The unveiling of the ‘crown jewels’
Underwear brand Oddballs unveiled a “Crown Jewels” installation to spotlight testicular cancer awareness, creating a giant set of balls out of 500 hand-set crystal stones and a bit of British humour to land the message.
It’s one of those ideas that feels instantly obvious in hindsight. Which usually means it’s already going to be very good but to top it off it’s extremely well executed. The visuals are great, shot outside the Tower of London, to land that all important key London landmark, meaning you can imagine picture desks snapping this up without needing the press release. And the name is… annoyingly good. The kind of line that makes you wish you’d got there first.
More importantly, it balances its humour really well. Especially when the main drive is to get men talking about a taboo subject in testicular cancer, especially when half of us aren’t even checking ourselves (according to the research). The importance of regular self-checks, paired with humour, is a great way to land that conversation opener.
Simple idea, well executed, culturally on point and if you take anything from this write up, just go check your balls (if you have them of course).
Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour broke the internet
When film marketing works, it really works.
To promote the upcoming The Devil Wears Prada sequel, Vogue brought together Anna Wintour and Meryl Streep for their cover shoot. To promote it, they recreated the iconic lift scene from the original movie. The sequel provides a big boost to the nostalgia of the first movie for fans, finally breaking down the question of whether Miranda is based on Wintour.
I always love the crossover from fiction to real world. It’s always fun, like when The Office's Michael Scott meets David Brent. But, this is bigger. Who wouldn’t kill to get Anna Wintour or Meryl Streep in a campaign?! The cultural pairing means that it’s going to get coverage no matter what – and it blew up, hitting nearly every news outlet very, very quickly.
The content of the simple lift scene is what really took it as far as it did: simple, fun, short content that doesn’t really do too much pushing of the movie – just nice, subtle, simple references.
Houston, we have Nutella
During NASA’s Artemis II recent mission to the far side of the moon, livestream footage emerged of Nutella floating around inside the spacecraft, casually proving that even astronauts at the peak of their fitness levels aren’t immune to a bit of chocolate spread.
Whilst the classic “can we send it into space” has passed several lips during many a PR ideation brainstorming session, this one takes the biscuit. There was no brand team, no paid media, no carefully crafted messaging, meaning that you couldn’t plan this even if you tried. Well, at least I hope they didn’t. There’s always something magical when it comes to accidental relevance in the age of the internet. It just lands 100 times better than any polished campaign ever could.
It’s a reminder that not everything needs to be engineered, overthought and put through 100 steps of sign off. Sometimes the best thing a brand can do is to recognise that something great has just happened, and quickly amplify it.
Here's to hoping that Nutella are quick enough to jump on this, and create a campaign that’s "out of this world".
It also raises a fair question: why is Nutella the snack of choice in zero gravity? Although the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.
IKEA Saudi’s “Step-by-Step”
Finally, as I always like to head around to a different corner of the globe for my final write up, we head over to the Middle East for a news story that isn’t bad!
IKEA Saudi Arabia leaned into a universal truth. Their stores are massive, known for showrooms and maze-like layouts. You will get lost. And if you don’t follow the arrows, you’re in for a long walk.
|So, they've created something fun: “Step Buy Step”. The more steps you take in-store, the more money you save. At the entrance of participating stores, visitors receive a BRÄSLET step-counting bracelet to wear during their visit. As they move through the showroom, steps are tracked, and those who reach 4,000 steps before checkout receive a 10% discount on their final purchase.
It taps nicely into the wellness culture boom that we’re experiencing. Getting your steps in is already a thing people care (very deeply) about, so anchoring a retail mechanic to that behaviour feels great, but if it means that people also spend longer in your store, then i’m sure your commercial director is all for it.
Sometimes they just need to lean into a great insight around your brand, and make it fun.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for free to our twice weekly editorial alert.
We have six email alerts in total - covering ESG, internal comms, PR jobs and events. Enter your email address below to find out more: