Bestads Best of the Week Reviewed by Riku Vassinen, CEO/CCO/Co-owner, hasan & partners
Each week Bestadsontv.com [the global arm of Campaign Brief] picks the very best advertising in the world, in every medium – which is reviewed by a top creative director or team to select their own personal favourites.
This week’s guest judge is Riku Vassinen, CEO, CCO and Co-Owner, hasan & partners, Finland.
BEST TV
Winner: Hanes ‘Grocery‘. The product is front and centre, with a clear brand promise. Beautifully executed, shot on film, and backed by a great soundtrack. Just good old-fashioned advertising.
Runner-up: DoorDash ‘The Forbidden Order‘. There were plenty of long ads this week, but I remain a fan of brevity and simplicity. The core benefit is dramatized to the absolute maximum.
BEST PRINT
Winner: Colectivo Cabos ‘Hydration Break Argentina‘. A highly contextual hijacking of one of the most talked-about recurring moments in the World Cup. Timely, simple and instantly understandable.
Runner-up: Ranchera ‘Fire Up the Grill‘. As a middle-aged family man whose only remaining outlet for self-expression is barbecuing, this one hit very close to home.
BEST OUTDOOR
Winner: Schulstad x Spies ‘The Emergency Slice‘. One of those ideas that gives you the “why the hell didn’t I think of that?” feeling.
I am not sure how well the idea travels beyond the Nordics, but here in Finland we also have a soft spot for rye bread. The only difference is that ours actually tastes good. That does not undermine the insight, of course.
If you have never experienced the real Finnish thing, I assume Danish rye bread might seem worth craving too.
Runner-up: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey ‘Trojan Horse‘. Sometimes the best Trojan horse for getting an idea across is an actual Trojan horse. A really big one. In the middle of Trafalgar Square.
BEST INTERACTIVE
Winner: Destination BC ‘One Destination, One Brand‘. I have no idea why this is in the interactive category, but I do not care. I love it.
As we are both a creative and a design agency, I always appreciate a strong identity case. The approach also feels genuinely fresh: creating distinct brands for the different sub-regions within a destination, while still building one coherent whole.
Before seeing this, I knew very little about British Columbia. Now I want to travel there. I also really like the tagline, “Super, Natural British Columbia”.
Runner-up: Daily Fantasy ‘GOAT‘. Quite often, the highest form of creativity is finding a loophole that allows you to overcome whatever restrictions have been placed in your way. And while I am not normally a pundit of puns (…ahem) I’ll let this one pass (..erm) because it involves basketball. I doubt many people other than me would consider Dennis Rodman the GOAT, though.
BEST RADIO
Winner: Hansa Pilsener ‘You Deserve a Beer: Delulu Is the Solulu‘. I had to Google “delulu is the solulu”, which confirmed that I am very much the target audience. While every brand seems determined to chase Gen Z, there may occasionally be some value in targeting us older geezers. Especially when you are selling beer, because we appear to be the only ones still drinking it.
Runner-up: Advocate Ultra Chew ‘Dogs Are Gonna Dog‘. Looking at the world from a dog’s perspective is a strong starting point. Combined with the line “dogs are gonna dog” and the song, this feels like it has the potential to become a long-running brand platform.
Riku Vassinen has 20 years of experience in advertising across three continents (Africa, Asia, Europe).
Before returning back to native Finland to lead Finland’s leading independent agency hasan & partners, Riku spent three years at Ogilvy Africa, based in Nairobi and seven years in Singapore working at R/GA and JWT.
His clients have included Google, Nike, Netflix, Unilever, Coca-Cola. Diageo, Nokia, Philips, HSBC, Uber and J&J.
He has led agencies and teams that have won in all the major awards including Cannes, D&AD, LIA, Clio, Webbys, Spikes, Eurobest, Golden Drum, One Show, Effies etc.
Riku has written four books about marketing and the latest “Greenwashing Economics” came out in 2024.
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