Some of What We Learned at Most Contagious 2024

As editor-at-large Katrina Stirton Dodd promised at the start of Most Contagious 2024, the day would see the Contagious team and its carefully curated guests guiding the audience through “the most contagious, the most creative campaigns, the most important trends, the most PowerPoint, and enough inspiration to power an entire industry.” And the day more than delivered. This summary will attempt to impart a flavour of the intelligence shared, but bear in mind that the day included a whopping 18 sessions on stage. This will be a highlight reel, but there really is no substitute for being at a conference like Most Contagious.

‘Breakthrough Social’ was the topic of the first presentation on the Southbank Centre stage in London, by Contagious editor Chloe Markowicz. In it she laid out context to situate the whole day’s thinking within.

In 2024 social became the top channel for global advertising investment, making it a business imperative for marketers to navigate the online trend cycle – as brat summer fades into demure, mindful autumn and WTF winter at breakneck speed. With over a third of time online now spent on social channels, Chloe delved into the brands who’ve made the most of their marketing budgets and won on social this year.

Nutter Butter’s behaviour on TikTok recently prompted many in the community to express concern for the wellbeing of the brand. “You good?” asked TikToker cassiefitzh20, expressing the feelings of many in response to its, err, idiosyncratic posts. The word “unhinged” has been used a lot to describe the peanut butter brand’s online tone, but the strategy by Dentsu Creative revolves around the “compel don’t tell” principle, Chloe revealed, adding that it is "experimental, not unhinged,” and intentional, not reckless.

Whatever you think about those distinctions, we can all agree that the brand’s social strategy is as nutty as its product, and that has delivered a powerful upsurge in interest on social media.

DuoLingo is often also called “unhinged,” on social media (as well as on LBB, as it happens), particularly when its mascot farted out a copy of its own face during the Super Bowl. As was PopTarts, earlier in 2024 when it sacrificed its own ‘edible mascot’ live during the college football game the Pop Tarts Bowl.

Equally intentional, compelling and potentially a little unhinged, was Charli xcx in the year of brat summer. Chloe ran the audience through the marketing masterclass of brat, teasing out the insights that all brands could find something in. “What's the genius behind brat summer? It's about seeding content over time, steadily to maintain interest,” said Chloe. “It's designed to intrigue. The fans all want to speculate about the content. There's a creative conversation. But the most important thing about this campaign is how low the barriers to brat are. The brat aesthetic is instantly recognisable. But it's also meme ready. All you need is a green background, a low res sans-serif font and anything can be brat.” 

James Blunt’s promise to change his name if his re-released album was speaking to a totally different fanbase from Charli, but he too had his TikTok moments based on a campaign that engaged with fans and rewarded them for engaging. 

Marc Jacobs is another brand that broke through on social, collaborating deftly with creators on TikTok, leaning into their senses of humour and understanding of the storytelling that works on the platform. That’s also what Gap did in its collaboration with hoodie enthusiast Julia Hunyh.

Chloe left us with three keys to social success that brands should offer social media audiences:

1. Escapism

2. Engagement

3. Letting creators take the lead

Coming with plenty of receipts, facts, figures and charts to provide a broad platform on which to build the day’s conversation, Rohan Tambyrajah, chief experience officer at PHD Worldwide started with a provocation:

“Every year, we believe that about $120 billion of growth is left on the table due to fragmented marketing processes, disconnected siloed capabilities and an over-focus on the short term rather than the long term. It's a huge problem,” he said. 

Looking at Interbrand’s Best Global Brands report over the past 25 years he noted that 85 brands that have appeared on it have disappeared from existence. Only two have managed to stay in the top 10 for the duration – Microsoft and Coca-Cola. In answer to ‘what’s changed’, Rohan suggested “pretty much everything.” The rules of the game aren’t just changing, “it feels like a totally different game altogether.”

Brands have to react to change at a pace that’s never been matched, he showed. Which has made brand an ever more fundamental business tool.

Marketing has to solve the problem of fragmentation, he said, underlining the diminishing reach of paid media, the rise of creator media, the demand for assets across ever more platforms and formats, and the siloing and duplication of marketing disciplines.

“Which is why the ‘total consumer experience’ has moved up the list of top CMO priorities,” he said, showing that it quadrupled in prominence over the past year, according to one study.

Generative AI inevitably reared its head at this point as Rohan pointed out that all consumer interaction points will inevitably soon be underpinned by it.

Rohan then unveiled his blueprint, which revolved around five tenets:

1. Intelligent infrastructure

2. Platformed capabilities

3. AI Agents

4. Elevated experiences

5. Return on experience

 

In the UK we’re very familiar with the big ads that IKEA has worked on with its agency Mother for years. Big, emotional and often fantastical 60-second films were the mainstay of that client-agency relationship. It’s something that Kemi Anthony, marketing communication manager at IKEA UK and Ireland admitted to being in the habit of expecting from her partners at the London independent agency. Nick Hallbery, executive creative director and Imogen Carter, strategy director at Mother agreed that they’d got into a bit of a groove of a 60-second-first comms model. Based on the “first inspire, then enable” mentality and a 38- or even 40-week process with TV at the heart of every campaign, it had won the home retailer a lot of love from the public (and more than a few advertising awards from the industry). In 2024 that all changed, when IKEA centralised its global TV advertising. “It was sad,” Nick confided in the Most Contagous audience. 

The briefs changed, marking a period that Kemi described as “a bit of lull” and Nick admitted felt to Mother like “scraping the barrel”.  But they couldn’t stay in that slump. Mother and IKEA UK worked together to find ways of getting themselves excited about advertising without “big briefs”.

They laid out a series of principles to follow:

1. Aim for braver and bolder work

2. Unleash the power of social media

3. Bring more of ‘The Wonderful Everyday’ into everything you do

They had an epiphany: “Small briefs can be the big briefs.”

A simple recruitment brief became a full IKEA store built in Roblox, where potential employees could experience the breadth of career opportunities at the Swedish company. It led to 15,000 responses, which Imogen accurately described as “pretty wild.”

Another seemingly unglamorous brief was to hide the scaffolding outside “a half-built shop” – which will be the Oxford Street store in London. Mother had the idea to transform the whole building into a gigantic version of the iconic Frakta bag, essentially an ad that nobody in London’s most famous shopping street can ignore. 

To try and associate IKEA with Christmas time – usually not a calendar moment for furnishings – without the budget of previous TV Christmas ads, took some thinking. “Rather than kind of focusing on what we weren't famous for, which was people coming in their droves to us at Christmas time, we looked at something that we were very famous for – our meatballs,” said Kemi. “And we decided to supersize it. It took the form of a social competition, and once again, it absolutely blew up.” 

“We would genuinely have laughed if 24 months ago, you’d have told us that we’d be here talking about what a brilliant year we've had creatively with IKEA,” admitted Imogen. “Behind the scenes it took a lot of hard work, a lot of conversations, and it took a lot of trust between us all to believe that we would get there.”

Kemi continued the on-stage love-in: “It sounds a little bit wanky, but it really was genuinely good teamwork. We are genuinely one team. I don't think of it as IKEA and Mother. They're an extension of the team, working together to elevate those small briefs, hustling to create briefs that didn't exist, so that we could create more really exciting content has been a really great time for us.” 

In her task to highlight advertising media giant Global's commitment to championing creativity as a catalyst for change, Anto Chioccarelli, director of creative outdoor presented ‘The Big Idea Generation’ platform to the conference room. Creativity takes commitment, she asserted, which is why she’s made it her mission to bridge the gap between creatives and media owners. Admittedly, this wasn’t easy when she first joined Global in 2022, but she’s plugged away.

Her aim was to create a movement. So Anto wrote a manifesto for the Big Idea Generation, built on the principles of education, innovation and ideas. Through the company’s collaborative creative course with D&AD, she hopes that future generations will develop the skills needed to find big ideas. Global’s innovation in out-of-home media provides the infrastructure for big ideas to live within, she said, and its ‘Look Ahead’ competition creates a space where they can flourish in this space.

Two Frenchmen next graced the London stage to discuss a very Parisian campaign, but with international lessons for brands. When French ride-sharing platform Heetch wanted a new brand strategy, Renaud Berthe, chief marketing officer, went for dinner with Olivier Aumard, executive creative director at BETC Paris. Because that’s how they do it in France. They admitted there was Champagne present.

The important question to answer was simple. With Uber being the giant of the category, what did Heetch have to differentiate it, other than its French heritage? The answer they landed on had a lot in it – Heetch would take you to and from the Parisian suburbs, la Banlieue. You could rely on it to get into and out of the city. “Heetch is the kind of friend that answers your 3am text,” joked Olivier.

 

            

With the 2024 Olympic Games coming up, Renaud stated that it was, of course, a “great opportunity to make money.” But it was also a great opportunity to stand up for Parisians at a time when the city’s transport infrastructure was destined to be overburdened, to build loyalty among the local French while visitors from across the world were filling up their capital city.

The result was an audacious idea: ‘Choose Uber’ – advertising the brand’s giant American competitor so that the locals could rely on the homegrown service to get around their city. 

            

In the short term, Renaud nearly lost his job. Only 3% of foreign customers used Heetch (no prize for guessing who was driving them around the city during the Games), but eventually it paid off, with 37% increase in French customers and the business’ best summer ever.

“When everything in the advertising industry is about urgency, short term, we decided to choose the opposite strategy,” said Olivier. “We went with the long term. I'm deeply convinced that agencies or clients have to step away from short-term ideas. We have to go only with ideas that create a smart and long-lasting connection with the audience. Short-term ideas are killing agencies, short term ideas are killing clients, so we have to fight all together to go with the long term.”

Next to the stage was the most famous pair of interns in adland. Nidhi Shah and Rag Brahmbhatt, Miami Ad School students who wrote an “elaborate poop joke” while on a placement at Serviceplan and ended up winning a Gold Lion in Cannes. Nidhi admitted it “sounds like an advertising fairy tale,” but you can read their full story here to find out the truth. 

They brought lessons for the agencies in the room. Importantly, they stressed that expecting Gold Lion ideas from your interns should not be the norm – that’s “too much pressure” said Nidhi. Other lessons included encouraging interns to share ideas without judging them too harshly, listening to interns’ opinions and showing them the playbook – the ways that teams and relationships work together to get to great ideas.

But Rag underlined an important point for agencies: “To be honest, right now, there are so many options for young creatives that advertising is not even in their top 10 things they could do. They could be creative in so many different ways. So it's really important to ask where you find young creatives who want to do great advertising.”

The AI narrative ranges from destroyer to panacea with many people simultaneously believing in both. But often we fail to account for what people actually want, what they need and what they are prepared to put up with for an easier life. In the next session, Ipsos brought evidence that puts the human at the centre of the debate and to tell you what that means for creativity and creative effectiveness.

Samira Brophy, senior creative excellence director, and Eleanor Thornton-Firkin, UK head of creative excellence, each took a side of the debate, dropping yet more facts to wrap around the insights of the day drawn from Ipsos research. For example, while 58% fear that technical progress is destroying our lives, 80% cannot imagine life without the internet. Then again, 19% worry that it’s likely that AI will lead to the extinction of humanity. While many are uncomfortable about AI being used to create art, personalise social media content and direct political content and advertising, the research shows that many are more excited about its practical potential to improve traffic flow on roads, identify potential health risks or tailor learning to students’ needs.

For marketers with more platforms and exponentially higher volumes of video assets in production, AI could be a great help, said Samira and Eleanor. But it has to be used with a human understanding of what works and what doesn’t. And empathy for audiences is key, their research suggested. This was missing from the gen-AI created Velvetiser campaign, which Samira said “everyday people have judged it as a pretty average piece of work.” The Toys R Us AI ad, which was broadly panned by the ad industry, turned out to be shockingly well received by real people. Meanwhile, Heinz asking AI to create images of ketchup scored brilliantly on Ipsos’ Creative Effect Index. These three projects prove the varying degrees of excellence that can come from creatively collaborating with AI.

The session finished with some broad principles to apply from these three cases, in order to find the balance between misfits and machines in marketing:

1. Don’t fully outsource your creativity

2. Don’t fully insource your judgement

3. Continue to be beautiful and useful

“Is gen z cooked?” asked Kian Bakhtiari, founder of The People, in the language of his generation. The gut feeling is that it’s not the most enviable age group to be in. Growing up under the shadow of war, financial instability and planetary destruction, he pointed to behaviours that tell a clear story. For instance, they might be the first generation to feel nostalgia for things they never actually experienced, such as ‘90s and ‘00s football culture, or digital cameras that aren’t connected to mobile phones.

It’s understandable, when a “boomer blockade” is keeping these young adults from wealth and power that historically would have been passed on – the average FTSE board member is over 60 now, while less than 3% of global politicians are under 30.

Continuing with the tirade of grim statements, Kian observed the rise in young adults living with parents and the rising proportion of young people’s income that is now spent on housing.

With the rise of all individualism, loneliness and a lack of financial opportunity for gen z, Kian suggested brands should see a challenge: “As we look towards 2025 I think one of the biggest opportunities for brands and marketers is how can you bring people together in an increasingly fragmented world?”

In the next focus on a particular brand campaign, Mark Shanley, creative director, and Liora Ingram, planning director at adam&eveDDB got real about Pot Noodle’s marketing heritage. Lines such as ‘The Slag of All Snacks’ quite clearly targeted an audience of “horny young men,” said Liora. So when the culture shifted towards purpose-led advertising, the cheap, slurpable lunch option had to do some difficult searching to find its place in people’s lives. Then, in an age when genuine Asian contenders started entering the UK instant noodle aisle, the brand was faced with something of an identity crisis, at one point pretending to be more Asian than it really was with its Asian Street Style range. “It's probably fair to say that Pot Noodle had kind of lost its way, both in terms of what we were standing for as a brand – masquerading as a career coach – and when it came to our product we were trying to play our competitors at their own game.”

“It was time to get real,” said Liora. So the agency spoke to real Pot Noodle lovers around the UK. The surprising result was an outpouring of emotion, verging on the religious. adam&eveDDB took an approach which “leaned into the slurp,” said Mark. 

The original idea, which depicted a woman slurping every time she felt satisfied with something, researched brilliantly at first. But after the edit, with the sound, people’s confusion reaction was in the 95 percentile in Kantar research. Hilariously, on a second watch that went up to the 98th percentile. The agency had to take a sharp turn, ditching the metaphor and zeroing in even more on the slurp itself.

Unfortunately, the sound of the slurp caused outrage and disgust, triggering people’s misophonia – discomfort at the sounds of eating. People started calling for awful things to happen to the team behind the ad, ranging from the team being fired, to a slow, painful death. One tweet even called for the person who greenlit it’s pillow to always be warm.

But they didn’t give up. Instead, adam&eveDDB recut the ads with 49 different sounds swapped in, each tailored to a particular audience or context. The results were phenomenal, with a 399% online conversation increase, 25% increase in total sales and 19 million pots sold.

This humanising story of victory from the slurping cheeks of defeat taught the adam&eveDDB team some lessons that can apply broadly.

1. Honesty is the best policy (as this very public admission of failure shows)

2. Best practice food advertising isn’t best for every brand

3. If you piss off millions of people, you’d better be prepared to make it right

The story of Channel 4’s ‘SuperHumans’ is one of the most compelling recent cases of advertising changing public perception, but after three Paralympic Games’ worth of altering society, this year the UK broadcaster made the decision to retire the concept. James Hamilton, senior brand planner at Channel 4 and Dom Hyams, global client director at Purple Goat, explained why.

In 2012 expectations for promoting the Paralympics were low. But with a bit of creative magic, ‘Meet the Superhumans’ changed national perceptions and viewership – London 2012 had 141% more viewers than the Beijing 2018 games.

In 2016 that idea expanded from para-athletes to the broader disability community with ‘We’re the Superhumans’. In 2020, ‘Super. Human’ symbolically smashed the ‘super’ and Channel 4 knew it was the end of something.

For 2024’s campaign, Channel 4 asked viewers why they would watch the Paralympics. To see people “overcoming disabilities” came out as the primary motivator. “It’s the only sporting event in the world where people are more interested in the back stories of the elite athletes that are taking part in it than they are in the sport itself,” noted James. 

For Dom, that’s a state of affairs that needs to be addressed. “Framing disability as something to overcome implies there is something in you as an individual that has to change,” he said. “You feel lesser when you aspire to be something that you’re not.”

Channel 4 had to accept some culpability for that in its willingness to focus on athletes’ backstories in previous campaigns. “Where does curiosity turn to voyeurism?” considered James. Because, as Dom said, “Paralympians don’t want your patronising bullshit. They want to get out there and compete.”

This meant a shift in focus, from “the Paralympics as a moment for people to witness athletes overcoming their disabilities” to “the Paralympics as a moment for people to overcome their well-meant, but patronising views of disability.” It was putting the onus on the viewer to change society. 

Working with Purple Goat, Channel 4 ensured the disabled community was involved at every level. And the resulting ad ‘Considering What?’ focused on the forces that all athletes face - gravity, friction and time.

James reflected, in conclusion, that while Channel 4 can be proud of the progress that’s been made via these campaigns, until there is parity of opportunity for disabled people, representation on screen and no more barriers to society for everyone, it’s important for the broadcaster to continue on this journey.

Dentsu Creative chief strategy officer EMEA, Patricia McDonald, shared key trends that are shaping brands, consumers and culture in the year ahead, providing insights for marketers and businesses to navigate the evolving consumer landscape.

From the rise of virtual communities to the emergence of AI companions, the five themes and their sub-trends will be explored in depth in the upcoming Dentsu Creative Trends Report 2025, ‘Fragment Forward’, which launches 5th December.

The report offers essential guidance for brands to resonate in a rapidly changing landscape. Marketers, business leaders, strategists and creatives, can unlock valuable perspectives to drive growth, foster brand relevance, and anticipate future consumer needs.

As we move into an age when algorithms increasingly decide what we see, Patricia suggested that marketing will see a “shift from share of voice to share of culture.” But this isn’t easy for CMOs, who are often conflicted about how to connect with culture. 88% of CMOs agree it is more important than ever for brands to be part of culture, Dentsu Creative’s research shows, and 77% agree that brands today will be built in partnership between brands, creators and platforms. But 74% admit they find it difficult to know how to connect their brand to culture, while 60% struggle to balance the excitement of partnerships with the risk of giving up control.

‘Winning in the Age of the Algorithm’ is a complex loop, then, between culture and commerce. As Patricia laid out, passion, pace and partnership are the keys to the culture side, while performance, presence and personalisation are the keys to the commerce side.

As an answer to how both brands and humans can thrive in the age of the algorithm, she finished with five trends picked from the upcoming report:

1. The “Good Enough” Life

2. The Togetherness Deficit

3. Generation Blur

4. Curiouser and Curiouser

5. Algorithms and Blues

Those are certainly cryptic, but when the report drops, you can test your speculation against what the Trends Report says about them.

Ali Hanan, founder of Creative Equals, zoomed out from marketing to another broad direction of travel in the world that requires all of our attention. As powerful right-wing figures are waging 'anti-woke lawfare’ and some large brands are rolling back the DEI agenda, she warned of the hellscape this could be leading us to. She also underlined an increasing body of research that shows inclusive marketing is one of the key ways to drive growth.

“This topic transcends politics and marketing,” she said. “To be ‘woke’ is to understand the universal declaration of human rights, which says all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Who we choose to portray and how we portray them, is to uphold those very rights,” Ali said.

In an age when brands are receiving vocal ‘anti-woke’ criticism from consumers, staying out of the culture wars might seem like the safe option. But she pointed to research to counter that. Figures from the ANA AIMM show that brands that uphold their DEI values are more likely to be rewarded. For every one consumer rewarding brands that back down from DEI positions due to criticism  there are four to five consumers who would reward brands that uphold their DEI values in the face of criticism.

She went on to share the disproportionate number of Cannes Lions and Effie winners that have DEI at their core and to implore brands not to be afraid of the ‘woke’ label. It means to be awake. “Every campaign has the chance to make an impact.” So of course, DEI shouldn’t DIE. “Instead, let's be woke. Let’s open our eyes to a future with courage, with progress and unity. This is your call to action.” 

Tom Standage, deputy editor of The Economist zoomed even more from marketing to share his ‘Top 10 for 2025’ - a teaser of his future-gazing report series. Here are the topics he thinks everyone should be thinking about:

1. Americas’s choice

Donald Trump’s impact will be big, but we don’t know exactly what it will be yet. Will he do some version of what he says he will? Only time will tell.

2. Voters expect change

Around the world incumbent parties have done badly this year. Populations that voted for change will expect it to start happening – a useful lens through which to watch 2025 as it unfolds.

3. Broader disorder

Trump’s impact on the world will likely be a destabilising one, Tom said, with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea likely benefiting from his tendencies on foreign policy.

4. Tarrifying prospects

Trade wars are likely incoming as the US president elect promises to impose tariffs on other states. Overall global trade may suffer as a result.

5. Clean tech boom

But China’s continued surge in prominence has some positive aspects. With green energy tech expanding from China, there is potential for greenhouse gas emissions to have reached their peak. Developing countries are showing signs that they could leapfrog to renewables, much like they did to mobile tech.

6. After inflation

Following inflationary times, Western economies look like their national finances will increasingly be defined by deficits in 2025.

7. Age-old questions

Leaders are older than ever and so are populations, who cost more for society to look after. The question of how this care is paid for will become a more pressing one next year.

8. Crunch time for AI

There has been a lack of development in AI, despite investment, said Tom. However, there has been wide adoption by individuals in the workplace – much of it kept secret from management.

9. Travel troubles

The proliferation of conflict zones in the world is causing issues for a booming travel sector, as flight paths are disrupted. And as tourism surges, cities receiving excessive visitors are speaking about restrictions. 2025 could see these tensions rise, or the post-pandemic travel boom may level off.

10. Life of surprises

A big lesson of 2024 was to expect the unexpected. If we’d have been told some of the headlines of 2024 at the start of the year, Tom joked that we would have asked, “Have you got a writer from The Onion coming to do this talk?”

In a more interactive session to lift the audience from the inevitable mid-afternoon slump, three of Contagious’ team had the chance to make the case for their chosen stand-out creative marketing campaign to be declared the Most Contagious Campaign of the Year.

Manon Royet, senior editorial researcher, championed Loewe’s ‘Decades of Confusion’ work for its expert cultural play, star power and prestige balanced with relatability, making the chronically mispronounced fashion brand a winner in 2024.

Lead strategist Gemma Smyth showcased ‘The Bank of Small Wins’ for Britannia Good Day – India’s favourite cookie brand. She highlighted it as a shining example of finding the right partners in order to be relevant to audiences, adding that it demonstrated what the brand stands for in a way that actually improved people’s lives (while selling cookies, no doubt).

David Beresford, senior strategist, made his pitch for the latest MLA (Meat & Livestock Australia) ad, ‘The Generation Gap’, which tackles the increasing divide between age groups by uniting them with lamb. It argued that age doesn’t divide us, it’s attitude that drives a wedge between generations. Its “reaction bait architecture” built a “platform with pulse” where “everyone’s the punchline” – the perfect way for a brand to take the culture wars on without fear.

After the age-old metric of applause volume was deployed, Contagious declared Loewe’s mispronunciation comedy the Most Contagious Campaign of the Year.

With 10+ years of experience in AI and working for major brands at the intersection of creativity and tech, The Coca-Cola Company's global head of AI design, Dominik Heinrich, graced the Queen Elizabeth Hall to try and demystify the hype around AI and reveal its impact for marketers. But truthfully, we’re past that stage, he asserted. “It’s not a hype anymore.” And we’ve all felt the fear around gen AI subside as it becomes more and more mundane to us. Creativity continues to lead and AI will follow, Dominik suggested, to the point where it will end up “as ordinary as electricity.”

One key to understanding gen AI is knowing that it takes an input and presents the most likely outcome. Rather than artificial intelligence, he suggested that we’re better off understanding these tools without the assumption that there is any consciousness attached to them. Rather they are algorithms, “just sitting there and waiting to please.”

AI follows the standard emerging technology patterns, he said. And that takes the form of three waves, by his reckoning:

This is where we are largely focused today. Businesses are using AI to streamline operations, cut costs, and increase efficiency.

The next wave is about using AI to enhance quality. This is where AI isn’t just making processes faster, but it is making them better.

The final wave is transformation. It’s about creating entirely new ways of doing things. AI isn’t just speeding up existing workflows or improving output – it’s changing the game.

Brands, Dominik noted, are training models on their own data. But the downside is that the output of many brands still ends up looking the same because the models are similar at their core. “We are in the age of mediocrity by default,” he suggested.

And that’s because AI isn’t trying to challenge humans when they’re wrong. It’s just “trying to say yes,” he said. 

But the possible AI futures are still exciting, especially once we get to that third wave. Agents being part of our lives will likely lead to a future where AI is now the consumer. Performance and data-led marketing may end up being targeted at those AI agents, who make logical purchases on your behalf, while humans themselves might get the more emotional, brand-led advertising.

Ultimately, businesses need to upskill, reorganise around outcomes rather than functions and expand roles to include new types of talent. The next big hype, Dominik suggested, is “being human”.

In 2024, Heineken was the second most awarded brand at Cannes Lions. It currently has a brand value of $9bn according to Brand Finance – an 18% increase from 2023. The next session featured Friederike Offermanns, global communication manager at Heineken brand and James Womersley, advisory director at Contagious, revealing some of the secrets of Heineken's structured approach to creativity, culture and capabilities and how the brand consistently creates work that ranks on the top rungs of the company's Creative Ladder.

Examples of campaigns which took Heineken’s creative quality principles and pushed them on both local and global levels are ‘Bar Experience’, ‘Pub Museums’ and ‘150 Years of Whateverken’.

Friederike and James shared that four things help the brand’s Creative Ladder drive this kind of success:

By equipping marketers with the same framework and vocabulary for analysing creativity, the Creative Ladder enables more productive and less subjective discussions during creative development

By providing a clear and comprehensive rating system for creative quality, the Creative Ladder enables marketers to set their sights higher and to monitor their progress.

By supplying vocabulary and jumping-off points for analysis, the Creative Ladder gives marketers added confidence when talking about a frequently daunting and nebulous subject.

The Creative Ladder supplies marketers with a practical lens that can be applied to all brand communications. Using it regularly helps to build creative muscles and develop evaluation skills.

To build the day to a crescendo of creativity, the last case study of Most Contagious 2024 was into Specsavers’ ‘The Misheard Version’. Victoria Clarke, marketing services director at Specsavers and Al Wood, chief creative officer at Golin London talked us through how Specsavers made hearing loss the UK’s number-one trending topic by getting ‘80s icon Rick Astley to re-record his hit song, ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, with bizarre new lyrics. 

The aim was to tell people the brand does hearing tests and to start a national conversation, for a fraction of the budget that optics campaigns usually get at the brand.

Golin was Specsavers’ new agency, so the stakes were high, said Al. The problem the agency found with talking about hearing loss is that many people equated it with death. “Not a vibe, is it,” joked Al. But what is a vibe is the funny moments that come from people mishearing things. Particularly song lyrics.

Earned-led marketing is the Specsavers way, stressed Victoria, so Golin looked for an idea to earn attention by doing something with misheard song lyrics in culture. First choice was Eurythmics ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of Cheese)’. That bubble quickly burst with an abrupt “no fucking way” when they made that request.

“We entered this kind of doom spiral of trying to find talent, not finding any, the clock was ticking down, account management were hyperventilating in the corner, and it's just all a little bit too kind of tense for our liking,” remembered Al. “But sticking with that feeling is sometimes worth it, because everyone gets lucky sometimes, and that's what happened with us. Rick, after months of radio silence, came back.”

But the idea wasn’t there yet. And weeks down the line the realisation dawned that, as Al puts it, “we kind of felt like we were explaining the joke.” They realised that the key to launching the misheard lyrics version was the idea itself. One text got to the idea: “What if the track is rickrolled as a mass hearing test?” To do that, Specsavers would have to release the track without any branding or explanation and let the world react. It was a big leap.

“Our managing director[…] trusted us, and we trusted Golin,” said Victoria. She also said ‘on your head, be it.’ And we also passed that on to Golin.”

It’s gone from an earned stunt, to an integrated campaign, to a whole platform for the hearing part of the Specsavers business. And, as Victoria showed by sharing a transcript from the Specsavers call centre, it’s changed lives, helping people with hearing loss to decide to get tested. 

So how do you win in 2025? Katrina Stirton-Dodd, editor at large at Contagious rounded off the day by pulling together the insights we’d heard.

While polarisation is dominating many facets of our lives, she suggested that leaning into that won’t be how anyone wins next year. But understanding that “no one is in a good place right now”, that’s actually pretty representative of the human experience on Earth. To borrow some military jargon, it’s SNAFU (Situation Normal, All Fucked Up). Times, it seems, are actually always febrile and chaotic, Katrina suggested. She taught us about the Abilene Paradox, in which a group of people agree on a course of action that goes against the preferences of most or all of the individuals in the group. So after hours of engaging and provocative discussions, she left us with five strategies for how to win in 2025:

1.Embrace the chaos

2. Be crisis-ready

3. Do NOT go to Abilene

4. Question everything

5. Bring people together