The Hidden Gems Monthly - Creative Favorites

Welcome to The Hidden Gems Monthly Newsletter #2

For more information on what The Hidden Gems is: Either click here to unveil the person behind it, reply to this email with 80 Gem Emojis 💎, or scroll to the bottom of this email. If you work in advertising, marketing, creative, media, experiential, digital, or some funky combination - we welcome you to stick around.

What’s covered in this newsletter?

• Marketing & Advertising Industry news. 

• New inspiring work this month across Creative Advertising - Digital Design, Video, Experiential/Innovation.  However in this edition, we’ll show favorites from Hidden Gems through all of 2024.

• Also some *Hidden Gems* in music, philosophical musings, uplifting news, and a major upcoming event for marketers.

Advertising Industry News

• The world is going wild for Studio Ghibli inspired GenAI. Hayao had already expressed his strong opinion on AI.

• SXSW recently concluded. Keen to see a writeup of the experiences? Friend of the Hidden Gems, Jay Esteves, has the unique distinction of going to almost every one. See his article here.

• Brands and Agencies are spending the bare minimum on X, simply to avoid being a target of Elon, as he sues Global Alliance for Responsible Media and others.

• Last month, legendary creative & digital agency R/GA bought back its independence since being acquired by IPG in 2001. A move likely motivated by the Omnicom+IPG merge. R/GA has since won the LinkedIn Ads account.

2024 Favorites from Hidden Gems

For this edition, we asked several “Hidden Gems” their favorite projects they worked on from last year. We hope this evokes some inspiration, thoughts, and questions. Here’s that great work:

• Cryptic and award winning Interactive site to promote the latest Call of Duty Black Ops 6

• ‘Think Tank’ Berggren Institute launched Proxima Kósmos. Which is an experiment in planetary imagination utilizing interactive digital technology.

• Enjoy this livestream of the star-studded Made by Google After Party 

• Custom Experiential Arcade for KPMG - Because internal & B2B engagements don’t have to be boring.

• 360 Livestream Portal into Essence Festival, one of the biggest festivals of all time with over 500k attendees. For those who couldn’t attend in person but still want to witness the action!

• NBA on NBC Promo - Combining NBC Star Comedy with NBA Star talent… and height.

• Sol (beer) uses Creative Technology to solve the issue of night-time violence against Street Vendors in LA.

• Adobe showcases content pieces from two users with compelling stories, Space Dawg and Sarah Arnett

• Anthem for Legit Security. Highlighting the importance of security and the opportunity when done right.

• A heartfelt commercial for Revolution Cooking, showcasing the product while still keeping a human-first approach.

• Super cute Commercial for Magna-Tiles, leaning into imagination, fun, and limitless possibility

• Harmonious Commercial for Nintendo Music. Highlighting memorable music from titles across the Nintendo-Verse. Appropriate for all occassions.

• Prezzee enables you to invite a friend to Santa’s Nice list through Deepfake technology.

• Uplifting Commercial for Tonies. Proving that imagination is better (and healthier) than screens.

_{Note #1}

_{We only showcase creative work here (Content, Experiential, Design) as it’s the most visibly flashy, but do know that much much more goes on beneath the hood.}

_{Note  #2} 

_{Curious about the teams behind any piece of work?  The cost, timeline?  Just ask!}

Music

10 Years Ago, Indie Pop band CRUISR released All Over. The Music Video is a thrill to any film aficionado, as it’s laden with references. Can you spot them all?

Australian Garage Rock band Jet has reunited, currently touring, and has an upcoming album this year. Their latest prior was 2009. This is the song that started their rise.

Monthly Philosophical Musing

How much is enough? When can we be done and satisfied? So many discussions, articles, and videos explore that question. Hedonic Adaptation is the psychological cause of this universal, mostly inescapable human experience.

In Other News

• New World Happiness Day research tells us that people are better and nicer than we expect. Just see how many ‘lost’ wallets were returned.

• Want to suggest this newsletter to another? Send them here.

What the heck is “The Hidden Gems”?

The Hidden Gems was founded by David Drexler to solve for the inefficiencies in the Advertising Agency & Production landscape. We believe that smaller is often better, and the most optimal partners have yet to be discovered.

We are the Agency & Production matchmaker.  The secret weapon of many marketers, creatives, experientialists, innovators, and producers. When they seek recommendations on which Agencies/Studios to consider for engagement… we provide them with incredible *Hidden Gems* worth considering, that are otherwise flying under their radar.  Literally that simple.  No paperwork nor transactions ever needed with The Hidden Gems itself. 

We find that great work and results manifest with partners that have top notch process, people, and prices.  Reach out to us at any time for questions, needs, inspiration, gutchecks… or a laugh.

Shine on,

David Drexler

Founder, The Hidden Gems

Agency & Production Matchmaker

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