Dry humour and laugh-out-loud comedy broke the internet this year, according to Australian creatives.
Visit Norway takes the crown as this year's most loved creative campaign, with its dry humour and self-deprecating tone.
Other highlights included Loewe’s ‘Decades of Confusion’, Squarespace’s ‘The Ditch’ and BWS' 'Here for it’.
From Australia's most loved brands and also some favourites from Norway and NZ, the industry shines a light on their favourite creative campaigns from 2024.
Nastassia Kuznetsova, strategy director at Dentsu Creative, said ‘Oslo. Is it Even A City?’ may not be one of the big, bold, shiny ads of the year, but it was the one which stuck in her mind.
She said the ad is so effective because it’s simple, smart, short and shareable.
“Maybe it's the dry humour that appeals to my Northern sensibilities, my love of all things Scandinavian, or just the refreshing shake-up in a category that usually feels predictable and twee, but the Visit Oslo campaign nailed it for me this year,” she said.
Kuznetsova said today's travellers are switching 'Disney World' staged experiences in favour of raw and intimate connections with the places they visit.
“It’s not about big, polished attractions, but about sitting at someone’s kitchen table, drinking wine from a mismatched glass, and really feeling the heartbeat of everyday life,” she said.
“This new era of travel embraces authenticity over spectacle, creating richer, more memorable experiences. It only makes sense for advertising to follow suit.”
Jess Brackstone, strategist at Leo Burnett Australia, agrees.
“I’m a sucker for dry humour, so this campaign was an instant stand out for me,” she said.
“In a category often dominated by being sickeningly sweet, hyper-polished and corny, it’s massively refreshing to see a brand lean into an intentionally facetious script.
“The pacing is excellent, and combined with the rich and diverse visuals, it comes together beautifully - especially in an era where true craftsmanship in advertising and brand feels increasingly harder to find.”
Anthony Cassidy, creative director at Clemenger BBDO, also said ‘Oslo. Is it Even A City?’ clinched the top spot for him “because of the brilliance of the message and balls of the marketing department there”.
“Tourist boards the world over – take note,” he said.
“Models smiling inanely while they walk with a spring in their step through abandoned rustic towns, eating for two in empty restaurants and drone shots of turquoise blue water aren’t the way to make people with half a brain come to your country.”
Cassidy said NewsLab AS has “nailed it” with this campaign, which had him hooked from the moment Halfdan said, “I wouldn’t come here, to be honest”.
“My inner child wanted to do exactly what I was told not to do,” he said.
“It then continues to brilliantly list all the things that Oslo has to offer in a dour, I-wouldn’t-bother tone that is a breath of fresh air in an ad world that is always focused on convincing us why we should do something.”
James Beswick, associate creative director at Leo Burnett Australia, said New Zealand Herpes Foundation's ‘Make New Zealand the best place to have herpes’ was “bold, funny and beautifully crafted”.
He particularly liked the OOH billboards which had ‘herpes’ written on them in huge letters to help dismantle the stigma and get people talking.
“This is killer because trying to get people to actively spend time learning about something with such an entrenched stigma must’ve been a real tough ask,” he said.
“But this playful reframing of the issue gets the masses actively avoiding the issue to actively seek it out. An epic 180.”
Stephanie Gwee, creative director at TBWA Melbourne and +61, also said the New Zealand Herpes Foundation's ad was her favourite this year.
“This campaign has it all. A ridiculously memorable campaign line, check,” she said.
“One-liner quips like ‘Spread your legs, not herpes stigma’, check. Right amount of WTF-ness, check check check.
“On top of having a highly sticky campaign idea, I also loved how the films beautifully subverted those 1990s sex-ed videos that have scarred my generation for life.”
Closer to home, Carly Dallwitz, senior copywriter at DDB Melbourne, said ‘Sub-3000’, created by PHC Films for Australian bag company Crumpler, was a standout.
“As a born and bred Melbourne girl who used to steal her older brother’s Crumpler bag, it was a joy to see this beloved brand from my youth feature in the coolest campaign of the year,” she said.
“Using a combination of slow motion and high flash, Crumpler’s ‘Sub-3000’ consists of 19 films that shine a light on various subcultures of Melbourne, from LARPers to gamers to tattooed dudes on BMX bikes.
“For me, this campaign is a testament to how powerful good advertising can be.
“All of a sudden, a bag that I’d come to associate with middle-aged corporate men on scooters, rightfully reclaimed its place in my psyche as one of Melbourne’s coolest brands.”
Daniel Nutman, senior creative at Common Ventures, said KAYAK's ‘Don’t Do It Yourself’ via Supernatural Design is “the perfect comedy spot”.
He said “there’s more effective and better-crafted work out there” but it was a “welcome return to weird”.
“In the spots, the brand advises against DIY attitudes through a farmer attempting to be a scarecrow, a man turning into a vacuum cleaner, and a guy fishing for salmon in a koi pond,” he said.
Becky Morriss, creative director at DDB Melbourne, said she enjoyed Loewe’s ‘Decades of Confusion’.
“What I like about the spot is how the luxury brand embraced the reality that many people stumble over pronouncing their name and always have done,” she said.
“Some might assume that this exclusivity adds a certain prestige to the brand, but Loewe have decided to take a more relatable approach.
Morriss said it's no surprise that the ad left a lasting impression.
“By creating a stylised, tongue-in-cheek spelling bee that spans through the decades, Loewe showcased its clever wit while remaining fashionable and stylish,” she said.
“In doing so, they not only addressed the pronunciation issue head-on but also demonstrated their ability to connect with their audience in a humorous and genuine way with great casting and set design.”
Kat Topp, creative director at Emotive, agrees.
“With a script that speaks to pills, vodka, healthy mothers for healthy horses and a host who’s as ‘gay as a maypole’, this fashion film captured my heart, soul and eyeballs,” she told AdNews.
“Loewe's ‘Decades of Confusion’ is a delicious blend of humour, history and high fashion all based around an ingeniously simple premise.
“Fronted by Aubrey Plaza and Dan Levy - the perfect nuanced combination of wit, style and authenticity - this sumptuous journey through Loewe's design evolution across the decades was a masterclass in panache.
“And incredibly refreshing to see a luxury fashion taking the piss out of themselves so elegantly.”
Sports fan Michael Barnfield, creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi, said Coors Light’s ‘Lights Out’ brand campaign was “so simple” and “so infuriatingly good”.
“I love a neatly packaged brand sponsorship. What I appreciate even more is a brand’s ability to jump on a cultural moment and hijack a sport they aren’t even a sponsor of,” Barnfield said.
“It all started with a home run by major league baseball superstar, Shohei Ohtani. Coors Light made his incredible hit uniquely about their brand, used it to sell more beer, then turned it into an excuse to launch into a new market spurred by customer demand.”
Libby Young, creative director at JOY, said she has been loving Telstra’s work via Bear Meets Eagle On Fire and +61.
“The ‘Better on a better mobile network’ stop-motion campaign was simply beautiful, combining care, craft and storytelling with effective brand messaging,” she said.
“Followed up by the ‘Wherever we go’ outdoor campaign, brave design that cuts through the clutter.”
Special asked its entire creative department, to get their consensus on the favourite campaign of the year.
Many people required a few days of thought so they could find the obscure projects that would “showcase their comprehensive knowledge of the advertising landscape”.
Most “spiralled into a personal whirlpool of indecision”, Special told AdNews in a statement.
“Despite these powerful agency societal forces, the one brand that came up again and again was Telstra, with many calling out that they’ve brought advertising back to a time when ads were true commercial art.
“Their work is also the most discussed in our agency right now; just yesterday, our strategy department was debating the pros and cons of such a visually inconsistent brand in an era where the acronym DBA is on every brief.
“Be it the poster or film, the Telstra work is making its mark in our collective creative minds.”
Tom Hoskins, group creative director at BMF said Saatchi & Saatchi's ‘HiLux. In a Pickle’ was “terrific”.
“I can say with reasonable authority that there’s not much worse on a farm than a puddle so misleadingly deep that it rips out your front axle and driveshaft on entry,” he said.
“But when I saw four vehicles, including a tractor and the local tow-truck, come up for air out of this monster, I felt nothing but jealousy.
“This isn’t just a terrific ad for now, it’s also a brilliant throwback to the kind of Australian work both the agency and client were renowned for.”
Josh Campbell and Mitchell Sutton, senior creatives at HERO Sydney, said ‘Spreadbeats’ was their favourite campaign of the year.
“As passionate Excel haters, the way they made a spreadsheet interesting felt like black magic,” the duo said.
“It’s an idea that makes the perfect amount of sense, and seeing a B2B campaign with that level of craft is just wild.”
Sam McCarron, creative director at Think HQ, said Tourism Tasmania's ‘TasmasnAi’ via BMF stands out because it's “simple, fun, relevant and on brand”.
“It was great to see an idea that might otherwise live as an ‘extension’ in a creative deck get up and produced,” he said.
“At a time when AI is so culturally relevant in all our lives, the campaign was able to use this narrative to perfectly highlight the authenticity and uniqueness of the Tasmanian experience.”
Hannah Melanson, creative director at Innocean, said it was almost impossible to shortlist 11-and-a-half months worth of ads.
She also chose ‘TasmanAi’ because it's “authentic, playful, culturally relevant and beautifully aligned to the off-beat brand platform they’ve established over the years with ‘Come Down For Air’.”
“Too often we see these kinds of unconventional ideas tacked on as ‘extensions’ and relegated to the back of creative decks,” Melanson said.
“So, to see a well-considered, well-crafted non-traditional campaign make it into the wild (both literally and figuratively) was refreshing to say the least. Or should I say a breath of fresh air?”
Sticking with the travel theme, Darren Wright, group creative director at Emotive, said the British Airways outdoor ads really stood out.
The airline strategically placed 11 prints across 324 OOH locations across the UK showing people’s inquisitive faces as they fly.
Wright said great posters usually have an image, a logo and fewer than seven words.
“The British Airways windows posters ripped up the rule book. No words, no logo (well, a cropped one that you couldn’t really read but absolutely knew who it was for),” he said.
“They didn’t tell me what to think but totally made me feel. If the art of the poster is simplicity, then these beauties should be hanging in the Louvre.”
Jenny Mak, creative partner at DDB Sydney, said few campaigns this year felt as impactful as DDB Melbourne’s ‘University of Dyslexic Thinking’.
The agency teamed up with Sir Richard Branson and Virgin to provide a ‘new school of thought’ and reposition dyslexia as a skill rather than a disadvantage.
“It wasn’t just an ad; it was a cultural shift. It demonstrated that advertising can do more than sell - it can change perspectives,” she said.
“When I first saw it, I felt compelled to sign up and start learning immediately. That’s the kind of work I deeply admire - work that doesn’t just speak to you but invites participation in something bigger.
“It’s purposeful, creative, and thought-provoking; everything we, as an industry, should aim to deliver more often.”
Toby Cummings, creative partner at By All Means, said BWS' 'Here for it' via BMF was “hands down” his favourite campaign of the year.
“No doubt a challenging one to push through, but this made me laugh out loud,” he said.”
“The strategy and insight behind it are spot on. Pan pipes, blow-drying corduroys and an absolutely cracking track add up to a beautifully designed and made piece of advertising,” he said.
Mie Sorensen, creative at Think HQ, said Squarespace’s ‘The Ditch’ is a “wildly funny” way to show that the best business ideas are often hiding in plain sight
“‘The Ditch’ is everything I want in an ad - take something simple, make it unexpectedly brilliant, and give it a wink,” she said.
“Captain Kev’s idea to marry people halfway between Aussie and Kiwi soil is bonkers. And yet, it works. Honestly, I'd watch a whole season of Kev’s boat-bound weddings if I could.”
Kate Enright, senior copywriter at Think HQ, said her favourite campaign this year was Queensland Department of Health’s ‘It’s okay to poo at work’.
“I wish all industry news came to me by way of The Betoota Advocate,” she said.
“I was overjoyed to discover this was real, not satire - because it’s so unlikely to see work that accurately harnesses the unhinged brain rot only the phone-addicted truly understand.
“Gen Z humour that says, ‘in a world that makes no sense, make less sense.’ And somehow, still, influencing behaviour to improve people’s lives.
“I love it. ‘My number 2 campaign of the year’ ‘really made a splash’.”
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.