2022 Annual Report:

How Our Agencies Transform Marketing

A collection of client work highlighted as part of Stagwell’s 2022 Annual Report. 

TRANSFORMING HERITAGE BRANDS | WELLS ENTERPRISES + STAGWELL

Wells Enterprises engages Stagwell across their entire company. Be it internal and external communications or complete Integrated Marketing Services across their entire portfolio – a team of Stagwell agencies is in lockstep with Wells’ sales, marketing, communications, and executive leadership to transform their ice cream and frozen novelty brands into leaders within their highly competitive categories.  

Our Approach to Transformation: Organized under a central client team leader, agencies within our Stagwell Network work with Wells to lead comprehensive brand strategy, creative, social, research, PR, and paid media across their portfolio of brands: Blue Bunny, Halo Top, and Bomb Pop. The collective efforts of Allision & Partners, GALE, HarrisX, Observatory, and MMI create a best-in-class approach drive brand growth. In our second year of engagement, we launched several efforts that help Wells innovate its offerings and reach consumers with new digital channels and impact share growth:   

  • Entering the metaverse with a custom branded experience inside Roblox, where players can interact with custom Bomb Pop decor and accessories. 
  • Merging influencer expertise with media tactics, partnering with over 50 influencers to transform niche communities into scalable audiences for Halo Top’s national brand activations. 
  • Creating a branded Tiktok profile and content strategy for Blue Bunny, with media amplification resulting in unprecedented post engagement and follower growth. 

Our Impact: 

Increasing market share, brand value, and helping Wells to deliver strong YOY business growth, Stagwell’s impact was felt across every brand the team touches in 2022. In addition, the strong campaign performance helped skyrocket Blue Bunny to the Top 3 Most Popular brands gaining popularity with Gen Z (falling between #2, the WNBA and #4 BMW). 

Additionally, an integrated Stagwell team partnered with Wells Enterprises Exec Team as it was in the final stages of an agreement to sell the company to global confection powerhouse, Ferrero.  The integrated team led comms and government relations to help move Wells Enterprises through this critical moment in their business history. 

Transforming Digital Experiences | Champion  | YML

At a pivotal moment where Champion needed to capitalize on their cultural boom with online shopping, YML executed an e-commerce approach for a newer generation with the goals of increasing sales and average customer spend.  

Our Approach to Transformation: YML worked with Champion to build a product roadmap driven by data; deliver an ecommerce experience centered around Gen Z; craft a scalable content and design system; and beat the holiday rush with a 6-month launch push. As part of these efforts, YML created ‘Shop the Look’ so that customers can purchase multiple items in a few taps without leaving the page – providing them a quick and easy order experience. YML also shortened the purchased journey by allowing customers to “Add to Bag” from anywhere – increasing average order values by nearly 20%. To help future proof digital experiences, YML created a comprehensive UI kit for Champion’s flagship digital store, built with scalability in mind for future implementations across the entire portfolio.   

Impact: YML’s efforts drove a +26% increase in average revenue per user; a 17% increase in average order value, and a 3% increase in conversion across Champion’s digital experiences. 

Transforming Creativity | UNITED AIRLINES | 72andSunny

United Airlines tapped 72andSunny to radically reposition United to connect with a new leisure travel audience that prioritizes brands who do the right thing.   

Our Approach to Transformation: 72andSunny reintroduced United as not just another airline, but a force for good powered by good humans on its aircraft and in the world. To do so, 72andSunny built a storybook campaign, held together by a storytelling system and voice that connected all messages and media. With a dynamic omnichannel effort encompassing bespoke social features, contextual out of home placements, and – yes – a six-page ad in the New York Times, 72andSunny helped build a universe of assets and narratives for United that you don’t want to put down – spanning passengers, continents, employees, and the future of the planet.   

Impact: 72andSunny not only hit the likeability benchmark of 55% but surpassed it by 29%. In other words, 72andSunny helped United become a brand with a purpose that people could love.   

This transformation was ultimately reflected in brand preference metrics, with an 11% lift in people who viewed United as their first choice of airline, a 24% lift in consideration and a massive 29% lift in purchase intent.   

Transforming Consumer Insights | Top Gun: Maverick | National Research Group

The announcement of Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the 1986 classic Top Gun, was met with equal parts excitement and skepticism – loyal fans were intrigued and yet wondering if it could ever live up to the first. To make sure the movie was a success, Paramount Pictures turned to National Research Group to ask important questions for the content and positioning.  

National Research Group examined the franchise’s current brand health and essence compared to other nostalgic brands, looked at how foreign markets perceive the American-centric plots of the original and its sequel, and how the character of Maverick should be positioned 30 years after the original. NRG’s exhaustive study provided clear guidance for how to make the sequel a blockbuster, and certainly it worked.  

Top Gun: Maverick became the second-highest-grossing-film of 2022 and the highest-grossing film of Tom Cruise’s career. The film was also critically acclaimed and nominated for six awards at the 95th Academy Awards, including Best Picture. 

Transforming Performance Media & Data | Vivid Seats | Assembly

For the past few years, Vivid Seats relied heavily upon capturing in-market search to sell event tickets. With low national awareness, Vivid Seats needed to promote the strengths of their existing value proposition but differentiate the brand to propel growth.  

Our Approach to Transformation: Through an extensive analysis of the emotional drivers of ticketed events, pain points related to brand distrust in the ticket sales vertical, and consumer surveys, Assembly identified highly defined, specific audience segments driving disproportionate event ticket sales, and they became the focus of a new brand strategy.  

For the segments, Assembly introduced an industry-first creative and loyalty platform, called ‘Power of 11’ to elevate customer loyalty, rewarding fans with a free 11th ticket. The idea was dubbed “Real rewards for real fans” and introduced to the market across addressable media channels.  

Through new event consumer and Vivid Seats customer insights, Assembly created an informed media platform and targeting design across these segments that drove positive results for the brand which paved the way for a continuation of the campaign in 2023.

Transforming Communications | Budweiser | Allison+Partners

Budweiser enlisted Allison Partners alongside its integrated team of agency partners to bring its role as the Official Beer of the FIFA World Cup to life. From the beginning, the brand’s goal was to inspire fans to pursue their dreams and show up for consumers in ways it never had before with creative experiences that bridged the gap between sport and culture.  

Our Approach to Transformation: Budweiser did this by telling the powerful stories of its superstar partners, including an inspirational film featuring football greats Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr. and Raheem Sterling alongside an army of global artists, DJs, musicians and other creators. The brand also partnered with Grammy Award-winning rapper Lil Baby to release a single for the FIFA World Cup Official Soundtrack, “The World Is Yours To Take,” which is a remixed version of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule The World.”  

While much of the campaign came together as planned, the brand faced a unique challenge 48 hours before the tournament’s kickoff as Qatari officials announced a ban on alcohol sales. Virtually overnight, #BringHomeTheBud emerged. The new strategy centered around a promise to deliver the stranded beer to the winning country along with an unforgettable victory celebration. Argentina clinched the title of FIFA World Cup champion in a nailbiter match that ended in penalty kicks against France. The following week, more than 840,000 fans came together to celebrate the well-earned win at parties consisting of limited-edition Budweiser FIFA World Cup packs and surprise musical performances as promised by Budweiser.  In total, the celebration lasted for 30 days with more than 1.2M coupons distributed for free limited-edition Budweiser FIFA World Cup packs .  

Impact: The nimble pivot proved successful as Budweiser completely dominated World Cup conversation, ultimately owning almost 50% of all brand sponsor mentions and generating 255B social impressions, or nearly 70% of all recorded. Outlets like Fast Company crowned the brewer as a “king of sponsors,” and the team tracked over 100,000 media placements highlighting the campaign. Budweiser’s agile efforts proved successful with a double digit net revenue increase, demonstrating the campaign’s impact on consumers around the world. 

BULDING THE NEXT FRONTIER | Augmented Reality | ARound

Overview: The Los Angeles Rams developed a unique Christmas Day shared augmented reality experience for Rams fans powered by Stagwell’s ARound AR, that transformed the entire stadium into an interactive stage.  

Our Approach to Transformation: The Los Angeles Rams used ARound’s platform to build their own multi-featured app, Rams House AR, which allowed fans to participate in the virtual snowball fight, engage in 3D kicking challenges, and interact with other elements that appeared throughout the stadium during key game moments. The app also integrated AR scenes into the massive Infinity display board and offered an alternate version for fans who weren’t at the stadium.  

Our Impact: The Rams’ Christmas Day game broke new ground in massive stadium and user generated experiences. Early tests showed that users spent more than 16 minutes on average in the app, demonstrating its potential to enhance the in-stadium experience and build brand engagement. 

BUILDING THE NEXT FRONTIER | IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES | GALE

GALE and MilkPep are on a mission to transform milk into a performance drink – and that journey continued to the starting line of the 2022 New York City Marathon with a dynamic engagement campaign rooted in digital out of home innovation. In a world where only 7 percent of the $30B spent in sponsorships globally is directed towards women athletes, MilkePep wanted to direct the spotlight to women for this year’s New York City Marathon.  

GALE and MIlkPep launched 26.2 — an integrated campaign rooted in an ouutdoor effort along popular NYC running routes that encouraged women to sign up to #TeamMilk to be sponsored by MilkPep during the race. To complete the month-long campaign, MilkPEP tapped GALE for an eye-catching outdoor activation, leveraging the latest in 3D technology to pick Team Milk runners from the streets of New York, literally. 

By the conclusion of the marathon, MilkPEP sponsored more than 3.5K runners and donated over 600,000 to the next generation of women runners. The campaign earned 1.3B earned media impressions, an earned media value of $11.56M.  

But they didn’t stop there: for Women’s History Month 2023, GALE and MilkPep announced an extension of 26.2, kicking off a commitment to only feature women in marketing campaigns through 2023 to generate awareness for gender inequality in sport, and the launch of Every Women Sponsored Fund to sponsor every woman running a marathon this year.  

BUILDING THE NEXT FRONTIER | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | PROPHET

Stagwell has officially launched the communications industry’s first free generative AI writing tool, Taylor. Fully integrated into PRophet, our AI SaaS platform, Taylor (a play on “tailored content”) will help PR professionals write press releases, story pitches, and even generate social media posts — saving untold amounts of time and resources. Read more in Fast Company.   

AI is one of the most talked about trends in business in 2023. There’s a lot of buzz, hype, and predictions afoot about what it can and can’t do for advertising. We’re believers in AI as enablement technology — while it can certainly replace around 85% of marketing activity, the final 15% is powered by that intangible human element that makes creative marketing soar. 

Taylor will be one part of Stagwell’s much more significant investment in AI. Stagwell Marketing Cloud has formalized a Comms Tech Business Unit, led by Aaron Kwittken, to provide a suite of AI-powered products and services to reinvigorate the PR field. The Comms Tech Unit will include PRophet and Koalifyed, an influencer discovery and campaign management platform, with more transformative software tools around narrative analysis, combating misinformation, and managing brand safety to come.   

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