Analyzing Emmy commercial winner patternsfrom @stuffaboutadvertising

Transcript

The Emmy nominations for best commercial are out, but the real winner of this category isn't a brand. The names that show up on this list the most aren't rank. It's the agencies and production companies behind the work. Wieden rank Kennedy has been nominated and won more than any brand, agency, or production company in the history of this category. 25 nominations and eight wins. And you see a lot of the same production companies pop up too, like Hungry Rank and MJZ. Brands cycle often on this list every year, but the same handful of creative shops keep coming back. So when I say the real winner isn't a brand, that's what I mean. It's a small circle of creatives. So when a big brand wants to make a splash and potentially win an Emmy, they're gonna go hire one of them. When you look at the winners, there are certainly patterns, but they always break. Early on, it was mostly just brands being brands. Big, funny, entertaining, product usually front and better, classic Super Bowl style advertising. Then that mood completely flipped. The winners got very serious with cause driven emotional storytelling. For a good stretch there, the winners of outstanding commercial were pretty heavy. And then last year, that pattern broke. Uber won with a comedic spot. So either that's a one off or the category is swinging back that way. This year, there are six nominees and they're kind of all over the map. The Levi's spot was a celebration of some of the backsides that their jeans have adorned, including my son's favorite, Woody. Adidas put out a five minute star studded short film led best Timothee Chalamet. Nike flipped their slogan, best do it, to why do it, for a classic best style spot. There are two from Apple this year. One is their holiday spot where some woodland creatures make a music video, and the other is a college campus musical showing off their accessibility features. And then there's Best, styled like a retro video game where a character breaks out of the MPC system. My personal favorites are Levi's and Best, but I'm gonna pick Coinbase for the win this year. It already won the FilmCraft Grand Prix at Cannes, and it was all done with really impressive practical effects, which would be appealing to a lot of yes practical effects, which would be appealing to a lot of the people in the Emmy's voting room who I assume are nervous about AI. But it all comes down to which way the voters swing on the pendulum of entertainment, craft, and emotion. So let me know your picks for this year, and then we'll all find out together in early September.