Boston brands and advertising agencies are the subjects of, and names behind, some of the year’s most buzzed about ad campaigns. There’s the good, the bad, and the ugly, from Mullen “getting a car” to Cumberland Farms’ iced coffee spot starring none other than the ‘Hoff–included below for your viewing pleasure. We reached out to some local advertising pros to get their take on the best of Boston brands’ and agencies’ ad campaigns over the past year, and here’s what they said.

Andrew Graff, CEO of Allen & Gerritsen

“When I’m thinking about the best creative, I’m usually drawn to the unconventional ones–the ones that push the boundaries of innovation and creativity.  I think what Arnold Worldwide has done for the Climate Reality Project is terrific. They took a controversial topic like global warming, and met it head on to help move the climate change conversation forward–using social platforms.  They did it in such a unique and innovative way, by gamifying the curating and distribution of content about the impact of global warming. They came up with a strategy that not only finds the people most passionate about the topic, but also makes it easy for them to take part in real-time discussions. The concept literally rewards people for being socially conscious and spreading the word about a topic that’s seemingly being underreported.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the work that my company, allen & gerritsen, did for City Year’s #makebetterhappen campaign, which was designed to help bring more attention to the work City Year does to support kids at risk of dropping out of school. Our team developed a multimedia platform centered around the Twitter hashtag #makebetterhappen, and relied on crowdsourced content from its 2,500 corps members to generate excitement by telling their own authentic stories of service and impact. I love this one because of its inherent risk. City Year essentially turned the keys of this entire campaign over to thousands of 17 to 24-year-olds, in the hopes that they would stay true to the organization’s core values and continually populate the feed with messages of hope and success–and they delivered, to the tune of 22,000 tweets and a 30% increase in web traffic for City Year.”

David Swaebe, SVP of Agency Communications & Business Development at Mullen

“From Mullen, the most significant campaign of the year is our first and brand new work for Acura,” said Swaebe. Acura partnered with Mullen (Boston and LA) and with MediaVest in the development of the new campaign, who delivered on the premise of “made for mankind”, targeting the new innovators, thinkers, and leaders who “create and invent rather than wheel and deal,” and “are driven more by knowledge and understanding than flash and showmanship,” Kelly Burke, senior vice president of public relations and social influence at Mullen, told BostInno.

Gary Mak, Associate Media Director at Connelly Partners

“As a consumer and an advertising professional, I really thought the Killing Lincoln campaign by Mullen for the History Channel was great.  By creating a slick, HTML5 parallax site (http://www.killinglincolnconspiracy.com/, they really focused on quality content generation and an engaging user experience to draw viewers in. From a media perspective, it was really smart to target viewers on tablets, taking advantage of the growing trends in users experiencing television with various mobile devices in hand.

I’ve really enjoyed [Connelly Partners’] Mass Tourism campaign that recently launched.  The campaign, retargeting users who have visited our old site within the last 60 days and look-a-likes, draws in users to experience the new massvacation.com site.  It’s a content site that we built not as a planning tool for the next year, but for the next ten years, employing responsive design so anyone on mobile, tablet, desktop, and/or device of the future, can experience the new brand.

I’m also really proud of our New England Aquarium campaign currently running promoting the re-launch of their new Aquarium Experience.  We’re employing key high impact out of home placements–Back Bay banners, Park street takeover, Taxi Tops, Beacon Street Wallscape, and more–digital, radio, and for the first time in years, television, to promote a handful of unique creatures and the new Aquarium experience.”

 

And just for kicks, here’s the Cumbies spot. Get ready to cringe.

What’s some of your favorite ad work for Boston brands, or from Boston agencies? Share in the comments below, and let us know if you’d like to to learn more about our native advertising solutions.