The prophecy that in the future all advertising would be produced by machines, replacing human creativity, appears to be shifting, notes Ben Kay. Could it end up as another metaverse?...
South Kensington’s world-famous culture quarter gets new identity
A new identity for South Kensington aims to recast one of London’s best-known museum districts as a cultural quarter defined by curiosity rather than heritage alone, while also showcasing how AI-powered audience research is beginning to reshape branding practice. Frost*collective has completed an 18-month rebrand for the Exhibition Road Cultural Group (ERCG), whose members include the V&A… Source...
There’s a big, ideas-shaped hole in kids’ games
Children are being shortchanged with games that forego fun, weirdness, humour or any sense of creativity in favour of dopamine-hacking, micropayment-extracting platforms, says writer Emma Tucker...
Studio Blackburn creates charming branding for Ellis Butchers
Studio Blackburn was approached by founder Nick Ellis to create a unified brand that could also differentiate between two newly acquired shops in Blackheath Village and Blackheath Standard, located in the London borough of Greenwich. “We developed a multifaceted architecture strategy to manage the two distinct shop personalities under the overarching Ellis Butchers umbrella… Source...
How New York Times Games mastered the art of thoughtful play
The newspaper’s head of games, Jonathan Knight, explains why a consistent, human-crafted approach keeps millions of daily players coming back to the likes of Wordle, Crossplay and Pips...
Dougal Wilson directs comedy new Twix double act spot
Last year Twix revealed an unexpectedly surreal side to its marketing via an absurdist ad featuring a high-speed car chase. When the driver dramatically rolled off a cliff, it would have been fair to think he was doomed, before a duplicate car was revealed fixed to his roof, allowing for a smooth getaway. The message: two is more than one,...
Hinge’s latest campaign celebrates the everyday moments
As part of the ongoing Designed to be Deleted brand platform, Hinge’s latest campaign aims to celebrate the quiet, in-between moments. A series of films have been created in partnership with Birthday, showing couples cleaning up after a party, hanging out in the park, weeding the garden and doing not that much at all. The campaign was directed by Justyna...
Sydney-based agency Cocogun creates new Economist campaign
The Economist’s series of posters featuring witty copy set on a simple red background stretches back to the late 1980s when ad agency Abbott Mead Vickers launched now classic lines for the brand such as ‘Great minds like a think’ and ‘Would you like to sit next to you at dinner?’ The new OOH series from Cocogun continues this classic...
KFC gets tender in new campaign
After the intensity of KFC’s trilogy of Believe ads, where the brand envisions an increasingly frenzied cult-like response from chicken fans, its new commercial feels positively minimalist by comparison. Launched to promote KFC’s Tenders & Dips range, the spot avoids showing off any of the product imagery we might typically expect and instead offers a one-shot take of Frank Watkinson...
How M&S has reinvented its own-brand packaging
We speak to John-Paul Hunter, head of packaging design at M&S, about how the team has built a more expressive own-label design system – and why moving beyond supermarket templates allows every product to tell its own story...
Justworks ads capture the emotional chaos of entrepreneurship
Justworks is turning the spotlight away from its software features in a new campaign that captures the mental gymnastics of running a small business. Created by Quality Meats and directed by Freddie Powell through Drool Productions, You Don’t Have To Worry When It Justworks positions the payroll and HR platform as a trusty partner that relieves founders of the operational...
Why brands are turning to Alix Bortoli’s handmade worlds
The French artist and director discusses building a practice rooted in experimentation, and why analogue craft has taken on a whole new significance in the age of AI...