PlayStation 4

Stuart Knapman, MD of The Sound UK: “I loved the Sony PS4 launch ad. That’s a campaign that knows its audience inside out; you feel they really value the fact that we’ve grown up with them. There’s so much attention to detail and every little object is there for a reason, they’re all cultural artefacts. It’s like an ad created by ethnographers.”

Ikea

Richard Thornton, global commercial director, Cint: “I liked the Ikea campaign based around ‘making small spaces big’. Some of the creative ideas in the videos to support the campaign were genius and I think the campaign resonated with a broad demographic, which for Ikea is the end game. Aretha Franklin’s ‘One Room Paradise’ soundtrack was inspired too.”

Miley Cyrus

Joost Poolman Simons, Ipsos Mori: “Although not my personal taste… I must say the Miley Cyrus Brand had a good year, as she was number one in the charts, on search and in trending topics in social media. Covered by many news websites and blogs, she made ‘twerking’ a word that everyone will remember. It shows the power of the internet, where the consumer/people make or break brands (or celebrities).”

Marmite

Alex Gordon, CEO at Sign Salad: “Marmite. The campaign was an absolute genius parody of the earnestness and self-righteousness of British documentaries on welfare topics – but replacing the subjects (often animals) with the neglected Marmite jars. It generated masses of online debate. One of most important things was this campaign took Marmite from the ‘love it or hate it?’ strapline to another level, coding Marmite as a cultural icon – one that is either cherished or abused.”

O2

Graeme Lawrence, Join the Dots: “A great example of a brand looking to tap into a need for hope and happiness is O2’s ‘Be More Dog’ campaign. The campaign’s objectives (as stated by O2 ) are specifically ‘to spread positivity, excitement and inquisitiveness … to rid the UK of cynicism’ by getting people to ‘embrace their inner dog’.”

Merry Christmas to all our readers. We’ll be back on 27 December with the first of our 2014 Preview articles