Best of 2024

Most Australians still don’t know what sexual consent is. While new, progressive consent laws had swept the nation, our everyday understanding of sexual consent had not progressed. Government educational ads had been widely criticized.

Not-for-profit group Consent Labs had tried to bridge the gap through workshops, but needed a fresh approach in order to make a cultural impact. TBWA realised that Australians collectively watch over 780,000,000 hours of films a year - a form of entertainment, but also a vehicle to influence cultural norms.

They wanted to empower Australians to recognise non-consensual acts on a mass scale - but without a traditional, top-down approach.

Millions of people have tattoos in languages they don’t understand. And, unfortunately, many of these tattoos don’t actually say what they’re supposed to. Ariana Grande, for example, set the internet on fire when it turned out her Japanese tattoo didn’t say “7 Rings” as she’d intended, but actually said, “Barbeque Grill.”

Duolingo’s approach to language learning has always been based on one guiding principle: learning a language should be fun. And there’s nothing fun at all about a language mistake that you can’t take back. So Duolingo set themselves a goal, what if they could turn the most embarrassing language mistake into a language lesson the whole world could benefit from?

Following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, almost 10 million refugees from the occupied territories have crossed the Polish border. Poland has welcomed more Ukrainian refugees than any other nation. However, many Ukrainians were looking for shelter in major Polish cities (like Warsaw, Cracow, or Wroclaw) which were already overcrowded, causing rental hikes, increased competition for jobs—all amid an unprecedented rise in inflation. It became evident, that to deal with the increasing stream of refugees, the movement had to be redirected to smaller cities. Places where life conditions might be even better than in big cities. Moreover, like everywhere else in the world, small towns in Poland are beginning to suffer from depopulation, as young people move to bigger cities. Mastercard – the brand that has social responsibility in its DNA – decided to act quickly and do it’s best to help Ukrainian in refugee crisis.

The air inside our homes can be up to 5x more polluted that the air outside, with toxins coming off everyday items like paint, scented candles, cleaning products and even furniture. Plants have air-purifying properties. This was proven in the 80s when NASA conducted research to see if plants could help clean the air for astronauts living in the International Space Station. This data was declassified years ago, but nobody has truly done anything with it. Many plant retailers advertise their plants as ‘air-purifying’ - but never go into the specific details about the pollutants and which ones can help clean the in our homes.

Plant Drop is an online retailer for plants. But they face stiff competition and exist in a saturated market with little differentiation. They needed a way to set themselves apart and steal market share, whilst also enticing a new audience into the world of plants.

In 2023, Ruh Fighting Championship (RFC), Kazakhstan's leading MMA promotion, launched a bold campaign to address domestic violence, a topic largely ignored by its male-dominated audience. To provoke discussion, RFC announced a controversial "Men vs. Women" MMA fight, sparking outrage and widespread debate. Instead of the fight, RFC aired a shocking video revealing the prevalence of domestic violence in Kazakhstan. This campaign successfully engaged men, leading to a significant public dialogue, and contributing to the passage of a new law criminalizing domestic violence in Kazakhstan on February 28, 2024.

In Thailand, Dove launched the #LetHerGrow campaign to address the harmful practice of forced haircuts used to enforce discipline in schools. By aligning with the universal belief that children should grow up confidently, Dove focused on the negative impacts of such haircuts on self-esteem. The campaign featured voices from psychologists, influencers, and educators, transforming the bob haircut, a symbol of oppression, into a call for change. This approach led to an 11.1% revenue increase, improved market share, and heightened brand awareness. It also influenced the Thai Ministry of Education to lift restrictive hair rules, benefiting millions of women.

As part of its mission to help every child breathe better, Otrivin Nasal Health decided to turn air pollution in low-income schools into something positive: Pollution Pencils!

Made with toxic particles harvested from purifiers installed in schools, child-safe Pollution Pencils were made as part of the pilot project. Students received these child-safe pencils in unique packaging that represented their schools as a happier and more hopeful place, while also teaching them about the impact of air pollution.

Women in Pakistan are overwhelmingly deprived of their basic right to education. The Global Gender Gap Report placed the country at 145th rank out of 156. UN Women has stated that 53.6% of women had limited access to education, training, and employment in Pakistan. However, NGOs and companies like EMB have been working tirelessly to promote women’s education. The campaigns wanted to demonstrate how empowering girls with education can brighten their future, while also inspiring more parents to send their girls to school.

In Australia, 83% of female-identifying gamers have experienced offensive behaviour online. So, most switch their microphones off to hide their identity, and game in silence.

With almost 50% of the gaming community now female, Maybelline New York wanted to ensure that all women feel confident to be seen, express themselves, create and play in this space. The brief was to change the game.

The internet has a bias.

Search algorithms are trained on human behaviour, designed to give us what they think we’re looking for. Now, they’ve learnt our bias towards men.

Asked simple, non-gendered questions, like “who has scored the most goals in international football?”, search engines prioritise the more recognised male athletes, even when facts say it’s a female athlete - making women and their achievements invisible. So, Team Heroine, a women’s sport marketing agency that seeks to connect female athletes with brands to ensure they're better recognized in a world where women’s sport receives just 0.4% of media coverage and 4% of total sponsorship, aimed to correct the internet's bias.