Blue Sky Brainstorming in the Big Sky

In the last quarter of 2023, Kinetic introduced a new idea for our team: quarterly blue sky brainstorm sessions. What are they? A fun way to generate fresh ideas for our clients by reviewing top national marketing campaigns and analyzing their themes, assets and impact.

Once a quarter, we replace our standard Monday morning meeting with a blue sky session to help us get curious, share our thoughts and impressions and have fun! We collect a few ad campaigns that we find in the wild (print, television, digital and beyond) and ask our team:

• What was your favorite ad campaign and why?
• Did any of these ads make you want to purchase a product?
• What universal trends do you see in these campaigns?
• If you could “blue sky” a campaign for one of our clients, what would you do for them?

Here’s a great way to conceptualize blue sky brainstorming: What would you do with a 30 second ad in the Super Bowl? Forget about the cost and explore what attributes of your product or brand you would highlight and what campaign themes might emerge. It’s a useful exercise because the ideas you develop can be scaled to your budget.

While the ad campaigns Kinetic reviewed in our latest blue sky session were specific to the 2023 holiday season, football’s biggest event is just around the corner and the hype is building. Here’s a quick look at how the advertising landscape is shaping up for Super Bowl LVIII.

The Super Bowl of Advertising

Despite the ongoing impact of tightened budgets, marketers aren’t holding back on their plans to advertise during Super Bowl LVIII, which is scheduled for February 11, 2024. CBS sold out nearly all of its Super Bowl advertising inventory by the start of November, with a 30-second ad reportedly going for between $6.5 and $7 million. Here are a few of the brands with ads planned for this year’s event.

• Pringles
• BetMGM
• Hellmann’s
• BMW
• Oreo
• Coors Light

The 2023 Black Friday / Cyber Monday Ads that Caught Kinetic’s Eye

We’ll be sure to report back on our post-Super Bowl blue sky brainstorm session. For now, here are just a few of the ads that caught Kinetic’s eye in Q4 2023.

Walmart: Black Friday

Agency: Publicis Groupe agencies

Description: Still trying to make “fetch” happen, and still lacking any semblance of self awareness, the “plastics” get prepared for Walmart’s seasonal online sales, which ran from November 8 to Cyber Monday on November 27, 2023.

Coca-Cola: The World Needs More Santas

Agency: WPP Open X led by VMLY&R, Ogilvy and Essence Mediacom
Description: This ad focused on Santa’s spiritual and behavioral manifestation more than anything – what he represents in terms of kindness, generosity and goodwill. It was quite a rich association to tap into.

Etsy: Your Mission

Agency: Orchard

Description: David Kolbusz, Chief Creative Officer of Orchard describes how the idea for this campaign came about – “Our Executive Creative Director, Jimm Lasser, was talking to his wife, Hannah, about our campaign and she mentioned in passing that every time she goes on Etsy it’s like a little mission. This resonated as a succinct way to articulate the feeling of gift shopping.”

Fuzzy Feelings

Agency: TBWA/Media Arts Lab
Description: Apple’s “Fuzzy Feelings” four-minute short mixes live-action and stop-motion to tell the story of a young woman with a grumpy boss. To deal with the predicament, the office worker uses her creative skillset to make a stop-motion film on her iPhone that features the irritable manager. The film is set to the tune of “Isn’t It a Pity” by George Harrison, which fits the themes of forgetting to give back and being unable to see beauty all around.

In a statement, Apple said: “Creativity has the power to change how we see each other and the world. Sometimes, seeing things through a new lens can make all the difference.”

CAMPAIGN #83 – AMAZON: JOY RIDE

Agency: Hungry Man + DLMDD
Description: This festive holiday campaign centers around a 60-second ad called “Joy Ride” that tells the story of three older women reviving their lifelong friendship by reliving youthful escapades sledding down a snow-covered hill. Set to The Beatles’ “In My Life,” the ad features a specially recorded rendition of the classic song.

Let us help with your blue sky ideas!

Give blue sky brainstorming a try and let us know what you came up with. It’s too late for the Super Bowl, but it may just be something we can run with in 2024! Whether it’s a video, an ad campaign idea or a print piece, we can help!