The AANA’s annual event has always skewed towards the biggest advertising plays along with the creative efforts of consumer brands (and agency leaders), to the point that the content can feel exclusive over inclusive if you’re anyone else. Big brands with multi-million dollars budgets dominated the stage once again, from Warner Bros’ Barbie, the highest grossing movie of 2023 and 14^th highest ever at US$1.446bn, to Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Qatar World Cup triumph with Budweiser, one of several Cannes Lion award winning efforts.

In addition, Lego Agency global head, Australia’s own Nicole Taylor, detailed how the iconic, global brand is creating fandom (not just loyalty) with generations of builders through a wealth of campaigns, partnerships and experiences.

We got local brand stories too. Commonwealth Bank’s work with Football Australia was on display, helping cement the Matildas’ position as a sporting brand loved by the nation off the back of an impactful World Cup performance – while giving CommBank unprecedented social engagement and doubling awareness of its long-term partnership with the sport.

Judging by the 500 people that turned up to Reset, marketers are craving these big, aspirational stories – even if they’re operating in a decidedly skittish market, trying to navigate persistently uncertain economic conditions and very different realities right now. Noticeably absent from the day were difficult subjects such as privacy regulation, along with the much-needed data governance, utilisation and post-cookie targeting and measurement strategy the industry inevitably needs to get across that are already transforming advertising, not to mention broader customer engagement and loyalty efforts.

Big brand creative wins are important to rejoice in, but I couldn’t help but think about the many marketers trimming short-term spend where they can, chasing up another effectiveness proof point, or having to face another price-driven promotion to suit the temperament of consumers and softening weekly sales charts at this moment in time. I spent more time over the lunch break talking about pricing, the changing nature of what makes up a ‘luxury’ consumer, Bernard Salt’s insights suggesting Australia is awash with consumer spending if you can rethink your demographics, and why the word ‘campaign’ remains problematic, than any one singular campaign investment.

But a commitment to powerful creative, spurred on by a consistent brand vision and rich brand history, all lie close to the marketer’s heart and are undoubtedly part of driving growth. And what marketer wouldn’t want to be in charge of such emotive, salient brands when relevant cultural moments arise, with substantive marketing spend to support them? Because we’ve certainly had a few recently.

And while Reset remains the heartland of campaigns, creative plays and advertising, there were useful lessons on creative effectiveness, maximising impact, and pointers indicating the way the industry is heading.

At a top line level, what many speakers this year demonstrated was as much as you attempt to look at campaigns or break down reach of a particular media platform in isolation, it’s the holistic orchestration, diversification, consumer context, societal climate and brand narrative you’re operating in that really counts.

I’m picking a few other themes here too. The growing might of earned in the interconnected cycle of paid, owned and earned media is one; the related value of shared spaces and partnerships is a second; a reminder of the importance of universal human truths (not politics) when aligning and building on monster cultural movements is a third; and the power of strategic creative commitment in-house makes for a fourth.

It's increasingly earned first, paid second

Celebrating a single channel or paid advertising effort was less prevalent at this year’s Reset. That’s because marketer-led presentations were a lesson in the virtuous cycle of owned, earned and paid media brands need to achieve if they’re to truly generate impact from their efforts.

Marketers repeatedly acknowledged the growing skew towards ‘content’ and earned / owned creative in their mix, with the ratio of ‘advertising’ or paid investment tempered in the quest to build content that’s so good, a media partner wouldn’t charge you to run it.

Take Warner Bros global marketing leader, Josh Goldstine, who talked through the biggest movie marketing campaign of 2023 for Barbie.

“In the movie business, we traditionally have been able to make a trailer, buy some media and command a straight narrow path to get there. In the last 15 years, that’s radically changed. Frankly, how we think about media is that we cannot buy, we have to earn our way to an opening weekend. We’re really interested in how paid and earned media work together,” Goldstine told attendees.

“If we can touch consumers through so many of these new platforms and speak to different audiences through different mechanisms, we can create opportunity through earned media so that the fractured landscape, instead of being something that dilutes our paid media message, can enhance our overall media impact through this virtuous interaction between paid and earned media.”

This makes for a more dynamic marketing department, Goldstine said. “Traditionally, everyone sat in silos – I’m a media buyer, publicist, make posters, do market research. What’s so dynamic that came to play here is everything is so interdisciplinary – it’s all about creating moments, which have to be both paid and earned, and have elements of digital, creative and media strategy,” he said. “It’s how these disciplines work with each other and create the ability to enhance the efforts of everyone.”

Later on, Lego Agency global head, Nicole Taylor, was also talking up how her internal agency’s work has shifted towards more earned and owned content over traditional, paid advertising campaigns. She’s transforming her 420-strong in-house team in response, bringing in a dedicated VP of creative as well as embracing concepts like utilisation and being “in the content supply business”.

“Our marketing model is shifting into more owned spaces, more shared spaces,” Taylor said. It again reflects a more united internal front. Under Lego chief marketing and product officer, Julia Goldin, Taylor sits on a leadership team including product, digital and membership programs, gaming and partnerships.

“The more these things sync up and connect, the better for business – it’s way outside the paid media landscape, it’s owned, earned and shared,” she said.

It makes sense we’re seeing this shape shifting in the media mix. Broadening market mix modelling approaches (and better attribution) help teams build a more constructive, data-informed business case. It’s creating an argument – finally – for more holistic ways of conducting marketing programs of work, not just pegging one advertising channel against another in some kind of paid-only ROAS game.

Of course, Reset still presented the odd insight into a channel doing an above-average job. For Barbie, it was the benefit of pink out-of-home billboards and iconic building dressing, which Goldstine said “created the impression that we spent so much more than we actually spent”.  For Lego, it’s in-store experience driving family connection and fandom. In 2023, the business added 147 branded stores worldwide, bringing its tally to 1,031.

But overwhelmingly, marketers called out an ecosystem play – and earned media’s role – as critical to impact. Successful interplay between owned, earned and paid gave brands onstage the ability to build credibility and cultural relevance, gaining a halo effect and emotive connection they wouldn’t have achieved otherwise.

Shared spaces and the power of partnership

Then there’s leaning into the power of what Taylor called “shared spaces”. Every ‘campaign’ story was awash with the huge impact partnerships have had in driving ubiquity and excess share of voice, delivering authenticity within and alongside key cultural moments and trends, and building brand credibility and extension.

Taylor highlighted a raft of partnerships Lego is pursuing. One of the longest is with Lucasfilm/Disney and saw the pair create bespoke experiences that have become both product and experience.

“Together, we’ve created a whole new universe. There’s a mash-up that takes place and it’s huge business not just for us, but Lucasfilm as well,” Taylor said.

Lego’s latest brand-led campaign timed for 4 May (Star Wars Day) celebrating the 25-year anniversary saw Lego debut its own UGC film festival, supported by retail store integrations, all of which drove sales in the process. The ‘Tell your own Star Wars’ story campaign triggered more than 800 films by fans.

“Our social channels filled with this amazing content we didn’t pay for,” Taylor said. “We had to make an ad… and we’re putting this content in theatres and all sorts of channels to follow this up.”

A more surprising partnership is with Fortnite in the gaming space. Taylor said Lego wasn’t prepared to get into gaming unless it could do it safely, thoughtfully and well. The gated game and approach took longer to align with Lego’s purpose, but it will pay off long term, Taylor attested, noting again a whole new audience it can speak to directly and introduce to physical interactions with its brand thanks to the partnership.

Another partnership is with music artist, Pharrell. The pair are making a movie Taylor described as a “beautiful human story” using Lego products.

“We have partners who have amazing ecosystems. If we’re not thinking about them as solutions to our marketing, we’re missing a trick,” Taylor said. “It’s a real go-to-market choice; sometimes we just do shared. Why would we pay for media when we have a partner that could literally bring us the audience we want?”

Given Lego generated +4 per cent in consumer sales in 2023, gained market share while the whole category declined, chalked up +2 per cent in year-on-year revenue to DKK65.9 billion (AUD$14.4bn) off the back of consecutive years of double-digit growth, and holds the title of most loved brand in the world, something is working.

For the Barbie movie, Warner Bros struck 100-plus partnerships, from Google to Airbnb, Xbox, Duolingo, Chevrolet, Bumble and Chanel, worth an estimated US$85 billion. That’s just the official ones – plenty of earned efforts came from unofficial supporters getting behind the Barbie release. This also led to ‘earned’ activity via Google without the traditional media price tag.

“Google saw how much search volume was going towards Barbie and in collaboration, and we had a ‘money can’t buy’ takeover of Google pages. Anything remotely Barbie related resulted in this screen takeover, where everything went pink, animated. It was this moment of joy,” Goldstine said. “It was Google’s own data that showed it was valuable for their consumers and user base… at the same time it was an incredible validation of what Barbie was able to do in culture.”

Then take Commonwealth Bank’s “win-win” partnership with Football Australia and the brand impact this had when the Matildas made it through to the semi-finals of the recent FIFA Women’s World Cup. It’s driven unprecedented levels of awareness of CommBank’s football partnership, doubling figures.

CommBank GM of brands, partnerships and creative, Dianne Everett, said a shared purpose and vision, coupled with a culture of content and fandom as well as plenty of organisational capability, drove the partnership’s success. CommBank took naming rights on the Matildas in 2021.

Contributing to versus creating cultural movements – and having history

Another thing brands onstage had in common, besides the sheer firepower of spend and existing mental availability, was they’d tapped into highly emotive, global cultural moments. These included the Football World Cup (men and women), plus #metoo, the feminist movement of the last decade.

In engaging with these, brands grounded campaigns and content work in very human, universal truths. And as any classically trained FMCG marketer will tell you, universal human truths are vital for cut through and connection (especially if you’re selling cleaning products or toilet paper, as we saw during Covid).

Some brands claim to be creating culture; others are humble enough to recognise they’re building on an existing, powerful movement – then doing an incredibly good job of making the most of those moments with a little help from the authenticity and credibility their brands already have. They’re doing it without getting too political either – something Leo Burnett and UTS’s recent The Good Study suggests is one of the most problematic aspects of striving to do ‘good’ in the eyes of consumers.

While presenting on big creative wins, AB InBev’s Richard Oppy did give attendees his views on why Bud Light copped so much flack after being featured in a social media promotion by transgender influencer, Dylan Mulvaney.

“We have a principle that the consumer is the boss,” Oppy said. “Consumers were very clear to us with this whole case that they don’t want us playing in any politics. They want us to stick to what we’re good at. Talk about the beer as we love the beer; talk about sport, the NFL; talk about country music; and have fun. That’s the recipe for the success of the brand. When I’m drinking a beer, I don’t want to be talking politics – particularly in the US where it’s so polarising. So the big lesson for us is to stick to our swim lanes and stay away from the politics.”

By contrast, when Budweiser positioned itself around the cultural moment of global sports championship and celebratory drinking, it paid off big time. After being barred from advertising and selling beer onsite at the Qatar World Cup just 48 hours before the tournament commenced, AB InBev created its own movement, ‘Bring home the Bud’ to find a home for all that beer. Not only did it result in earned media galore, Budweiser gained 70 per cent share of voice at the sporting event.  The fact Argentina won, and one of the brand’s existing ambassadors was the team’s Lionel Messi, only added to the huge brand moment.

AB InBev reported +19 per cent net revenue growth in the year to May 2023. “It’s a great example that creativity does drive growth,” Oppy said.

Goldstine acknowledged similar concerns around playing in politics. To avoid fallout, Warner Brothers checked Barbie’s narrative and marketing would land with conservative Republican voters in Texas in an early test. This gave it the assurance it wouldn’t be seen to be driving political affiliations.

Of course, there were nuances in how marketers saw brands creating cultural movements versus gaining momentum from existing cultural macro trends around them. For Goldstine, the Barbie movie created a cultural movement in its own right. I’m less convinced Barbie the movie created a movement so much as recognised one, then found a way to authentically progress it off the back of existing brand credibility and a lot of nostalgia.

It wasn’t lost on me only eight years ago, during an Adobe Summit in the US, Barbie’s executives were talking through the transformation they’d had to orchestrate from a product then brand level, after Barbie gained the reputation of being an enforcer of negative stereotypes and a non-inclusive brand mothers were turning away from.

As Mattel president and COO, Richard Dickson told the story back then, step one was listening to mums, kids, and the culture at large. Step two was a diversity revolution. Mattel then released new Barbie dolls, with various skin tones, hair textures, flexible feet and even an AI-powered, talking ‘Hello Barbie’ offering.

Goldstine recognised Barbie’s complex 50-year legacy and history in the face of growing knowledge around body dysmorphia and body identity.  “That dramatically opened up a breadth of target audience,” he said. “We had the courage to go there and acknowledge that was an underlying aspect of how we thought about that campaign.”

The female empowerment movement has equally been a driving force behind the CommBank Matildas leading up to last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup. The team’s authentic position and history made it even more impactful when building the modern Matildas brand.

“We had all the right ingredients – passion, fight, indomitable will – the spirit of the Matildas was there from the get-go,” said Football Australia deputy chair, Jackie-lee-Jones. “That ‘never say die’ attitude is who they are and it’s prevalent in everything they do. This is a brand where resilience and tenacity are in the very fibre of each and every player. This is a brand that’s known and had to fight for airtime, pay time and play time. They are indelibly linked with the social movement of gender equity, diversity and female empowerment. It was time to tell that bigger story.”

Adding cultural relevance was the drama of Sam Kerr’s injury prior to the first competition game.

“Every incredible cultural moment and great story starts with a drama and we love a hero… that hero ended up being not just the 11 girls on the pitch but the entire team, coach and army behind them. That’s the team Australia went on to fall in love with,” Everett added.

Power of internal creative teams and vision: A note on courage

On a final note, Lego and AB InBev were notable for their references to creative buy-in internally. In Lego’s case, it’s derived via an in-house creative teams; for AB InBev, creative systems and strategies act as a guiding creative light for its portfolio of brands.

AB InBev has developed a sustainable system known as ‘Creative X’ internally based on a universal language and creative spectrum from 1 (reckless) to 10 (legendary, iconic work), has a ‘justice league’ of partners, trains 4,500 people across 50 countries, and more.

“We have used creativity to fuel the growth of the company,” Oppy said. “As marketers, we have so many controls and levers at our disposal to build brands – category and consumer insights, shopper insights, innovation, connections and sponsorships, trade marketing, pricing. But what sits at the very centre of our strategy is creativity to solve real business and real consumer problems.”

The result? Multiple Cannes Lions Awards – but more importantly, an all-time revenue high in 2023 of US$60.1billion.

“We believe with a really big change in our mindset and putting a system in place that it wasn’t just a fluke or one-off. And it’s replicable and something that’s sustainable in our business,” Oppy said.

It’s what marketers really need to hear: The art as well as the science.