Tag: creativity
THE VISUAL TRANSFER EFFECT: HOW SOUND BUILDS BRANDS
24. 2. 2026 In collaboration with neuro-marketing agency Unravel, Talpa Media has produced the scientific proof that audio does not just complement TV. It actively reactivates it, reconstructing visual brand memories in the consumer’s mind through sound. The findings carry significant implications for how audio is planned, sold, and valued within the wider media mix. Context Talpa Media is one of the Netherlands’ largest media companies, operating a broad portfolio of TV, radio, and digital platforms. That multiplatform reach puts them at the centre of a question: what actually happens in the brain when consumers encounter TV and audio advertising together? Specifically, Talpa aimed to explore whether prior exposure to a TV commercial changes how the brain processes a matching audio ad, and whether that effect can be measured without relying on conscious recall. Research Forty participants were fitted with EEG caps to capture real-time brain activity and exposed to commercial breaks from 14 brands. The study used a two-group design:
CHANNEL 4 SHOWS HOW PUTTING ACCESSIBILITY FIRST BENEFITS BOTH CUSTOMERS AND COMMERCIAL WITH CURRYS’
24. 2. 2026 Context Channel 4’s Diversity in Advertising Award 2025 set its brief under the theme “Inclusive by Design”. It asked brands to embed inclusive practices into the creative, rather than at the end of production. The initiative linked that ambition to airtime: £1m of advertising space across Channel 4’s portfolio sat behind the winning campaign. The brief framed the size of the audience affected by sight or hearing loss at nearly 20% of the UK population, putting an access gap into plain planning terms.
USING ELECTION NIGHT VIEWING HABITS TO MAKE A RETAIL MESSAGE FEEL LIKE ENTERTAINMENT
24. 2. 2026 This campaign connected Bauhaus’s retail messaging to a major national television event. In Finland, municipal and regional elections feature hours-long results TV programmes that track vote counting as results come in. Bauhaus (a major home improvement retailer) partnered with the biggest national broadcaster, Sanoma, to create branded entertainment within this format, using “price” as the central theme.
WHEN DISNEY CAME TO DANCING: A LIVE SHOW BECOMES A FAIRYTALE
24. 2. 2026 Inspired by Disneyland Paris’s Disney Music Festival, where performances by Disney-movie characters fill the park with dance and live music, DPG Media’s creative team proactively conceived an unprecedented brand integration: a dedicated Disney-themed episode of Dancing With The Stars. The concept was not driven by a client brief. Knowing the client’s wishes and dreams, and recognizing the natural connection between the Disney Music Festival and Dancing With The Stars, Team Integreate (the creative team within DPG Media) pitched this unprecedented collaboration, which Disneyland Paris immediately embraced.
WHEN A CROSS-FORMAT APPROACH MULTIPLIES IMPACT: BOL × HUIS GEMAAKT ACROSS CONTENT & CONTEXT
23. 2. 2026 Description Bol is Belgium’s largest e-commerce platform, a household name for buying books, electronics, and everyday items online. But furniture and home décor? That was not what consumers associated with the brand. DPG Media set out to change this perception through a multi-format partnership with Huis Gemaakt (“Home Made”), a popular Flemish TV show where couples compete to renovate run-down properties, with the winning couple keeping their fully transformed home.
A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS AD BREAK AS PRIMETIME ENTERTAINMENT
23. 2. 2026 Background In the Netherlands, Christmas commercials hold a special place in television culture. Much like the Super Bowl in the United States is known for its spectacular commercials, the Dutch festive season is the moment when brands showcase their most creative, emotional storytelling. Over the years, several Christmas campaigns have achieved iconic status, moving and entertaining millions of viewers and winning the Ster Gouden Loeki, the public award for best commercial. These campaigns demonstrate how advertising can contribute to the collective holiday spirit.
GIVING SUSTAINABLE BUSINESSES THEIR FIRST TV SPOTLIGHT
23. 2. 2026 Background B Corp certification is a globally recognised standard for businesses that meet high levels of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. The certification is awarded by B Lab, a non-profit organisation. In the UK, there are thousands of certified B Corps, many of them small businesses with ambitions to reach mainstream audiences at scale. Channel 4 saw an opportunity to use its platform to spotlight these purpose-driven businesses while supporting its own sustainability commitments under the Ad Net Zero Action Plan, an industry initiative to reduce the carbon impact of advertising.
ELEVATOR PITCHES MADE REAL: GIVING BLACK ENTREPRENEURS A NATIONAL STAGE
23. 2. 2026 Black-owned businesses in the UK face significant barriers to success. Only 0.24% of venture capital funding reaches Black founders, and one-third of Black entrepreneurs struggle to gain belief in their ventures. Channel 4, in partnership with Lloyds Bank (one of the UK’s largest retail banks), created the Black in Business initiative to address these disparities. Rather than simply highlighting the problem, the initiative addressed it by removing barriers to accessing national television advertising, enabling Black-owned businesses to scale.
WHEN SILENCE SPEAKS LOUDER
22. 2. 2026 Code of Silence was a landmark drama for British television. The show starred Rose Ayling-Ellis, a deaf actress who became famous after winning Strictly Come Dancing, a popular British celebrity dance competition. In the drama, she plays a deaf woman whose exceptional lip-reading skills make her central to a covert police investigation. The production featured cast and crew from deaf, disabled, and neurodiverse communities, with innovative on-screen graphics that visualised how deaf people piece together conversations. ITV saw an opportunity to extend this representation beyond the programme itself and into the commercial break.
TURNING ONE TRAVEL OFFER INTO TWO TV STORIES FOR TWO TYPES OF FAMILIES
22. 2. 2026 Attraction Tickets sells Florida attraction tickets and theme-park hotel packages to UK customers. It has served more than five million customers since 2002 and offers access to destinations including Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Orlando Resort, SeaWorld and Disneyland Paris. In a competitive travel market, people compare options quickly, and marketing is judged by its ability to turn interest into bookings.
BUILDING TRUST FOR PRIVATE HEALTHCARE BY PUTTING DOCTORS FIRST AND USING TV AS A TRUSTED NATIONAL STAGE
20. 2. 2026 Campaign objectives To challenge the belief that only state hospitals deliver life-saving care, AKFA Medline decided to produce a doctor-led manifesto film and placed it on national TV, with IM Service handling broadcast delivery, timing, and exposure for a sensitive message.
TURNING TRUSTED TV MOMENTS INTO BOOK SALES BY LINKING ATTENTION TO CLEAR PLACES TO BUY
20. 2. 2026 Standaard Boekhandel is a Belgian book retailer. It wanted to make reading feel relevant again at a time when many people spend more time with other entertainment. The brand also wanted its bookstores to stay strong places for discovery, where people browse and find new titles, not only pick up a book they already decided to buy.
A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL TO BELGIUM’S HOME BREWERS
17. 2. 2026 Belgium is famous for its hundreds of beer varieties, microbreweries, and passionate home brewing community. Grimbergen, a well-respected abbey beer brand owned by Alken Maes Brewery, wanted to shift how consumers perceived them. Rather than being seen as simply a reliable beer choice, the brand wanted to build a deeper emotional connection with consumers. The challenge was to engage beer lovers authentically and strengthen brand love in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium) through genuine innovation rather than traditional advertising. Description Ads & Data Brand Studio developed a campaign concept called “Brouw Met Mij” (Brew With Me), a Dutch phrase that sounds like “Trouw Met Mij” (Marry Me). The creative team of Ads & Data Brand Studio embraced this wordplay fully, framing the entire campaign as a symbolic marriage between the brand and consumers. The brewing process became a courtship, the collaboration a wedding celebration, and the resulting beer the “first offspring” of this collaboration.
ADC CZECH CREATIVE AWARDS ANNOUNCES JURIES
13. 2. 2026 This year's 33rd edition of the ADC Czech Creative Awards 2026 announces the composition of its juries.
WHAT GIVES A SUPER BOWL AD SHELF LIFE IN 2026
10. 2. 2026 For decades, the price tag to advertise during the Super Bowl has been justified by access to a centralized audience. As attention disperses across platforms and star power extends to creators, marketers are rethinking how Super Bowl investments translate into consumer recall.
MARK RITSON: CZECH MARKETING KNOWS WHAT TO DO AT CHRISTMAS. BUT IN JANUARY, IT FORGETS.
4. 2. 2026 Marketing expert Mark Ritson focused his commentary on Czech Christmas campaigns and how January campaigns are failing.
STARTUPJOBS TRANSFORMED THE MOVEMENT FORWARD INTO ACTION IN A NEW ADVERTISEMENT
3. 2. 2026 The StartupJobs career portal is launching a campaign created entirely using artificial intelligence. The advertisement visually embodies the platform's main motto, which is moving forward. The marketing agency Ydeal participated in the creation, combining more than nine AI tools in the production of the spot. The campaign is running on social networks and online.
WHEN BRANDS BECOME CHARACTERS: TRANSFORMING PRODUCT PLACEMENT INTO ENTERTAINMENT
30. 1. 2026 ProSieben and Joyn broke new creative ground with The Masked Singer Germany, transforming traditional product placement into something unprecedented. Seven.One Media worked with Playmobil to create a partnership where the brand did not just sponsor the program or place products within it – instead, the brand became a competing character. The Playmobil Pirate mask sang, performed, and competed alongside celebrities in one of Germany’s most-watched entertainment shows.