HIGHLIGHTS - Dec 2024 — What's Next is Everything

Jan 2

Jan 2 HIGHLIGHTS - Dec 2024

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2025. I hope you had a great holiday season and were able to take some time off to reconnect with family and friends.

Next week I'm off to CES and am very much looking forward to exploring the show floor, uncovering exciting new technologies, and learning from fellow geeks and innovation leaders. I'll be posting periodic updates to LinkedIn, so make sure you follow along for the latest - it'll be a bit of a filtered view curated for marketing and communications executives.

For this month's recap, we'll share our favorite stories from December - plus a countdown of 2024's most popular stories.

OUR FAVORITE EXAMPLES - DECEMBER 2024:

Generations Collide via GenAI in new ad for Snoop and Dre's Still G.I.N. - Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre are blending nostalgia and technology in a bold ad for their gin brand, Still G.I.N. The commercial showcases an AI-powered collaboration with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. Set in a swanky cocktail bar, the ad playfully reimagines the duo as a modern-day Rat Pack. Sinatra and Davis, brought to life with generative AI technology, are impressed by Snoop and Dre’s drink choice, leading Sinatra to order Still G.I.N. for everyone. The campaign explores the evolving intersection of classic celebrity allure and cutting-edge digital storytelling.
Meet Daisy: The AI Granny Outsmarting Scammers - O2 has introduced "Daisy," a lifelike AI-powered "granny," to tackle phone scammers by engaging them in long, pointless conversations. Daisy, part of the "Swerve the Scammers" initiative, is trained with advanced AI and insights from prominent scambaiters like Jim Browning. With the ability to hold convincing real-time conversations, she wastes scammers’ time, keeping them away from real victims. The AI combines voice recognition, a conversational language model, and a custom text-to-speech system to seamlessly respond, sometimes holding fraudsters on calls for over 40 minutes.
Step Into Walmart’s Virtual Wonderland: Immersive Shopping, and Holiday Cheer - Walmart has unwrapped a festive update to its virtual shopping platform, Walmart Realm, just in time for the holiday season. This immersive experience now features four new virtual shops, each inspired by popular social media trends from Pinterest and TikTok, and curated by influencers. Shoppers can explore themed environments such as the cozy Mountain Chalet, the party-ready Holiday Gathering Essentials, the playful White Elephant Fun, and the delightful The Sweetest Gifts, making holiday shopping both engaging and entertaining.

MOST POPULAR STORIES FROM 2024: In reverse order of popularity...

5️⃣ Oreo Aligns With March Madness To Offer A Sweet Score - Oreo has launched "Oreo Calls," a mobile campaign developed with VML to engage basketball fans during March Madness. The initiative turns referee calls into opportunities for fans to win cookies. When a ref makes a call, fans can scan an on-screen QR code to receive a chance for free cookies. The campaign aims to enhance the viewing experience by combining real-time game moments with interactive rewards.
4️⃣ Tombras uses Gemini to create more than 6,000 hyperlocal ads - In an innovative display of generative artificial intelligence in advertising, the Tombras agency utilized Google's Gemini AI to create over 6,000 hyperlocal ads for PODS, displayed on moving trucks across New York City. The campaign, dubbed the "Impossibly Smart Billboard," leverages real-time data such as location, weather, and traffic to generate relevant ads tailored to specific neighborhoods.
3️⃣ The NFL's AI Innovation Hub is a testing ground for new marketing strategies - The NFL’s AI innovation hub is helping the league experiment with marketing strategies using cutting-edge technology. By applying AI and generative tools, the NFL can now deliver personalized content tailored to global audiences.
2️⃣ Four brands and four different strategies for gaming activations - AdAge recently published a great round up of how four different brands chased audience engagement and brand building through various strategies and platforms across multiple different gaming environments. Target audiences varied widely and often dictated the chosen platform.
1️⃣ How Hilton and Wendy’s Are Using AI to Improve Customer Interactions - Hilton and Wendy’s are leveraging AI to streamline customer interactions, focusing on enhancing efficiency without compromising the human touch. Hilton uses AI to automate routine tasks like selecting the right hotel room photos and allowing guests to choose their rooms from a floor plan. This frees up time for more creative, customer-centric work. Wendy’s has partnered with Google to utilize large language models for voice order-taking in restaurants, allowing staff to focus on delivering hot, fresh, and accurate meals while minimizing mundane tasks.