If there’s one thing this year’s Most Innovative Businesses Branding honorees have in mind, it’s discovering innovative and inventive methods to create brand fan service.
Businesses have traditionally sought to attract the largest possible audience to maximize both reach and revenue. Yet utilizing fan service is one of the cleverest methods for a brand to establish widespread cultural impact.
Due to the overwhelming excitement and influence, products and content geared toward the most dedicated fans frequently result in an increase in the audience as a whole.
See the whole list of 2023’s Most Innovative Businesses in advertising, cosmetics, design, and other fields.
1. Mc Donald
McDonald’s discovered another method to effortlessly merge its goods with its marketing efforts, building on the momentum of its continuing Famous Orders, which cemented the company into popular culture in a way it had never before.
By collaborating with the prominent streetwear company Cactus Plant and buzzy art group, the unofficial adult Happy Meal put things in a fresh, equally well-liked direction.
Cactus Plant Flea Market ranked first on Google on the day the agreement was announced, first before Happy Meal even entered restaurants.
2. Liquid Death
Gross-out advertising is not a normal strategy when your product is food or drink. Yet Liquid Death isn’t your ordinary company. The canned water manufacturer created a mock fitness video with comedian Bert Kreischer in July 2022, as well as a Jackass-style gross-out blind-tasting advertisement comparing its water to liquid beluga caviar and Spanish squid ink.
The company’s revenues rose by 40% in only two months after the debut of its flavored “sparkling waters” on Amazon in January 2022—all without affecting sales of its still or unflavored sparkling water.
3. Marvel Studio
Marvel Studios’ most impressive branding strategy was on the small screen, despite its all-encompassing and creatively amazing promotion for such 2022 blockbusters like Thor: Love & Thunder, Wakanda Forever, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Crazy. Marvel Studios made a startling and humorous entry into the Marvel cinematic universe in October 2022 for the She-Hulk season one finale.
The awesome twist enhanced Marvel’s image as a pop culture superpower, expressed a feeling of modest imperfection, and highlighted the company’s own rapidly evolving creative process.
4. Taco Bell
Who knew that Doja Cat’s 2020 tweet requesting the reinstatement of Taco Bell’s then-discontinued Mexican Pizza would result in a glimpse into the future of brand personality endorsement? The number-one singer used her private platforms, including TikTok and the Coachella stage, as an authorized Taco Bell collaborator in 2022 to promote the reintroduction of Mexican pizza.
“This led to fun cultural moments like scripting her to “leak” its 2022 Super Bowl spot early, and in March, she was openly complaining about a “contractual” obligation to write a Taco Bell jingle.”
Taco Bell’s 11% increase in global system sales for the entire year of 2022 was the highest of all the locations in Yum Brands’ network.
5. Oreo
The struggle for LGBTQ+ rights helped define 2022 once more, as conservatives made homosexual and transgender individuals the focal point of the cultural wars. Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law was approved, Texas passed a contentious anti-trans law, and politicians created PR backlash against “enlightened firms” that take public positions on topics.
Oreo persisted in being a brand ally with LGBTQ people despite the uncertain business environment—with great creative effort and no hesitancy.
Since 2012, America’s favourite cookie has regularly and creatively advocated for LGBTQ+ inclusion and celebration. In April 2022, the “award-winning Alice Wu” made a short video titled “The Note” that furthered this cause.
The movie is a product of Oreo’s multiyear partnership with the nonprofit PFLAG and served as the catalyst for the company’s new #LifelongAlly promotion, which contains a $500,000 support for the organization.
6. Riot Games
The ways Riot Games integrated entertainment, gaming, and live events well over past year may be the best illustration of how gaming culture has become just culture. It started 2022 on a high when its Netflix original series “Arcane”, which is based on the video game “League of Legends”, became one of the streamer’s most popular and very well.
In October 2022, Riot introduced the “Designing for Digital Thriving Challenge”, an initiative created in collaboration with the design company IDEO as well as the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at “Sesame Workshop” to challenge a gaming industry culture that isn’t as inclusive as it should be.
In December, the competition offered prizes totaling up to $50,000 to ten winning concepts, all of which aimed to improve gaming cultures for children, families, and gamers of all backgrounds and ages.
7. Dove
In its ongoing #CampaignForRealBeauty, Dove has established a brand on an accessible, positive concept of self-image over the past 20 years. The majority of American girls currently spent over than an hour every day on social sites, and 50% of them say that the idealised beauty content online decreases their self-esteem, according to new data from the Unilever-owned company that was revealed in April 2022.
To prove its point, the company gathered moms and their teenage daughters to discuss their use of social media. They then showed each group a video of a deep-fucked mother delivering poor beauty and health advice.
The result reflected the most significant worries that mothers have about social media’s detrimental impact on their children. Dove showed an effective piece of work that excels at both entertaining and beneficial.
