techniques used by major TV networks, complete with a listing in the TV Guide. Then Touché! created four hours of humorous branded content that included counting Pier-Lucs instead of sheep, watching him do trick shots, and of course highlighting the features of the VW ID.4. More than 63,000 people tuned in the night of the broadcast, making it one of the Top 6 shows on the network, and Volkswagen saw a 49% increase in EV market share. La-Z-Boy | The Decliner Media Agency: Colle McVoy Honored in: Best Use of AI/VR/Machine Learning, Best Use of Insights With pandemic-fueled furniture sales waning, La-Z-Boy needed a way to jump back into the cultural conversation beyond its reputation as a hit of nostalgia. Bolstered with consumer research, Colle McVoy took on the task of activating within the recliner brand’s “Long Live the Lazy” marketing campaign platform and discovered a trend of people celebrating JOMO, or the joy of missing out. The agency jumped on the cultural prominence of ChatGPT and introduced The Decliner, an AI-powered recliner prototype that allowed the owner to generate a cancellation excuse via text simply by pulling its recliner handle. Just in time for National Lazy Day on Aug. 10, the campaign launched through digital video content, across social media and influencers, as well as at retail locations. The Decliner brought in a 50% increase in sales the first weekend and over the next month generated 1.1 billion impressions and 96,000 social engagements. Nike | 'Wemby Crop Circle' Media Agency: Wieden+Kennedy Portland Honored in: Best Use of Alternative Media In 2023, the San Antonio Spurs drafted the 7-foot-4-inch Victor Wembanyama, whose meteoric first season led to him winning Rookie of the Year. So Wieden+Kennedy Portland identified the perfect moment to capture attention and rocket Nike into culture by celebrating Wembanyama—dubbed “The Alien” by NBA legend LeBron James. During the last week of the season, the total solar eclipse was set to cross through the U.S., reaching totality over Wembanyama’s NBA hometown of San Antonio. Leaning into the sci-fi theme, W+K secured a large field just outside the city and used GPS-guided mowers to cut a 665-foot diameter crop circle into the grass. Just after the solar eclipse peaked over San Antonio, Nike dropped a social-specific film showcasing the one-of-a-kind crop circle complete with an alien head at the heart of a basketball. The stunt rocketed across the media, picking up coverage in major publications and sports broadcasters, and garnering Nike more than 21 million organic views and 392 million impressions across social media. Buffalo Wild Wings | 'They’re a Wing Place but Them Burgers Are Slept On' Media Agency: Zenith Media Honored in: Best Use of Branded Content/Entertainment in Campaigns Spending $1 Million-$2 Million Faced with a sales decline between 2022 and 2023, Buffalo Wild Wings discovered a huge part of its menu was going unappreciated. While burgers accounted for one-third of its menu, they only contributed to 5.6% of total sales. It was time to up the game. Zenith Media centered its strategy on reaching brand naysayers through their love of football. Timed around the 2023 NFL Draft, the integration enlisted the help of Brock Purdy, aka “Mr. Irrelevant,” the rookie who led his team to defeat the legendary Tom Brady in Purdy’s first NFL career start. BWW took the campaign a step further with a three-episode custom sponsorship of the New Heights podcast, hosted by Jason and Travis Kelce. All three football stars spoke of their love for BWW—including their favorite burger orders—and their influence saw burger sales skyrocket 74% per store each day of the promotion. In the six weeks following the campaign, burger sales maintained a 20% growth compared to the pre-campaign baseline, and Buffalo Wild Wings beat sales goals overall by almost 50%. T-Mobile | SNL Sponsorship Media Agency: Initiative Honored in: Best Use of Branded Content/Entertainment in Campaigns Spending $2 Million+ After nearly a decade as an underdog in the telecom space, T-Mobile was faced with a new challenge when vying for the top spot. As its competitors began to copy the brand's marketing and product messaging, T-Mobile needed an authentic way to differentiate once more. Media agency Initiative fixated on T-Mobile’s customer focus to grow brand familiarity and love. In a season-long partnership with SNL, T-Mobile provided everything an obsessed fan would want across the show’s content ecosystem. SNL writers wrote a T-Mobile commercial and produced a social content series called “Beyond Studio 8H” featuring cast member Bowen Yang. The fan favorite was also included in T-Mobile’s “Screen Time” social series. A branded livestream gave a behind-the-scenes look at the show’s opening monologue and control room, and T-Mobile ran a sweepstakes to win SNL studio tickets through its customer loyalty app. A measurement study found double-digit point increases in brand familiarity and favorability with consumers, and fans were four times as likely to consider T-Mobile because of its association with SNL. Zyrtec Allergy | Retreated Media Agency: UM Honored in: Best Use of Branded Content/Entertainment in Campaigns Spending $500,000-$1 Million Challenged with increasing brand awareness among Black and Hispanic audiences, Zyrtec Allergy turned to UM, which took a comedic approach to reaching these groups. UM wanted to engage with consumers through unconventional channels, so it teamed up with minority-owned entities such as Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat Productions and trip-planning company Camp Yoshi to make a comedic content series. The result was Retreated, three long-form pieces and nine unique short-form cutdowns that follow a ragtag group of comedians who get tricked into going camping. Over the three long-form videos, viewers follow along as the group adjusts to a trip in nature, from arguing about the lack of Wi-Fi to playing patty-cake to pass the time, all while battling allergies. In addition to posting across Zyrtec’s various platforms, Camp Yoshi produced a behind-the-scenes video and blog post to boost the campaign. Retreated overperformed on social, garnering 7.6 million views. The campaign also significantly improved brand familiarity. Southeast Toyota Distributors | 'Shock of Recognition' Media Agency: 22squared Honored in: Best Use of Data Amid a slump in the auto market, Southeast Toyota Distributors needed a new way to approach potential car buyers. 22squared found that instead of merely shopping for new cars, most people only stepped onto dealership lots when prompted by a new life event (e.g., “We’re having a baby”). So the agency launched a campaign aimed at this “near-market” audience by creating lifestyle content and partnering with influencers to help people picture themselves in a Toyota. 22squared delivered lifestyle CTV and online video encouraging customers to explore the vehicles, while Southeast Toyota’s website offered inspiration and information tied to real-life Toyota usage. The data-backed campaign yielded impressive results, with the site receiving 25% more views year over year, including a 23% increase in unique visitors. The campaign also helped raise sales 3% compared to the previous year, and Southeast Toyota became the top-selling region in the nation. General Mills | Gushers’ 'Black Voices Create: Fashioning Change' Media Agency: Mindshare Honored in: Best Use of Experiential in Campaigns Spending $500,000+ General Mills’ snack brand Gushers has been a staple in millennial nostalgia but hadn't yet been introduced to Gen Z consumers. So the brand has made a concerted effort through its Black Voices Create platform to reach Black content creators, who play a large role in shaping culture but are often undervalued for it. The latest iteration aimed to reach teen audiences through fashion: Mindshare partnered with three up-and-coming Black fashion designers, offering exposure, financial compensation, and marketing dollars to create the Gushers' Black Voices Create capsule collection. The agency connected them with the streetwear publication Hypebeast to highlight the designers’ craft and the stories behind their work. The designs were showcased across interactive out-of-home placements surrounding the hottest New York Fashion Week events, and teens across the country could try the collection on via a Snapchat AR campaign. The campaign culminated in a live Fashion Week panel, complete with a discussion with designers and a surprise giveaway. Overall, the designers’ personal brand followings increased by more than 100%, and Hypebeast’s engagement rate doubled. Although the campaign focused on brand purpose rather than direct sales, it lifted brand favorability by 2% and purchase intent by 8%. Good Humor and Tampa Bay | 'Creamsicles Unite in Culture' Media Agency: Mindshare Honored in: Best Use of Experiential in Campaigns Spending Less Than $500,000 It had been five years since Good Humor invested in a marketing campaign, but when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers brought back their retro Creamsicle uniforms from the 1970s, the Unilever ice cream brand couldn’t pass on the opportunity. Devised by Mindshare, the “Creamsicles Unite in Culture'' campaign tapped into Good Humor’s 100-year heritage to create an authentic experience for Buccs fans. The brand partnered with the football team and local Tampa Bay designers to bring the retro Creamsicle aesthetic to life across out-of-home, digital, and social channels. Before the game, Tampa Bay players handed out thousands of free Creamsicle bars to fans from a custom-wrapped Good Humor ice cream truck, and the brand drove a digital out-of-home boat through the waters of the bay. The brand handed out bars to nearly 10,000 fans, reigniting brand love and encouraging organic coverage on social media. After the game, a social contest to win a signed Creamsicle jersey became the brand’s most liked post on Instagram. Stella & Chewy’s | 'America’s Next Top Petfluencer' Media Agency: Exverus Media Honored in: Best Use of Mobile in Campaigns Spending $500,000+ With its sights set on expanding across the U.S., Midwestern pet food brand Stella & Chewy’s needed a way to scale into big-box pet retailers while maintaining its relationships with local ones. S&C’s target demographic was simple: “Devoted Danielle,” an optimistic millennial or Gen X pet owner who is never without her phone and loves sharing pics of her fur baby. So S&C worked with Exverus Media to launch the "America’s Next Top Petfluencer" social campaign. Modeled off of the popular America’s Next Top Model reality competition show from the early ’00s, digital ads encouraged people to submit their cutest pet photos for a chance to win a prize package. Exverus worked with social influencers and boosted posts targeting pet parents within 5 miles of local stores, while QR codes sent people on scavenger hunts to their neighborhood pet shops. The campaign reached 16.8 million “Danielles,” and a panel of judges chose Rocky the Husky from more than 5,500 entries. ANTP brought a 33% lift in foot traffic to local stores, and 63% of entrants opted into receiving future brand promotions, opening a critical pipeline of first-party data. Modelo Especial | 'Lowrider' Media Agency: Initiative Honored in: Best Use of Native Advertising Lowrider car culture began in the Mexican American neighborhoods of East LA in the late 1940s, but it wasn’t until recent years that women have taken their seats behind the wheel. Working with Initiative and creative partner Grey, Modelo wanted to draw attention to women’s contributions in the space by resurrecting the iconic Lowrider Magazine with a facelift. Instead of the male-dominated pages where women were traditionally objectified, the new edition celebrated women’s contributions. In addition to telling the stories of the women who have worked to define the culture, the campaign donated more than $240,000 in advertising space to Latina-owned small businesses and launched the magazine during Women’s History Month in Long Beach. The magazine was distributed among minority-owned media partners and Lowrider subscribers, and sold on Modelo’s website to raise money for women’s lowrider clubs. The campaign increased sales in the LA market by 9% year over year. Google | Google Play Game Awards Media Agency: EssenceMediacom Honored in: Best Use of Out-of-Home in Campaigns Spending $500,000+ Google teamed up with Samsung to promote the new Galaxy Z Fold5 and take on another bias rampant in the gaming community—that mobile gaming isn’t gaming because of the small screens. In response, Google and EssenceMediacom took the fight to the largest screen available, the Las Vegas Sphere, to convince gamers otherwise. Google Play partnered with Clash of Clans to optimize the game for the new Samsung foldable phone and debuted a faux out-of-home stunt during The Game Awards that saw Clash of Clans characters break out of the Sphere and traipse around Las Vegas. The campaign was magnified across social media and a YouTube Masthead takeover, scaling impressions to more than 363 million across gamers. Google Play and Twitch also created the Play More Award at the Game Awards, where players could vote in real time for their most anticipated mobile game throughout the broadcast. Mobile gamers took the stage across social, beating Twitch’s audience chat interaction by 483% and challenging the stigma of what it means to be a gamer. Nike | Caitlin Clark NCAA Scoring Records Media Agency: Wieden+Kennedy Portland Honored in: Best Use of Out-of-Home in Campaigns Spending Less Than $500,000 When Caitlin Clark, the now famous WNBA rookie, was close to breaking the overall NCAA all-time scoring record, Nike wanted to go big. So with the help of Wieden+Kennedy Portland, the brand launched an ambitious out-of-home campaign to showcase that “This was never a long shot.” W+K’s integrated media and comms planners took a chance that the record would be broken at Clark’s last home game and looked at every building in downtown Iowa City—regardless of it having preexisting ad space. In less than two weeks, they installed a 90-foot banner just a block from the University of Iowa campus on a seven-story building that had no previous ad infrastructure. But to truly showcase Clark’s range, Nike needed another building. The moment Clark broke the record, a second banner dropped down the street revealing the basket the first Clark banner was shooting for. In addition to gaining 21 million earned impressions on social media, all local media outlets and major sports publications covered the activation. Voodoo Ranger | 'Megabrand' Media Agency: Exverus Media Honored in: Best Use of Programmatic After several years of being the No. 1 convenience store IPA in the country, Voodoo Ranger needed new ways to cut through the noise generated by the other 10,000 craft beer brands that launched in the past three years. To expand its messaging beyond owned channels and broadcast its edgy brand message to “Live Rangerously,” it hired Exverus Media. The agency launched the “Megabrand” campaign, a fully digital 360 media campaign that programmatically bought placements on social, video, and premium CTV platforms. To reach the full breadth of the internet, the campaign targeted gamers on YouTube, Snapchat, and Reddit, engaging with beer-loving Reddit communities and becoming part of the conversation. Exverus focused on high-impact CTV platforms such as Max, Peacock, and Paramount+, while layering in a curated mix of retail, location-based, interest keyword, browsing data, and custom social segments. The campaign surpassed all of Voodoo’s campaign goals, raising cross-channel ad awareness by 44% and brand favorability by 23%. More importantly, Voodoo’s sales growth increased 26% compared to the previous year. E.l.f. Cosmetics | 'Cosmetic Criminals' Media Agency: Movers+Shakers Honored in: Best Use of Streaming Media/OTT E.l.f. Cosmetics continued its legacy of capitalizing on cultural moments this year by once again fusing beauty and entertainment. With the help of longtime creative partner Movers+Shakers, the beauty brand launched “Cosmetic Criminals,” a 15-minute “true crime” documentary-style commercial. Based on the real-life insights of e.l.f. products being stolen by loved ones because they’re so popular, the story follows a family torn apart by their cosmetics needs. The docu-commercial premiered in select theaters before the Paramount Pictures’ blockbuster Mean Girls—making it the longest branded content ever showcased on the big screen—and accompanied a full social rollout complete with cosmetic crime reports and whodunit polls and quizzes. E.l.f. also released a three-piece “cosmetic security” kit with ways to safeguard coveted e.l.f. goodies. The campaign garnered more than 14.5 million views on YouTube with an impressive 54.1% view duration. It also generated 30 million impressions in AMC Theatres, streamed more than 36,000 minutes on Freevee, and earned a 4.7-star rating on Prime Video. Audible | 'Breakthrough' Media Agency: Wavemaker Honored in: Best Use of Voice When Audible launched its music competition show Breakthrough, it wanted to truly launch the careers of its contestants by emphasizing their talent and artistry rather than the end goal of fame. Wavemaker took up the task by reaching beyond the broader public to find music lovers where they are, taking over moments on major music platforms such as Warner Music, Lollapalooza, the iHeartRadio Music Festival, The Masked Singer, and even American Idol. Breakthrough treated the media as a form of artist relations and took over the airwaves and digital outlets on every stop of its multi-city, multi-channel tour from Austin to Las Vegas to Chicago. By its estimate, when inaugural winner Mitch Clark performed in front of a crowd of 40,000 at Lollapalooza, Breakthrough had reached 344 million music fans and generated 221,000 Audible site visits. Not only did Breakthrough live up to its moniker by standing out in the cluttered music industry, but it also delivered more than $245,000 in added media value for Audible. Gold Peak | Tea Lens Media Agency: EssenceMediacom Honored in: Total Campaign $1 million-$5 million Tea brand Gold Peak set out to differentiate itself from competitors by having consumers see its product in a new light. Most teas look opaque when held up to the light, but because of its flash-brewed process, Gold Peak’s golden-colored tea is transparent. Inspired to show the world this fact with their own eyes, EssenceMediacom devised the Gold Peak Tea Lens, a physical lens that clips over a smartphone camera and can be filled with tea. The campaign used photographers ranging from influencers to Condé Nast pros to demonstrate the concept and scaled to mass media to get consumers to associate Gold Peak with golden hour. An out-of-home campaign took a page out of Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” series and put digital boards that showcased stunning golden photos taken through the lens. A custom ad on TikTok rounded out the campaign, bringing Gold Peak its highest purchase frequency and amount spent per household ever, along with near 100% positive sentiment across social platforms. Barbie | 'Barbie Breaks Out of the Box (Office)' Media Agency: Hearts & Science Honored in: Total Campaign $10 Million+ Charged with bolstering opening weekend turnout, Hearts & Science was at the center of the Barbie craze that painted the world pink last summer. The Omnicom Media Group agency invited people to play in the Barbieverse, used cross-channel media to fuel excitement and win over the skeptics, and brought Barbie into the real world by taking over streaming platforms and social media with multiple branded touch points. Partnerships abounded, with a custom Amazon Alexa Barbie theme and homepage during Prime Week, a fully explorable 3D Dreamhouse on Pinterest, and a Snap Global Landmark Lens that Barbie-fied iconic landmarks. Barbie even took over 18 minutes of The Bachelorette featuring a Barbie-themed group date. The activations were endless, driving twice the consumer search interest compared to the previous two years combined and ultimately leading to $162 million at the box office on opening weekend. Arm & Hammer | 'The Mad Science Lab' Media Agency: Wavemaker Honored in: Total Campaign $500,000-$1 million Arm & Hammer baking soda has hundreds of uses around the home, but when Wavemaker needed to build cross-generational affinity for the brand, the agency tapped into a key childhood memory: the science fair. From volcanoes to bottle rockets and everything in between, Arm & Hammer brought its best experiments to the virtual Mad Science Lab hosted in Roblox’s popular Livetopia world. Each new reaction brought the brand to families through gamification of STEM education, encouraging kids to explore, problem-solve, and put a little magic in baking soda. As kids completed experiments, they unlocked in-game prizes, all while learning. The brand also worked with popular YouTube families to bring the experiments to life. The Roblox activation saw 6 million stage visits and 820 million unique lab visits, while YouTube brought 21.5 million impressions. Both formats increased brand awareness by 25% and favorability by 8%. Dove | '#TurnYourBack' Media Agency: Mindshare Honored in: Total Campaign Less Than $500,000 The second Dove campaign on our list, "#TurnYourBack" took aim at unrealistic social media beauty standards. It particularly focused on the Bold Glamour Instagram filter that airbrushes faces. Armed with insights that the filter—already used by millions of people—even worked on obstructed faces, Dove’s response was swift. The beauty brand partnered with the same influencers who had used the Bold Glamour filter to remind women to embrace their authentic beauty and instead turn their backs. Within 72 hours of Bold Glamour's virality, the campaign used 68 influencers and actress Gabrielle Union. They showed the filter, explained its harmful effects on their mental health and turned their backs. The launch was supported by earned media outreach, paid online, and out-of-home targeting women in key global markets. The campaign gleaned 54 million video views, more than 567,000 engagements, and an 83% positive sentiment rate. Influencer agency Gleam was even persuaded to condemn the Bold Glamour filter and update its editing policies.

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Media Plan of the Year: 24 Campaigns That Cut Through the Noise

The media agencies and brands that drove impressive results

Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation | â€˜Find Your Best Self on the Waterâ€™

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