by Tudor Feraru, Creative Director at 1000heads

Growing up, I used to wait for the ad break just to spot my favourite ads.

They were funny, light, and felt infrequent.

Make ’em laugh was enough to hold my attention.

Then time happened.

And while cynicism used to come with age, now it feels built-in.

For ease of argument, let’s blame history, but Make ’em laugh became Make ’em care.

Audiences don’t behave like audiences anymore. They behave like creative juries.

More discerning than the real ones, actually.

(Which is why I love the Shortys)

Make ’em care. Impress them.

Put a new thought in someone’s head. Or take an old one and dress it up differently.

The creative that stood out this year was, in one way or another, social.

(Even if the output didn’t land on a feed)

Made for screenshots and shares, not showreels.

It listened first, then spoke to the culture from which it hailed.

It felt charming, honest, and empathetic. Imperfect chic.

Because good social thinking achieves the rarest thing:

It kills the cynic inside us, for a moment.

Whether it's about a (wonderful) film or a moisturiser, making gifs or memes, or talking about dating,the answer is simple: earn attention, then reward it.

In other words, Make’em care.