Adweek Media Plans of the Year

Every year Adweek selects the best media plans in the country, their “creativity, innovation and risk-taking sets them apart from the rest.” Creativity, innovation and risk-taking aren't the only thing involved, but so is money. These ad agencies use what they have to create ground-breaking and fresh campaign executions for their clients. 

1.

Google used its YouTube video stars Michelle Phan, Bethany Mota, and Rosanna Pansino in their campaign. PHD, their ad agency decide to air these commercials during Mad Men, The Voice, and Modern Family. They also did some transit advertising in NYC subways and in magazines. It was definitely more traditional advertising in nature. 

Not many people knew who these girls were, but after the campaign their "viewership of their channels shot up 72 percent with social followers jumping 171 percent" talk about impressions! 

I decided to talk about this one because YouTube is one of my favorite mediums. There's nothing realer than these girls who have come for nothing and now they are basically house hold names. 

2.

Now this one's cool! Pennzoil partnered with Mario Kart during SXSW to promote their new game, Mario Kart 8. SXSW attendees strapped into motorized go-karts and raced around a quarter-mile track. On the track were stickers that interacted with the motorized go-karts to speed up or slow down the carts. A sticker labeled Pennzoil Power-Ups gave the carts a boost. 

No one expected Pennzoil to be the talk of the town during a MUSIC festival. Here we have it again friends, consumer INTERACTION. Interaction and execution equates to consumer gold and appreciation. 

3. 

Finally, to end my top three Adweek picks, we have Netflix's campaign with the fashion commerce site, Gilt. Their agency, MEC decided to take the native advertising route. Native advertising is advertising that seems like integrated content but is actually "sponsored" content. (So basically, Netflix paid Gilt to promote Orange is the New Black). 

MEC and Gilt partnered to create a custom Flash Sale with donations to Dress for Success based on consumer purchases. There were video clips from the series and talent interviews on the site—and the program snagged upwards of 30 million impressions.