This Week in Marketing: Kamala campaign crash | Expedited Xmas | The Drum Festival

The world’s longest week is almost over, but don’t slump into bed yet. You’ve got some reading to do. It’s no chore; you enjoy it. You wouldn’t open this briefing if you didn’t, so get settled in with a hot drink and hear from our team.

Question one. How did something so foul and instinctively off-putting garner such wide appeal? WAIT! Who did you think we were talking about? We have the true story of Burger King’s infamous and disgusting Moldy Whopper straight from Jorg Carlo Nicolò Riommi in My Creative Career.

Next, it's time to make an admission. I know some of you aren’t ready to dig through the debris of the US election yet but we have a lot of great coverage here on our dedicated hub. The only way to win the next round is to learn how you lost this one.

Additionally, we’ve also reflected on why it makes perfect sense that Christmas ads are coming early. We even have data to prove it. No way! You can watch all the best Christmas ads so far.

And we’re midway through The Drum Awards Festival. B2B, Social and Advertising are bagged. From Monday, Experiential, Agency Business, Media, Content and PR are still to come. You can watch them live or peruse the winning work. Our daily newsletters or homepage can keep you across the agendas.

Now hear from our team.

Kendra Barnett on #media

Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign went down in flames as voters’ economic frustrations, coupled with her inability to articulate clear policy plans and distinguish herself from President Biden, fueled a decisive Republican victory.

Trump is set to make a triumphant return back to the White House after clinching key battleground states and, in a twist, winning the popular vote. So, what went wrong along the way?

Since Wednesday, our team has been analyzing the fallout – and we’ll continue to do so in forthcoming reports. We’ve been questioning political strategists and campaigning experts all week:

• It was never a neck-and-neck race. Where did the Harris campaign lose the plot?
• Kamala memes won the reach game, but did they say enough? Or anything?
• What Trump’s win – and $215m in anti-trans ads – mean for the future of advertising ethics
• Familiarity didn’t ultimately breed contempt for Trump, says Politics for Drummies host
• We thought Trump was finished. What else are marketers missing?

You can get me at Kendra.Barnett@thedrum.com  

Richard Draycott on #agencies

Remember, when America sneezes, the world catches cold – so many agency eyes have been focused on the US, where we saw Donald Trump sweep back into power. Love him or loathe him, the next five years will be an ‘interesting’ ride for economies around the world and brands – and their agencies – will no doubt have to adapt to what that means. 

We heard initial thoughts from Sir Martin Sorrell and other agencies minutes after the result. S4 and Stagwell gave us some figures for Q3 and, as you may expect, it was contrasting fortunes as Sir Martin Sorrell ’s S4 continues to face declines while Mark Penn ’s Stagwell continues to build. Again, the US election result will inevitably have an impact on their fortunes in 2025, but will next year see those two giants get closer? Green Square’s Barry Dudley analyzed their latest figures for me. 

Jeannine Falcone is four weeks into her role as CEO at the respected precision marketing agency Rapp. She gave me a few insights into where she’ll be taking the business in the years ahead and how she sees the only way forward is by forging a harmonious relationship between creativity and tech. It’s a big challenge squaring that circle, but with vast consulting experience from time at Accenture , she’s in good shape to achieve her aims and take Rapp to the next level. 

Achooooo!

Feel free to email me at Richard.draycott@thedrum.com to tell me who your bad client is!

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Amy Houston on #advertising

It’s been a hot minute since Burger King’s ‘Moldy Whopper’ campaign made waves in the advertising world, but when I spoke with Jorg Carlo Nicolò Riommi this week, the topic resurfaced. Riommi, who was then the chief creative officer for Publicis Groupe in Central and Eastern Europe, shared the story behind this infamous campaign, which began with a chance meeting he had with Fernando Machado in a hotel dining room. In the end, the controversial ad divided opinions and sparked some internal politics, but you can’t deny it was memorable.

Of course, there’s so much more to Riommi’s decades-long career, and we delved into it all, from his beginnings working at Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset broadcasting network in Italy to founding his own agency, Ain’t. Read it here.

It’s not a weekly recap from me in November if I don’t bring you the best Christmas ads, right? They are coming in thick and fast now. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

One particular spot that captured my heart this week was from Don’t Panic and Shelter. Amid the flurry of supermarket ads, which are great, too, this one is worth taking a couple of minutes to really digest. I’ll have more on the campaign’s making next week as I caught up with the charity a couple of days ago.

Lastly, when I saw this Adidas Spezial x CP Company spot yesterday, it stopped me in my tracks. The line-up, oh my goodness, yes! Goldie, Stephen Graham and Ashley Walters reciting Shakespeare while wearing the collection, genius. Plus, with Nick Griffiths as director and Kevin Cummins on campaign imagery, you know it’s going to slap.

Lastly, you’ll know I’m knee-deep in Christmas ad conversations. Don’t hesitate to contact me at amy.houston@thedrum.com if you have a banging spot to share.

Delve into the creative section

Tom Banks on #creative

This week we got the full story on the new visual identity and brand strategy of the UK’s biggest attraction outside of London, Chester Zoo.

Although it is clearly an attraction, it had been wrestling with the semantics of the word ‘Zoo’, eventually concluding that it was not the word that people had a problem with but the idea of what might be going on there.

When How&How was brought in to work on a repositioning exercise, it saw the value in using the brand to tell the story of the zoo’s extensive international conservation work, which is funded through the zoo’s not-for-profit charity status.

A design overhaul saw this story told visually and verbally, using phenomena like migratory patterns to capture the public’s imagination and at the center of the identity a new symbol featuring the silhouette of an eastern black rhino, which the zoo has helped save.

Meanwhile, in her second column for us, Nat Maher is urging the creative industries to think more about workplace harassment and building safe, positive working environments. If you have any design or creative industries stories for me, drop me a note: tom.banks@thedrum.com

More creative

John McCarthy on #opinion

New data from Andrew Tindall (of Tindall on Effectiveness) suggests it’s a wise move for brands to run their holiday campaigns for longer. I can smell the eggnog on him, he's well and truly in the Christmas spirit. Tindall also explains some of the early best-performing campaigns so far. It’s free to read here. 

Beth Blance . SocialChain . Kamala memes won the reach game, but did they say enough? Or anything?

Will Poskett . Defiant . We thought Trump was finished. What else are marketers missing?

Ananya Ranjit . Seed . What if brands actually helped Gen Z date differently?

Aidan Muller . If AI is your brand’s next battleground, here’s how to win

Pitch me on john.mccarthy@thedrum.com.

More opinion

Hannah Bowler on #brand

In last week’s newsletter, I said I was through talking and thinking about money, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. On Wednesday, Marks & Spencer’s chief executive said he estimated the retailer faces £120m of extra costs next year as a result of the government’s budget. I’ve heard similar murmurings from business leaders, which got me thinking about how these costs could get passed on to the marketing department – often the first function to see budget cuts. Keen to talk to both brands and agencies on this if anyone has any thoughts.

Away from that doom and gloom, I’ve been busy all week watching all your lovely Christmas ads and handing out awards at The Drum Live Festival. I'll be back to writing next week, though, so I’m all ears for pitches. Hannah.Bowler@thedrum.com

More from Hannah

[Editor's note: Hannah's almost as good at dancing as she is interviewing the world's top CMOs. Bottom right if not yet acquainted]

Cameron Clarke talks awards

Thank you to everyone who helped make week one of The Drum Awards Festival so memorable (for those who didn’t celebrate too hard, at least). Winners for Advertising, B2B and Social Media have been crowned and our Award-Winning Case Studies section is now bursting with inspirational insights.

There’s still so much to play for as we head into our second and final week when the Golds, Silvers and Bronzes across Experiential, Design, Digital Experience, Social Purpose, Media, PR, Content and Agency Business will be announced. What’s more, all the Grand Prix winners from each of these awards will go through to our Grand Finale show where they will be in the running to take home the prized Grand Prix of Grand Prix for best of the fest.

It all takes place at The Drum Labs in London from 11-14 November and if you’re coming along, we can’t wait to see you there. With so many global entrants this year, we know you won’t all be able to be with us in person, so a reminder too that all of the shows are streamed live on thedrum.com for you to enjoy. Don’t forget to tell your proud parents and supportive spouses to tune in for your moment of glory, too. Here’s the schedule.

Oh, and a little suggestion. If you find yourself among our lucky winners next week, celebrate like table three at B2B. The standard has been set. 

Get me on cameron.clarke@thedrum.com.

Hear from more CMOs

Question of the Week

We’ve been debating in the office why we see so few coffee ads on TV (in the UK at least). Readers of a certain vintage will remember seeing classic, soapy Nescafe Gold ads. But where now are the Starbucks, the Prets, the Costas and more? Or, more pertinently, why is the only coffee in the ad we can recall from McDonald’s? Letters on a postcard to editorial@thedrum.com or in the comments.

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